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–0.89) 0 0.78 109–111 Potatoes 5 0.97 (0.87–1.08) 3.5 0.39 26,110,164 5 Per 100 g/d 1.00 (0.95–1.05) 0 0.60 26,110,164 Root vegetables 3 0.93 (0.73–1.18) 57.3 0.10 26,109,111 3 Per 100 g/d 0.91 (0.64–1.30) 58.9 0.09 26,109,111 Vitamin C-rich F&V 2 0.80 (0.69–0.92) 0 0.88 110 2 Per 100 g/d 0.92 (0.86–0.98) 0 0.71 110 Haemorrhagic stroke Berries 3 1.15 (0.89–1.49) 0 0.60 26,109,150 3 Per 100 g/d 1.66 (0.91–3.03) 0 0.66 26,109,150 Citrus fruits 3 0.74 (0.55–1.01) 28.2 0.25 26,109,146 3 Per 100 g/d 0.79 (0.59–1.06) 32.2 0.23 26,109,146 Cruciferous vegetables 2 0.83 (0.33–2.12) 84.1 0.01 26,109 2 Per 100 g/d 0.27 (0.01–12.54) 77.0 0.04 26,109 Potatoes 3 1.06 (0.83–1.36) 0 0.90 26,164 3 Per 100 g/d 1.03 (0.91–1.16) 0 0.77 26,164 Root vegetables 2 1.05 (0.76–1.44) 0 0.92 26,109 2 Per 100 g/d 1.16 (0.66–2.02) 0 0.85 26,109
Cardiovascular disease
Seventeen studies (16 publications),15,16,18,31,39,42,53,56,58,64,75,86–88,98,125 25 studies (23 publications)11,15,16,19,24,27,53–56,58,60–64,75,76,88,98,124,125,127 and 22 studies (19 publications)15,16,19,24,27,53–56,58,62,64,75,76,88,98,124,125,127 were included in the analysis of fruit and vegetables, fruits, and vegetables, and cardiovascular disease, respectively. The summary RR was 0.92 (95% CI: 0.90–0.95, I2 = 31%) for fruits and vegetables (Figure 4a, b, Table 1; Supplementary Figure 23), 0.87 (95% CI: 0.82–0.92, I2 = 79%) for fruits (Figure 4c, d, Table 1; Supplementary Figure 24), and 0.90 (95% CI: 0.87–0.93, I2 = 12%) for vegetables (Figure 4e, 4f, Table 1, Supplementary Figure 25). There was evidence of nonlinearity, P nonlinearity < 0.0001, for fruits and vegetables (Figure 4b; Supplementary Table 14), and fruits, P nonlinearity < 0.0001, (Figure 4d; Supplementary Table 15), and for vegetables, P nonlinearity = 0.04 (Figure 4f; Supplementary Table 15), with steeper inverse associations at lower levels of intake, although for vegetables the association was approximately linear. There were 28%, 27% and 28% reductions in relative risk at intakes of 800 g/day for fruits and vegetables and fruits, and 600 g/day of vegetables, respectively.
Figure 4. View largeDownload slide Fruits and vegetables and cardiovascular disease, linear and nonlinear dose-response..
Figure 4. View largeDownload slide Fruits and vegetables and cardiovascular disease, linear and nonlinear dose-response..
Of specific types of fruits and vegetables11,15,16,19,56,60–62,64,75,87,123,124,129,141,142,144,146,148,151,152,154,159,164 there was evidence that high vs low intake of apples/pears, citrus fruits, carrots and noncruciferous vegetables were inversely associated, and tinned fruits were positively associated with cardiovascular disease risk, and in the nonlinear dose-response analysis there was evidence that cruciferous vegetables, green leafy vegetables, and tomatoes were inversely associated with risk, although few studies were included in these analyses (Table 4; Supplementary Tables 24 and 25, Supplementary Figures 141–178).
Table 4. High vs low analysis Dose-response analysis Fruit, vegetable subtype n RR (95% CI) I2 P h References n Increment RR (95% CI) I2 P h References Apples, pears 7 0.86 (0.80–0.93) 0 0.74 56,60,61,64,129,142,152 7 Per 100 g/d 0.92 (0.82–1.03) 46.9 0.08 56,60,61,64,129,142,152 Berries 2 1.02 (0.94–1.11) 0 0.44 56,60 2 Per 100 g/d 1.13 (0.88–1.46) 0 0.68 56,60 Citrus fruits 6 0.78 (0.66–0.92) 72.3 0.003 16,56,60,64,124,146 8 Per 100 g/d 0.92 (0.84–1.00) 65.8 0.005 15,16,56,60–62,64,146 Citrus fruit juice 2 0.88 (0.53–1.46) 48.3 0.16 60,124 2 Per 100 g/d 0.98 (0.95–1.02) 6.9 0.30 15,60 Dried fruits 3 0.94 (0.83–1.06) 0 0.80 11,60,151 1 Per 100 g/d 0.66 (0.33–1.26) - - 60 Fruit juice 1 0.67 (0.41–1.10) - - 60 2 Per 100 g/d 0.99 (0.93–1.06) 0 0.58 60,154 Grapes 3 0.86 (0.70–1.05) 62.3 0.07 56,60,142 3 Per 100 g/d 0.83 (0.48–1.45) 66.7 0.05 56,60,142 Strawberries 3 1.02 (0.79–1.32) 57.2 0.10 142,144,151 1 Per 100 g/d 1.06 (0.95–1.17) - - 144 Tinned fruits 3 1.23 (1.06–1.43) 0 0.51 159 4 Per 100 g/d 1.30 (0.81–2.08) 66.0 0.03 154,159 Broccoli 3 0.87 (0.67–1.13) 25.0 0.26 142,144,151 2 Per 100 g/d 0.75 (0.49–1.14) 0 0.57 142,144 Carrots 2 0.81 (0.70–0.93) 0 0.73 56,123 1 Per 100 g/d 0.97 (0.72–1.30) - - 56 Cruciferous vegetables 8 0.88 (0.73–1.05) 77.5 < 0.0001 16,19,56,64,87,124,151 9 Per 100 g/d 0.89 (0.77–1.02) 65.1 0.003 15,16,19,56,62,64,87,154 Green leafy vegetables 5 0.84 (0.71–0.99) 74.0 0.004 16,56,64,124,151 5 Per 100 g/d 0.83 (0.65–1.08) 66.7 0.02 15,16,56,64 Noncruciferous vegetables 2 0.76 (0.59–0.97) 50.1 0.16 19 2 Per 100 g/d 0.91 (0.82–1.01) 74.5 0.05 19 Potatoes 3 1.01 (0.91–1.13) 60.0 0.08 124,164 4 Per 100 g/d 1.01 (0.97–1.04) 13.4 0.33 15,154,164 Raw vegetables 2 0.83 (0.66–1.05) 88.0 0.004 11,75 1 Per 100 g/d 0.86 (0.81–0.90) - - 75 Tomatoes 4 0.94 (0.86–1.02) 0.4 0.39 56,141,142,151 4 Per 100 g/d 0.92 (0.80–1.07) 52.6 0.10 56,141,142,148 Beta-carotene rich F&V 2 0.96 (0.89–1.03) 0 0.77 64,124 2 Per 100 g/d 0.94 (0.89–0.99) 0 0.55 64,124 Vitamin C rich F&V 1 0.91 (0.44–1.90) - - 64 2 Per 100 g/d 0.95 (0.92–0.98) 0 0.88 15, 64 High vs low analysis Dose-response analysis Fruit, vegetable subtype n RR (95% CI) I2 P h References n Increment RR (95% CI) I2 P h References Apples, pears 7 0.86 (0.80–0.93) 0 0.74 56,60,61,64,129,142,152 7 Per 100 g/d 0.92 (0.82–1.03) 46.9 0.08 56,60,61,64,129,142,152 Berries 2 1.02 (0.94–1.11) 0 0.44 56,60 2 Per 100 g/d 1.13 (0.88–1.46) 0 0.68 56,60 Citrus fruits 6 0.78 (0.66–0.92) 72.3 0.003 16,56,60,64,124,146 8 Per 100 g/d 0.92 (0.84–1.00) 65.8 0.005 15,16,56,60–62,64,146 Citrus fruit juice 2 0.88 (0.53–1.46) 48.3 0.16 60,124 2 Per 100 g/d 0.98 (0.95–1.02) 6.9 0.30 15,60 Dried fruits 3 0.94 (0.83–1.06) 0 0.80 11,60,151 1 Per 100 g/d 0.66 (0.33–1.26) - - 60 Fruit juice 1 0.67 (0.41–1.10) - - 60 2 Per 100 g/d 0.99 (0.93–1.06) 0 0.58 60,154 Grapes 3 0.86 (0.70–1.05) 62.3 0.07 56,60,142 3 Per 100 g/d 0.83 (0.48–1.45) 66.7 0.05 56,60,142 Strawberries 3 1.02 (0.79–1.32) 57.2 0.10 142,144,151 1 Per 100 g/d 1.06 (0.95–1.17) - - 144 Tinned fruits 3 1.23 (1.06–1.43) 0 0.51 159 4 Per 100 g/d 1.30 (0.81–2.08) 66.0 0.03 154,159 Broccoli 3 0.87 (0.67–1.13) 25.0 0.26 142,144,151 2 Per 100 g/d 0.75 (0.49–1.14) 0 0.57 142,144 Carrots 2 0.81 (0.70–0.93) 0 0.73 56,123 1 Per 100 g/d 0.97 (0.72–1.30) - - 56 Cruciferous vegetables 8 0.88 (0.73–1.05) 77.5 < 0.0001 16,19,56,64,87,124,151 9 Per 100 g/d 0.89 (0.77–1.02) 65.1 0.003 15,16,19,56,62,64,87,154 Green leafy vegetables 5 0.84 (0.71–0.99) 74.0 0.004 16,56,64,124,151 5 Per 100 g/d 0.83 (0.65–1.08) 66.7 0.02 15,16,56,64 Noncruciferous vegetables 2 0.76 (0.59–0.97) 50.1 0.16 19 2 Per 100 g/d 0.91 (0.82–1.01) 74.5 0.05 19 Potatoes 3 1.01 (0.91–1.13) 60.0 0.08 124,164 4 Per 100 g/d 1.01 (0.97–1.04) 13.4 0.33 15,154,164 Raw vegetables 2 0.83 (0.66–1.05) 88.0 0.004 11,75 1 Per 100 g/d 0.86 (0.81–0.90) - - 75 Tomatoes 4 0.94 (0.86–1.02) 0.4 0.39 56,141,142,151 4 Per 100 g/d 0.92 (0.80–1.07) 52.6 0.10 56,141,142,148 Beta-carotene rich F&V 2 0.96 (0.89–1.03) 0 0.77 64,124 2 Per 100 g/d 0.94 (0.89–0.99) 0 0.55 64,124 Vitamin C rich F&V 1 0.91 (0.44–1.90) - - 64 2 Per 100 g/d 0.95 (0.92–0.98) 0 0.88 15, 64
Table 4. High vs low analysis Dose-response analysis Fruit, vegetable subtype n RR (95% CI) I2 P h References n Increment RR (95% CI) I2 P h References Apples, pears 7 0.86 (0.80–0.93) 0 0.74 56,60,61,64,129,142,152 7 Per 100 g/d 0.92 (0.82–1.03) 46.9 0.08 56,60,61,64,129,142,152 Berries 2 1.02 (0.94–1.11) 0 0.44 56,60 2 Per 100 g/d 1.13 (0.88–1.46) 0 0.68 56,60 Citrus fruits 6 0.78 (0.66–0.92) 72.3 0.003 16,56,60,64,124,146 8 Per 100 g/d 0.92 (0.84–1.00) 65.8 0.005 15,16,56,60–62,64,146 Citrus fruit juice 2 0.88 (0.53–1.46) 48.3 0.16 60,124 2 Per 100 g/d 0.98 (0.95–1.02) 6.9 0.30 15,60 Dried fruits 3 0.94 (0.83–1.06) 0 0.80 11,60,151 1 Per 100 g/d 0.66 (0.33–1.26) - - 60 Fruit juice 1 0.67 (0.41–1.10) - - 60 2 Per 100 g/d 0.99 (0.93–1.06) 0 0.58 60,154 Grapes 3 0.86 (0.70–1.05) 62.3 0.07 56,60,142 3 Per 100 g/d 0.83 (0.48–1.45) 66.7 0.05 56,60,142 Strawberries 3 1.02 (0.79–1.32) 57.2 0.10 142,144,151 1 Per 100 g/d 1.06 (0.95–1.17) - - 144 Tinned fruits 3 1.23 (1.06–1.43) 0 0.51 159 4 Per 100 g/d 1.30 (0.81–2.08) 66.0 0.03 154,159 Broccoli 3 0.87 (0.67–1.13) 25.0 0.26 142,144,151 2 Per 100 g/d 0.75 (0.49–1.14) 0 0.57 142,144 Carrots 2 0.81 (0.70–0.93) 0 0.73 56,123 1 Per 100 g/d 0.97 (0.72–1.30) - - 56 Cruciferous vegetables 8 0.88 (0.73–1.05) 77.5 < 0.0001 16,19,56,64,87,124,151 9 Per 100 g/d 0.89 (0.77–1.02) 65.1 0.003 15,16,19,56,62,64,87,154 Green leafy vegetables 5 0.84 (0.71–0.99) 74.0 0.004 16,56,64,124,151 5 Per 100 g/d 0.83 (0.65–1.08) 66.7 0.02 15,16,56,64 Noncruciferous vegetables 2 0.76 (0.59–0.97) 50.1 0.16 19 2 Per 100 g/d 0.91 (0.82–1.01) 74.5 0.05 19 Potatoes 3 1.01 (0.91–1.13) 60.0 0.08 124,164 4 Per 100 g/d 1.01 (0.97–1.04) 13.4 0.33 15,154,164 Raw vegetables 2 0.83 (0.66–1.05) 88.0 0.004 11,75 1 Per 100 g/d 0.86 (0.81–0.90) - - 75 Tomatoes 4 0.94 (0.86–1.02) 0.4 0.39 56,141,142,151 4 Per 100 g/d 0.92 (0.80–1.07) 52.6 0.10 56,141,142,148 Beta-carotene rich F&V 2 0.96 (0.89–1.03) 0 0.77 64,124 2 Per 100 g/d 0.94 (0.89–0.99) 0 0.55 64,124 Vitamin C rich F&V 1 0.91 (0.44–1.90) - - 64 2 Per 100 g/d 0.95 (0.92–0.98) 0 0.88 15, 64 High vs low analysis Dose-response analysis Fruit, vegetable subtype n RR (95% CI) I2 P h References n Increment RR (95% CI) I2 P h References Apples, pears 7 0.86 (0.80–0.93) 0 0.74 56,60,61,64,129,142,152 7 Per 100 g/d 0.92 (0.82–1.03) 46.9 0.08 56,60,61,64,129,142,152 Berries 2 1.02 (0.94–1.11) 0 0.44 56,60 2 Per 100 g/d 1.13 (0.88–1.46) 0 0.68 56,60 Citrus fruits 6 0.78 (0.66–0.92) 72.3 0.003 16,56,60,64,124,146 8 Per 100 g/d 0.92 (0.84–1.00) 65.8 0.005 15,16,56,60–62,64,146 Citrus fruit juice 2 0.88 (0.53–1.46) 48.3 0.16 60,124 2 Per 100 g/d 0.98 (0.95–1.02) 6.9 0.30 15,60 Dried fruits 3 0.94 (0.83–1.06) 0 0.80 11,60,151 1 Per 100 g/d 0.66 (0.33–1.26) - - 60 Fruit juice 1 0.67 (0.41–1.10) - - 60 2 Per 100 g/d 0.99 (0.93–1.06) 0 0.58 60,154 Grapes 3 0.86 (0.70–1.05) 62.3 0.07 56,60,142 3 Per 100 g/d 0.83 (0.48–1.45) 66.7 0.05 56,60,142 Strawberries 3 1.02 (0.79–1.32) 57.2 0.10 142,144,151 1 Per 100 g/d 1.06 (0.95–1.17) - - 144 Tinned fruits 3 1.23 (1.06–1.43) 0 0.51 159 4 Per 100 g/d 1.30 (0.81–2.08) 66.0 0.03 154,159 Broccoli 3 0.87 (0.67–1.13) 25.0 0.26 142,144,151 2 Per 100 g/d 0.75 (0.49–1.14) 0 0.57 142,144 Carrots 2 0.81 (0.70–0.93) 0 0.73 56,123 1 Per 100 g/d 0.97 (0.72–1.30) - - 56 Cruciferous vegetables 8 0.88 (0.73–1.05) 77.5 < 0.0001 16,19,56,64,87,124,151 9 Per 100 g/d 0.89 (0.77–1.02) 65.1 0.003 15,16,19,56,62,64,87,154 Green leafy vegetables 5 0.84 (0.71–0.99) 74.0 0.004 16,56,64,124,151 5 Per 100 g/d 0.83 (0.65–1.08) 66.7 0.02 15,16,56,64 Noncruciferous vegetables 2 0.76 (0.59–0.97) 50.1 0.16 19 2 Per 100 g/d 0.91 (0.82–1.01) 74.5 0.05 19 Potatoes 3 1.01 (0.91–1.13) 60.0 0.08 124,164 4 Per 100 g/d 1.01 (0.97–1.04) 13.4 0.33 15,154,164 Raw vegetables 2 0.83 (0.66–1.05) 88.0 0.004 11,75 1 Per 100 g/d 0.86 (0.81–0.90) - - 75 Tomatoes 4 0.94 (0.86–1.02) 0.4 0.39 56,141,142,151 4 Per 100 g/d 0.92 (0.80–1.07) 52.6 0.10 56,141,142,148 Beta-carotene rich F&V 2 0.96 (0.89–1.03) 0 0.77 64,124 2 Per 100 g/d 0.94 (0.89–0.99) 0 0.55 64,124 Vitamin C rich F&V 1 0.91 (0.44–1.90) - - 64 2 Per 100 g/d 0.95 (0.92–0.98) 0 0.88 15, 64
Total cancer
Fourteen studies (13 publications),7,8,13,15,16,18,20,42,53,56,59,87,128 25 studies (22 publications),7–11,13–17,19–21,53,54,56,57,59,61,65,114,128 and 19 studies (17 publications),7–9,13,15–17,19–21,53,54,56,57,59,65,128 were included in the analysis of fruit and vegetables, fruits, and vegetables, and total cancer, respectively. The summary RR was 0.97 (95% CI: 0.95–0.99, I2 = 49%) for fruits and vegetables combined (Figure 5a, b, Table 1; Supplementary Figure 26), 0.96 (95% CI: 0.94–0.99, I2 = 52%) for fruits (Figure 5c, d, Table 1; Supplementary Figure 27) and 0.96 (95% CI: 0.93–0.99, I2 = 55%) for vegetables (Figure 5e, f, Table 1; Supplementary Figure 28). There was evidence of nonlinearity for fruits and vegetables, P nonlinearity = 0.02 (Figure 5b; Supplementary Table 16), fruits, P nonlinearity = 0.02 (Figure 5d; Supplementary Table 17), and vegetables, P nonlinearity = 0.03 (Figure 5f; Supplementary Table 17), with most of the reductions in risk at lower levels of intake. There were 14%, 8% and 12% reductions in the relative risk for intakes of 550–600 g/day for fruits and vegetables, fruits, and vegetables, respectively, but there was little evidence of further reductions in risk with higher intakes.
Figure 5. View largeDownload slide Fruits and vegetables and total cancer, linear and nonlinear dose-response..
Figure 5. View largeDownload slide Fruits and vegetables and total cancer, linear and nonlinear dose-response..
Of specific types of fruits and vegetables8–12,14–16,19,54,56,87,105,130,143,153–160 there were significant inverse associations between cruciferous vegetables and green-yellow vegetables and total cancer risk (Table 5; Supplementary Table 26, Supplementary Figures 179–209).
Table 5. High vs low analysis Dose-response analysis Fruit, vegetable subtype n RR (95% CI) I2 P h References n Increment RR (95% CI) I2 P h References Citrus fruits 5 0.97 (0.90–1.04) 61.0 0.04 9,16,143,155,156 6 Per 100 g/d 0.99 (0.95–1.04) 70.3 0.005 15,16,143,156 Dried fruits 2 0.89 (0.61–1.30) 32.7 0.22 11,153 0 Per 100 g/d - - - - Tinned fruits 3 0.90 (0.77–1.05) 0 0.99 159 4 Per 100 g/d 0.82 (0.66–1.01) 0 0.96 154,159 Fruit juice 1 0.99 (0.92–1.07) - - 143 2 Per 100 g/d 0.99 (0.95–1.02) 0 0.84 143,154 Broccoli 2 1.03 (0.87–1.22) 0 0.46 130,153 1 Per 100 g/d 1.22 (0.86–1.72) - - 130 Cruciferous vegetables 5 0.84 (0.72–0.97) 65.5 0.02 16,19,56,87 6 Per 100 g/d 0.91 (0.82–1.02) 67.7 0.008 15,16,19,56,87,154 Green vegetables 3 0.96 (0.90–1.02) 0 0.43 8,10,143 2 Per 100 g/d 0.91 (0.80–1.03) 0 0.74 8,143 Green yellow vegetables 5 0.88 (0.77–1.00) 17.1 0.31 9,12,14,153,157 4 Per 100 g/d 0.89 (0.83–0.96) 8.0 0.35 9,12,153,157 Mushrooms 1 1.07 (0.99–1.16) - - 143 2 Per 100 g/d 1.20 (1.01–1.44) 0 0.80 143,154 Noncruciferous vegetables 2 1.05 (0.90–1.23) 16.8 0.27 19 2 Per 100 g/d 1.01 (0.97–1.06) 0 0.41 19 Onions 2 0.91 (0.81–1.02) 0 0.34 105,130 2 Per 100 g/d 0.75 (0.54–1.04) 0 0.52 105,130 Pickled vegetbles 2 0.96 (0.90–1.02) 0 0.99 14,143 1 Per 100 g/d 0.92 (0.78–1.10) - - 143 Potatoes 2 1.02 (0.86–1.22) 31.0 0.23 14,143 3 Per 100 g/d 0.99 (0.95–1.02) 0 0.77 15,143,154 Salads 4 0.98 (0.89–1.07) 0 0.88 11,54,56,153 1 Per 100 g/d 0.88 (0.49–1.59) - - 56 Tomatoes 3 0.86 (0.67–1.10) 70.1 0.04 56,143,153 2 Per 100 g/d 0.94 (0.83–1.07) 0 0.84 56,143 Yellow vegetables 3 0.97 (0.92–1.03) 0 0.51 8,16,143 3 Per 100 g/d 0.97 (0.89–1.06) 0 0.47 8,16,143 Juice 1 0.98 (0.81–1.19) - - 160 2 Per 100 g/d 1.00 (0.94–1.07) 0 0.54 158,160 High vs low analysis Dose-response analysis Fruit, vegetable subtype n RR (95% CI) I2 P h References n Increment RR (95% CI) I2 P h References Citrus fruits 5 0.97 (0.90–1.04) 61.0 0.04 9,16,143,155,156 6 Per 100 g/d 0.99 (0.95–1.04) 70.3 0.005 15,16,143,156 Dried fruits 2 0.89 (0.61–1.30) 32.7 0.22 11,153 0 Per 100 g/d - - - - Tinned fruits 3 0.90 (0.77–1.05) 0 0.99 159 4 Per 100 g/d 0.82 (0.66–1.01) 0 0.96 154,159 Fruit juice 1 0.99 (0.92–1.07) - - 143 2 Per 100 g/d 0.99 (0.95–1.02) 0 0.84 143,154 Broccoli 2 1.03 (0.87–1.22) 0 0.46 130,153 1 Per 100 g/d 1.22 (0.86–1.72) - - 130 Cruciferous vegetables 5 0.84 (0.72–0.97) 65.5 0.02 16,19,56,87 6 Per 100 g/d 0.91 (0.82–1.02) 67.7 0.008 15,16,19,56,87,154 Green vegetables 3 0.96 (0.90–1.02) 0 0.43 8,10,143 2 Per 100 g/d 0.91 (0.80–1.03) 0 0.74 8,143 Green yellow vegetables 5 0.88 (0.77–1.00) 17.1 0.31 9,12,14,153,157 4 Per 100 g/d 0.89 (0.83–0.96) 8.0 0.35 9,12,153,157 Mushrooms 1 1.07 (0.99–1.16) - - 143 2 Per 100 g/d 1.20 |
iffrable pour le badaud [.
This modulation, to follow Gunning's lead, can be explained in terms of the distinction between the flaneur and a combination of the detective, who seeks to decode enigmas and clues, and the badaud, whose individuality, in Victor Fournel's famous words, "disappears" as he becomes "absorbed by the external world.
A la misma conclusion llega Herbert (1988: 23-4; 34) al afirmar que este hombre esta reconociendo intencionalmente su entorno; ademas, categoriza al obrero recostado en la barandilla del puente como badaud, es decir, como un miron ocioso.
Afin de varier les points de vue, nous avons incarne tantot la figure de l'utilisatrice, tantot celle de la gerante, tantot enfin celle du badaud qui discute avec le responsable des lieux.
Como sucede en otros acontecimientos sociales (el teatro, por ejemplo), el interes del escritor costumbrista es el espectador, el badaud, el miron, no el 'espectaculo' que presencia (7).
Pourtant, la peur ressentie autant par les professionnels du milieu de la sante que le simple badaud, rend l'obtention de soins plus difficile.
Ahi, junto con Michel Nedjar, Jakobois y Gael Badaud, fundo a comienzos de la decada de los 80 el colectivo artistico MetroBarbesRochechou Art, cuyo trabajo se caracterizo por proponer un cine contemplativo del cuerpo humano y que algunos han identificado como promotor de ciertas tendencias recientes de la produccion artistica francesa.
quand l'Esko convole, quand il convole le fils du Savetier de la Lande, alors le monde entier, badaud, n'a plus qu'^a rester coi.
J'ai demande a un badaud ce qui se passait, il m'a dit que des voyous armes venaient de commettre un hold-up dans le quartier.The cornerstone of our scientific research here at Divine Cosmos is the idea that the universe is alive and conscious. Is the Earth responding to the mass “chilling effect” of NSA surveillance with the “polar vortex” that has settled over America these last three weeks?
And if so — is this a good thing or a bad thing? Find out in our first in-depth investigation of 2014 — which we have already predicted will be the “Year of Disclosure”.
EVERYTHING IS CHANGING FOR THE GOOD
2013 turned out to be quite a year. Quietly, without any extreme “fireworks” or epic, in-your-face sudden changes, our world has fundamentally changed.
Prior to June 2013, mass surveillance was already taking place, on a widespread level.
Our shiny new tech toys had a frightening secret — but hardly anyone knew about it.
That will never be the case again. Every week we are learning more and more — and there is no sign that the disclosure is going to stop.
The truth has come out — and no one can put the genie back into the bottle.
As we’re now finding out, the genie was never in the bottle to begin with.
Pandora’s Box has actually been open for many years now.
We just had to physically see what came raging out of the “can of whoop-ass” — mixing metaphors madly.
GRAVITY WAS THERE LONG BEFORE NEWTON’S APPLE
Much like gravity was working its magic long before the apple fell on Isaac Newton’s head, mass surveillance was in place long before Snowden.
In fact, as you are about to see, the logo used by the US defense industry for this same mass surveillance program in 2002 was… *ahem* quite illuminating.
Up until Snowden came along, politicians were acting like everything was fine — just business as usual.
We were taught to have a hearty laugh at anyone who believes in “conspiracy theories.”
Now the “apple” has fallen — and the public has discovered the truth about mass surveillance. History is in the making right as we speak.
HOW MUCH DO WE REALLY KNOW?
Every stage of our development as a civilization has included an inevitable sense that we “know it all”.
When we thought the Earth was flat, it was flat. When we thought the Sun revolved around the Earth, Galileo was sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life for disagreeing.
Before we discovered micro-organisms, it was believed for thousands of years that most health problems could be cured by draining out the “bad blood”.
Furthermore, barely over 100 years ago, the President of the Royal Society of England, Lord Kelvin, proclaimed that “heavier than air flight is impossible”.
Over a year after the Wright Brothers demonstrated a fully-operational flying craft, with photographic and eyewitness evidence, Scientific American magazine wrote a scathingly skeptical critique in January 1905.
EVERY GENERATION HAS ITS “KNOW-IT-ALLS”
Here are some other historical quotes worth thinking about — before we discount new scientific concepts as being impossible:
http://www.keelynet.com/shoulders/
“The telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” — (Western Union internal memo, 1876)
“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” (Charles H. Duell, commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899)
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” — (Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943)
“The bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives.” — Adm. William Leahy, U.S. Atomic Energy Project, 1945.
“Landing and moving around on the moon offer so many serious problems for human beings that it may take science another 200 years to lick them.” — Science Digest, August, 1948.
“There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home.” — (Ken Olsen, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977)
THE UNIVERSE IS ALIVE
There is compelling evidence that our current view of science is woefully incomplete. Once we fill in the missing pieces, we will see that the Universe is alive.
Skeptics say “there is no evidence” as a comforting, feel-good mantra — but we now have two New York Times best-selling books with a combined total of 1,730 academic references that make the case.
A huge wealth of data points — far too voluminous and interconnected to be dismissed — reveal that the basic laws of quantum physics generate DNA and biological life.
It is impossible to do justice to this information in one article — but the books and shows are available for you to survey the evidence yourself.
Rather than life existing only here on Earth, and perhaps in a few other rare and isolated places, life appears all throughout the Cosmos — from microbial life on up through fully sentient beings like ourselves.
Furthermore, as I reveal in The Synchronicity Key, the Universe has an agenda. It is alive, it is conscious, and it has a plan for soul evolution that we all must follow.
If we overlook or ignore the plan in this “physical illusion,” increasingly difficult and stressful events will occur until we become re-aligned with our true purpose.
This can be maddening, even infuriating, but at some point it makes more sense to recognize and accept what is happening rather than fighting against it.
WISDOM TEACHINGS
It used to be the only way you could see me articulate the evidence was with the occasional YouTube video, or by attending a conference.
Now, in response to our ongoing economic difficulties and the need to get the message out cheaply, while still making enough to pay the bills, we have de-centralized the information.
Instead of paying 295 dollars to see a short summary of the case presented in a 16-hour weekend workshop with over 1000 slides, I am now going into far more depth on a weekly television show — for 9.99 a month.
We have now filmed 57 richly illustrated half-hour episodes of Wisdom Teachings, my weekly television show that presents the evidence. Over 45 of them are already available for you to watch now on Gaiam TV.
You can watch it in full HD on your big-screen TV if you have a Playstation 3, or a 100-dollar Roku box — which also lets you “unplug” from cable completely, with 136 different movie and TV channels.
IT’S MUCH BETTER THIS WAY
Up until I bought the Roku box, I was admittedly struggling to link my laptop up to the TV and make it all work. There were also some buffering problems.
Once I realized how cheap Roku was, and how perfectly it transformed Gaiam TV into a fully-functioning “metaphysical Netflix,” I was admittedly astonished.
You can cancel cable, still see your favorite shows through services like Hulu Plus, subscribe to Gaiam TV, and watch it all for less than you were already paying.
Gaiam uses the same server technology as Netflix — and I had a crystal-clear picture with no buffering the entire time I watched episodes of my own show, and many other things.
There are so many full-length titles on Gaiam TV that I would like to see that I could literally spend months exploring it — and never be bored.
It is literally an “embarrassment of riches” — and the content is actually worth far more than the monthly subscription cost.
Almost everyone who has made a name for themselves in metaphysics, spirituality, alternative healing, et cetera now has a presence on Gaiam TV, and it is constantly growing.
CONVERGENCE: THE MOVIE
I’ve also been quietly developing a major Hollywood film since 2005 that presents the evidence of a living Universe in an entertaining format — to help trigger a mass awakening.
This development process has taken far longer than I had ever anticipated — but it has opened up many other doors along the way.
In 2009, we attached Jim Hart, an A-list screenwriter who wrote the movie Contact with Carl Sagan, to our CONVERGENCE project.
Now, after literally five years of developing a dramatic script that tells the story in a fantasy / sci-fi / romance narrative, we are almost finished with it.
Two years ago we had a finished first draft. We got notes from a major production company we respected, and finally finished a major rewrite in November 2013 based on their suggestions.
We quickly got “notes” from two new and different script readers at the highest levels of the industry.
This is the main reason why I haven’t written anything on this website since late November. I needed to devote my full attention to other projects, including the film.
APPLYING THE MYTHOLOGY
One of our script readers was Christopher Vogler, the author of The Writer’s Journey.
Vogler is arguably the number-one scholar to have developed a method for applying Joseph Campbell’s mythological studies to Hollywood screenwriting.
If you have read my latest book The Synchronicity Key, you will know that I hold Vogler in very high esteem.
Campbell discovered the basic “operating system” of the Universe in ancient myths — the “plan” that we all must follow, whether we realize it or not.
Vogler’s scholarship has directly paved the way for many classic Hollywood films, including The Lion King.
An early version of The Writer’s Journey was considered “required reading” for all Disney screenwriters, regardless of what story they were developing.
Vogler was highly complimentary about our script — which in and of itself was a staggering accomplishment, as it was like an anointing from the “master”.
The notes we got were very good. We are again rewriting the script and implementing suggestions, with a rapid turnaround time — so it won’t take much longer.
Jim feels we need to get the script as perfect as possible before we put it in the hands of the top talents in the industry — because we only get one chance.
I had basically dropped everything to focus on this, since I have been so busy “juggling” that it was only one of several things I was working on.
OK, WHY ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THIS?
The reason I’m mentioning this at all is that I had quite a synchronicity occur while applying this final round of suggestions to our script-rewriting process.
The notes suggested a rather comprehensive rewrite — in which we needed to re-focus our efforts to highlight our main character, and to make the science clearer, more powerful, and easier to understand.
I awoke one morning with an incredible visionary experience that showed me how to reveal the living Universe in the first three pages of the script — with no dialogue, just pure visual storytelling.
After nine years of working to turn this body of knowledge into a potentially iconic Hollywood film, this felt like quite an accomplishment.
Our film will illustrate how the events that happen on Earth are not random — but are occurring in direct response to how human beings are thinking and feeling.
Once our film gets picked up, and we attach actors and a director, it should take about a year for it to become a finished product.
We are hoping to have a finished, final draft within less than two months at this point — and are already well on our way.
CATASTROPHES ARE IN RESPONSE TO HOW WE ARE THINKING AND FEELING
Catastrophes and cataclysms are not random. We have the ability to stop them from happening. That is one key realization that this new science teaches us.
However, until we understand that the Earth itself is alive — as a part of the greater living Universe — we will never grasp how we are ultimately causing these natural disasters to occur.
Natural disasters — or so-called “Acts of God” in legal contracts — are another way in which synchronicity manifests on a grand, worldwide scale.
The conditions on Earth are not occurring in a closed, isolated system that has no connection to us as conscious, living beings.
In fact, it’s just the opposite.
If enough people in a certain area become “out of balance” in some way, the Earth will reflect that right back to us.
Whether we understand what is happening or not, the disasters are still taking place.
Catastrophic events “out there” end up mirroring, in a symbolic form, the emotional problems we are suffering “in here” — throughout our daily lives.
THE SYMBOLISM OF CATASTROPHES
The catastrophes also tell us a story through symbolism that reveals why they are happening.
Each of the four elements in traditional astrology — water, fire, earth and air — has a story to tell in terms of natural disasters.
Water reflects emotion — and particularly grief and sadness. Sudden abundances of water, such as floods and tsunamis, can occur in response to powerful, sustained sorrow in a majority of the people in that area.
Similarly, droughts can indicate an inability or unwillingness to grieve — and to face our own pain.
Fires and volcanic eruptions can occur when there is a widespread outbreak of anger among many people in a given area.
Earthquakes can indicate a lack of “grounding” — and an overall inability to keep ourselves stable on an emotional level.
Hurricanes and tornadoes — explosions of air — reflect an over-abundance of mental focus, and particularly of stress and anxiety.
THERE IT IS, RIGHT IN FRONT OF US
Once I finally “nailed” how to present these concepts in a dramatic film, I realized that one of the most compelling and obvious examples of it was happening at the exact same time.
The “polar vortex” phenomenon that is freezing out America to an unprecedented degree is a powerful synchronicity event.
It’s big, it’s problematic and it’s unavoidable. It’s forcing us to deal with a major inconvenience — whether we like it or not.
Flights are being delayed. Lifestyles have to be changed. The comfort and ease of our “ordinary” lives is being directly interfered with.
The problems are still happening this week as I write this article — causing mass flight cancellations.
The emotional “temperature” of the average American, in response to “chilling” new revelations, is creating an unprecedented weather problem.
WORSE AND WORSE
The NSA surveillance is a betrayal of the “average person” on the most fundamental level possible — and the news is only getting worse and worse every week.
The NSA-exposing journalist Glenn Greenwald again said last week that a “Huge Number of Very Significant Stories” are still waiting to be released.
We now know that the government, or some greater and more frightening entity using government for its purposes, is intruding directly into our busy lives.
As we just found out on January 15th, 2014, your computer doesn’t even need to be connected to the Internet for the NSA to spy on its contents:
NSA Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers Not Connected to Internet
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/15/us/nsa-effort-pries-open-computers-not-connected-to-internet.html?hp
WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency has implanted software in nearly 100,000 computers around the world that allows the United States to conduct surveillance on those machines — and can also create a digital highway for launching cyberattacks.
While most of the software is inserted by gaining access to computer networks, the N.S.A. has increasingly made use of a secret technology that enables it to enter and alter data in computers even if they are not connected to the Internet, according to N.S.A. documents, computer experts and American officials.
THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL
For most people, such a basic betrayal of trust from our so-called “authorities” is a horrible, isolating, terrifying feeling.
They may not be ready to “make the jump” into the idea that the “New World Order” Cabal or “Illuminati” is real just yet — but they definitely have had to confront the total loss of privacy with the NSA.
This “ugly” feeling actually has a name and a purpose.
It is an archetype — i.e. a blueprint of consciousness that appears to be written into the “collective unconscious.”
The name of this horrible, chilling, terrifying moment in our life’s journey is the Dark Night of the Soul.
OUR BASIC OPERATING SYSTEM
As I argue in my new book The Synchronicity Key, all of us must move through these archetypes — as a sort of basic “operating system”.
The full collection of archetypes creates a story — which Joseph Campbell called the Hero’s Journey, and which is called the “Book of Life” in the Bible.
We hunger so strongly to hear this story retold, again and again, that it is written into almost every Hollywood movie and television drama in existence.
As I said, the top scholar who applied Campbell’s archetypes to screenwriting is Christopher Vogler.
This story blueprint is so fundamental to the success of a film or TV show that you can’t even get anyone to read your script if you don’t use it.
A “CHILLING EFFECT“
At the peak of the Dark Night of the Soul, there is often a physical sensation of extreme cold in the body. As some have said, “Hell is not hot — it is cold.”
The blood withrdaws from the extremities to support the brain and nourish the internal organs as we experience trauma.
This is frequently referred to as a “chilling effect” — and it does cause us to physically feel cold. In very extreme cases our teeth may even chatter.
This following list of clickable headlines has been arranged in chronological order.
This shows that the term “chilling effect” has been used all along to describe the Snowden revelations — from the beginning right up through to the very recent past.
Almost every month, as this story has rolled on, you can find headlines describing the discovery of NSA surveillance as having a “chilling effect.”
THE POLAR VORTEX
Let’s consider the timing of the “polar vortex” that has descended upon America since the beginning of January.
A massive chill swept across most of America immediately after the holiday season. The weather front started to come in just three days after New Years’ Day.
As soon as people got distracted out of the haze of holiday celebrations and back into the “real world,” they began facing the fact that the NSA revelations are not going away.
The “cold sweat” settled in.
Information like Snowden revealed about the NSA is often called “chilling”, as we have now seen.
This type of shocking betrayal of trust, on the most basic level, can make your body literally feel cold.
IDENTIFYING THE “STORM OF DISCLOSURE” IN ADVANCE
If you have been a long-term reader of this site, then you are well aware that I posted dreams in advance of the Snowden documents revealing that “The Storm of Disclosure is About to Hit”:
https://divinecosmos.com/start-here/davids-blog/1125-disclosure-storm
The above piece was dated April 27, 2013. Exactly 39 days later, on Wednesday, June 5, 2013, the PRISM documents first hit the mass consciousness.
Suddenly, everyone was confronted with a shocking new reality:
WE DIDN’T KNOW SOMETHING WAS WRONG
Almost every week since then, the disclosures have continued emerging.
Drip by drip, bit by bit, little by little, the story keeps getting worse… and worse… and worse.
Bear in mind that pain is useful. Your body was made to feel pain so that you know something is wrong.
The biggest problem we had before June 5, 2013, as a collective civilization, was that we didn’t know something was wrong.
Now we know the truth — but we’re still not facing it and dealing with the “chilling effect” it has caused us on a collective level.
As a result, the Earth has shifted in a fundamental way — bringing Artic air currents over the entire United States.
“ILLUMINATI” IS NOT FRINGE ANYMORE
The term Illuminati, considered very “fringe” and nonsensical by most people less than a year ago, is now an ever-increasingly common word in the public vernacular.
Just last week, on January 15, 2014, this word again appeared in a headline on the very popular news-aggregator website Digg.com:
SHOULD WE JUST “GET OVER IT?”
On January 3rd, the day before the “Polar Vortex” started descending over America, the Huffington Post had a very popular front-page article entitled “24 Things Millennials Need to Get Over.”
Number 13 on the list — of course — was “The Illuminati”.
This one-paragraph attempt to debunk such a staggeringly large amount of information, such as I summarized in Financial Tyranny, was so weak as to be laughably ridiculous:
24 Things Millennials Need to Get Over (#13: Illuminati Conspiracy Theories)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/03/things-millennials_n_4519459.html
Although a world where Jay Z and Beyoncé are the head of The Illuminati and Blue Ivy Carter is the heir to the throne is a pretty appealing dream, millennials should just give it a rest with all the conspiracies.
If you stare at the eye above the tower long enough it isn’t going to wink at you.
FINANCIAL TYRANNY HAS HAD OVER 1.3 MILLION VIEWS
I doubt that this blogger would have been so quick to shame-dump anyone learning about this subject if they’d read Financial Tyranny.
Financial Tyranny is very comprehensive, totally free, and one of the most popular things I’ve ever written. As you can see in the sidebar, it now has had over 1.3 million views:
I could easily have hidden this book behind a paywall or sold it to a publisher, but I kept it free because this information is so vital to our survival.
SOME THINGS DO NEED TO BE PUT INTO HARDCOVER BOOKS
The two books I wrote with a major publisher, The Source Field Investigations and The Synchronicity Key, both became New York Times best-sellers and are available in multiple languages — as well as in ebook form and an audio version that I narrated myself.
As we transition from “old” to “new” media, it is still very important to put out exceptionally high-quality media like this in a published form– as it helps establish credibility.
Some of my readers, particularly in younger generations, never even bought a hardcover book before — but it’s cheaper than a gadget and well worth it.
FINANCIAL TYRANNY TURNED INTO SIX HOURS OF PRIME-TIME TV DOCUMENTARIES
Exactly one year after we released Financial Tyranny, a prominent Russian television network used it as the inspiration for six hours’ worth of prime-time TV documentaries that I starred in.
The documentaries appeared in two parts. You can read about Part One here and Part Two here.
THE TRUTH IS SPREADING LIKE A WILDFIRE
Russia has truly been leading the way in groundbreaking disclosure television with high production quality and informational value.
We are seeing an irreversible trend. The truth is spreading like a wildfire — and the Powers That Were cannot extinguish the flames.
“ILLUMINATI” LOGO WAS USED IN AN EARLIER FORM OF NSA SURVEILLANCE
I have no personal vendetta against the writer of the millennial-shaming Huffington Post piece. This person genuinely believes there is “nothing to see here.”
It is an empowering feeling — at least temporarily — to declare that ugly, fearful and horrible information must not be true, and ridicule those who believe in it.
An earlier version of this same mass surveillance program was called Total Information Awareness and was run by DARPA — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
The DARPA logo for this mass surveillance program should look surprisingly and disturbingly familiar by now:
“Scientia Est Potentia” means “Knowledge is Power.” The colorful logo visually tells you what kind of power is being sought — and who is seeking it.
Best of all, the phrase “Scientia Est Potentia” was coined by Sir Francis Bacon — one of the most important “Founding Fathers” of the Illuminati and Freemasonry.
READ UP ON “TOTAL INFORMATION AWARENESS” FOR YOURSELF
The current Wikipedia entry on this program, which appeared very soon after 9/11, contains a variety of useful, provable links you can click on yourself:
Information Awareness Office – Illuminati Logo for Surveillance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Awareness_Office
The Information Awareness Office (IAO) was established by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in January 2002 to bring together several DARPA projects focused on applying surveillance and information technology to track and monitor terrorists and other asymmetric threats to U.S. national security, by achieving Total Information Awareness (TIA).[4][5][6]
This was achieved by creating enormous computer databases to gather and store the personal information of everyone in the United States, including personal e-mails, social networks, credit card records, phone calls, medical records, and numerous other sources, without any requirement for a search warrant.[7]
This information was then analyzed to look for suspicious activities, connections between individuals, and “threats”.[8]
Additionally, the program included funding for biometric surveillance technologies that could identify and track individuals using surveillance cameras, and other methods.[8]
Following public criticism that the development and deployment of this technology could potentially lead to a mass surveillance system, the IAO was defunded by Congress in 2003.
However, several IAO projects continued to be funded and merely run under different names, as revealed by Edward Snowden during the course of the 2013 mass surveillance disclosures.[5][6][9][10][11][12]
WHAT THE HELL?
Yes. Immediately after 9/11, this early attempt to build a mass surveillance system was revealed to the public by whistleblowers.
The classic “Illuminati” logo was “hidden right out in the open” — in the design of a surveillance program that has now become a part of widespread, public knowledge.
People automatically assume that “no one would be stupid enough to do that,” when in fact they are counting on you to be incapable of handling the truth.
Congress got involved, the project appeared to be defunded in 2003 due to its unpopularity, and most people who even paid attention assumed it just went away.
If DARPA, or whomever is using DARPA for their purposes, had any sense of political savvy, you would think the last thing they would ever want to do is use the classic “Illuminati” logo in their design.
Particularly in the post-Snowden world, such a move could literally be political suicide.
MAKING THE JUMP
However, to actually make that jump from saying “boy, that’s kind of strange” to saying “these people really do exist and here’s another piece of evidence” is quite a shift in perspective.
The irony is that there is tons and tons of blatant, in-your-face evidence, as I summarized in Financial Tyranny.
The younger generation has an easier time seeing and accepting new information, since they are at an age where they have a lot more time to think and reflect.
After all, this is the age group that accounts for a healthy percentage of the viewing audience for horror and fantasy movies.
Once adults enter into the full-time working world and the stress of parenthood, their available time decreases dramatically — and they are more apt to push away uncomfortable truths.
NOW YOU CAN’T GET AWAY FROM IT
I must say I am truly fascinated to observe Disclosure in progress. It is now happening at a slow, steady, inevitable speed.
As you may know, I have contacts with a variety of whistleblowers who are much more highly-positioned than Edward Snowden ever was.
Some of these contacts were filmed in Project Camelot interviews, as I’ve shared in recent updates here at DivineCosmos.com.
This group of insiders has access to people at the very highest levels of this world of secrecy and intrigue.
The evidence that we are right on the threshold of major changes is undeniable — and far beyond the scope of one article.
This group has steadfastly tried to stop us from learning that the Universe is alive — that “there is a God” — because they want to be the only ones in charge.
There is a spiritual component to the war that is being fought here on earth. Until we understand that, we cannot “win” the war — and create the future we seek.
Once you understand how comprehensive the lies have been, you can awaken from the “matrix” they have created — and discover who you really are.
The fruits of your labor — to simply “be nice” — could quite literally lead to Ascension, where you achieve the next level of human evolution.
UPDATE, NEXT MORNING: 10X INCREASE IN SEARCHES FOR “THE ILLUMINATI”
A long-time reader sent me this. He did a Google Trends search for the term “the illuminati” — and this is what he found.
From 2004 to Fall 2009, the interest was marginal, and rarely changed, with a low of 6 percent out of a potential high now of 100.
The search term peaked in February 2013, and the trendline is now reliably holding steady at ten times more than it was before fall 2009:
IS THERE SYNCHRONISTIC SYMBOLISM IN THE NAME “SNOWDEN?”
I do find it interesting that the name “Snow Den” has a symbolic meaning as well.
Though these revelations do have a “chilling effect,” by learning the truth we are able to create a safe place — a Den — to keep us out of the cold Snow.
The truth will set us free. Denial is an addiction that prevents us from seeing the truth. Once we accept it, true planetary healing can begin.
And that is worth fighting for.
There is nothing better we can do with our time and energy than to help co-create a joyous, prosperous future for everyone.
This year, I am re-dedicating myself to working harder than ever to get the truth out — and “walk the walk.”
Based on everything I’m seeing and hearing, which I will share with you as the time becomes available, we may see some absolutely incredible events this year.
The “payoff” from these events will be incredibly vast — and propel us into the true Star Trek Era, since we already have all the technologies on that show in classified programs.
Though many of us love to think and ponder intellectual puzzles, the real master work of Ascension is in how lovingly we treat ourselves — and everyone else around us.
CONSCIOUS LIFE EXPO AND NEW LIVING EXPO
At this point I have only committed to doing two public events this entire year.
For the past four years I did at least one event per month, and it consumed at least one week of my available work time — 25 percent — per month.
Unfortunately, only a handful of people — usually between 45 and 80 — would see these events, and benefit from the fruits of all that labor.
No two events were ever alike, causing multiple people to become repeat customers — and do multiple events.
Now I am taking those same slides, developed over more than 50 rounds of 16-hour weekend lectures, upgrading them, and turning them into Wisdom Teachings episodes.
However, I am still taking on certain live events at big conferences. You can see me at the upcoming Conscious Life Expo in Los Angeles as well as the New Living Expo in San Francisco.
I will probably be doing some variant of the same talk at both events — entitled “Illuminati Vs. Your Ascension — The Ultimate Showdown”.
I still have to finalize my writeup for the talk at New Living Expo — and it was due Monday!!
The Conscious Life Expo
Join us for an enlightening, joyful, healing, transformative weekend! Participate in the conscious co-creation of our future!
February 7th – 10th 2014 at The Los Angeles Hilton Airport Hotel
Featuring Workshop Presentations with notable luminaries and best selling authors, free cutting edge panel discussions, 100 Free Lectures, Exhibit Halls, Film Festival, Post Conference Intensives, Special Events, Spiritual Traditions, Permaculture Program and Healthy Foods. Plus George Noory Beyond Belief Mixer, Programa En Espanol, Purchase Tickets and Register on line.
For Tweeting On Twitter:
www.consciouslifeexpo.com Join us for an enlightening, joyful, healing, transformative weekend! February 2014 at The LAX Hilton Hotel!
WISDOM TEACHINGS
I feel much better about promoting my show, Wisdom Teachings, after seeing it on my big-screen TV, which I hardly ever have time to use.
There are no problems, no worries — you just buy the Roku box, plug it into your TV, add Gaiam TV as a channel, sign up, and it works.
The same is true for anyone with a more recent Smart TV or a Playstation 3. Xbox access will appear sometime this fall.
The most common refrain of “haters” is that people like me, and others in this field, are “making lots of money” from what we do — but in this economy, that is far from the truth.
I’ve never had more than six months’ worth of “cushion” for rent payments at any time in this entire process — at the most.
WITH YOUR HELP WE NOW HAVE 25% MORE TIME TO WORK ON “THE BIG STUFF”
Hosting my own show has finally allowed me to stop having to do conferences every month. This has freed up 25% more of my time to help a much larger number of people.
Your support is still urgently needed. When you subscribe to the Gaiam TV network to watch my show, a portion of your monthly subscription directly helps pay our bills.
The ‘payoff’ is huge, because I will now have the time to write more articles, do more YouTube videos, and write another book — and not be scrambling to afford the basics along the way.
Your support helps us stay in the action and work to free humanity from enslavement — and usher in the Golden Age spoken of in so many ancient prophecies.
OOPS!
Part Two of this article was broken off as a separate piece, and flashed up briefly enough to get 47 hits. It wasn’t finished, and it will be out soon enough — hopefully in another week.
There is tons and tons of information coming out… much faster than I can organize it. The next piece will delve into what we now know about the Alliance that is working to defeat the Cabal.
I already predicted in The Synchronicity Key that we would see a spectacular defeat of the Cabal this year — and the signs are lining up very nicely.
This article is a good introduction to the rest of what I will be sharing, which together will integrate like a new book.
UPDATE NEXT MORNING: GRUMPY?
Wow… a very small minority of the comments that came in were far too disrespectful for the moderators to pass them through, but I took a look at them.
Some of you really need a hug right now. Honestly. How can you get so angry at a website? Put the gun down and let’s be glad for what we have. 🙂
I will attempt to address what the angriest people were saying, since we do read your comments:
OK… for me, this is a short piece. I decided to cover one topic, the polar vortex, rather than a huge array of other stuff I could start doing.
I was planning on writing a much longer piece to satisfy the No New Information(TM) folks, but if I did that, it would have taken another week at this rate.
I needed serious time off from burn-out, and to work on the film. It was quite amazing to see the “polar vortex” prove, in real time, what our movie is about.
After nine years of working on this, and hoping to get it out there, it was shocking to have such a compelling example appearing.
Skeptics: this article is NOT built to argue or prove the case scientifically. That’s why I refer to 1,730 references and a “Parallel University” of 45+ online classes.
Haters: if I didn’t charge for certain products, there would be nothing here for you to hate about. I’d be some IT guy working behind the scenes in a “cube farm” somewhere.
So let’s all be nice, shall we? You never know… you just might Ascend.You’re probably used to the site that dresses up its logo for a holiday, and Election Day, quite frankly, often receives that very same treatment. A visit to Google, Yahoo!, or AOL’s home pages today are testaments of that fact. AOL’s is even animated. But more interesting than that logo wearing makeup, or even the 24-hour news and blogging coverage on media sites, is how social media uses, well, social media, to get out the vote. For example, expert blogger Allyson Kapin reported on the Twitter Voter Report |
Article XI
Establishment of Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq
Article XII
Initiating a War Against Iraq for Control of That Nation's Natural Resources
Article XIIII
Creating a Secret Task Force to Develop Energy and Military Policies With Respect to Iraq and Other
Countries
Article XIV
Misprision of a Felony, Misuse and Exposure of Classified Information And Obstruction of Justice in
the Matter of Valerie Plame Wilson, Clandestine Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency
Article XV
Providing Immunity from Prosecution for Criminal Contractors in Iraq
Article XVI
Reckless Misspending and Waste of U.S. Tax Dollars in Connection With Iraq and US Contractors
Article XVII
Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign
Captives
Article XVIII
Torture: Secretly Authorizing, and Encouraging the Use of Torture Against Captives in Afghanistan,
Iraq, and Other Places, as a Matter of Official Policy
Article XIX
Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to "Black Sites" Located in Other
Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture
Article XX
Imprisoning Children
Article XXI
Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist
Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government
Article XXII
Creating Secret Laws
Article XXIII
Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act
Article XXIV
Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the
Fourth Amendment
Article XXV
Directing Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of the
Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens
Article XXVI
Announcing the Intent to Violate Laws with Signing Statements
Article XXVII
Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to Comply
Article XXVIII
Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice
Article XXIX
Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965
Article XXX
Misleading Congress and the American People in an Attempt to Destroy Medicare
Article XXXI
Katrina: Failure to Plan for the Predicted Disaster of Hurricane Katrina, Failure to Respond to a Civil
Emergency
Article XXXII
Misleading Congress and the American People, Systematically Undermining Efforts to Address Global
Climate Change
Article XXXIII
Repeatedly Ignored and Failed to Respond to High Level Intelligence Warnings of Planned Terrorist
Attacks in the US, Prior to 911.
Article XXXIV
Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001
Article XXXV
Endangering the Health of 911 First Responders Let us not forget.
GO CINDY!
COMMENT #87 [Permalink]
... christine craft said on 6/8/2009 @ 7:36 am PT...
yes..Lora...I read them on the air over a year ago..on the mainstream media...you'll notice the hoards of kucinich followers..perhaps he'll be in dallas today.
COMMENT #88 [Permalink]
... Lora said on 6/8/2009 @ 7:39 am PT...
To the Brad Blog moderators: Perhaps I bent the rules a bit in my comment above. I think they are relevant to the discussion and important to post. I wonder how many of your readers have ever read them. I hope you will allow them to stand. If you think they are too much, can we leave 10 of the most critical to this discussion? TIA,
Lora
COMMENT #89 [Permalink]
... Lora said on 6/8/2009 @ 7:43 am PT...
Christine, Glad to hear it.
COMMENT #90 [Permalink]
... christine craft said on 6/8/2009 @ 7:44 am PT...
LORA.. dennis kucinich..better known as the man with utterly no sense of humor...can list his personal articles of impeachment until he is blue in the face..they will have no effect..can you count? as in the number of congressional supporters he has generated for this cause? don't you realize that even American who hate george bush..realize that our country has huge pressing problems to resolve..spanking george bush is not a luxury we have time or national, widespread passion to do.
COMMENT #91 [Permalink]
... christine craft said on 6/8/2009 @ 7:52 am PT...
IN ANY EVENT..I THINK I'll talk about this on the mainstream media this week.how about friday night at 10pm..
WE'LL SEE WHAT THE MAINSTREAM AUDIENCE THINKS.
COMMENT #92 [Permalink]
... christine craft said on 6/8/2009 @ 8:16 am PT...
WHEN YOU SEND a son or daughter off to serve in the U.S. Army..you are sending them into harm's way..that a reality..perhaps one ms. sheehan refuses to accept..she wanted her son to join the Army..but not share the burdens it places on everyone in the Army..strange.and no..her son did not die for a noble cause.
COMMENT #93 [Permalink]
... Lora said on 6/8/2009 @ 8:37 am PT...
Sorry, Christine, I'm not into spanking. When Kucinich read his articles of impeachment, there was scarcely a blip in the Mouth Piece Media. I'm glad to know you covered it. The man read for 4 hours in Congress, introducing articles of impeachment against the man in the highest office in the land, and you'd scarecely know it happened. I'm sure most Americans are not even aware that he did so. (I dont' really see anything funny about them, so I can understand Dennis Kucinich's alleged lack of humor, if true.) This is how the media kills movements and ideas before they are even given a chance. It's easy for you to say "they will have no effect" when your colleagues are doing everything in their power to suppress any knowledge whatsoever of it, and/or make fun of it or belittle it when it leaks out anyway. Rather than "spanking," impeachment and/or prosecution will cause our current and future leaders to be more careful and more mindful of what they do, and hopefully restore some of those famous checks and balances that have almost entirely gone missing of late. The media shapes what Americans think. If you ask your audience what they think, I hope you do it fairly, first supplying a bit of background in a nonjudgmental way. I'm in PA; can I follow it? Can you post a link?
COMMENT #94 [Permalink]
... karen from illinois said on 6/8/2009 @ 11:57 am PT...
wow,i have to admit i don't know who christine kraft is but she has summed up the problem,when she said, "but Brad..big problem with your legal theories..as you are no doubt aware..firstly you need a justice department with an interest in prosecuting.." the current justice department seems compliciate in covering up the illegalities of the former justice department,does that mean "we the people" should just roll over and pretend we don't know it happened? cindy is doing the only thing she can,she is standing up and saying,"we know who you are,we saw what you did" if she makes w and his neighbors uncomfortable,good for her
COMMENT #95 [Permalink]
... Sam said on 6/8/2009 @ 1:48 pm PT...
Christine Craft wrote this drivel: "spanking george bush is not a luxury we have time or national, widespread passion to do." -------------------------- Ugh. So that's what you really think this is all about?
Why do we have the time to convict other people for crimes and we don't have time to convict politicians of crimes? Isn't that convenient. Christine, this is not about "spanking George Bush." It is not about revenge or any of the excuses that nuts come up with. It is about the rule of law and international law. It is about re-instating, defending, protecting and upholding the US Constitution. Without the US Constitution we do not have a nation. Period. Can you not get this through your thick head? Murder is a crime in all nations. Invading other nations without a credible reason (Afghanistan, Iraq and now Pakistan) is also a crime. Wire tapping of US citizens is a crime. Torture and rendition are crimes. Stealing two US elections is a crime. Possibly being part of 911 is a crime. This has nothing to do with simple-minded "luxury" or "spanking" Christine. These are death-penalty crimes if any other citizen were to do them. But because it's a politician, you say "we" don't have the "luxury or time." Well if that's the case, then remove all laws from this nation because what is fair for some scum of the Earth politician is fair for other people. We are a nation of laws. We are not a nation of what we have "luxury" or "time" for. Politicians can multi-task just like the rest of us and do more than one thing at a time. A politician can appoint a special prosecutor. It doesn't take that long, Christine.
COMMENT #96 [Permalink]
... Sam said on 6/8/2009 @ 2:56 pm PT...
More intelligence from Christine Craft: "dennis kucinich..better known as the man with utterly no sense of humor..." ----------------------------- So a sense of humor is more important to you than the US Constitution? You expected him to crack jokes in between each Article of Impeachment? I could care less whether Kucinich has a sense of homor or not. His job is not to be funny. How many of these stale old politicians are funny? What I care about is that he does take his constitutional oath seriously, something which Christine Craft doesn't seem to give a damn about based on her "spanking george bush is not a luxury we have time or national, widespread passion to do" comment. This is not about George Bush, Christine. He was a puppet. This is about the US Constitution.
COMMENT #97 [Permalink]
... Sam said on 6/8/2009 @ 3:24 pm PT...
This is what happens when "we" don't have "time" to prosecute War Criminals Bush and Cheney for war crimes, because "we" consider it a "luxury," to prosecute, or at least that's the thinking of some rabid right-wing trash.
Torturing of US Citizen. Only a gullible, naive fool would think that this stuff is not continuing under messiah Obama. That's why Bush, Cheney et al will not be prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Judge denies ACLU request to reveal US role in torture of American citizen
http://rawstory.com/08/n...dge-denies-aclu-torture/
COMMENT #98 [Permalink]
... lottakatz said on 6/9/2009 @ 9:47 pm PT...
Wow! what a great discussion, I've been down with a flu-thing and have just read this thread top to bottom and 'Wow' doesn't begin to cover it! My 2cents:
The only thing that was relevant to me regarding Ms. Sheehan was that while the country stood silent in major part regarding the war of choice in Iraq Ms Sheehan stood up and took the battle to the doorstep of the President in a direct and personal way. I thought it would be futile to effect a change of the policy but I respected absolutely the audacity and correctness of it in a climate that cast all dissent as traitorous. She was (is) to me our Diogenes, and I will always have that respect for her. That Ms. Craft gave her a media outlet was outstanding but she lost me with her first posting (#12) which was pretty ugly "hint to cindy..your time is sooooo over. clue...wrong president..why are you going after Obama...troops still in iraq..more in afghanistan" I'm with Lora and Sam on this one; it's about the rule of law. Having the architects and enablers of the false war and torture on television everyday re-writing their history and the history of the last 8 years is an insult to America. Having a Justice Department that allows it makes them complicit in the crimes IMO. The President and his administration are fair game as long as they are supporting the insults and violence the Bush administration did to the Constitution. Due to the construction of the posting I'm not sure weather I'm in agreement with Ms. Craft on that or not. I definitely disagree that we should move on without a full repudiation of the Bush administration's actions regarding the choice of this war and the rape of the constitution. To address the non-requiter of Kucinich's lack of humor, all I can say is that he provided the single most funny- hysterically funny 7 minutes of the campaign. If you forgot this appearance on Colbert you were hitting the herb a little too hard that night Funniest campaign appearance of 2008: http://www.colbertnation...s-pockets?videoId=118571 [['99, sorry to hear you're ill and btw, remember those debates we had about Obama? He's beyond his probationary period (as I set it) on the war, torture, surveillance, Gitmo and other detainee issues and you were right. It makes me heartsick but you were right. Get well soon. ]]
COMMENT #99 [Permalink]
... Agent 99 said on 6/9/2009 @ 9:56 pm PT...
Thanks, lotta. It makes me heartsick too. I'm over whatever it was that threw my innards into such a wretched state, but not over this thread, which I found reprehensible from beginning to almost the end... until your comment.... But, well, as they say, I'm just weird. xoxoxox
COMMENT #100 [Permalink]
... christine craft said on 6/11/2009 @ 7:25 am PT...
hint to lottakatz..I'm very glad you help the kitties. and get them spayed and neutered..
but just because I give..or someone else gives a figure such as ms sheehan..msm radio time.does not mean that we then owe them lifelong adoration..an abandonment of critical thinking etc. did you think it did?
COMMENT #101 [Permalink]
... disillusioned said on 6/11/2009 @ 4:24 pm PT...
Go Cindy, keep the irons hot. Christine, I've never heard of you before this thread, sorry I guess I don't get the 'biggest station in the world' in my area. From your bio which I tracked down I would have guessed you have a lot more to do than heckle prior guests of your show. Cindy is just a citizen trying to do what's right. If more people took action like she has done since her son's death, this country would be a far better place.
COMMENT #102 [Permalink]
... Damail said on 6/14/2009 @ 11:15 am PT...Senior Roman Catholic Bishop links push for gay marriage to Nazi attack on religion in controversial Christmas sermon
Right Reverend Mark Davies will use his midnight Mass to say marriage can only be between a man and a woman
The Bishop of Shrewsbury will say that both Hitler and Stalin challenged Christianity with the notion that what they were doing was ‘progress’
A senior Roman Catholic will today use his Christmas sermon to liken plans for the legalisation of gay marriage to the way the Nazis and Communists tried to undermine religion.
The Bishop of Shrewsbury will launch a vociferous attack on the Coalition’s decision to fast track a vote on same-sex marriage in the New Year.
The Right Reverend Mark Davies will use his midnight Mass to say marriage can only be between a man and a woman.
And he will accuse the Prime Minister of attempting to redefine the institution of marriage for ‘generations to come’ without any mandate from the electorate.
The Bishop of Shrewsbury will launch a vociferous attack on the Coalition's decision to fast track a vote on same-sex marriage in the New Year
Most controversially, he will equate the support for same-sex marriage with the way totalitarian regimes acted in the twentieth century.
The bishop will say that both Hitler and Stalin challenged Christianity with the notion that what they were doing was ‘progress’.
He will argue that, in a similar fashion, the supporters of same-sex marriage also use the idea of ‘progress’ to support the ‘redefinition’ of marriage.
The bishop will conclude: ‘The British people have reason to ask on this night where is such progress leading?’
And he will tell the faithful that a moment has arrived for them to ‘stand up for what is right and true as previous generations have done before us: to give witness to the value of every human life, to the truth of marriage as the lasting union of man and woman... the foundation of family.’
In his sermon, Bishop Davies will say: ‘Past generations have gathered in this cathedral on Christmas night amid many shadows which seemed to obscure the future for them.
We think of the ideologies of the past century, Communism and Nazism, which in living memory threatened to shape and distort the whole future of humanity.
‘These inhuman ideologies would each challenge in the name of progress the received Christian understanding of the sanctity of human life and the family. Winston Churchill, Britain’s wartime Prime Minister, a man without clear, religious belief, saw in this deadly struggle nothing less than the defence of Christian civilisation.
The bishop will say that both Hitler and Stalin challenged Christianity with the notion that what they were doing was 'progress'
‘Few of our political leaders today appear to glimpse the deeper issues when the sanctity of human life and the very identity of marriage, the foundation of the family, are threatened.’
He will add: ‘This Christmas we are also conscious of new shadows cast by a Government that was pledged at its election to support the institution of marriage.
‘The Prime Minister has decided without mandate, without any serious consideration, to redefine the identity of marriage itself, the foundation of the family for all generations to come.
‘This is again done in the name of progress. The British people have reason to ask on this night where is such progress leading?’ In another part of his sermon, the bishop calls this country’s treatment of the elderly and sky-high abortion rates ‘the darkest shadows of our time’.
He will say: ‘The widespread neglect and ill-treatment of the frailest, elderly people in our society: concerns highlighted in the Care Quality Commission’s recent report. The growing concerns about end-of-life care and what is happening to the most vulnerable in our hospitals.
‘This dark side to our society is surely connected to the discarding of human life from the beginning in legalised abortion on an industrial scale, in reproductive technologies, in embryo experimentation which our laws have sanctioned.’
The bishop’s comments come despite the fact that polls repeatedly show the public is largely in favour of allowing gay marriage.
Ruth Hunt, of gay rights group Stonewall, said: ‘Gay people are all too aware of the horrific results of Nazi ideology due to the countless casualties of the Holocaust.
‘Bishop Davies’s comments are both deeply offensive to gay people and their families.’
The Coalition has tried to defuse Church of England opposition to its plans by specifically saying it would be illegal for any Anglican vicar to marry a gay couple.A primary goal of Vagrant is not only to provide easy-to-use development environments, but also to make it easy to share and collaborate on these environments.
With Vagrant 1.5, we're introducing a feature that will allow you to share your running Vagrant environment with anyone, on any network connected to the internet. We're calling this feature 'Vagrant Share.'
This feature lets you share a link to your web server to a teammate across the country, or just across the office. It'll feel like they're accessing a normal website, but actually they'll be talking directly to your running Vagrant environment. They'll be able to see any changes you make, as you make them, in real time.
With Vagrant Share, others can not only access your web server, they can access your Vagrant environment like it was any other machine on a local network. They can have access to any and every port.
Read on for a demo and more details.
Before we get into details about Vagrant share, let's show a few demos. You may need to go fullscreen to read the text.
Sharing an HTTP server:
Sharing SSH access:
Sharing a static IP with Vagrant Connect:
» Vagrant Share, Vagrant Connect
The feature we call "Vagrant Share" introduces two new Vagrant commands: vagrant share and vagrant connect.
The share command is used to share a running Vagrant environment, and the connect command compliments it by accessing any shared environment. Note that if you're just sharing HTTP access, the accessing party does not need Vagrant installed. This is covered later.
We'll cover the details of each command next.
» HTTP Sharing
By default, Vagrant Share shares HTTP access to your Vagrant environment to anyone in the world. The URL that it creates is publicly accessible and doesn't require Vagrant to be installed to access -- just a web browser.
$ vagrant share ==> default: Local HTTP port: 5000 default: Local HTTPS port: disabled ==> default: Your Vagrant Share is running! ==> default: URL: http://frosty-weasel-0857.vagrantshare.com...
Once the share is created, a relatively obscure URL is outputted. This URL will route directly to your Vagrant environment; it doesn't matter if you or accessing party is behind a firewall or NAT.
Currently, HTTP access is restricted through obscure URLs. We'll be adding more ACLs and audit logs for this in the future.
» SSH Access
While sharing your local webserver is a powerful collaboration tool, Vagrant Share doesn't stop there. With just a single flag, Vagrant Share can allow anyone to easily SSH into your Vagrant environment.
Perhaps you're having issues where your app isn't running properly or you just want to pair program. Now, with just one flag, anyone you want can SSH into your Vagrant environment from anywhere in the world.
SSH access isn't shared by default. To enable sharing SSH, you must add the --ssh flag to vagrant share :
$ vagrant share --ssh ==> default: SSH Port: 22 ==> default: Generating new SSH key... default: Please enter a password to encrypt the key: default: Repeat the password to confirm: default: Inserting generated SSH key into machine... ==> default: Checking authentication and authorization... ==> default: Creating Vagrant Share session... default: Share will be at: awful-squirrel-9454 ==> default: Your Vagrant Share is running!...
When the --ssh flag is provided, Vagrant generates a brand new SSH keypair for SSH access. The public key portion is automatically inserted into the Vagrant environment. The private key portion is uploaded to the server managing the Vagrant Share connections. The password used to encrypt the private key is not uploaded anywhere, however, meaning we couldn't access your VM if we wanted to. It is an extra layer of security.
Once SSH access is shared, the person wanting to access your Vagrant environment uses vagrant connect to SSH in:
$ vagrant connect --ssh awful-squirrel-9454 Loading share 'awful-squirrel-9454'... Password for the private key: Executing SSH... Welcome to Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS Last login: Wed Feb 26 08:38:55 2014 from 192.168.148.1 vagrant@precise64:/vagrant$
The name of the share and the password used to encrypt the private key must be communicated to the other person manually, as a security measure.
» Vagrant Connect
Vagrant share can share any TCP/UDP connection, and is not restricted to only a single port. When you run vagrant share, Vagrant will share the entire Vagrant environment.
When the person you are sharing with runs vagrant connect SHARE-NAME, Vagrant will give this person a static IP they can use to access the machine as if it were on the local network:
$ vagrant connect awful-squirrel-9454 ==> connect: Connecting to: awful-squirrel-9454 ==> connect: Starting a VM for a static connect IP. connect: The machine is booted and ready! ==> connect: Connect is running! ==> connect: SOCKS address: 127.0.0.1:62167 ==> connect: Machine IP: 172.16.0.2 ==> connect: ==> connect: Press Ctrl-C to stop connection....
» Security Concerns
Sharing your Vagrant environment understandably raises a number of security issues.
With the launch of Vagrant 1.5, the primary security mechanism for Vagrant Share is security through obscurity along with an encryption key for SSH. Additionally, there are several configuration options made available to help control access and manage security:
--disable-http will not create a publicly accessible HTTP URL. When this is set, the only way to access the share is with vagrant connect.
--ssh-once will allow only one person to SSH into your shared environment. After the first SSH access, the keypair is physically deleted and SSH access won't be possible anymore.
In addition to these options, there are other features we've built to help:
Vagrant share uses end-to-end TLS connections. So even unencrypted TCP streams are encrypted through the various proxies and only unencrypted during the final local communication between the local proxy and the Vagrant environment.
SSH keys are encrypted by default, using a password that is not transmitted to our servers or across the network at all.
SSH is not shared by default, it must explicitly be shared with the --ssh flag.
A web interface we've built shows share history and will show basic access logs in the future.
Share sessions expire after a short time (currently 1 hour), but can also be expired manually by ctrl-c from the sharing machine or via the web interface.
Most importantly, you must understand that by running vagrant share, you are making your Vagrant environment accessible by anyone who knows the share name. When share is not running, it is not accessible.
And, after Vagrant 1.5 is released, we will be expanding the security of this feature by adding ACLs, so you're able to explicitly allow access to your share based on who is connecting.
For maximum security, we will allow you to run your own Vagrant Share server. We won't be launching this right with Vagrant 1.5, but it will be an option shortly after that.
» Technical Details
We've been demoing Vagrant Share around the world over the past month or so. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, but the first reaction from everyone is always: "How does this work?" In this section, we'll briefly cover some technical details of the feature.
There are a lot of moving parts that make Vagrant Share work. Here is an overview of the primary components:
Local Proxy - This runs on the share host machine (not within the Vagrant environment). It connects to the remote proxy and proxies traffic to and from the Vagrant environment and the remote proxy. It is also responsible for registering new shares with the remote proxy.
Remote Proxy - This runs on a remote server on the internet. It creates shares and is connected to local proxies. It also handles all ACLs, security audit logs, SSH keys, and more.
Connect Proxy VM - When vagrant connect is called, Vagrant runs a very small proxy virtual machine (13 MB RAM-only!). This virtual machine exposes the static IP that the connecting person uses to access the share. Any traffic sent to this IP is routed to the remote proxy, which in turn routes down to the local proxy and the shared Vagrant environment.
The connection from the connect proxy to the remote proxy uses the standard SOCKS5 protocol. The connection between the remote proxy and the local proxy uses a modified variant to reduce the number of packets that must be sent for any given connection.
Vagrant Share will ship with Vagrant 1.5. To use it, you'll need an account in the yet to be announced web service.
At that time, we'll publish further details about share, connect and the account required to use them.
Next week, we'll cover another feature of Vagrant 1.5 — stay tuned.Migrating eastern North American monarch butterflies use a time-compensated sun compass to adjust their flight to the southwest direction. Although the antennal genetic circadian clock and the azimuth of the sun are instrumental for proper function of the compass, it is unclear how these signals are represented on a neuronal level and how they are integrated to produce flight control. To address these questions, we constructed a receptive field model of the compound eye that encodes the solar azimuth. We then derived a neural circuit model that integrates azimuthal and circadian signals to correct flight direction. The model demonstrates an integration mechanism, which produces robust trajectories reaching the southwest regardless of the time of day and includes a configuration for remigration. Comparison of model simulations with flight trajectories of butterflies in a flight simulator shows analogous behaviors and affirms the prediction that midday is the optimal time for migratory flight.
A long-standing, fundamental question about monarch migration has been how the circadian clock interacts with the changing position of the sun to form a time-compensated sun compass that directs flight. Here, we propose a neuronal model for both encoding of the sun’s azimuthal position, and molecular timekeeping signals, and how they can be compared to form a time-compensated sun compass. Our results propose a simple neural mechanism capable of producing a robust time-compensated sun compass navigation system through which monarch butterflies could maintain a constant heading during their migratory flight.
While the monarch time-compensation clocks are housed in the antennae, the sun’s azimuthal position is detected by the eyes. Neuronal signals originating from photoreceptors in each ommatidial unit of the compound eye are processed by several optic neuropils before they are relayed to the central brain. A main target for visual neurons in the central brain is the anterior optic tubercle (AoTU), a structure that is connected to the central complex (CX), the presumed site of the sun compass (). Within the CX, the lateral accessory lobes (LALs) are of particular relevance because neurons within them connect to descending motor pathways that ultimately control behavior.
Monarch antennae contain an intracellular, light-sensitive clock mechanism, which has been shown to be responsible for calibrating the sun compass (). As in Drosophila and mice, the primary molecular mechanism of the monarch clock is an autoregulatory transcriptional feedback loop. In the monarch, the feedback loop utilizes two distinct cryptochromes (CRYs), a blue light circadian photoreceptor (CRY1) and a transcriptional repressor (CRY2). Transcription factors CLOCK (CLK) and CYCLE (CYC) drive the transcription of the period (per), timeless (tim), and cry2 genes, which are translated into PER, TIM, and CRY2 proteins, respectively ().
Each fall, eastern North American monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) fly up to 4,000 km to specific overwintering sites in central Mexico. Throughout this journey, monarchs constantly correct their flight direction to maintain a southerly orientation, using a time-compensated sun compass. Laboratory observations from a flight simulator, capable of tracking flight direction, show that migrant monarchs orient toward the southwest (SW) direction by visual cues, relying primarily on the horizontal (azimuthal) position of the sun (). Migrants use their circadian clocks to compensate for the changing sun position and thereby maintain a fixed flight bearing.
Results
Colwell, 2011 Colwell C.S. Linking neural activity and molecular oscillations in the SCN. Belle et al., 2009 Belle M.D.C.
Diekman C.O.
Forger D.B.
Piggins H.D. Daily electrical silencing in the mammalian circadian clock. A basic assumption of our model is that time and solar signals are encoded by neuronal firing rate. This allows us to propose a mechanism, which uses a small number of neurons, to compare the firing rate of azimuthal neurons, responding to the luminance detected by the eyes, with neurons whose firing rate shows a circadian rhythm, as seen in “clock” neurons in other species, (see) and as an outcome directs flight. We first define the neural input signals into such a mechanism.
Merlin et al., 2009 Merlin C.
Gegear R.J.
Reppert S.M. Antennal circadian clocks coordinate sun compass orientation in migratory monarch butterflies.. As a result, the NCLK1 firing rate is anti-phase to the oscillation pattern of cry2. NCLK2 follows the oscillation pattern of per/tim transcription factors directly ( DeWoskin et al., 2015 DeWoskin D.
Myung J.
Belle M.D.
Piggins H.D.
Takumi T.
Forger D.B. Distinct roles for GABA across multiple timescales in mammalian circadian timekeeping. Myung et al., 2015 Myung J.
Sungho H.
DeWoskin D.
De Schutter E.
Forger D.B.
Takum T. GABA-mediated repulsive coupling between circadian clock neurons in the SCN encodes seasonal time. Ukai-Tadenuma et al., 2008 Ukai-Tadenuma M.
Kasukawa T.
Ueda H.R. Proof-by-synthesis of the transcriptional logic of mammalian circadian clocks. Figure 1 Circadian and Solar Azimuth Signals Show full caption (A) The antennal clock of the monarch. 1 ) Molecular time course curves involved in keeping the circadian rhythm. The per/tim/cry2 (blue/red/green) relative mRNA levels measured in the antennae ( Merlin et al., 2009 Merlin C.
Gegear R.J.
Reppert S.M. Antennal circadian clocks coordinate sun compass orientation in migratory monarch butterflies. (A) Molecular time course curves involved in keeping the circadian rhythm. The per/tim/cry2 (blue/red/green) relative mRNA levels measured in the antennae (). Antennal circadian clocks coordinate sun compass orientation in migratory monarch butterflies. Science 325, 1700–1704. (Reprinted with permission from AAAS.) 2 ) Signals recorded from the antenna using EAG over 2 days (D1-cyan and D2-magenta; normal L:D [12:12] regime; and freq. >65 Hz). The points in each light segment are fitted with a third order polynomial fit (dashed curves) and globally with a cosine fit (solid blue curve: ). (A) Signals recorded from the antenna using EAG over 2 days (D1-cyan and D2-magenta; normal L:D [12:12] regime; and freq. >65 Hz). The points in each light segment are fitted with a third order polynomial fit (dashed curves) and globally with a cosine fit (solid blue curve:). (A 3 ) Firing rate profiles of neurons NCLK1_C (light green; accords with cry2), NCLK1 (cyan), NCLK2_C (dark green), and NCLK2 (navy; accords with per/tim). (B) “The butterfly eyes”, Graphium cloanthus kuge butterfly eyes reflecting the direction of the light (Credit: Yung Samuel. The Butterfly eyes. http://www.samuelphotos.com ). (B 1 ) Luminance of rotating light source captured by two hemispheres that model the monarch eyes. (B 1 ) Luminance captured by left/right hemispheres (top). (B 1 ) Luminance captured by back/front hemispheres (bottom). (B 2 ) Firing rate curves of NS1 and NS2 neurons which receptive fields cover the right and the front hemisphere, respectively. For neural representation of the clock, we postulate two neurons, NCLK1 and NCLK2, whose firing rates oscillate in accordance with two primary molecular oscillations generated by the monarch circadian clock ( Figure 1 A1) (). NCLK1 is linked to the oscillations of cry2 transcription factor through a neuron called NCLK1_C. In the absence of input, NCLK1 fires with constant background firing rate (BG) and receives inhibitory input from NCLK1_C that follows oscillations of cry2. As a result, the NCLK1 firing rate is anti-phase to the oscillation pattern of cry2. NCLK2 follows the oscillation pattern of per/tim transcription factors directly ( Figure 1 A3). Analogously, we introduce a neuron labeled NCLK2_C with a firing rate that is anti-phase to the oscillation patterns found in NCLK2 and per/tim. These links between neural and molecular representations of the circadian rhythm are motivated by recent work describing the neuronal activity of clock neurons in various species (). The particular configuration of these links is phenomenological and aimed to show that a neural mechanism from molecular rhythms to firing rate with these phase relationships could exist.
and a peak near mid afternoon. This is surprisingly similar to the predicted activity of NCLK1. Non-monotonicity of the electric antennal signal has been also detected in Drosophila ( Tanoue et al., 2004 Tanoue S.
Krishnan P.
Krishnan B.
Dryer S.E.
Hardin P.E. Circadian clocks in antennal neurons are necessary and sufficient for olfaction rhythms in Drosophila. Each of the firing rate curves is non-monotonic, that is, they do not produce a unique firing rate during the daylight hours. This property precludes a single curve from being used to identify the time of day. However, we note that due to the 6 hr phase shift between the curves, a simple correction for this ambiguity could be to consider a sum of the NCLK1 and NCLK2 curves, which produces a monotonic curve. To gain further information on electrical signals possibly related to the circadian clock, we performed electro-antennogram (EAG) recordings over the course of several days under normal light/dark (L:D) conditions (see Supplemental Information ). Frequency analysis of the electrical activity suggests that intrinsic antennal electrical activity increases during the day and decreases during the night, illustrated in Figure 1 A2. During the day, when the sun compass is active, the signal power curve appears to be non |
entire series, especially with the idea of him being visited by his top enemies and some of his top allies?
Soule: First of all, Wolverine has a great rogue’s gallery. It’s also very deep, with lots of hidden corners, including characters like Ogun, who despite his unbelievable coolness hasn’t been seen for a while in comics.
I wanted to find a story that would offer the opportunity to include a number of signature villains in a somewhat organic way. It was complex. For example, I wanted to include Sabretooth somehow, but he also casts a long shadow. This series could’ve easily become a Sabretooth story, but I feel those stories have been told before in the past.
There were additional characters I could have used both as friend and foe, but part of the reason I didn’t is because I only had four issues to tell the story. So, the way I used the larger cast (good guys and bad) was as signifiers to other amazing stories from Logan's past. When Kitty Pryde shows up, for instance, she’s the prototype originator of the idea of Wolverine as a mentor. I also used her to get into Logan as the kind of guy who’s had great loves in his life, and while Kitty isn’t one of them she was a stand-in for some of that.
Similarly, Nuke in Issue #1 was a way to touch on Logan as an “old soldier,” so to speak. A lot of the choices in regards to villains and cameos were there to get readers thinking about classic stories. I didn't want to repeat those stories (which was why Sabretooth's appearance here worked the way it did), but I did want to evoke the ideas conveyed in those stories.
Nrama: The major villain in the finale of Death of Wolverine ended up being Dr. Cornelius from the Weapon X Program. How’d you come to settle on him as the guy who would be there for Logan’s last stand?
Art from Death of Wolverine #4 by Steve McNiven, Jay Leisten, Justin Ponsor Credit: Marvel Comics
Soule: I re-read a lot of my favorite Wolverine stories in preparation for this project, and the Weapon X project increasingly stood out as a phenomenal lynchpin for everything. It’s where a lot of the Wolverine tropes we know today really emerged… especially the savage, psychological stuff. Dr. Cornelius was there at the beginning for Logan, so it made a lot of sense for him to be here at the end. It’s been a long time since Wolverine went through the Weapon X program, so Cornelius was aged up a bit; he was middle-aged in that story, and he’s older now - at the end of his life, and thinking about his legacy and the kind of world he'll leave behind.
Just to go back to Sabretooth, if I'd opted for him as the main villain, it would’ve been a very different story; since he’s essentially immortal. It would have created a much different dynamic, and it wasn't the story I wanted to tell. I wanted readers reflecting right alongside Logan about who the Wolverine was, why he mattered, and so on. Cornelius as his final foil offered that.
Nrama: That final image of Wolverine, covered by adamantium that’s slowly hardening – that’s a powerful image. How’d that come to you, and what were your thoughts in having Logan’s final moments be inside that?
Soule: I think the art team pulled it off incredibly well. As far as discussing it in detail, I do a lot of music stuff as well as writing, and I felt like it’s one of those moments in music where it’s about the notes you don’t play as much as the ones you do play.
Art from Death of Wolverine #4 by Steve McNiven, Jay Leisten, Justin Ponsor Credit: Marvel Comics
Nrama: Peaking a bit ahead into the future, in his final moments we were introduced to a henchman of Dr. Cornelius named Major Sharp. Cornelius seems dead now, but could we perhaps see more of Major Sharp or Cornelius’s other test subjects in the future?
Soule: Yes, absolutely. Sharp and the other test subjects Cornelius was... altering... will be playing a big role in future stories. Creating superhumans was Cornelius' life's work, and a number of his experiments will be spilling out into the Marvel U; in particular, you’ll see that in the Death of Wolverine: The Weapon X Program series I’m doing with Salvador Larroca. That story picks up literally two seconds after the end of Death of Wolverine, and you’ll see what happens to the Wolverine statue, how Sharp starts to become more of a factor in the Marvel U, and other things spilling out of Paradise, the lab we saw at the end of Death of Wolverine.
I'm very proud of that series – one of the things we wanted to do with Death of Wolverine is set things up for a long set of new stories coming out of it, with characters and ideas both old and new. That’s what Death of Wolverine: The Weapon X Program is about: experimental lab rats who were never meant to survive but are set free by Logan’s actions at the end of Death of Wolverine. The set out on a cross-country scramble to survive, and they’re chased by the people who funded Cornelius. It’s Runaways meets Frankenstein.
Nrama: Last question, to sum it all up: how does it feel to be the man who killed Wolverine?
Soule: Would it seem like I was dancing on the poor guy's grave if I said it felt pretty great? I'm damn proud of this book and the work that we all did to put it together, and at the end of a huge project like this, it's wonderful to be able to say that.Last week we announced a player change within the compLexity CS:GO team, with no replacement yet in site. We anticipated that it would take longer than it has to fill the open AWP position on the team, but when it feels right, it feels right. We’re excited to announce today that we’re bringing a new American player into professional Counter-Strike. Please welcome, the newest member of compLexity, Jaccob ‘yay’ Whiteaker.
One of the new generation of CS:GO players, this will be yay’s first opportunity to occupy the primary AWP role, having split time in his previous MDL teams. He brings an aggressive and confident style, and hopes to be able to help the team rise back to the top of North American CS.
“When we began looking at new players for the AWP role, yay was not at the top of the list. It took just one practice session to change that opinion. Though Jaccob does not have the experience that some other player options possessed, he has demonstrated skills that are rarely found at even the highest levels of play. His youth may be just what is needed to rejuvenate the squad and kickstart our results in the upcoming season. We’re excited to be taking a chance on a young gun, and we hope it pays off! - Kyle Bautista, General Manager of compLexity
You can catch Jaccob and the coL.cs team this weekend at Fragadelphia 11 where they aim to take home the gold.
Thank you for your continued support of coL.cs and compLexity.
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Celebrate Mardi Gras with this traditional Mardi Gras King Cake recipe! This is the recipe I’ve used for years and features cinnamon and sugar nestled between layers of sweet dough, a cream cheese filling and colorful topping.
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It’s Mardi Gras season in New Orleans! The Mardi Gras season begins on Epiphany, a Christian holiday celebrated on January 6 that is otherwise known as Three Kings Day or the Twelfth Day of Christmas. So “Let the good times roll” by making this wonderful and festive King Cake.
Since we won’t be going back home this year for Mardi Gras, I’m bringing a little of the party into my own home with this decadent cream cheese filled King Cake.
On many different occasions, I’ve written of how much I have loved growing up and living in New Orleans. There isn’t a place in the world quite like the “Crescent City” and during Mardi Gras is perhaps the most exciting time of all to visit.
The Mardi Gras festivities are well underway with grand Mardi Gras Balls at night, parades with marching bands and floats rolling down the tree lined streets, and parade-goers putting their final touches on their Mardi Gras Day costumes. Fun times for sure!
In New Orleans, King Cake parties are held throughout the Mardi Gras season. Usually hidden deep within the King Cake is a “baby”, often made of plastic which adds excitement, as each person who finds the baby is rewarded with “good luck” and is responsible for bringing the King Cake to the next party.
Since plastic “babies” are hard to find here in Texas, I use a large pecan. Pecans don’t usually evoke the same reaction when they’re found, but it’s fun nonetheless.
Since moving to Texas, I had been searching for a King Cake that tastes as good as they make them in New Orleans. I’ve come to the realization that if I want a traditional King Cake, I have to make it myself.
King Cake
My favorite King Cake needs four things:
It should resemble a delicate danish pastry.
The tender dough should be slightly sweet with a hint of citrus.
A King Cake is best when it’s filled and a cream cheese filling is a personal favorite of mine.
A sweet, sugary icing decorated with the traditional colors of Mardi Gras; purple, green and gold is also a must.
Since I can’t find the perfect King Cake in our local bakeries, I’ve got to make my own.
My favorite King Cake comes from Haydel’s Bakery in New Orleans. Hands down, the best in the city. My family would get several King Cakes from Haydel’s every year and when we saw them appear, we knew Mardi Gras was right around the corner. Haydel’s has been in business in New Orleans for years and is a New Orleans institution.
The recipe I use for my own King Cakes is a recipe I adapted from Haydel’s Bakery.
King Cake Recipe
First, make the dough using a stand mixer.
Step 1
Blend the sugar, salt, and melted butter together.
Add in the flour, eggs, and the yeast which is dissolved in milk. Haydel’s recipe calls for butter, orange and lemon flavoring, but I like to add fresh orange and lemon zest instead.
Step 2
After making the dough, let it rest by covering the bowl and leaving it alone for 1-1/2 hours.
This is a perfect time to color the sugar with the food coloring.
After the dough rests and has almost doubled in size, take the dough out of the bowl, place it on a large surface and knead the dough for about 10 minutes.
Roll the dough out into an oblong shape, brush the dough with canola oil and sprinkle the entire top with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar.
Step 3
Once the dough is covered completely with the cinnamon-sugar, fold it in half lengthwise. It will be a very long piece of dough.
As you can see from my picture, the dough extends over my large cutting board.
Step 4
Cut the dough into 3 strips.
*(Also see notes below – updated February 2017)
Step 5
Braid the dough starting at one end and work your way down. Shape the dough into a circle and transfer it to a parchment lined baking sheet.
Step 6
Cover and let the dough rest again for about an hour until it has almost doubled in size.
Step 7
Make the cream cheese filling by combining cream cheese, powdered sugar, lemon zest and milk.
Since the King Cake is braided, you really can’t “fill” it. Instead, pipe the filling directly on top of the dough and add a little extra in between the braids. This ensures you get the sweet cream cheese taste in every heavenly bite.
Step 8
Bake the King Cake in a 370 degree F oven for about 15 minutes.
Remove the cake from the oven and prepare a sweet glaze made of sifted powdered sugar and milk.
Drizzle the glaze over the top.
Step 9
Top with the colored sugar.
Step 10
Slice and serve.
Look at the layers of cinnamon and sugar in this slice of King Cake. Can you see the rich and creamy cream cheese filling (topping) poking out from the sides?
When the King Cake is baking, the filling “melts” into the cake so you get the sweet filling combined with the cinnamon sugar cake and the sweetened crunchy topping.
Notes (updated February 2017): I’ve been making King Cakes for years and I use this recipe every single time. this year, I made a simple change to the “braiding” method and I think it makes it so much easier. Use either method you prefer. I provided photos below…
After the dough is rolled out into an oblong piece, brushed with oil and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, instead of folding the dough in half, just cut the dough into three strips. Next, roll each strip of dough just as you would roll a cinnamon roll. Braid as shown.
Print Traditional Mardi Gras King Cake Recipe Prep Time 3 hrs Cook Time 15 mins Total Time 3 hrs 15 mins A traditional recipe for a New Orleans Mardi Gras King Cake Course: Dessert Cuisine: Dessert Keyword: cake Servings : 10 servings Author : Joanie Zisk Ingredients DOUGH 1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 large eggs
1 cup milk (room temperature)
2 small packets of active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon orange zest
1/2 tablespoon lemon zest
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon CREAM CHEESE FILLING 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest GLAZE 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons milk SUGAR TOPPING 3 cups granulated sugar
a few drops of each: purple, green, and yellow food coloring Instructions In an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine 1/3 cup granulated sugar, salt and melted butter until well creamed. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition and continue to cream. Pour the milk into a small bowl and add the packets of yeast. Stir and let sit for 5 minutes until dissolved. Set aside. Add in the vanilla, orange zest and lemon zest to the mixing bowl and blend. Pour in the the milk and dissolved yeast and blend. Add the flour and mix on low until the dough tightens. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the bowl, forms a ball and climbs slightly up the dough hook. Remove the dough from the bowl. Coat the dough with 1/2 cup of canola oil. Return the dough to the bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Set in a warm, draft-free place, and let it rise until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours. While the dough is resting, mix your colored sugars. Place 1 cup of granulated sugar in a ziplock bag. Add in 2-3 drops of food coloring. Close the bag and shake and caress the sugar until it is completely colored. Add more food coloring if necessary. Repeat this process with each of the colors, using a separate ziplock bag for each. Set aside to use later. After the dough has rested, turn the dough out onto a floured work surface. Knead the dough for 10 minutes. Roll the dough out into an oblong piece. Brush the dough with canola oil covering the entire piece. In a small bowl, mix together 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar liberally over the entire piece of dough. Once the dough is covered with the cinnamon sugar and oil, fold it in half lengthwise. Cut the dough into 3 long strips and lay the strips side-by-side. Press the edges to seal. Now it's time to braid the dough. (Braiding dough is just like braiding hair) Grab the center of the right strand and cross it over the middle strand, drop it in the center. Grab your left strand and cross it over the middle strand. Repeat these steps until you have braided your dough to the very end. Pinch the ends together and form a circle with the dough. Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover and allow the dough to rest again until it doubles in size, about 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 370 degrees F. While the dough is resting again, make the filling. Cream together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, milk and lemon zest until smooth. Place the filling in a piping bag or scoop it into a large ziplock bag and cut off the corner tip of the bag. Pipe the filling directly on top of the dough. Only go around the circle once, you may have some filling left over. Place the king cake in the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes until the dough is golden brown. Remove from the oven and make the glaze. Whisk together 1 cup of the powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons of the milk. Drizzle the glaze over the top of the King Cake. Sprinkle the three colored sugars on top of the King Cake alternating the colors. Slice and serve.
*Recipe adapted from Haydel’s Bakery.
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New Orleans Muffuletta RecipeMr Fluffy asbestos: Commonwealth agency calls for demolition of affected houses
Updated
The head of the Commonwealth's asbestos safety agency is standing by his call for the demolition of Canberra houses affected by Mr Fluffy loose-fill asbestos, despite criticism of his stance by the ACT Government.
Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency chief executive Peter Tighe said demolition was the only way to fully deal with the potential health risks, and that proposed asbestos management plans were just "bandaid solutions".
"I don't know if I've been accused of scaremongering but there's been some criticism of what I've said," Mr Tighe said.
"It's been an honest response. My job is to raise the awareness with the general public and if someone asks me the same questions today I'd give the same response."
About 1,000 Canberra houses had loose amosite asbestos installed by insulation company Mr Fluffy in the late 1960s and '70s.
A Federal Government program aimed to remove it between 1988 and 1993, but residual fibres have since been discovered in some of the homes.
Minister for Workplace Safety Simon Corbell has said the Commonwealth must accept responsibility for the problem, because it pre-dated ACT self-government.
But Mr Corbell has criticised calls for the houses to be knocked down.
"I don't think that those comments were helpful; I think they scared many people," he said.
"It certainly highlighted issues and that's of benefit to householders in terms of raising awareness, but I don't think it's helpful to say every property should be demolished down to the bedrock.
"Every house will be different."
Mr Corbell said he empathised with the affected Canberra families.
"We're looking at what measures we can put in place to help offset some of the costs associated with householders needing to manage the presence of loose-filled asbestos in their properties," he said.
"I expect the Government will make decisions on that in the coming weeks."
Affected families call for action on Mr Fluffy
The ACT Government sent letters in February to households identified as having Mr Fluffy, telling them their homes may still have remnant asbestos and recommending they be assessed.
We can't go back in, we're out. Where do we go with the kids and where do we stay? Home owner Marcus Thompson
As a result, hundreds of Canberra families are living with the dual uncertainty of their long-term health and financial security.
One Weston Creek family was ordered out of their home after an independent assessment found it was unsafe for them to stay.
"For my husband to ring and say 'We can't go back in, we're out. Where do we go with the kids and where do we stay?' was probably the beginning of our worst nightmare," Elisa Thompson said.
"We don't have the resources to knock this house down. This house has to be knocked down, it can't be lived in.
"There is no remediation for this house, and as best I know, that's the same as every single house affected by Mr Fluffy."
Ms Thompson said she hoped the broader community would understand the impact the process is having on people's lives.
"Nobody should have to live like that and nobody should be expected to have their family in contact with a carcinogen in their house," she said.
Another home owner Brianna Haseltine started an action group for affected families.
"I think the Government has been completely unprepared for the tidal wave it has unleashed when it sent out 1,049 letters to people in Canberra homes," she said.
"I'd like to see the ACT Government and the Federal Government come together to take responsibility for this.
"This has been a wound on Canberra for half a century, and what we need right now is some surgery not more bandaids."
Construction workers also at risk from Mr Fluffy homes
The implications for the potentially thousands of tradesman who worked on Mr Fluffy homes are also unknown.
Asbestos assessor Ged Keane said when cases of mesothelioma amongst workers start appearing, Canberra would see the full legacy of Mr Fluffy.
I'm the middle of tests for mesothelioma at the moment... I'm desperately worried about my daughter. Home owner Karen Rush
"I think back when the Government embarked on this program, rather than sit back and work out what we are actually dealing with, they rushed head-long into this remediation of the roof spaces of these houses and it's not been done very well," he said.
Home owner Karen Rush lived in her home with her daughter while it was being renovated.
She bought the house in 1994 after it was supposedly cleared of Mr Fluffy asbestos, but a recent assessment found remnant asbestos fibres through the walls and sub-floor.
"My worry is the latency period is somewhere between 15 to 20 years," she said.
"I'm the middle of tests for mesothelioma at the moment; it's pretty scary, and my daughter is in Geneva - she's a diplomat with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; she's really got to start to have tests as well.
"I am desperately worried about my daughter.
"We lived grossly in amongst that grey stuff, but so did these other people, and you never know who's going to get it, to catch it."
Risk could stretch across border to Queanbeyan
The Federal Government spent $100 million supposedly removing Mr Fluffy from homes in Canberra, but there was no such funding for Queanbeyan.
Queanbeyan Mayor Tim Overall said there was no compulsory survey to determine just how many houses were a risk.
"We do have a problem, but we do not know the extent of it," he said.
"It is concerning because with 1,000 homes identified in Canberra at the time, a simple extrapolation of the number of homes in Queanbeyan built around that era or before, amounted to about 60."
Mr Overall said Queanbeyan City Council was preparing to send letters to all residents they suspect of having Mr Fluffy insulation, warning again of the potential risks and their responsibility to inform tradesman working on the house.
"At this stage there is no solution and no resolution," he said.
Topics: federal---state-issues, states-and-territories, asbestos, act, canberra-2600, queanbeyan-2620
First postedIt’s 3:30 p.m. on Friday and I'm in a rackety, crowded bus hurtling through the retina-drying heat of the Nevada desert, seated next to a pink flamingo. The flamingo is sipping a bottle of Amstel light. Peering out the window, one half-expects to see two wild-eyed men—one wearing a white bucket hat and yellow-tinted sunglasses—pass in a red Chevrolet Caprice convertible.
The bus pulls into the sprawling asphalt sea buffering Sam Boyd Stadium, the horseshoe-shaped home of UNLV football, located twenty minutes east of the Vegas strip. The flamingo—actually a pixieish girl in costume with a thick Kiwi accent—stands and twists sideways in order to shimmy to the front, catching up with two other flamingos ahead of her. Outside, a cacophonous horde of revelers are entrenched at the stadium’s main entrance. Spangled throughout this crowd are girls dressed as jungle creatures, cops in speedos, oafish dudes in frilly tutus, and a fair number of guys wearing suits cut from their nation’s flags.
I have arrived at the largest annual international sporting event in the United States—the Las Vegas Sevens—and this just might be the only part of town where all bets are off.
Widely regarded as one of the fastest and most fan-friendly sports in the Milky Way Galaxy, Sevens is a blinding-fast variation of traditional rugby, a ferociously-paced showcase of sprinting, passing, and tackling for fourteen breathtaking minutes. The action never stops and therefore each game unfolds like a self-contained, 14-minute highlight reel.
(Hey, hear about the rugby player who ruptured one of his testicles duirng a match and needed to have it surgically removed? We've got the details here, including how Your Balls Are Tougher Than You Think.)
The Vegas Sevens tourney is one of nine stops in the HSBC Rugby Sevens World Series—a year-long global competition among the top sixteen sides in the world, including the U.S., which has emerged as an unexpected contender this year.
According to Jeff McDowell, the Vegas tournament’s EVP and all-around ambassador, this year’s tournament occupies a next level tier of vitality, explaining, “Starting in 2016, Rugby Sevens will become the world’s newest Olympic sport. This year’s HSBC Sevens World Series serves as an Olympic qualifying event, so the stakes are high.”
Shortly after four o’clock, a pylon-shouldered Portuguese man bombing down field is folded in half by an eye-watering hit from a stocky dreadlocked South African. The stadium erupts. The games are officially underway and the Blitzbokke—the defending champion South Africans—quickly blank an overmatched Portugal, 19-0.
Just like that, in less time than Tiger Woods takes between shots, the first match goes into the books. This will be the pace for the next three days—a relentless stream of one game after another, with only a few minutes between each.
The first two teams are barely off the pitch when the bludgeoning riffage of Metallica explodes from the PA, a siege of fireworks paints the rusted desert skies, and the USA Eagles storm onto the field beside their first opponents, Japan.
While team USA has fared reasonably well in the previous tournament stops, they have yet to offer a sustained threat to the nations who historically dominate this game—South Africa, Fiji, and New Zealand. By the ten minute mark of the USA’s first match, however, the Eagles have pasted 38 points onto a hapless Japan, eventually winning 52-12.
To compete at this level, players must develop an otherworldly level of cardio fitness, the physical endurance to both administer and absorb hits of pant-shitting ferocity and a preternatural sixth sense for executing Globetrotter-esque passes for two seven-minute halves.
San Diego’s Matt Hawkins, the former USA Sevens coach, captain and one of the team’s all-time leading scorers, explains, “In a Sevens game, the field is so big and there are so few players on the field that it’s all under a microscope because you don’t have a safety net. If you make a mistake, that’s it—you don’t have additional players to cover you. It’s a much more high pressure situation than any other sport.”
On Saturday morning, a mind-blowing cavalcade of players and fans have gathered in a warren of pitches just outside of the stadium. In addition to the international competition inside the stadium, nearly 5000 other players will compete in a network of other tournaments on these fields, including high school championships, club level tournaments, and even a few “old boys” matches.
NBC, NBCSN, and Universal Sports have encamped on the media floor, where they will broadcast a record 16 hours of live television coverage, with the tournament’s international feed expected to reach over 390 million homes in 121 countries. Once an obscure, roguish sport played only by expats with funny brogues, rugby continues to enjoy comet-like momentum among mainstream U.S. sports, thanks in no small part to the Vegas Sevens.
Inside the stadium, it feels like some amorphous halfway point between the World Cup and Mardi Gras; there is singing, flag waving, and people eating indigenous foods from the competing nations, including spicy New Zealand meat pies, giant Kenyan samosas, and some sort of artery-punishing South African sausage roll that is difficult to even regard.
Somewhat surprisingly, Saturday’s most exciting contest plays out between the Eagles and heavily-favored South Africa—an all-out, jaw-dropping flourish of no-look passing and full-field breakaway runs that ends in a last-minute draw, much to the noisy delight of the U.S. contingent in the stadium and the grumbly consternation of the South Africans.
Fiji, a perennially strong Sevens contender comprised of fearsomely-sized Polynesians with the speed of Pro Bowl linebackers, ruthlessly dismantle a French side who appear simultaneously baffled and awed by their opponents. Later, the U.S. blanks Canada, 20-0, to earn a spot in the semis.
The last matches of the second day feature a pair of championships from some of the invitational tournaments held just outside the stadium. The second, between Utah’s Humless and the Northeast Rugby Olympic Development Academy, sees the latter notch an exhilarating 14-5 victory.
On Sunday, Fiji seize the tournament crown with a 35-19 win over New Zealand. The Eagles take a respectable fourth in the tournament, catching a 31-0 beatdown from South Africa, although making an undeniably loud statement overall.
After three days, I leave the desert sunburnt, dehydrated, hoarse, and badly in need of a hot meal, a long shower, and eighteen hours sleep. And that, it's worth repeating, is what happens when you're in the audience.
(For another sport—in this case, basketball—that's been given an amped-up makeover, check out our Introduction to Fightball.)Image copyright sturti Image caption Experts say England does not yet produce enough home-grown staff for the NHS to meet requirements without workers from abroad
The proportion of EU nationals leaving jobs in the NHS is rising, while the share of those joining is shrinking.
The BBC analysed NHS Digital figures, which showed the trend in England over the past two-and-a-half years.
Health experts say the UK's decision to leave the European Union in June 2016 was behind the trend.
The Department of Health says new language requirements for EU nurses may have played a part.
The analysis comes days after the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said the health system was "straining at the seams" and faced a "precarious" future, highlighting staff shortages and rising vacancy rates.
What do the figures show?
In the last full year before the referendum - 2015 - there were 7,535 EU nationals who left NHS Trusts, making up 5.6% of workers of all nationalities leaving their jobs.
The following year, EU nationals accounted for 6.6% of all leavers, and in the first six months of this year, they made up 7.4%.
The pattern was repeated in 80 NHS Trusts out of 240 across England.
The proportion of EU staff joining fell over the same period. In 2015 EU nationals made up 10% of new joiners. In the first six months of 2017, they accounted for 8.2%.
That trend was reflected in 62 trusts.
Danny Mortimer, co-convenor of the Cavendish Coalition, which represents health and social care organisations, said: "This analysis starts to confirm anecdotal stories we are hearing from our members, especially in the South East.
"Our members don't feel able to recruit in big numbers.
"There are practical challenges like the exchange rate [between the pound and the euro] is weak - and the number of people choosing to leave is increasing."
The trend was more pronounced when focussing solely on nurses. In the year before the vote, EU nurses made up 7.6% of all the nurses leaving nationally, rising to 11.5% in the first six months of 2017.
Almost one in five nurses, 6,299 out of 34,595, joining the NHS in 2015 came from other EU member states. In the first six months of 2017 this had fallen to just one in 10 newly-recruited nurses.
One source told the BBC of at least one NHS trust that had abandoned a recruitment fair on the continent due to poor response rates.
The General Medical Council surveyed more than 2,000 doctors from the European Economic Area (EEA) in February and of the 60% who said they were thinking of leaving the UK at some point in the future, nine in 10 said the UK's decision to leave the EU was a factor in their considerations.
Janet Davies, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said: "A nurse who trained in Lyon or Lisbon is as much a part of the NHS family as one trained in London. But sadly, it is no surprise that so many are leaving - few can live with the uncertainty.
"During the Brexit negotiations, [Prime Minister] Theresa May must reassure nurses from around Europe that they are needed and welcome in the NHS. It would not survive without their contribution."
Overall, the NHS says there are around 3,200 more EU nationals working in the NHS than at the time of the referendum, as the size of the health service continues to grow.
Over the same period, there has been a slight reduction of 162 nurses, which it suggests may be down to the Nursing and Midwifery Council introducing new language requirements in January 2016, making it more difficult to be eligible for employment.
But our analysis shows the growth is slowing. The year-on-year percentage increase in the EU workforce dropped from 16.8% in 2015 to 2.7% in the first six months of 2017.
Experts say England does not yet produce enough home-grown staff for the NHS to meet staffing requirements without workers from abroad, although the government wants to make the country "self-sufficient" in training doctors and create thousands more nursing training places to boost the domestic workforce.
The Commons Health Select Committee previously began to take evidence on the implications of Brexit but postponed its inquiry when the snap General Election was called for June 2017.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt had told the committee the government had stopped short of publishing its own analysis because "the publication of what might be called the worst-case scenario could itself have an impact on negotiations".
Dr Andrew Dearden, the treasurer of the British Medical Association, said: "We know that Brexit has already had a huge impact on the morale of EU NHS staff working here. Our own research has shown us that more than four in ten EU NHS staff are considering leaving the UK following the EU referendum result."
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "There are 3,193 more EU nationals working in the NHS than at the time of the referendum — we have been absolutely clear that these staff play a vital role in the NHS and want to see their excellent work continue long after the UK leaves the EU.
"However, we recognise the NHS also needs more home-grown staff, so we'll be training an extra 1,500 doctors and 10,000 nurses, midwives and allied health professionals a year by 2020 to ensure the NHS has the workforce it needs both now and in the future."
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has promised more training places for home-grown doctors and nurses
Across the UK
In Wales, the proportion of EU nationals leaving the NHS was 2.5% the year before the referendum, rising to 3.5% in 2015-16 when the vote took place. It has since returned to 3%.
Neither NHS Scotland or The Department of Health in Northern Ireland records the nationality of leavers and joiners.
More about this story
The Shared Data Hub makes data journalism available to news organisations across the media industry, as part of a partnership between the BBC and the News Media Association.
For more information on methodology, click here. For the full dataset, click here.
The figures do not include data for GPs and practice staff or Clinical Commissioning Groups, and concern headcount rather than full-time equivalent posts.In new rules notified by the Environment Ministry on Tuesday, the Centre banned the sale of all kinds of cattle for slaughter at animal markets across the country. The rules, issued under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, require anyone purchasing cattle to provide an undertaking that the animals are bought for agricultural purposes and not slaughter.
The new notification also adds a large amount of paperwork for every transaction involving cattle at animal markets, expecting numerous records and five copies of the proof of sale, each of which is to be handed to various authorities.
The notification, first reported by the Hindustan Times, is likely to have a major impact on cattle slaughter across the country – even though it does not itself ban slaughter. It requires cattle trade at animal markets to only take place for agricultural purposes. And the definition of cattle includes bulls, bullocks, cows, buffalos, steers, heifers, calves and camels.
22. Restrictions on sale of cattle.— The Member Secretary of the Animal Market Committee shall ensure that-
(a) no person shall bring to an animal market a young animal;
(b) no person shall bring a cattle to |
settlements with the cities, kings and princes in the east en bloc. This was opposed by the senators, particularly the optimates, who were suspicious of the power Pompey had acquired with the lex Gabinia and the lex Manilia and the popularity he gained with his military successes. They saw him as a threat to the supremacy of the senate and as a potential tyrant. In 60 BC, the optimates, not for the first time, also defeated a bill that would have distributed farm land to Pompey's veterans, and to landless urban poor of Rome, who relied on a grain dole distributed by the state to survive. The consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer opposed the bill very effectively. The other consul, Afrianius, whose election had been sponsored by Pompey, was of no assistance. According to Cassius Dio he "understood how to dance better than to transact any business."[120] In the end, lacking the support of this Afrianius to counterbalance Metellus Celer, Pompey let the matter drop. Thus, the Pompeian camp proved to be inadequate to respond the obstructionism of the optimates.[121]
When Julius Caesar returned to Rome from his governorship in Hispania towards the end of 60 BC, Pompey and Caesar made an informal political alliance. Julius Caesar was a prominent popularis politician who favoured land redistributions and was a resolute man. He stood for election for one of the two consulships for 59 BC, and could provide the kind of support needed for the land bill to be passed. Caesar also pursued a policy of conciliating Marcus Licinius Crassus and Pompey, who had been at variance politically.
Thus, Caesar brought into being this alliance between these three men, which historians call the First Triumvirate. Together these three men could break the resistance of the senate. Pompey's political clout was based on his popularity as a military commander and on the political patronage and purchase of votes for his supporters and himself that his wealth could afford. He also had the support of his war veterans: "Prestige, wealth, clients, and loyal, grateful veterans who could be readily mobilised—these were the opes which could guarantee [Pompey's] brand of [power]."[122] Crassus was a property speculator and the richest man in Rome. He had extensive patronage networks.
Caesar was elected, and proposed an agrarian bill to the plebeian council, which Pompey and Crassus publicly supported. The bill passed over the opposition of his colleague as consul, Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, whose election had been funded by the optimates due to his opposition to Caesar and his bill. Calpurnius Bibulus subsequently retired from politics and Caesar had the acts of Pompey's settlements in the east passed.[123][124][125][126] A law that made Caesar governor of Gallia Cisalpina and Illyricum also passed. When the governor of Gallia Transalpina died, Caesar was given that province as well. Caesar tied Pompey to himself by marrying him to his daughter Julia even though she was betrothed to another man.[127][128][129] He then left Rome to take on these governorships and got involved in his Gallic Wars, which lasted from 58 BC to 50 BC. Pompey and Caesar set Publius Clodius Pulcher against Marcus Tullius Cicero, who was an opponent of the triumvirate. Clodius managed to have Cicero exiled, but soon Pompey decided to have Cicero recalled to Rome because Clodius turned against him. A grateful Cicero stopped opposing Pompey.[130][131][132][133]
In 58 BC, food shortages in Rome caused popular unrest. Cicero persuaded the people to appoint Pompey as praefectus annonae (prefect of the provisions) in Italy and beyond for five years. This post was instituted at times of severe grain shortages to supervise the grain supply. Clodius alleged that the scarcity of grain had been engineered to support a law that boosted Pompey's power, which had been decreasing. Both Plutarch and Cassius Dio thought that the law made Pompey ‘the master of all the land and sea under Roman possession’. Pompey sent agents and friends to various places and sailed to Sardinia, Sicily and the Roman province of Africa (the breadbaskets of the Roman empire) to collect grain. He collected it in such abundance that the markets were filled and there was also enough to supply foreign peoples. Appian wrote that this success gave Pompey great reputation and power. Cassius Dio also wrote that Pompey faced some delays in the distribution of grain because many slaves had been freed prior to the distribution and Pompey wanted to take a census to ensure they received it in an orderly way.[134][135][136]
In 56 BC, Caesar, who was fighting the Gallic Wars, crossed the Alps into Italy and wintered in Luca (Lucca, Tuscany). In the Life of Crassus, Plutarch wrote that Caesar met Pompey and Crassus and agreed that the two of them would stand for the consulship and that he would support them by sending soldiers to Rome to vote for them. They were then to secure the command of provinces and armies for themselves and confirm his provinces for a further five years. In the Life of Pompey, Plutarch added that Caesar also wrote letters to his friends and that the three men were aiming at making themselves the masters of the state.[137][138][139] Cassius Dio, who wrote the most detailed account of the period, did not mention the Luca conference. In his version, instead, Pompey and Crassus agreed to stand for the consulship between themselves as a counterpoise to Caesar. Pompey was annoyed about the increasing admiration of Caesar due to his success in the Gallic Wars, which, he felt, overshadowed his own exploits. He tried to persuade the consuls not to read Caesar's reports from Gaul and to send someone to relieve his command. He was unable to achieve anything through the consuls, and felt that Caesar's increasing independence made his own position precarious. He began to arm himself against Caesar and got closer to Crassus because he thought he could not challenge Caesar on his own. The two men decided to stand for the consulship so that they could be more than a match for Caesar. Once elected, Pompey and Crassus got Gaius Trebonius, a plebeian tribune, to propose a measure that gave the province of Syria and the nearby lands to one of the consuls and the provinces of Hispania Citerior, and Hispania Ulterior to the other. They would hold the command there for five years. They could levy as many troops as they wanted and ‘make peace and war with whomsoever they pleased’. The supporters of Caesar were unhappy and therefore Crassus and Pompey extended Caesar's command in Gaul. According to Cassius Dio, this was for three years, not five.[140] In The Life of Pompey, Plutarch wrote the laws proposed by Trebonius were in accordance with the agreement made at Luca. They gave Caesar's command a second five-year term, assigned the Roman province of Syria and an expedition against Parthia to Crassus and gave Pompey the two provinces in Hispania (where there had recently been disturbances), the whole of Africa (presumably Plutarch meant Cyrenaica as well as the Roman province of Africa) and four legions. Pompey lent two of these legions to Caesar for his wars in Gaul at his request.[141] According to Appian Pompey lent Caesar only one legion. This was when two of Caesar's lieutenants were defeated in Gaul by Ambiorix in 54 BC.[142]
From confrontation to civil war [ edit ]
In 54 BC, Pompey was the only member of the triumvirate who was in Rome. Caesar continued his campaigns in Gaul and Crassus undertook his campaign against the Parthians. In September 54 BC, Julia, the daughter of Caesar and wife of Pompey, died while giving birth to a girl, who also died a few days later.[143][144] Plutarch wrote that Caesar felt that this was the end of his good relationship with Pompey. The news created factional discord and unrest in Rome as it was thought that the death brought the end of the ties between Caesar and Pompey. The campaign of Crassus against Parthia was disastrous. Shortly after the death of Julia, Crassus died at the Battle of Carrhae (May 53 BC). This brought the first triumvirate to an end. Plutarch thought that fear of Crassus had led Pompey and Caesar to be decent to each other and his death paved the way for the subsequent friction between these two men and the events that eventually led to civil war.[145] Florus wrote: "Caesar's power now inspired the envy of Pompey, while Pompey's eminence was offensive to Caesar; Pompey could not brook an equal or Caesar a superior."[146] Seneca wrote that with regard to Caesar, Pompey "would ill endure that anyone besides himself should become a great power in the state, and one who was likely to place a check upon his advancement, which he had regarded as onerous even when each gained by the other's rise: yet within three days' time he resumed his duties as general, and conquered his grief [for the death of his wife] as quickly as he was wont to conquer everything else."[147]
In the Life of Pompey Plutarch wrote that the plebeian tribune Lucilius proposed to elect Pompey dictator. Cato the Younger, who had been the fiercest opponent of the triumvirate, opposed this. Lucilius came close to losing his tribunate. Despite all this, two consuls for the next year (53 BC) were elected as usual. In 53 BC, three candidates stood for the consulship for 52 BC. Besides resorting to bribery, they promoted factional violence, which Plutarch saw as a civil war. There were renewed and stronger calls for a dictator. However, in the Life of Cato, Plutarch did not mention any calls for a dictator and instead he wrote that there were calls for Pompey to preside over the elections. Cato the Younger opposed this. In both versions the violence among the three factions continued and the elections could not be held. The optimates favoured entrusting Pompey with restoring order. Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, the former enemy of the triumvirate, proposed in the senate that Pompey should be elected as sole consul. Cato changed his mind and supported this on the ground that any government was better than no government. Pompey asked him to become his adviser and associate in governance. Cato replied that he would do so in a private capacity.[148]
Pompey married Cornelia, a daughter of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica. Some people disliked this because Cornelia was much younger and she would have been a better match for his sons. There were also people who thought that Pompey gave priority to his wedding over dealing with the crisis in the city. Pompey was also seen as being partial in the conduct of some trials. He succeeded in restoring order and chose his father-in‑law as his colleague for the last five months of the year. Pompey was granted an extension of his command in his provinces in Hispania and was given an annual sum for the maintenance of his troops. Cato warned Pompey about Caesar's manoeuvres to increase his power by using the money he made from the spoils of war to extend his patronage in Rome and urged him to counter Caesar. Pompey hesitated, and Cato stood for the consulship in order to deprive Caesar of his military command and have him tried, but he was not elected. The supporters of Caesar argued that Caesar deserved an extension of his command so that the fruit of his success would not be lost, which triggered a debate. Pompey showed goodwill towards Caesar, claiming that he had letters from Caesar in which he said he wanted to be relieved of his command, but Pompey opined that he should be allowed to stand for the consulship in absentia. Cato opposed this and said that if Caesar wanted this he had to lay down his arms and become a private citizen. Pompey did not contest Cato's view, which gave rise to suspicions about his real feelings towards Caesar.[149]
Pompey was moving towards a power struggle with Caesar and reliance on the support of the senate and the optimates. The bone of contention between the two men was the troops they both commanded. According to Plutarch the rift between Pompey and Cato became exacerbated when Pompey fell seriously ill in Naples in 50 BC. Upon his recovery, the people of Naples offered thanksgiving sacrifices, and the resulting celebration spread throughout Italy. He was feted in towns he travelled to on his way back to Rome. Plutarch wrote that this was said ‘to have done more than anything else to bring about [the subsequent civil] war. For while the public rejoicing was great, a spirit of arrogance came upon Pompey, which went beyond the calculations based upon facts, and, throwing to the winds [ ] caution... he indulged himself in unlimited confidence and contempt for Caesar's power, feeling that he would need neither an armed force to oppose him nor any irksome labour of preparation, but that he would pull him down much more easily than he had raised him up".[150] This assessment is a bit exaggerated, especially with regard to the feeling of not needing an army. However, it is likely that the display of popular support made Pompey overconfident.
In 51 BC, the consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus proposed to send a successor to take command of Caesar's provinces before his term of office had expired. Pompey said that Caesar's command should come to an end on its expiration. In Appian's opinion this was a pretence of fairness and good-will. Two bitter enemies of Caesar, Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paulus and Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor (a cousin of the previous consul) were chosen as consuls for 50 BC. Curio, who was also opposed to Caesar, became one of the new plebeian tribunes. Caesar obtained the neutrality of Aemilius Paulus with a large sum of money and the help of Curio by paying off his debts. Claudius Marcellus Minor proposed sending someone to assume command of Caesar's army. Paulus remained silent. Curio seconded the motion, but added that Pompey should also give up his provinces and armies to remove fear of conflict, which encountered opposition. Curio maintained his stance that both men should lay down their command because they were suspicious of each other and there would not be peace. The people praised him as the only politician who was willing to incur the enmity of both men for the good of Rome. Pompey promised to give up his governorship and armies and claimed that Caesar would do the same. According to Appian, the aim of this was to create prejudice against Caesar, who did not seem likely to give up his command, and to have a successor for Caesar's command appointed immediately, thus forcing Caesar to disband his armies, while Pompey retained his with impunity. Curio exposed this and said that promises were not enough and that Pompey should lay down his command immediately and that Caesar should disarm after this because if Caesar would do so first, Pompey, aiming at supreme power, would have no incentive to disarm. He also proposed that unless both obeyed, both should be declared public enemies and troops should be levied against them. The senate was suspicious of both men, but deemed Pompey to be less of a threat and hated Caesar because he had disregarded the senate when he was consul. Some senators proposed that Caesar should disarm first. Curio maintained that Caesar was a counterbalance to Pompey's power and that either Pompey should disarm first or both should do so simultaneously. The senate disagreed and he dismissed the motion without coming to a resolution.[151]
Despite this impasse, the senate did pass a decree that Caesar and Pompey should send a legion to Syria to defend it against the Parthians who had defeated Crassus. Pompey took advantage of this to recall the soldiers he had lent Caesar. Caesar gave them 250 drachmas and sent them to Rome, together with a legion of his own. According to Appian, Pompey had lent him one legion; according to Caesar, it was two legions.[152] However, the Parthian threat to Syria did not materialise and the legions were sent to Capua. Pompey's soldiers said that Caesar's troops were worn out, longed to return home, and would defect to Pompey as soon as they had crossed the Alps. Whether through ignorance or corruption, this information was wrong; Caesar's soldiers were very loyal to him. Pompey believed the reports and did not levy troops to counter Caesar's forces.[153]
Caesar crossed the Alps with a legion and arrived at Ravenna, close to the border with Italy. Curio advised him to assemble his whole army and march on Rome, but Caesar decided to negotiate. He proposed to give up his governorships and troops, but retain two legions and the provinces of Illyricum and Gallia Cisalpina until he should be elected consul. Pompey agreed, but the consuls refused. Curio went to Rome withMainstream media often dismisses talk of conspiracy as silly - yet in the case of News of the World, a vast criminal conspiracy was shown to have existed [EPA]
In the last month, we have seen one engrossing news event follow another in quick succession. On July 5th, The Guardian revealed that the News of the World had been illegally hacking into the voicemail records of the victims of crime. In the week that followed, the revelations accumulated and the scandal cut short the careers of senior police officers and media executives. The frenzy of news and analysis had only just ground to a halt when attention shifted to the terrorist attacks in Oslo and Utoya in Norway on July 22nd. Then, after a brief detour to America and the melodramatic negotiations over the debt ceiling, we had riots and looting on the streets of Britain's cities and what looked like panic on the stock markets of the world.
High summer is meant to be a quiet month for news. In Britain, it used to be called the silly season - a time when news editors could run stories about the Loch Ness monster secure in the knowledge that nothing terribly urgent happens in August. Just as publishers held back their blockbusters until September, politicians waited until after Labour Day to launch eye-catching initiatives. Asked in September 2002 why he was talking about the menace posed by Iraq all of a sudden, Andrew Card, the White House Chief of Staff, won lasting notoriety when he explained that "from a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August".
An unusual summer
Politicians like to appear powerless before the onrush of events. The political establishment in the America is united in pretending that it has no choice but to cut spending on social programmes, for example. The markets leave them no choice but to do what they want to do. But there is also a sense, in Europe at any rate, that our rulers are not entirely in control of events. The British prime minister, the mayor of London, the Home secretary and the chancellor of the Exchequer all cut short their holidays last week when rioting broke out in North London and spread to other English cities. The problems in the Eurozone have forced several European leaders to cancel their breaks. That doesn't happen in a normal August.
As the 24-hour news channels and the social media filled with one super-drama after another, they crowded out other stories. A famine in Somalia barely registered. Conflict continued in Libya and Syria and there were major demonstrations in both Israel and Egypt but they no longer excited the same volume of chatter and speculation in the western media that the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt inspired a few months earlier. Mubarak's telegenic court appearances came and went, attracting a flicker of interest from broadcasters outside the region. The Arab Spring had turned into the Arab Summer, a drawn out struggle between the peoples and governments of the region. The significance of what was happening hadn't diminished, only its ability to monopolise the global news agenda.
It is all too easy to be caught up in each drama as it comes. We watch the crowds in Tahrir Square and feel the thrill of people power. We watch the crowds in London and shudder at the prospect of a city lost to mob rule. The images present themselves. The analysts and commentators offer their explanations and interpretations, controversies break out, lines are drawn. Events are made to conform to existing world-views or, more rarely perhaps, world-views shift a little. Everything seems terrifically urgent. Then the caravan moves on.
It is worth asking what, taken together, the events of this unseasonably eventful summer have to tell us. Or rather, what the coverage of these events tells us. Since the launch of CNN the global news agenda has been filled by a succession of events that have little in common but their capacity to enthral audiences. The two Gulf Wars, the OJ Simpson trial, the terrorist attacks of September 2001, Tiger Woods' marital difficulties and Lindsay Lohan's brushes with the law all have their moment at the centre of attention. The world historical takes turns with the eye-catching, the sensational and the scandalous. This series of incommensurable events is itself an event, perhaps the defining constant of our time. In one sense this summer's news has been no different. In Britain the prequel to the News International was a frenzy of speculation about the private antics of professional footballers and celebrities.
Fantastical assumptions
But if we step back from this series we can see that the coverage on which we rely is often badly flawed. Time and again this year we have learned how fantastical the background assumptions of the major media are. Since September 2001 talking heads and opinion formers have been all but united in telling us that political change in the Middle East would inevitably empower religious extremists. Good rational sceptics found themselves reluctantly accepting the need to support dictators who were at least the natural enemies of al-Qaeda. Reality collided with this widely accepted nonsense on the streets of Egypt and Tunisia and it turned out that the alternative to Western-backed tyranny might be democratic after all.
Over the last decade the major media have been almost unanimous in dismissing the significance of conspiracies. Anyone who thought that secret criminal cabals were influencing events in Western democracies was obviously a ridiculous charlatan or a pathetic fantasist. Then we learned that a vast criminal conspiracy had been conducted in the offices of News International. While this criminal conspiracy was going on senior executives at the company had sought to intimidate MPs and other public figures. Not unreasonably the former Prime Minister Gordon Brown denounced what he called a "criminal-media nexus" in the House of Commons.
There was something ludicrous about this particular collapse of the conventional wisdom. One author was working for the same company as the members of this "criminal-media nexus" while he was writing a book that mocked conspiracy theories and their proponents. David Aaronovitch, the author of Voodoo Histories, was assuring his readers that "conspiracies aren't powerful" at the very moment when his fellow employees at News International, in league with convicted criminals, were bugging, bribing and blackmailing on an industrial scale.
The media keeps us uninformed
Time and again we are finding that our media system is failing in what its defenders claim is its primary goal and justification - to keep us tolerably well informed. And even its most glaring failures do not seem to encourage a more critical, and self-critical, culture in newsrooms. When news of a terrorist attack in Oslo first broke many outlets were quick to decide that Islamists were punishing Norway for its involvement in the NATO mission in Afghanistan. Only later did it emerge that the perpetrator, Anders Breivik, was a neo-fascist Islamophobe. Then the media decided he wasn't a terrorist after all and so the myth of terrorism as a uniquely Islamic practise could be left unchallenged. There are signs that social media can challenge this infuriating wrong-headedness, but we should not exaggerate the power of networks to reach large audiences when compared with, say, broadcast news.
Print, broadcast and digital media will continue to present us with engrossing spectacles. The global economy will continue to stagger from crisis to crisis. Competition for resources and the conflict between rich and poor will both intensify. The public relations industry will seek to insert commercial messages and celebrity scandals between each outbreak of history. Commentators will continue to make claims that make less and less sense. Politicians will continue to propose solutions that are ever more absurd and sinister.
In Britain we have an exemplary mix of market-oriented and public service media. For several years they collectively failed to tell us that a major part of the information establishment had become a criminal conspiracy. This failure was of a piece with a wider inability to notice and describe quite obtrusive features of reality. Most of the press and the broadcast establishment had no real idea what was happening in the financial markets in the decade before 2007, for example. Their ignorance and incuriosity were so complete that even the former editor of the Financial Times, Richard Lambert, was later moved to admit that "precious few journalists gave any hints at all of what was to come". A few shrewd investments by the bankers had turned the news media into purveyors of fantasy.
The world will continue to surprise and bewilder us while we rely on the same institutional machinery for our information. We will only break the spell of the flow when are able to put the systems of established power, including the media, under sustained and meaningful scrutiny. This will require that we each have some power to direct inquiry and to ensure that important discoveries find an appropriate audience. Democracy without democratic media has been tried and we find ourselves here, in the midst of a global economic crisis and a vast undeclared war. The current constitution of the media is deeply implicated in our predicament.
It is only as patrons of research and inquiry that we can achieve the status of sovereign citizens. Neither market forces nor public servants can be relied on to describe the world in ways that displease the powerful. But we can create a system that will. We need only open up decisions about what is investigated and publicised to the conscious deliberation of a public of citizens. Such a project will never capture the circuits of the global attention industry. After all, it threatens the prerogatives of the owners and operators of the major media concerns. But it can be done. It must be done if we are to restore contact with the world, each other, and ourselves.
Dan Hind has worked in publishing since 1998 and is the author of two acclaimed books: The Return of the Public and The Threat to Reason. He is this year's winner of the Bristol Festival of Ideas Prize.
Follow him on Twitter: @danhind
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.BP is facing another potentially huge compensation bill from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill after a class action law suit was launched in Mexico for the environmental catastrophe caused in its territory by the fatal disaster.
The company recently agreed a final settlement of $20.8bn with US authorities over the damage caused by the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The settlement – the biggest pollution penalty in US history – was reached after a federal court found the company guilty of gross negligence.
BP now faces calls to pay for the clean-up in Mexican waters and compensate for the irreparable damage caused to marine life by the oil itself, and the toxic dispersant chemical subsequently used to solidify and sink the oil droplets.
Deepwater Horizon: BP got 'punishment it deserved' Loretta Lynch says Read more
The Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on the evening of 20 April 2010 after gas seeped into the well that the rig was drilling, killing 11 crew members and injuring 17 others.
The rig – located 80km (50 miles) off the south-east coast of Louisiana – sank and about 5m barrels of oil escaped into the Gulf of Mexico over the next 87 days, coating hundreds of miles of shoreline with oil which caused severe damage to marine life, coral reefs and birds.
The oil reached Mexican shores on 30 April. Hundreds of communities which rely on fishing and tourism in the worst-affected states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo have seen their livelihoods plummet. The damage is ongoing, according to the claim.
Five years on, Mexican authorities have failed to act against the company. Nor have individuals or communities directly affected by the spill so far taken any legal action.
This case is brought by Sinaloa Class Actions – a non-governmental organisation (NGO) composed of lawyers specialising in environmental disasters. It launched the legal challenge against four BP subsidiaries – two headquartered in Texas, two in Mexico – at a federal court in Mexico City on Monday.
Unlike in the US, class actions in Mexico are rare and not widely known about, as they were only introduced as a legal remedy in 2010.
The law permits class actions to be brought by NGOs in cases of serious rights violations, such as in environmental disasters.
“BP has accepted it is responsible and is paying for the damage in the US. The damage is ongoing here,” Luis Manuel Pérez de Acha, a lawyer bringing the case told the Guardian.
“The federal prosecutors could have and should have brought this case. We are only bringing it because they didn’t. Perhaps they don’t have confidence in class actions because we are still in the process of constructing case law in this area.”
Numerous US scientific studies into the impacts of the disaster have found widespread and catastrophic damage to plant and animal species in all parts of the food chain across the affected zones.
This body of evidence will be used by the federal judge to determine the merit of the claim.
The petition asks for the federal prosecutor’s office for the protection of the environment (Profepa) to release its unpublished studies to the court, and for expert witnesses to be called in order to determine the extent and value of the damage in Mexican territory.
If successful, the settlement would be managed by a special body of the country’s supreme court.
Lawyers say the case should be resolved by the end of 2016.Roughly two hours after White House press secretary Sean Spicer announced his resignation, Reuters disturbingly set up shop outside Spicer’s house and provided a livestream for viewers to follow along with.
It doesn’t take a whole lot of decency to conclude that this is a disgusting and tasteless display by an organization who’s White House correspondent (Jeff Mason) is the president of the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA). One has to wonder if Mason thinks this is good journalism.
As of 2:15 p.m. Eastern, there were zero signs of movement inside Spicer’s Virginia house. This being said, the debasing, paparazzi-like behavior by Reuters has actually given the American people a valuable takeaway, which is just now little the media take this seriously.
For the liberal media, they couldn’t be any more overjoyed by the chaos at the White House. Friday marked another day of fun and games for the media with Spicer acting as another notch in their belt as their warpath to remove President Trump from office drags on.
<<< Please support MRC's NewsBusters team with a tax-deductible contribution today. >>>flickr Writer: Eric Daniel
Returning Starters – Offense: 9 Defense: 10
Preview: It was a tale of two seasons for Notre Dame in 2014 as the team opened the season 6-0 while finishing out the regular season going 1-5 in their last 6 games. The Irish were able to go into the offseason on a positive note as Notre Dame went on to beat LSU in their bowl game by a final of 31-28. Notre Dame returns 19 starters to a team that now has considered depth and experience throughout the roster. The Irish have seen quite a bit of success under head coach Brain Kelly who’s 45-20 in his 5 seasons as the head man.
The offense showed progress last season and with 9 returning starters this unit should only get better in 2015. With streaky QB Everett Golson transferring the starter job now falls to Malik Zaire who’s got a lot of promise. The O-line returns 4 starters to a unit that should be a considerable strength this season. The Irish are loaded with quality options at the receiving positions with guys like Fuller, Robinson, Brown, and Carlisle to build around. The ground game will also be strong with returning starter Tarean Folston back in the mix and the team is hoping to get more out of former top recruit Greg Bryant.
The Notre Dame defense was tough to figure out in 2014 given their streaky play, but a unit that returns 10 starters is hoping to get more consistent high level production in 2015. The defensive line returns all 4 starters and the unit will build around guys like Day, Rochell, Jones, and Okwara. The LB position is a significant strength with all 3 starters back including defensive leaders Jaylon Smith and Joe Schmidt. In the secondary the CB position is in great shape with Russell and Luke starting, but the safety position is more of a question with returning starters who’ve struggled in Shumate and Redfield.
Prediction: This is the deepest team that Kelly has had during his tenure with Notre Dame and the team is expected to do great things as a result. The only thing that could hold back the Irish in 2015 is having QB Malik Zaire not live up to his potential, or having their tough schedule wear the team down. Anything short of a January bowl or even a berth to the playoff would be a downer for a team that’s loaded with potential.
Projected Record: 10-2Psalm 109:8 reads, “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.” Oddly enough, Psalm 109:9 reads, “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.” Just in case the original whacked-out message wasn’t clear, huh?
Frank Schaeffer is definitely concerned in this clip, and frankly, I give his concern more weight because he’s a reformed high-ranking fundamentalist “christian” whacko.
The Secret Service must be working a hell of a lot of overtime these days.
UPDATE: Just in case there’s any quibbling about translation, I found several of them, and — SURPRISE! — they all say the same thing.
New International Version (©1984)
May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership. New American Standard Bible (©1995)
Let his days be few; Let another take his office. GOD’S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Let his days be few [in number]. Let someone else take his position. King James Bible
Let his days be few; and let another take his office. American King James Version
Let his days be few; and let another take his office. American Standard Version
Let his days be few; And let another take his office. Bible in Basic English
Let his life be short; let another take his position of authority. Douay-Rheims Bible
May his days be few: and his bishopric let another take. Darby Bible Translation
Let his days be few, let another take his office; English Revised Version
Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Webster’s Bible Translation
Let his days be few; and let another take his office. World English Bible
Let his days be few. Let another take his office. Young’s Literal Translation
His days are few, his oversight another taketh. (Source)You must enter the characters with black color that stand out from the other characters
— The bucolic environs of MacPherson Stadium in Browns Summit was the setting for a midweek U.S. Open Cup tie between the visiting North Carolina FC of the NASL and the Carolina Dynamo of the USL PDL. Three first-half goals by NCFC were a mere prelude to an eventual 6-1 trouncing by NCFC in the second round of the 2017 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
North Carolina FC ran out a starting XI equally divided between first-team regulars and usual substitutes. Meanwhile, the Dynamo amateurs, primarily of collection of college players on summer training, were playing only their second match this year.
After a meandering start to the match, the visitors struck first in the 27th minute. A methodical buildup initiated by Tiyi Shipalane eventually led to the feet of Matt Fondy, who laid off to Brian Shriver for a one-touch blast inside the area.
North Carolina FC doubled their advantage in the 37th minute when Matt Fondy got behind the Dynamo back line to collect a ball over the top from Jon Orlando. Fondy readied and fired past Dynamo goalkeeper Ryan Cretens for a 2-0 lead.
NCFC made it three for the first half in the 40th minute when Fondy drove end line before crossing to Shipalane, who buried the sitter for the 3-0 margin at intermission.
A bus carrying North Carolina FC supporters rolled into Bryan Park during halftime. NCFC obliged their odyssey two minutes into the second half, when halftime substitute Billy Schuler buried the rebound of a Cretens save to extend the score to 4-0.
“I didn’t really do much,” Schuler said. “Tiyi kind of dribbled through and somehow got a shot off. I peeled to the back post and [the ball] came right to me, and I had a tap-in.”
Orlando got in on the act in the 57th minute when he accepted a Shipalane service, twirled around a chorus of Dynamo defenders, and booted into nylon for a 5-0 lead.
The Dynamo got a goal back—a small measure of redemption—in the 74th minute when Danny Elliott drove end line off the left flank before crossing to Justen Shear for the running putaway. But NCFC regained their five-goal cushion in the 87th minute when Schuler caught up to a Shriver through ball and slotted past Cretens for his second-half brace.
“Shriver pulled back and had the ball in space,” Schuler said. “I peeled off the defender and he played me through with a great ball over the top. I was able to get the touch past the defender and beat the keeper.”
It was a handy victory for NCFC over a game, but overmatched Dynamo squad.
“These are never easy games, as you can see from some of the [Open Cup] results tonight around the league,” |
important to “cut the electronic umbilical cord” on a regular basis in order to process and reflect. I don’t find it terribly hard to carve out and create the alone time I need, though. We’re the authors of our own lives—we’re not under the remote control of our technology. If people don’t seek out that quiet, contemplative time, then they probably don’t need it.
Raising children certainly does bring up some interesting challenges. Dalton got mad at Yo for using Facebook during school and tried to cut off his screen time for a month. But I say bring it on. First of all, Facebook is the kind of thing a kid could use to get a homework assignment that he missed, or do other practical school-related things.
But more deeply than that, much of what kids learn at school is how to function socially and draw on the sense-making that comes, not from a textbook, but from interacting with other kids who are responding to the same information. That’s what makes it a rich learning environment, and that's why kids go to school rather than learning at home. School is social, and a social technology like Facebook can be a worthy partner.
In fact I’ve been encouraging my kids’ school to give them more socially connected software tools. They started on Powerpoint (eek!) for class presentations. At least now they’re using Google Docs. Still, I advocate a more conceptually powerful program, Prezi, which lets people share ideas and visual strategies. Most contemporary education at that age is based around group work, so why wouldn’t he be using social technology?
Yes, there’s going to be mischief and misuse of technology. But kids aren’t evil. They’re just quick to experiment with technological tools. They’re going to explore all sorts of uses, good and bad. To explore people’s reactions they’ll experiment with jokes—maybe even racial slurs. This is part of their process of making sense of the world. They need a way to experiment.
Yo recently got ahold of my Twitter account and sent a message to my several hundred followers. He said: “This is Yo so fuk of.” (Yes, he’s still getting a handle on the art of spelling.)
To Dalton, this episode is proof that social media pulls families apart. But kids have always made bad decisions. I hijacked my parents’ car and drove on the freeway at age ten (and I would rather Yo hijack my Twitter account to explore social limits than hijack a deadly technology like a car). Like any child, Yo is experimenting. He is exploring his agency with technology in the social world. He watches how we make sense of his actions, how we respond, and figures out how to respond himself.
Incidentally, the Twitter hijacking left Yo with some remorse. Before being caught he followed up with a second tweet: “Sorry about that last message everyone. I posted it by accident. I meant to say: carrot guy screams, I want my veggies!”
Jacob Gordon is a Nashville-based freelance writer and the host of TreeHugger Radio.VS. Super Mario Bros. is a two-player VS. System version of Super Mario Bros. which was released in 1986.
Story [ edit ]
The plot is the same as the original Super Mario Bros., featuring Mario and Luigi (second player only) setting out on a quest to free Princess Toadstool from the evil Bowser and restore the fallen kingdom of the Mushroom People.
Differences [ edit ]
This game has higher gameplay difficulty than the original Super Mario Bros., with fewer warp zones and power-ups, and more enemies. Six new levels were created for the game[1], all of which were reused in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels.
Detailed set of level differences [ edit ]
The original version of Super Mario Bros. has some levels repeat, with an easier version with some obstacles removed (fire bars in the castle, fewer enemies, etc) earlier on, and then a later "full" version, e.g. 1-3 is the easier version of 5-3; 1-4 is the easier version of 6-4; 2-2/2-3 are the easier version(s) of 7-2/7-3; and 2-4 is the easier version of 5-4.
In the arcade version, most of the "easier versions" (all except 1-3) are replaced by the "harder version" to make way for new levels.
Some of the bricks above the end pipe in World 1-2 are removed to prevent anyone from performing the Minus World trick, although if the player goes to here, it is possible to see that the Minus World seems to still be in place.
The ground before the staircase at the end of World 1-3 is removed, resulting in the player either using a lift or performing a long jump to reach the staircase.
1-4 is replaced by 1-4 of The Lost Levels.
The Koopa Troopa at the ending staircase of 3-1 is replaced with a Goomba, making the infinite 1-Up exploit in that level impossible.[2]
3-2 is replaced by 2-2 of The Lost Levels, which is similar, but with more obstacles such as open gaps and a floating pipe towards the end that the player has to use hidden blocks to reach in order to make the jump across a wide gap.
5-3 is replaced by 6-3 from the original game, and 6-3 is replaced by 4-3 from The Lost Levels. This has extremely long jumps to the platforms, and in one case, the player has to hop onto a Paratroopa next to the bluff (when it's at the right height) to reach the platform.
Since 6 is a night world in both the NES and the arcade version, yet 4 is a day world in all three games (including The Lost Levels), the level is converted from a grassy daytime scene to a white-grounded night scene.
2-4 is replaced by 6-4 from the original game, and 6-4 is replaced by 5-4 from The Lost Levels, which also has a lot of long, hard jumps (and some tricky small ones), and an extra long firebar (which do not appear in the original NES version).
7-2/7-3 move up to replace 2-2/2-3, and have their slots filled by 6-2/6-3 of The Lost Levels. These are harder and longer versions of 7-2/7-3, with 7-2 (a water world) having very little floor, with stretches of low hanging reef, and 7-3 being an extra long bridge (with lots of gaps) with many more jumping Cheep-Cheeps (and flying Koopas as well).
The solution to the "maze" in 7-4 is slightly different[2].
4-4 and 5-4 trade places in the arcade version.
The invisible block used to reach the floating pipe in World 8-4 is moved one block higher, requiring a long jump to reach it. Also, the area where Mario/Luigi fights Bowser now has bricks above, making the area between it and the bridge narrower.
The Warp Zone in level 4-2 has been modified from the NES version to remove the warps to Worlds 7 and 8, allowing warping only to world 6; there is no way around the extremely difficult levels imported into Worlds 6 and 7.
Various? Blocks, especially those that contain power-ups, are often either moved to much harder-to-reach places, or even removed altogether, or the power-ups are replaced with coins.
Depending on operator settings, the player may now start with two lives instead of three and the timer may be set to run faster than the NES version's timer did. The coin counter now has three digits instead of two, meaning that Mario/Luigi may have to collect more than 100 coins (can be set to 100, 150, 200, or 250 by the operator) to earn an extra life. After a game over, depending on operator settings, the player may continue with four lives instead of three.
Many of the 1-Up mushrooms are removed, with only invisible ones remaining. The remaining ones are:
World 1-1
World 3-1 (Available only if the player collects at least 21 coins in World 1-3, or all 35 coins in World 2-3)
World 5-1 (Available only if the player collects all 22 coins in World 3-3, or all 27 coins in World 4-3)
World 7-1 (Available only if the player collects at least 23 coins in World 5-3 or at least 24 coins in World 6-3)
The ending music had a slightly different variation: It uses the original Super Mario Bros.'s instrumentation but with Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels' second section. The second verse was removed to make for a looping song.
At some point in the North American localization of VS. Super Mario Bros., the game was to be called VS. Mario's Adventure. The only remnant of this earlier title is an arcade flyer with a trademarked name.[3]
Arcade Archives port [ edit ]
In the September 2017 Nintendo Direct, Nintendo announced Arcade Archives: VS. Super Mario Bros., a port of VS. Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Switch as part of Hamster Corporation's Arcade Archives series. This time, two detached Joy-Con are used to play with two players.[4] It was released in Japan[5], the Americas and Europe on December 22, 2017, and in Australia on December 23, 2017.
Gallery [ edit ]
VS. Mario's Adventure arcade flyer.
Another flyer.
Instructional image for the game.
Screenshots [ edit ]
Trivia [ edit ]
The game contains a rearrangement of the original Super Mario Bros. theme song, which is played during Name Registration on the rankings list. This song was re-used as the world select theme in Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 and a bonus stage song in Super Mario Maker.Professional wrestling backstage stable
The Kliq was a backstage group in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) during the mid-1990s, composed of Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Sean Waltman, and for a short time Justin Credible. Several of the men, most notably Michaels, Nash, and Hall, wielded an immense amount of power within the company at the time, which they used to positively influence one another's careers.
In May 1996, The Kliq broke character at a live event at Madison Square Garden in an unscripted incident referred to as the "Curtain Call", which had far-reaching ramifications for the WWF specifically and the wrestling world as a whole. At a time when professional wrestling organizations worked to maintain the illusion of storylines and characters, the Curtain Call marked the first time that such high-profile performers had so publicly broken character, forcing the WWF and other wrestling organizations to begin acknowledging the scripted elements of their programming.
The Kliq was also the primary catalyst for two of the most well known stables in wrestling history: the New World Order (nWo) in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and the WWF/E, and D-Generation X (DX) in the WWF/E. Of the Kliq, Michaels and Waltman would serve in both groups; Triple H was a member of DX while Nash and Hall performed with the nWo.
History [ edit ]
Formation and early history [ edit ]
The Kliq was formed in 1994 by real-life best friends Scott Hall (then known as Razor Ramon), Kevin Nash (Diesel), Michael Hickenbottom (Shawn Michaels) and Sean Waltman (1-2-3 Kid). In January 1995, Paul Levesque left WCW and arrived in the WWF as Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and became the next member of The Kliq. Each man enjoyed a tremendous amount of popularity with fans, which allotted them a particular degree of control over their own careers. Nash, Hall, and Michaels, then among the company's most popular performers, came up with the idea of forming a backstage alliance, which would potentially allow them to consolidate even more power within the company. Bret Hart, another of the company's top performers at the time, claims in his autobiography Hitman that he was also asked if he wanted to be part of The Kliq, but declined the offer: "The thing I remember most about that tour was Shawn, Razor, and Nash talking to me in Hamburg about the idea of forming a clique of top guys who strictly took care of their own".[1] Levesque mentioned on the 2013 Triple H – Thy Kingdom Come DVD that he was recruited to the Kliq by Kevin Nash because he didn't do drugs or alcohol, and thus could serve as the group's designated driver after events.
Michaels claims that the name "The Kliq" was originally coined by Lex Luger, due to the closeness of the five friends backstage.[2] Although, Lex Luger had suggested that Davey Boy Smith created the name, because the five kept "clicking", referring to how often they talked. At the suggestion of Vince Russo, Michaels began referring to his fans as his "Kliq".[3] Michaels wrote in his 2006 autobiography that he disliked the idea, and that it "was not a huge hit" with the fans.[3]
In 1995, the men's growing popularity as performers led to the group developing a heavy influence on booking– the power to schedule matches and decide match outcomes, write storylines, and largely determine the trajectory of other performers' careers.[4] The group used this power to give one another preferential treatment, usually scheduling each other in heavily promoted, high-profile matches, often against one another: During the period of 1994 through 1996 particularly, Ramon had high-profile feuds with 1-2-3 Kid, Diesel, and Michaels, while Diesel and Michaels formed a championship-winning tag-team called Two Dudes with Attitudes.
The group's perceived abuse of power led to animosity amongst other wrestlers, particularly lower-ranking members of the company. In one instance, performer Carl Ouellet, then performing as Jean-Pierre Lafitte, claimed that his scheduled defeat of Diesel—an event which would have marked an upturn in his own popularity and proven to be a turning point in his career—was vetoed by Michaels, leading to a backstage confrontation between Ouellet and Michaels.[5] The match between the two ended in a double-countout because Lafitte refused to be pinned by Nash.[6] In retaliation, the group effectively ended Ouellet's career with the company by scheduling him to repeatedly lose low-profile matches. In his autobiography, Michaels said that "we (The Kliq) buried him (Ouellet)." Lafitte left the company soon after the incident; contrary to rumors, Michaels says that WWF Chairman Vince McMahon did not fire Lafitte.[2]
The MSG "Curtain Call" [ edit ]
In April 1996, Nash and Hall signed contracts with WCW, the WWF's top competitor, with whom the company was embroiled in a bitter rivalry. Accounts have differed as to what led to the men's departure: Wrestling commentators have speculated that their contracts were allowed to expire in order to cripple The Kliq's influence in the company,[7] while official WWE media asserts that Nash and Hall were simply offered more money by WCW than the WWF was able to promise them at the time.[8]
Nash and Hall's last contracted match for the WWF took place on May 19, 1996 at Madison Square Garden.[9][10] At the time, Levesque and Nash were wrestling as villains, while Michaels and Hall were fan favorites.[9] At the end of the night, Michaels wrestled Nash in a steel cage match. Immediately after the match, Ramon entered the ring and hugged Michaels; this was not seen as unusual in-story, as both wrestlers were fan favorites. However, Levesque then entered the ring and hugged Hall, followed by Nash. The four wrestlers then group hugged for several seconds before they turned to face the crowd with their arms raised together.[9][10] Waltman, who himself would leave for WCW shortly after the incident, was in drug rehab at the time and thus didn't participate.[11]
Triple H was the sole member of The Kliq punished for the "Curtain Call"
Their actions – dubbed the "Curtain Call" – scandalized WWF management. At the time, most major wrestling promotions, the WWF included, prided themselves on maintaining kayfabe – the illusion that all of the events which transpired in-ring were real and unscripted, and that wrestlers' on-screen rivalries extended outside of the ring. The company had a strict policy of onscreen rivals not breaking character by associating with one another on WWF programming, as a means of maintaining storylines and feuds between wrestlers, which sometimes lasted for years and could unravel in seconds if the two feuding wrestlers were seen associating as friends in public.[12] WWF Chairman Vince McMahon was reported to have initially given his tacit approval for a "farewell" ceremony, but did not realize that it would become so elaborate.[10] The severity of the incident was further compounded by the revelation that the event—which was not broadcast on television—had been filmed by two fans, Mani Mohtadi and Jason Cosmides, who had smuggled a camcorder past security. Stills from the footage were widely disseminated online and in wrestling magazines at the time, bringing the Curtain Call to a wider audience than if it had not been recorded.
Because Hall and Nash had already confirmed their departure for WCW, they escaped punishment.[12] Michaels, who was the WWF World Heavyweight Champion at the time and one of the promotion's biggest drawing performers, could not be punished.[10] The punishment fell solely on Levesque, who was demoted from being a championship contender to wrestling inexperienced or lesser experienced wrestlers for the next several months.[13] He did, however, win the WWF Intercontinental Championship five months later.[14] Levesque's unquestioning acceptance of his punishment had the unintended side effect of rehabilitating his image in the eyes of other performers who held a grudge against him for his time with the Kliq: according to The Undertaker in HHH: The Game DVD that when Levesque first arrived in the WWF, he was perceived of as arrogant and self-centered, but that by accepting his punishment, he earned legitimate respect.
The incident turned out to have a major impact on the WWF's future. For the first time in modern pro-wrestling history, a major company was forced to acknowledge that its events were scripted; McMahon would later use this to his advantage in the development of several meta-storylines, including a skit on the October 6, 1997 episode of Raw Is War in which Michaels and Levesque, both in character, played footage of the Curtain Call incident.[15] Before the Curtain Call, Levesque had been booked into the finals of the 1996 King of the Ring tournament during the following summer, but his place – and the push that usually went with it – would instead go to Stone Cold Steve Austin, igniting his rise toward superstardom, an event which ultimately helped the WWF defeat WCW in the Monday Night Wars.[10][12] Levesque's acceptance of his punishment and the respect it earned him resulted in him only suffering short-term repercussions. He would go on to win the following year's King of the Ring tournament and later went on to become a 14-time world champion, beginning with his WWF Championship victory over Mankind the night after SummerSlam in 1999.[16] Unrelated to the Curtain Call aftermath, Levesque would later go on to marry McMahon's daughter, Stephanie, and take a significant role in the day-to-day business dealings of the company.
The nWo and D-Generation X [ edit ]
When Hall and Nash went to WCW, they formed The Outsiders tag team, as well as the New World Order (nWo) stable alongside Hulk Hogan.[17] Rather than see the breaking of kayfabe as a crisis moment for professional wrestling, the WCW decided to exploit it by introducing their own meta-storyline that incorporated fans' growing awareness of the backstage politics of pro-wrestling: Upon Nash and Hall's arrival, they were implied to still be working for the WWF, staging an "invasion" of the WCW.
When Waltman later jumped to WCW, he also joined the nWo as Syxx, often working closely with the Outsiders and forming the trio known as the Wolfpac. Many fans criticized Kevin Nash for his booking tenure in WCW since it displayed the same self-promoting behavior associated with The Kliq on an even larger scale. Fans often pointed to Nash booking himself to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship from the then-undefeated Goldberg and the subsequent match with Hogan as the most grievous of his "offenses". Nash, however, claims that he did not have booking power at the time of the incident.[18] Nash's innocence claim is disputed in several shoot interviews by various WCW wrestlers from the time who claimed that he, Hogan and several others often refused to put other wrestlers over in order to keep themselves as the main stars.
Sean Waltman was a member of both the nWo and D-Generation X
Meanwhile, Michaels and Levesque began to persuade WWF management to let them pair up on screen, but management was hesitant and wanted to keep The Kliq separated on-screen.[13] They eventually aligned together in the faction D-Generation X (DX), with Levesque's "Hunter Hearst Helmsley" fictional persona gradually transformed and re-dubbed Triple H or HHH, and alongside Levesque's then-girlfriend and on-screen female "bodyguard" Chyna.[13] Rick Rude also temporarily joined the group (as a sort of on-screen bodyguard for Michaels), though his membership ended when he signed with WCW after his WWF contract expired in early November 1997.
DX eventually became as influential to the Monday Night Wars as the nWo. DX's antics also went on to help spark The Attitude Era in the WWF.[19] After Sean Waltman was fired from WCW, he was hired by WWF and joined DX, replacing the injured Michaels.[13] The nWo's hand sign, often referred to as the "Wolf Head", was originally used by the Kliq members in the WWF.[20] Waltman introduced the hand symbol to the nWo, Hall and Nash brought the hand sign with them, and it became widely used by the nWo members and fans worldwide.[20]
On the October 6, 1997 Raw Is War, Shawn Michaels alluded to this off-screen connection. After Bret Hart claimed to have destroyed the Kliq and to have "run [Scott Hall and Kevin Nash] outta town", Michaels declared, "The Kliq owns this [professional wrestling] business", and said that it had really undergone "expansion" rather than "destruction". During a brief period in 1998, after Waltman's return to the WWF as X-Pac, in promos the members of D-Generation X made numerous references to their "friends" in the WCW. On the April 27, 1998 Raw (recorded live in Hampton, Virginia), DX (by now composed of Triple H, Waltman, Billy Gunn, Road Dogg and Chyna) staged a mock "invasion" protest/paramilitary take-over of the nearby Norfolk Scope, where Nitro was being held. Triple H, riding in a M38, chanted "Let our people go!" through a megaphone during the incident. Waltman called out, "We just wanted to say 'what's up' to our boys Kevin Nash and Scott Hall". DX also led a chant of "WCW sucks" by fans outside the arena who had tickets to the show (some of whom, Triple H alleged, had been given free tickets to Nitro by WCW in order to boost crowd numbers).
In 2002, after WCW had gone out of business, The nWo was reformed in the WWF with Hall, Nash and Hogan, the group's initial members. Hogan soon left the group after being attacked by Nash and Hall as a result of his turning into a fan favorite at WrestleMania X8. Other former members, including Big Show and Waltman, joined the group. Later, Shawn Michaels – after years away from the ring –was introduced by Kevin Nash as the newest member of the nWo, and Michaels promised the rest of the group that he would soon deliver Triple H. After weeks of lobbying for Triple H's services, a backstage promo of The nWo wishing Triple H luck before the match aired. This included 4 members of The Kliq (Shawn, Kevin, Pac and Triple H), as Big Show appeared wishing Triple H good luck as well. The nWo told Triple H to "throw up the hand signal" if he needed any help out there. Shortly thereafter, Nash suffered a torn quadriceps (after returning the same night after time off due to a biceps injury) during a ten-man tag-team match, and the following week Vince McMahon disbanded The nWo. Eric Bischoff (acting as the Raw brand General Manager) later tried to make Michaels Triple H's manager. This led to a short-lived reformation of DX, as Triple H turned on him the same night, setting off a long and heated feud that took approximately two years to resolve.[21] The year after, Nash returned from injury as a fan favorite and sided with Michaels against Evolution (Triple H, Ric Flair, Batista and Randy Orton).
Later formations [ edit ]
Michaels and Triple H have reformed D-Generation X, first returning together for a six-month stint on the June 12, 2006 edition of Monday Night Raw. They would feud against The Spirit Squad (Kenny, Johnny, Mitch, Nicky, and Mikey), Big Show and Vince McMahon, and later the team of Rated-RKO (Edge and Randy Orton), until Triple H's legitimate knee injury in the beginning of 2007. They would reform again on August 2009 during Shawn Michaels' last year in the WWE. During this year, D-Generation X would capture the Unified WWE Tag Team Championships at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs against Jericho and Big Show, which would become the start of the first and only title reign for Triple H and Shawn Michaels as a tag team. D-Generation X would later go on to disband in March 2010 (after losing the tag Team titles to Big Show and The Miz). Michaels would then focus heavily on ending the winning streak of The Undertaker at WrestleMania, having failed to do so at WrestleMania XXV, and he would put his career on the line for their second WrestleMania encounter at WrestleMania XXVI which he would go on to lose and therefore end his career.
Hall, Nash and Waltman (then working for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling) would reform the nWo in a stable called The Band, where Hall and Nash won the TNA World Tag Team Championship, but Hall and Waltman were released shortly after (and Nash's contract would expire later on in the year).
On April 2, 2011, The Kliq, consisting of Nash, Waltman, Triple H and Shawn Michaels, made a special appearance as Shawn Michaels was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame 2011. Scott Hall decided not to attend the Hall of Fame ceremony or other WrestleMania XXVII festivities due to concerns of remaining sober. Hall has battled many drug and alcohol problems and suffered from various health problems in the past years and credits his friends in The Kliq for helping him through his battles. In 2014, at the conclusion of Scott Hall's Hall of Fame induction, the members of The Kliq joined him onstage and reunited for the 1st time since the curtain call incident. They reunited again in 2015 on an episode of Raw, and then again at Nash's Hall Of Fame induction.
A December 2014 episode of WWE Network show The Monday Night War: WWE vs. WCW focused on The Kliq.[22]
Other associates [ edit ]
Although the core group of The Kliq has long been known there have always been rumours, suggestions and unofficial members either within the group or on the fringes looking in. The most consistently mentioned name is that of Peter Polaco who at the time of The Kliq's formation was working for WWF as Aldo Montoya and would later go on to gain fame as Justin Credible in Extreme Championship Wrestling. He apparently became friends with Scott Hall who offered to mentor him and from there he ended up travelling with the rest of the group until he negotiated his WWF release in 1997. Polaco's association with the group is also lent weight by the fact that upon his return to WWF after the closure of ECW in 2001 he instantly aligned himself on TV with X-Pac with the two going on to form a short lived stable under the name of X-Factor along with Albert as the group's enforcer.
Another name that has had a long association with The Kliq is that of Louie Spicolli, who was wrestling for the WWF in the early to mid 90's under the name of Rad Radford. Spicolli's friendship with the group, much like Polaco's, descends from Scott Hall taking the youngster under his wing and having him travel with the rest of them on the road. Spicolli left the WWF after only a few months when he was released to deal with issues that he was having with substance abuse at the time. During this time, Spicolli worked for ECW for a number of months, during which time he could be seen using the now infamous "Wolf Head" signal during tapings and matches. In a later interview he denied the association, and asserted that the "Wolf Head" symbol was originally Bret Hart's gesture and The Wolfpac stole it. He said he used the symbol in ECW in order to "take it back."[23] In late 1997, Spicolli returned to the spotlight by signing with WCW and was soon placed on screen as the lackey of Scott Hall, with the two engaging in a feud with Larry Zbyszko. However, the feud was never able to finish due to Spicolli's untimely death from a drug overdose at the age of 27. His death was never publicly acknowledged by any member of the group at the time, with only Zbyszko mentioning it on screen.
Prior to her death in 2016, Chyna had association to the group, not only as an original member of D-Generation X, but also through her relationship with Triple H, along with another long-term relationship with Sean Waltman. Her link to The Kliq was unclear, with the details of her split from Triple H in 2000 never made public. Her relationship to Waltman was notorious for the release of a sextape in 2004 and Chyna being arrested for domestic assault in 2005 after a drug-fueled fight. It was thought the pair were no longer on speaking terms after going their separate ways to deal with a number of personal issues, including drug and alcohol addictions, as well as issues with depression. When Triple H was asked in 2015 about inducting Chyna into the WWE Hall of Fame, he cited the conflict between her work in the adult industry and WWE's current target audience as a reason it would not happen. However, when both Triple H and his wife Stephanie McMahon were asked the same question after Chyna died, they were both in favor of inducting her.
The "Turkish Wolf" hand gesture used by members of The Kliq
Other people in the business have often had their names dropped into the hat but have never said either way whether they consider themselves to be a part of the group. The highest profile of these is probably Sid Eudy, better known as Sycho Sid or Sid Vicious. Another high-profile name is Rick Rude, who was both a member of the original D-Generation X and the nWo. Rude was involved in an incident in which he appeared on both Nitro and Raw in the same night, protesting on Nitro about the treatment of Bret Hart during the Montreal Screwjob (Rude actually appeared on the live Nitro show clean shaven and with a mustache an hour before appearing on Raw (which was taped a week earlier) with a full beard). How this affected his standing in the group is unclear, however it has gone on record that prior to his death Rude was one of the most respected people in the business by members of The Kliq.
Konnan is said to have enjoyed a very close friendship with both Nash and Hall during his run in WCW and was a member of both the nWo and the Wolfpac. Konnan was also influential in bringing in Sean Waltman to AAA for his run with the company throughout 2007 and 2008, with the two aligning on screen for a while as a part of La Legión Extranjera. Curt Hennig, who was once a tag team partner of Hall during their days in the AWA,[24] is also said to have had a long-running friendship with the group, and spent large amounts of his career working either with or against members of the group in various promotions.
The Bullet Club stable seen in New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor pay homage to The Kliq by using the Wolfpac hand symbol, as well as the use of the "2 Sweet" catchphrase and the DX-style crotch chops. Its WWE offshoot, The Club, also uses the Wolfpac hand symbol. Bullet Club members Adam Cole and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) also created a subgroup named Superkliq.[citation needed]
See also [ edit ]Daniel James Licht (March 13, 1957 – August 2, 2017) was an American soundtrack composer and musician, best known for writing the score of Showtime TV drama series Dexter.
Life and career [ edit ]
Licht was born in Detroit, Michigan. He grew up in suburban Detroit and attended the Roeper School, as well as summer school at Berklee School of Music in Boston. He started playing music at the age of eight with his first instrument being the clarinet. He took up the guitar four years later.[1] He began his musical career while still in high school playing guitar with a small jazz ensemble at clubs in the area. Following high school graduation, he attended Hampshire College[2] in Massachusetts and graduated in composition, jazz and world music. Licht moved to New York City and established himself as a musical artist in the Lower East Side creative music scene. He would travel to Germany, the Netherlands and Northern Europe to perform and compose music for theatre and dance companies. He created scores for such companies as Mercedes Benz, Sony and AT&T[3]
He then moved to Los Angeles and pursued a career in film scoring, at the suggestion of his former classmate, Christopher Young.[3] His first major project was the 1991 feature film Children of the Night. His composition earned him his first soundtrack CD release.[3]
Licht scored all seasons of Dexter, which he considered to be one of his "more visible projects", but was reluctant to refer to it as his big break.[4]
From 2012 to 2015 he was the main composer of the Silent Hill video game series, replacing Akira Yamaoka, until Konami decided to pull away from the home console video game industry, effectively ending the Silent Hill series. He also composed the soundtrack for the 2012 video game Dishonored and its sequel. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider (for which he also composed and was released posthumously) was dedicated to his memory.
Licht died of sarcoma at his home in Topanga, California, at the age of 60.[5][6]
Works [ edit ]
Film [ edit ]
Television series [ edit ]
Video games [ edit ](CBS) – A former state investigator believes he knows who killed Tammy Zywicki, more than two decades after the college student was abducted and murdered.
“We can identify, I believe, the killer,” Martin McCarthy tells CBS 2’s Mike Parker.
The retired Illinois state police master sergeant was a member of the task force investigating the 1992 killing. Although he’s been off the job for 13 years, he hasn’t given up the search for her killer.
“This is not my first rodeo. I’ve done homicides for many, many years. The most obvious guy is the guy who did it,” he says.
McCarthy believes it was Lonnie Bierbrodt, now dead, a felon on parole who kidnapped the 22-year-old college student from alongside her disabled car on Interstate 80 near LaSalle, raped and killed her in his truck and then dumped her body near Interstate 44 near Springfield, Mo. — not far from Bierbrodt’s home.
McCarthy says Bierbrodt has been placed in LaSalle County on the day Zywicki disappeared, and that a witness has identified Bierbrodt as the man she saw standing alongside the victim along the highway. He also says that Bierbrodt had his truck steam-cleaned and sold it not long after the murder.
He won’t let the case go.
“I think that murder is forever. We never, ever stop,” McCarthy says.
There’s something else. One witness says Bierbrodt gave away, as a gift, a key piece of evidence: an unusual music box wristwatch, the same kind of watch that was missing from Zywicki’s suitcase. Tammy Zywicki was on her way to Iowa where she attended college.
Bierbrodt died in 2002. McCarthy says he hopes authorities finally see the case his way, and close it after all these years.
The Zywicki family, he says, needs some closure.Eric Cruz Lopez, left, and Giev Kashkooli, right, speak with reporters outside the office of Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) on Thursday on Capitol Hill. (Ed O'Keefe/The Washington Post)
In an ironic use of the weekly Senate menu, protesters delivered dozens of taco salads on Thursday to the offices of Republican lawmakers in protest of Donald Trump’s visit to Capitol Hill.
The GOP’s presumed presidential nominee met with House and Senate leaders to discuss his presumed party nomination and sit face-to-face with many senior lawmakers for the first time. But the meetings came on the same day that the Senate Carry-Out, a basement level haunt in the U.S. Capitol, serves taco salads, a meal cherished by many senators |
Wrestlers are known for their prodigious hand strength. Oklahoma alumnus Danny Hodge can still crush an apple in one hand at the age of 80. But Robles's grip is fearsome even by wrestling standards. Opponents have rarely been able to pry it off with one hand, and only sometimes with two. Many have ended up surrendering to his hold and have focused instead on limiting the damage he could do with it. "I couldn't even think of breaking his lock," one candid victim told me.
I opted for the evil I didn't know and tentatively placed my hand in Millen's massive paw. He squeezed it, hard, and when he finally returned it to me intact, I felt as if I had gotten away with something splendid and improbable, like a deer bolting free of an anaconda's coil. Then I turned to Robles, whose handshake turned out to be restrained, even gentle. I wondered at this as we ducked into the hotel's sticky-floored lounge, which was not due to open for several hours, and where I imagined his fans wouldn't find us.
Twenty minutes later, a middle-aged man with a Negro League baseball jersey peered into the darkened banquette where I was interviewing Robles. He was missing a number of teeth, and he looked like he hadn't been eating well. "Man! Man!" he cried out when he discovered the person he had come looking for, and fell sobbing into Robles's arms. "You're a good brother! You're a good brother!" the man said, over and over again. Robles held him, and they talked for what seemed like a long time.
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After the man left, blubbering an apology for interrupting, I asked Robles if he knew who he was. Robles said no. I asked if that kind of thing had happened before. Robles looked at me evenly. "It happens a lot," he said.
Later that day, while Robles, Lewis and I were walking the concession-stand loop of the stadium, a staffer stopped Lewis to ask if he needed a wheelchair for—pointing at Robles, on his crutches—"that one." Robles demurred so generously that the staffer smiled with the satisfaction of someone who has just discharged an important civic duty.
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Wrestling has barely changed since it was practiced in ancient Babylon, and one of the axiomatic truths of the sport is (or was) that success depends on a pair of strong, flexible legs. From my own high school experience, I learned that a wrestler can compensate for minor physical idiosyncrasies—a torso that is too long, say, or arms that don't straighten all the way. But to excel at the Division I level, you need legs like a Clydesdale's.
Yet Robles, in his senior year at ASU, carved through the opposition like Sherman through Georgia. He was so good, in fact, that a contingent of wrestling fans declared his missing leg to be an unfair advantage. Most wrestlers outside the Corn Belt train and compete in near obscurity, but like a gambler who wins too much at the blackjack table, Robles had become too dominant not to be an object of scrutiny and suspicion.
He can carry more muscle in his torso, the brief against him went. He can get so low you can't shoot under him. And the ultimate reversal: It's unfair that he has just one leg for opponents to attack.
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Did Robles win in spite of his one-leggedness, or because of it? It's an ungracious question, but it deserves consideration.
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For some differently shaped athletes, the matter is testable. When Oscar Pistorius, the South African double-amputee sprinter now accused of murdering his girlfriend, moved from Paralympic competition to able-bodied races, he underwent intensive biomechanical evaluation to determine whether his artificial legs were inherently faster than flesh-and-blood ones. Treadmills and stopwatches found no advantage, and he was cleared to compete. In his case, the question of fairness was simply a question of physics.
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Wrestling is more complex. Where the outcome of a sprint is dictated by a single variable—speed—wrestling matches turn on an interaction of factors, including flexibility, timing, strength, endurance, and countless others.
Robles was at a marked disadvantage on one of the most influential of these dimensions. His balance is awful when he stands without support. A stiff shove sends him toppling like a tower of blocks, hence his dropping into a tripod whenever possible during a match. But wrestling demands a certain amount of time upright. When an opponent stood from the bottom position, Robles had to stand, too, to prevent his man from escaping. This left him in the precarious situation of simultaneously leaning on his opponent for support and trying to lift and hurl him back to the mat. When the roles were reversed and Robles began on bottom, it was difficult for him to stand with his opponent clinging to his back. Similarly, the need to keep one leg under him compromised his ability to trip opponents, a common takedown finish.
Strength also figures importantly in a wrestler's likelihood of winning, and is largely a function of his weight. For an ordinary person, one leg takes up about 16 percent of his total body weight, which would give Robles the frame of someone weighing 150 pounds. In fact, he is even stronger than the math would predict, able to bench press more than 300 pounds and knock out 100 pull-ups in two minutes. A lifetime on crutches has given him tremendous grip strength, which he used in the neutral, or both-men-standing, position to tie up opponents' hands and wrists, preventing them from initiating an attack. Down on the mat, his grip helped him jerk their arms from under them, secure their wrists fast, and wrench them onto their backs. On the occasions that he found himself in the bottom position, he broke the top man's hold and smartly shucked him off.
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At 5-foot-8, Robles is also one to three inches taller than most 125-pounders. This gave him a reach advantage and allowed him to create of himself an extended lever arm for "tilts," high-scoring moves that use concentrated torque to briefly expose an opponent's back to the mat.
But perhaps the greatest tactical advantage of Robles's having just one leg was that he had just one leg. This meant, yes, only one leg to defend against attack, but more importantly it meant a profound change in the way other wrestlers related to his body, and consequently the way they experienced the unfolding of a match. They became discombobulated, groping for a part of him that wasn't there. Strangely, they were the ones knocked off balance.
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The day Robles entered the world, doctors whisked him from the delivery room, to spare his mother, 16 years old and single, the shock of seeing her one-legged child. He was what's known as a congenital amputee, and the cause of his condition remains unknown. When the doctors finally returned him to his mother, she looked her boy over carefully and predicted that the smooth declivity where his right leg should have been marked the end of her freedom forever.
Three years later, another doctor thought Robles would walk better with a prosthesis and fitted him with a heavy artificial leg. The boy promptly took it off when he got home and hid it behind a piece of furniture. At five, he shinnied 50 feet up a pole outside his house.
But if Robles was willful and assured by nature, a childhood of being stared at and taunted eventually saddled him with terrible self-consciousness. "I wanted to fit in so badly," he later said of his elementary and junior high school years. "For a while I tried to hide … to be camouflaged." But the bullies were not put off, and Robles gave up trying to disguise his differences.
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And then a new idea began to crystallize along the margins of his awareness. What if, instead of trying to conceal his deformity, Robles were to put it on display? Perhaps by making himself as visible and vulnerable as possible, he could face—and even one day move past—the shame he felt about his body.
So in the ninth grade, about a decade later than most eventual champions, Robles pulled on a singlet and competed in his first wrestling match. He got off to a dismal start. Many of his early outings ended with Robles getting pinned to the jeers of hostile crowds. Worse still were the patronizing, after-match kudos for trying in spite of the obvious. At the end of his first season, Robles was last in the city of Mesa, Arizona, an area not known for great wrestling.
Watching Robles rule the NCAA championships eight years later, many believed that he had always been on an inexorable path to glory. He seemed simply too good for it ever to have been otherwise. The problem with this logic, however, is that it only works in hindsight. In the ninth grade, Robles was a miserable wrestler. Virtually nothing about him portended a champion. He was not born into a wrestling dynasty or raised in one of the handful of states where the sport still rivals football in popularity. He was 10 pounds underweight, even in the lightest weight class. He finished half his matches on his back.
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What Robles did accomplish in that first season was largely psychological. Standing nearly naked in front of his peers started him, as he had hoped it would, on a long march back to feeling comfortable with his body and his identity, a feeling he had not known since he was a toddler. "Wrestling helped me come out of my shell," Robles has said. "It forced me to say, 'This is who I am.'" If it seems paradoxical that this metamorphosis began with Robles's being repeatedly trounced by his opponents, it may have been that he was learning to substitute the punishments they dispensed for the ones a self-reproving teenager inflicts on himself. Life is full of abuses, Robles knew, even at 14—the trick is to find the ones that offer the promise of redress.
After his first year of wrestling, nobody thought Robles stood a chance against most two-legged opponents, except Robles himself, who decided the expedient thing to do was to make the sport more difficult for himself. He asked the best wrestler on the team, a 152-pounder named Chris Freije, if they could train together over the summer. Freije agreed, but his interpretation of "training" turned out to be closer to most people's definition of cruelty. With a 50-pound advantage on his new apprentice, Freije pummeled Robles every day, often reducing him to tears. Robles had said he wanted no allowances for his weight, inexperience, or disability, and Freije, with a mix of stewardship and sadism, took him at his word. "He liked to be mean," Robles told me.
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Freije smacked Robles in the head and had him push cars over speed bumps in the withering midday Arizona heat. On the mat, he was even more punishing. Robles admired Freije immensely, but he needed to find a way to protect his psyche and his body, fast.
One day, Robles tried a radical change in his stance. Instead of balancing on one leg, he dropped to the mat, on two hands and a knee. Suddenly, with his lowered center of gravity, Freije could barely budge him. And by tucking his leg under his haunches, Robles substantially reduced his exposure to attack.
With his defense transformed, he turned to offense, mastering a series of tilts. By stringing together a few of these, including one he invented himself, Robles discovered he could rack up a dozen points in a single period.
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Wrestling offers little room for revolutionary change. There is hardly any equipment to overhaul or reengineer. The principal aim of the modern wrestler is what it's always been, to drive his opponent from his feet to the ground. When a major innovation arrives, as it does maybe once in a generation, one of two things happens. Either a reliable countermove is developed and the innovation is consigned to a footnote in the sport's history, or the innovator catapults his own career, and sometimes those of many others.
There was no countermove for Robles's discoveries. In his sophomore year, his second season of wrestling, he used his lowered stance and his arsenal of tilts to rise from last place in the city of Mesa to sixth in the entire state of Arizona. Then he really started improving. As a junior and senior, Robles went 96-0, crowning his high school career with a national championship.
Becoming a national champion on less than four years' experience is an extraordinary accomplishment, and Robles figured it put him in position to realize a fantasy he had nurtured throughout high school: to wrestle for the University of Iowa, one of the most storied and successful athletic programs anywhere in the NCAA. With two undefeated seasons and a national title behind him, he finally indulged in the conscious belief that he would soon wear Iowa's black and gold.
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Only Iowa never called. And neither did Oklahoma State or Columbia, his second and third choices. Only two middling Division I programs offered Robles the scholarship his family needed to afford college: Arizona State and Drexel. Robles was crushed. Rumors circulated that he was considered too small to win at the D1 level; that coaches shrank from the challenge of working with his unusual body and style; and that prospective teammates complained that if they were to train with him, they might become adept at wrestling a one-legged opponent, but ill-prepared for the two-legged competition they would face on match days. Robles looked like a gamble at best, a liability at worst. In the end, his mother urged him to go to Drexel because the school's offer covered room and board. Robles chose ASU to stay close to his family and took a night job washing airplanes to make up the scholarship difference.
By the end of his college freshman season, Robles was already one of the best wrestlers on the Arizona State team. The next two years, he won All-American honors by finishing in the top eight at the national tournament. Yet he still wasn't wrestling up to his full potential. Unforeseen events kept him distracted. In his freshman year, the ASU athletic department dropped its wrestling program after the Board of Regents cut the university's budget by $26 million. Robles considered transferring, but didn't know where to go, and the program was eventually reinstated. A year later, his stepfather, Ron Robles, abandoned his mother, Judy, and left for California with another woman.
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Ron, Judy, and Anthony had become a family when Anthony was 2. Since then, Ron and Judy had had four other children together. Anthony never met his biological father, and always longed to be accepted by Ron, whose last name he'd chosen to take. "I don't call him my stepdad," he told me. "I don't think of him as my stepdad. He's my Dad. And I really looked up to him."
Sometimes the elder Robles reciprocated with a queer sort of affection, as when he took the boy to a tattoo parlor so they could get the same guardian angel imprinted on their bodies. It was an ironic choice: there was little Anthony Robles needed more protection from than his stepfather. Both Anthony and Judy told me that Ron criticized his step-son mercilessly, and sometimes physically abused Judy in his presence.
Judy said Ron couldn't forgive her son the color of his skin—Anthony's biological father is black—or forgive her the love she feels for Anthony. For Ron, she believes, these were intolerable, living reminders that he had to share her with other men.
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Still, for all the tumult when he was home, Ron's leaving devastated Judy. In addition to losing her husband, she had no income, four children to feed, and a mortgage to pay. She fell into depression and took to her bed. The bank began arrangements to foreclose on her house.
Until then, wrestling had been Anthony's respite from a noxious home life—"my sanctuary," he called it—and even the indignities he suffered in his first season were preferable to the ones his stepfather delivered, because there was always something to be done about the former. Losses, no matter how ugly, could be avenged. Ron Robles could not be made to love.
But Ron's leaving and the gloom that hung over Judy were too much. Even Anthony, unremittingly positive until now, started to despair. He told his mother he couldn't keep his mind on the mat, and he offered to quit college and take a job to help out.
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Judy knew her son dreamed of becoming a NCAA champion, and seeing his willingness to give up that possibility inspired her to get out of bed. She told him to stay in school. She sold her blood to get enough money to feed the family. Eventually, she got a job working at ASU.
Anthony returned to wrestling with a ferocious determination to make good on his mother's blessing. Until his senior year of college, few supposed him a real contender for a Division I championship. But in the fall of 2010, he emerged as something wholly different—something redoubtable and unprecedented. Against his first opponent of the season, he reeled off 14 points and a pin in under two minutes. The next he pinned even faster. Robles continued in this fashion from November through January.
Just after the New Year, he assumed the No. 2 rank in his weight class nationally. He then proceeded to technical fall or shut out his next nine opponents. In February, he became the top-ranked 125-pounder in the NCAA. The ASU Sun Devils closed the season with a road campaign in which they dropped every meet from Nebraska to Stanford. Robles, meanwhile, outscored his opponents 69-2 to close out an undefeated season.
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Typically, a wrestling match begins with a series of skirmishes, starting from the neutral position. Grapplers paw and push, cuff and tug one another until one senses he has unbalanced his opponent enough to create an opening, and then lunges at one or both of his legs. The lunged-at wrestler tries to sprawl his legs away or, if he cannot, gives them up and counter-attacks with his upper-body. This begins the "scramble"—a battle of vectors, inertia, and angular acceleration, alternating between strained counterpoise and flashes of explosive motion, as each wrestler tries for a takedown.
The critical thing about the scramble is that, at the college level and beyond, it is almost entirely reflexive, moving far too fast to be thought through. Scrambling wrestlers rely on muscle memory, developed through extensive repetition and retained for years. (Hence the theatrics in the audience at many wrestling meets, where former competitors jerk their legs, claw the air, and otherwise try to gesticulate their way free of the fracas before them.) Occasionally, a wrestler exerts some conscious control as he scrambles, deliberately trying something new and counter-instinctual. This is usually the point at which he loses the scramble.
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Wrestlers scrambling against Robles regularly reached for the leg that wasn't there, the way people who learned to drive on a manual transmission car sometimes grab for a phantom gear stick in an automatic. This was especially true when opponents tried to "turn the corner" clockwise, or slip past Robles's right side to complete a take-down. With no right ankle to catch hold of, they lacked the anchor they needed to finish their attack. A number of other moves were also literally out of reach, including the navy ride, the western ride, and some cradles. One of the most popular and effective maneuvers for the man on top, known simply as "legs," involves lacing one leg through the bottom man's same-side leg and turning it outward at the hip. Needless to say, there is no "legs" without legs.
Whenever an opponent attempted to gain purchase on a part of Robles that does not exist, muscle memory failed him. It was a bewildering and anxiety-provoking moment. "A lot of the stuff you're used to doing on a more able-bodied wrestler, you can't do," Matthew Snyder, Robles's first-round victim at the 2011 championships, told me. "You're looking for the leg and it's just not there." When this happened repeatedly, as it did for anyone who hadn't trained with a one-legged wrestler before facing Robles, frustration, confusion—and ultimately demoralization—set in. This was a fatal combination. No wrestler can win with despondency in his heart, at least not against a foe as formidable as Robles.
What was an opponent to do? Robles's anatomy suggested at least two possibilities. One was to attack his leg relentlessly. Every time Robles scooted across the mat or attempted a takedown, he drove off the same leg. Every time a competitor yanked his ankle outward, the same knee got wrenched against the joint. As a result, the muscles, tendons, and ligaments of Robles's leg endured terrific strain, and thus were more prone to fatigue and injury than those of a wrestler who can distribute the same stresses over two legs. By his senior year of high school, his knee was so stiff after practices that he could barely move it. If an opponent could have somehow consistently circumvented Robles's hulking upper body, he might have eventually been able to take out his relatively vulnerable leg.
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A second, and perhaps underutilized, strategy for scoring against Robles can be found 5,000 miles east of Arizona, in the Tuileries Gardens of Paris. Among dozens of giant statues dotting the Tuileries is one of the Greek mythical hero, Theseus, in close combat with the Minotaur, the bovine-headed, human-bodied offspring of Queen Pasiphaë and a white bull. In this depiction, Theseus forces the Minotaur's massive horned head down with his left hand, as he prepares to bludgeon the beast with the club in his right. He triumphs not by evading the Minotaur's deadly horns, but by confronting them directly.
In the 2008 NCAA championships, Stanford's Tanner Gardner took an analogous approach against Robles. For much of the first period, Gardner plowed forward, ramming his head into Robles's and collaring his neck. In the second period he converted a head hold into a take-down, and, beginning the third period in the top position, he took the unorthodox course of releasing Robles's body and applying a headlock from behind. His tactics sent the match into overtime, where he again took Robles down with a head hold, earning himself the win. Theseus would have approved.
All of this—every detail of Robles' technique and virtually every square inch of his body—has been hotly debated in the fertile anonymity of cyberspace. Loyalists tend to concede his superior strength, but emphasize the many other variables that inform the outcome of a wrestling match. Robles both benefits and suffers by his anatomy, they argue, and to focus on a single metric is to miss the point. Many believe justice requires a long view, a weighing of equities and inequities over time. "It might have been unfair for us to have to wrestle him," Snyder said, "but it was more unfair what he had to go through to get there".
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The detracting camp sometimes cites the numerous amputees in the sport as evidence of Robles's advantage. In 2001, for example, double-leg amputee Nick Ackerman (whose grandfathers, bizarrely, lost their legs in separate accidents) won the Division Three tournament. Other critics linger over Robles's disproportionate upper-body strength. If they are aware of the irony of calling the man once considered too small to succeed at the Division I level too big, they don't let on.
This is not a position held only by a few angry bloggers on the periphery of the wrestling community. While many doyens of the sport have loudly hailed Robles as a deserving winner and a first-class human being, several of them have lowered their voices and confided to me—always "off the record"—that he wouldn't stand a chance against a wrestler with the same-sized torso. A 157-pounder, say.
But what most critics don't know is that Robles did wrestle a 157-pounder. Every day in practice at Arizona State, he worked out with Brian Stith, a former national runner-up in that weight class. Just as he did in high school with Freije, Robles trained with Stith so that, when it came time to compete in his own weight class, the job would be comparatively easy. And was he able to hold his own against one of the top 157-pound wrestlers in the country? "For sure," Stith told me. "Anthony would be a champion at any weight he wrestled."
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In the last match of his career, the Division I championship, Robles found himself facing Iowa Hawkeye Matt McDonough, the defending national champion. The two had never wrestled before, but Robles had known all year that to win the title, he'd likely have to get through McDonough, the favorite going into the season. He'd kept a picture of McDonough in his locker, where he could look at it before and after practices.
Robles didn't sleep well the night before. He was up against not only one of the sport's biggest stars, but the coaches who had snubbed him, the critics who had dismissed him, and the hourglass he had turned over when he announced, three days earlier, his plan to retire from wrestling and become a motivational speaker. Robles tossed in his bed, with the knowledge that strange and unexpected things happen this deep in a tournament eating at his confidence. After four matches in two days, injuries flare. Legs and lungs give out. The body mutinies, and attention yields to momentary, decisive distraction.
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But the moment the ref blew his whistle, the anxiety was gone. Robles dropped to his knee, and McDonough responded in kind, lowering his own stance to meet him. They vied for control of one another's hands and wrists. Twenty-five seconds in, Robles caught both of McDonough's wrists and spun behind him for a takedown. He then pried McDonough's supports from under him and drove him forward into the mat. With McDonough on his belly, Robles searched for an opening, shading to the right, then to the left.
At 88 seconds, he found it. As McDonough pushed his way up to all fours, Robles cinched his opponent's left wrist across his body and rolled hard across his own shoulders for a cross-wrist tilt. The torque was extraordinary, and the defending champion flipped like a pancake.
It was the most remarkable move of Robles's career. McDonough, inverted, pedaled vainly in the air as the crowd roared to its feet. Few of the 17,000 fans there had ever seen the Hawkeye on his back. McDonough kicked loose, but Robles kept him flat on his stomach. A minute later, Robles turned him with another tilt.
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McDonough wriggled free again, but he was badly shaken. Robles had taken him down, kept him down, and was now turning him virtually at will. Tom Brands, Iowa's usually irascible head coach, stood mutely by. At the end of the first period, Robles was far ahead on points, with an even more commanding psychological lead.
Everyone loves an underdog. The problem, here, was figuring out who he was. Some saw in Robles's two tilts his latest crime against sport and man, others a great comeuppance to a world that had disbelieved. But the fans who watched the match had one thing in common: A year before they could not have imagined a one-legged man winning an NCAA Division I wrestling championship any more than they could have imagined him flapping his arms and taking flight. All of them—every last person who stood staring from the stands—must have felt the tethers loosen between what they beheld and what they thought they knew, the latter drifting away, into the rainy Philadelphia night.
Robles coasted the rest of the way. McDonough raced around him for the last two periods, seeking an opportunity, but there was none. Time expired. The referee raised Robles's hand.
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McDonough hurried to the locker room, accepting no handshakes and no applause. There is no second place for Iowa wrestlers.
An interviewer stopped the new champion as he made his way off the mat. He told Robles he was an inspiration. "It's an honor," Robles said, breaking into a boyish grin. He took up his crutches and strode—there is no better word for it—over to the stands, where his mother and girlfriend jumped and cried and hugged each other. The crowd gave him a sustained standing ovation.
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Later that day, the coaches in attendance voted Robles the outstanding wrestler of the tournament, making him, by consensus, the best college wrestler in any weight class, anywhere in the country.
Last year I chased down John Smith, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and Oklahoma State's head coach since 1992, to ask him why, for heaven's sake, he hadn't recruited Robles to Stillwater. I reminded him that Robles had won a high school national championship after wrestling for just three and a half years. "We ended up not going that route," Smith drawled, looking sheepish. "It was a mistake. I shoulda went that route."
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I put the same question to Tom Brands, knowing that Iowa had been Robles's dream program. He fumbled through a couple of thin excuses, then suddenly erupted: "Are you looking for a fight?" Thanking Brands for his time, I turned to walk away. "Hey!" he barked after me. "Hey! That's off the record!"
A few weeks before the 2012 Olympic Trials, I told Robles about my encounters with college wrestling's two most revered coaches. He looked entertained, but not as gratified as I had anticipated.
I tried something more provocative. I told him how some former and would-be Olympians had reacted to his decision not to try out for the U.S. Olympic team. Kenny Monday, a 1988 gold medalist, and Raymond Jordan, who had helped coach Robles at ASU, both told me they consider the top position to be Robles's strongest, and that freestyle wrestling—a variant of the sport practiced at the Olympics—is better suited for wrestlers who excel in the neutral position. Jarod Trice, who wrestled at the Olympic Trials and calls Robles a close friend—"I just texted him this morning! He's my boy!"—reluctantly agreed: "I don't know how the leverage would work for him [in freestyle wrestling], because of the leg".
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Where collegiate wrestling awards two points for any takedown, freestyle scoring is more variable. The simple leg tackles preferred by Robles earn just one point, while dramatic lifting-and-throwing takedowns—nearly impossible to execute while balancing on one leg—are worth three or five. Even more problematic, time on the mat, where Robles does most of his damage, is limited in freestyle wrestling.
Still, Robles might be a better freestyler than he at first appears. He may not throw many opponents, but his ultra-low center of gravity makes him equally difficult to throw. And unlike college wrestling, where using the same tilt twice in a row without changing holds doesn't earn points, in freestyle wrestling Robles could repeatedly roll his opponent with a single tilt, scoring with every revolution.
I shared his colleagues' comments with Robles because I was frustrated by his choice to forgo the Olympic trials. I was looking for an explanation and, somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I harbored a hope of spurring him to action, to prove the naysayers wrong. But before I let him speak, I goaded him one more time. Was it possible that he was too—ahem—inhibited to try out for London? Did he prefer walking away a college champion to risking a loss at the next level?
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"A little bit," Robles confessed. He admitted to wanting to end his career on a high note, and to the seductive appeal of giving up to mitigate the pressure that accompanies sustained success.
"But my dream was never to win a gold medal," he said. "When I was in college, when I was wrestling in high school, my dream was to be a national champion." He said he missed wrestling, profoundly, but that he was happy with the direction his life had taken in the last year: connection with fans, lucrative motivational speaking engagements, Nike sponsorship, a book release, a movie deal in the works.
And then he hinted at the 2016 Olympic Games, in Brazil: "I'm still young. I'm only 23. … Four years from now, I'll still be prime age." (Brazil would be Robles's last chance at Olympic competition; last month, the International Olympic Committee dropped wrestling from the 2020 Games.)
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I didn't find it an altogether satisfying answer, and suddenly I realized why. I'd been wanting Robles to see things my way. I'd seen his crossing over to freestyle wrestling, where his anatomical advantages are reduced, and still winning—as I imagined he would—as the ultimate rebuttal to his critics. I'd wanted him to erase the invisible asterisks that accompany every record he ever posted. I'd wanted Robles to demonstrate, once and for all, that ingenuity and discipline, not brawn, were the bedrock of his success, because these are attributes I value.
But I was just another guy reaching for phantom parts of Robles. His journey has been about many things, but it is not, fundamentally, about proving anybody wrong. Or being controversial. Or even about learning to wrestle with one leg. These are all epiphenomena of something larger.
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Robles has been trying to solve the problems that life has been heaping on him since the moment he was born: a body that didn't look right and the bullies who wouldn't let him forget it, one father absent and another full of hate. Wrestling just happened to be an exquisitely efficient response to his dilemmas. It gave him, all at once, a sanctioned way of blowing off steam, an assessment of his abilities independent of other people's appraisals, and a vehicle for working collaboratively, for a change, with other men.
His decision to retire from wrestling had less to do with inhibition than with the challenge of how to be the 23-year-old he wanted to be. By not wrestling, Robles gets to support his family and through his words lift up the thousands of people who look to him for inspiration. And with a quiet pride that a less mature man might consider vanity, he allows himself to revel in the enormity of his achievements.
Before his final tournament, Robles told an interviewer that the thing he likes most about wrestling is the way it allows you to focus on your advantages—what you have rather than what you lack. Some people are tall and can use their length for leverage, he said. Some capitalize on physical strength.
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Robles was suggesting, in essence, that as long as he didn't dwell on the nuisance of missing a leg, he could go about the business of becoming a champion wrestler. It was a preposterous remark, except that it turned out to be true. An absence isn't a weakness if you make it someone else's problem.
David Merrill is a psychiatrist in New York City and a former high school wrestler. Illustrations by Jim Cooke."The last two World Cup experiences were amazing, but to have this one, it's definitely going to be the last one for me. It would be the icing on the cake to first of all qualify and play in another World Cup. It'd be unfair and unrealistic to even think about another World Cup after this one. Now more than ever I concentrate on short term rather than long term." Kennedy won't be drawn on possible retirement plans, and it is likely he will stay involved — if selected — until the next Asian Cup which is being staged in Australia in 2015. He missed both the 2007 and 2011 tournaments, and would live to get the chance to play in at least one before he finishes. "I'd loved to be involved in the Asian Cup. Being at home, on the home stage, would definitely be another highlight of my career. I've missed the last two we've been in." While most of his Socceroo team-mates seem keen to avoid a return to the A-League, Kennedy is open to the idea when he finishes his time in Japan, where he has enjoyed plenty of success with Nagoya in the J-League. He moved to Japan following several years in Germany, where he went after developing in the old NSL. "I'd definitely like to keep playing as long as the body plays at a decent level and whether that's till I'm 35 or however old, we'll see. But definitely the A-League is interesting to me. I'd love to play in front of family and friends back home, but saying that still being able to do that a good level."
Kennedy has been in rare form in recent games for Osieck but he is not taking anything for granted as Oman looks to bounce back after the disappointment of its heavy defeat in Tokyo at the weekend. Oman, after all, did defeat the Socceroos the last time they met in Muscat and Kennedy says the Socceroos learnt plenty from the experience. "It was a completely different game to the way they played in Australia. We'll be ready for them if they make these tactical changes, if they sit back, if they play a little different. I don't think it's going to surprise us the way it may have last time. Obviously [it's important] not to concede. In these conditions you can't concede an early goal. It's extremely hard to chase a game. "The weather doesn't permit us to be going out attacking, attacking and play a high pressure game. The same goes for them. Patience and obviously taking our chances when they come will be the key. We may only get one or half a chance and we need to make the most out of it. "I don't think we take anything for granted. We didn't underestimate them [last time]. They learnt a lot from the game we played in Australia. They scored early in the last game, which makes thing difficult. We had enough chances to score goals as well. If you get half a |
– Alessandro Riggi (Gladson Awako)
50’ – PHX – Chris Cortez (Alessandro Riggi)
76’ – PHX – Gladson Awako
Three Things That Matter:
1. Phoenix’s pair of early goals paved the way to a club-record fourth consecutive victory, and returned to fifth place in the USL Western Conference, as both Jason Johnson and Alessandro Riggi found the net to continue the club’s impressive run of form. Phoenix is now five points back of the fourth-place Swope Park Rangers with five games to go, making a home playoff game for Rising FC still a longshot, but there’s no doubt as to the threat Phoenix will being when the postseason arrives.
2. Alessandro Riggi’s return to form has been a welcome boost for Rising FC in recent weeks, and the Canadian played a major role on Sunday afternoon back in his home country to lead Phoenix to an emphatic win. An early-season injury was a blow to the 23-year-old, who had started the season in positive fashion, but now Riggi appears to be back to his best as his deft finish to notch Rising FC’s second goal of the game highlighted the cleverness he can bring in the attacking third.
3. Vancouver was eliminated from playoff contention prior to Sunday’s game, but the performance of David Norman Jr. provided a bright spot in another tough outing for last season’s Western Conference finalists. Norman has stepped into a much bigger role this season for WFC2, and his two-way play saw him record eight tackles and four interceptions against Rising FC in addition to showing positive signs when he got the chance to join the attack. Vancouver has only pride to play for, but some individuals are still going to be worth watching as the regular season concludes.
USLSoccer.com Man of the Match
Alessandro Riggi, Phoenix Rising FC – Riggi’s early goal provided the most memorable moment of his side’s victory, but he also provided two assists and created three additional scoring chances in a stellar display.After last week’s family friendly post, now we delve into the realm of adult pleasures: alcohol tastings! On Wednesday, Steven and I were lucky enough to get tickets to a “Raise the Macallan” whisky tasting in Downtown LA. We got the tickets through DrinksLA.com…let me tell you, it pays off to subscribe to their newsletter!
There w as a long line to get in, but Steven was able to get us reservation cards. The tasting was held at Majestic Halls on Spring St. The hall had two bars, one on the right and one on the far left, serving water, ginger ale, and of course whisky. Steven and I found a table to stand at, and after taking our reservation card, a waitress handed us full blown large shots of Macallan Fine Oak 10 whiskey.
I’m no scotch connoisseur, but I will say that I found the first shot a bit rough, especially since I am still recovering from a cold. We also sampled roasted potato and smoked salmon, chicken mango salsa, rustic potato and goat cheese, and seared fillet. I especially enjoyed the chicken mango salsa. Steven and I took a rather amusing picture with the whiskey bottles in the photo area, and then we moved on to the main room.
In the main room, there were a bunch of tables with water, nuts and three shots of whiskey for each seating. There a Scottish guy named Eden pitched the whiskey, telling us about its rich history in Scotland, and so forth. He sold Steven and me on taking a trip to Scotland, for sure, but I know we wouldn’t go just to visit whiskey refinery. He made a few quips about how expensive the whiskey is and how they donate much of the money to children’s charity.
Then, we drank sips of whiskey “for the children.” The first whiskey in the room was 12 year, which had hints of vanilla and caramel and very easy to drink. The 15 year was a little bit more spicy, citrusy and chocolately. Steven and I enjoyed the 17 year one the most, as it had a woody, smokey taste. The last taste was the 18 year, which is apparently worth $460,000. It was well-balanced, but after all the tastings, I realized that whiskey isn’t really my drink of choice…I prefer a fruity rum or tequila. 🙂
The best part was that everything that night was FREE. I highly recommend you attend this event with some friends for some free booze and some education about single malt scotch. Below are some thumbnails of all the pictures we took that night.
Like our Facebook page for more photos from the event, and follow us on Twitter @SurvivingLA for all the latest in great Los Angeles events on a budget!
We have tons more events to blog about, so stay tuned! Don’t forget to change your clock today!
Until next time,
GoldaWASHINGTON, DC–Representatives of the National Transportation Safety Board, their "bosoms heavy with melancholia," announced the findings of their investigation of American Airlines Flight 251 Monday, citing "fate's cruel hand" as the cause of the Apr. 10 crash that claimed 411 lives.
"The best-laid plans of mice and men go oft astray," NTSB spokesman Frank Whelan said, "and leave us naught but grief and pain for promised joy. Such was the case when the 747 unexpectedly burst into flames and plummeted to the ground at 7:14 a.m., shortly after take-off from Chicago's O'Hare Airport."
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According to NTSB investigators, the London-bound Boeing 747 relayed a distress call at 7:07 a.m., just 12 minutes after leaving O'Hare. Three minutes of desperate radio communication between the pilots and air-traffic controllers ensued before contact was lost and passengers and crew "shuffled off this mortal coil."
Speaking at the press conference, American Airlines CEO Donald Carty expressed sympathy for the victims' families. He stressed, however, that American Airlines accepts no responsibility for "this swipe of God's mighty hand."
"I am deeply sorry this tragedy occurred," Carty said. "But let us ask ourselves, what is so tragic about awaking to life immortal?"
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Carty praised the members of the doomed 747's cockpit crew, who "struggled mightily to right the listing ship but were ultimately destined to go to a far better place."
"Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!" Carty said. "But I, with mournful tread, walk the deck my Captain lies, fallen cold and dead."
Based on air-traffic-control records and eyewitness accounts, the crash may have been caused by an explosion in the plane's left engine. Neither the NTSB nor American Airlines, however, plans to investigate.
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"The call of death is a call of love," Whelan said. "Death can be sweet if we answer it in the affirmative, if we accept it as one of the great eternal forms of life and transformation."
Victims' loved ones traveled from across the country to attend the press conference, hoping to learn more about the crash or simply share their pain with others.
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"Why? Why?" asked Teresa Salton, 34, clutching a hand-knitted sweater her deceased sister had given her last Christmas. "Angela doesn't deserve this. It just makes no sense. It can't be."
Whelan urged Salton and other grief-stricken loved ones not to cry, telling them that they should envy the victims, who "now sing in the choir invisible."
"Out, out, brief candle!" Whelan said. "Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
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A Chicago Tribune reporter asked Carty to respond to rumors that the plane's inspection record reveals a history of left-engine problems, and that service documents may have been falsified to allow scheduled flights to continue. Carty shook his head and gazed upward.
"How ridiculous to think we humans can control our own life and death as if setting a clock," Carty said. "One's days are numbered, one's hour is come, one's race is run, one's doom is sealed."
Of the plane's 411 passengers, 53 were children. Carty spoke briefly to the families of these particular victims.
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"In To An Athlete Dying Young, A.E. Housman explained best why we should not shed tears upon the graves of these little ones," Carty said. "'Smart lad, to slip betimes away / From fields where glory does not stay / And early though the laurel grows / It withers quicker than the rose.'"
Despite the words of comfort, families of victims expressed anger and confusion over the NTSB's decision to forgo an investigation.
"How can they just do nothing?" asked Elgin, IL, resident Pamela Robinson, whose husband Anthony was on Flight 251. "Something needs to be done. We need to know why this happened."
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The NTSB, however, remains steadfast in its refusal. Whelan said he has no interest in searching the crash site for the plane's black box.
"There is special providence in the fall of the sparrow," Whelan said. "If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all. Since no man of aught he leaves knows, what isn't to leave betimes? Let be."Far East Movement.
Although there’s still no word on Jay Electronica’s debut, photographer Jason Goldwatch holds us over with the trailer to Elect documentary, Into The Light. The film was shot seven years ago during their trip to Nepal. Says Goldwatch:
Jay Electronica is full of mystery, and like a magician, his character lends itself to new ways of seeing things that would seem impossible to many. Several years ago, Jay and I traveled to the other side of the Earth. We left a piece of ourselves there. In exchange, we brought back something entirely new, and the images that follow are a glimpse into that magic for everyone who’s curious.
Traveling across strange lands, we were invited to attend sacred ceremonies of sacrifice and parading celebrations of ancient descent. We trekked together towards the horizon and explored crowded monasteries, solitary mountain top temples, slums of filthy laughing children, and rivers running with blood and flower petals. I documented as Jay walked a river of burning human bodies. We crash landed a helicopter in the Himalayas, and he delivered rice and clean water to a school in a refugee tent city. The result was a collage of movements and emotion.
The experience in itself was a perfect circle. A question with no answers. Full of laughter and tears, but no love story or plot twists. We searched for absolute truth in life, and the only undeniable answer we found was death.
Since returning, I have been working on a film based on this journey called Into the Light. It is experimental in form and best described as a meditation in un-learning. A movement in seeing without watching, hearing without listening, and the brave exploration of spirit. I look forward to sharing this film soon.Hillary Clinton's latest ad campaign features an architect who claims Donald Trump almost put his firm out of business.
"Donald Trump hired my small business to design a clubhouse for the Trump National Golf Club," states Andrew Tesoro of Andrew Tesoro Architects. The ad intersperses Tesoro's account of working for Trump with video clips of the Republican presidential candidate espousing his business acumen.
"I sent a bill. It wasn’t paid," states Tesoro, who accuses Trump Organization representatives of "bullying" him into accepting a significantly reduced fee – just over a third of what the firm had billed.
"I didn’t feel that I had a lot of choice but to accept their low-ball offer. I had already paid out that money. That was money gone. That was just absorbed by me personally," Tesoro says.
The firm then sent that invoice. "And it wasn't paid."
Tesoro recounts visiting Trump, who said, "I really don’t think I should pay any more because I spent too much on this building.”
After deciding that a prolonged legal battle would be too expensive, Tesoro accepted half of the already reduced fee.
"It almost put me out of business," Tesoro continues. "We had to max out the credit lines to keep the little ship afloat and pay the rent, and I made virtually zero money for a couple of years, and lived on meager savings that were supposed to be for my son to go to school to keep from folding."
“You can’t run a country the way Mr. Trump has run his businesses," Tesoro concludes.
The ad continues a line of attack against Trump's business record that Clinton has been employing more and more frequently in the last few weeks. Watch the full ad here:
As a major developer, Trump has had more encounters with architects than your average presidential candidate. Find out more:The Media Molecule team offers an in-depth look at its ambitious new game
The scale of Media Molecule‘s ambitious new PS4 project has been hinted at since its reveal at PlayStation’s E3 press conference in 2015, but now, in the wake of both the new trailer at last week’s Game Awards and the dedicated PSX panel this past weekend, it’s the perfect time to delve into the specifics and offer you an in-depth look at the game.
Below, join key creatives at Media Molecule in a video tour of the game ahead of its 2018 release.
Dig into an overview of what you can do when starting the game, check out the Story mode and meet its lead characters, then enjoy a showcase of how easy it is to create environments and levels using either PS Move or Dualshock 4 controllers.
1. What is Dreams?
Studio Director Siobhan Reddy, Art Director Kareem Ettouney, Technical Director Alex Evans and Creative Director Mark Healey offer an overview of what Dreams is all about.
2. Introducing Dreams’ Story Mode
Here’s your first look at the three interweaving narratives that make up Dreams’ central Story Mode, all built using the very same tools that you’ll have access to.
3. Creating an environment in Dreams in 5 minutes
Art Director Kareem Ettouney demonstrates how easy it is to create a beautiful environment in the games’ Dream Shaping mode.
4. Creating a level in Dreams in under 10 minutes
Finally, Level Designer John Beech puts together a fully playable level.
Want to know even more? You can watch the Dreams panel from PSX 2017 right here.Kevin Youkilis’ batting stance is, shall we say, a little different than most.
He keeps his hands far higher than most MLB hitters and almost points the bat at the mound at one point. One could call it unorthodox, cool, equal parts (seemingly) impractical and deliciously wacky or any number of adjectives.
Though given his.281 career average, 150 home runs and 618 RBIs in 10 MLB seasons, you’d have to admit it works.
“I didn’t come up with it really, it just came to be,” Youkilis said in 2010, as part of a Westinghouse Digital Q&A session with fans. “It keeps my hands relaxed so I can get through the ball easier with better contact. It also allows me to get ready for the pitch without thinking too much.”
So far Japanese fans have only gotten to admire Youkilis’ peculiar stance from afar, save for the four games (two exhibition, two regular season) he played with the Boston Red Sox in 2008, when MLB opened its season at Tokyo Dome.
Youkilis recently agreed to join the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, so NPB fans will get to see him up close and personal in 2014.
Which makes now as good a time as any for Japanese baseball fans to become acquainted with Gar Ryness aka The Batting Stance Guy.
Ryness has made a name for himself imitating batting stances, and probably knows Youkilis’ stance better than anyone other than Youkilis himself.
“Japan would actually understand what he’s doing more than America,” Ryness told The Japan Times over the phone from San Francisco. “There are players (there) who have their hands apart, and that was just completely brand new (in MLB). Almost never seen before, to have someone’s hands that far apart. He points the barrel of the bat at the pitcher, like Julio Franco did for many years, and he has his knees pretty close together, and he’s bouncing around,” he says, noting Youkilis has since tweaked his routine slightly.
“At that point, that kind of stuff didn’t really happen. It certainly didn’t happen in the World Series, and I think in ’07 when he was in the World Series (with the Red Sox) against the Rockies, that was a shock to the system of Little League baseball coaches.”
If anyone knows batting stances, it’s Ryness.
He’s has taken his ability to perform spot-on imitations of the batting stances of players past and present — what he calls “the least marketable skill in America” — to the big time. His imitations have made him a YouTube sensation, and he’s been profiled in The New York Times. There have also been appearances on MLB Network, among other outlets, as well as “Late Show With David Letterman,” and he’s even done motion capture for Sony’s popular “MLB: The Show” video game series.
Ryness keeps a record of his exploits on his website, www.battingstanceguy.com, which also features numerous videos of him doing stances and interacting with players, including a meeting with Youkilis himself.
“Youkilis is like the Michelangelo of stance,” Ryness said. “He’s put together this performance art piece that is so fun to watch. And I’m so glad he’s a good hitter and that people like him.”
In 2010, he published a book which happens to contain a tidbit about Youkilis that’s very interesting in retrospect.
“I wrote a book, ‘Batting Stance Guy: A Love Letter to Baseball,’ he said. “In it, there’s an actual quote... I say: ‘Whenever the MLB magic runs out in Kevin Youkilis’ career, all he’ll need to do is send a tape of his at-bats to the Seibu Lions, and he’s in. It’ll be like the band in ‘This is Spinal Tap.’ Once the luster fades here in the States, Youk will continue to be huge in Japan.’
“I wrote that years ago, because I wrote a book of the 50 greatest stances in my lifetime, and what I noticed is, a bunch of the players in it, Tony Batista, Bobby Tolan, Felix Millan, played over there. So it’s as if Japan is like a finely-tuned art critic that can sense when someone has an awesome stance.”
When the news broke last spring Youkilis was going to alter his stance, by lowering his bat and using a wider base. Ryness playfully created a video pleading with him to reconsider. Youkilis didn’t, of course, but as they say, old habits die hard.
“Because no one had really seen him hit yet, I was hoping he would just revert back to his old ways,” Ryness said. “I feel like that’s a hard stance to chuck. You’re so used to it. So it was really fun have the season start, and have him little, by little, by little slip back into his old ways. His knees got back to being close together and his hands got really high. For the most part, he kind of went back to his normal thing. Which, holy smokes, do I hope he brings to the good Golden Eagles fans of the world.”
Ryness doesn’t miss anything in his imitations, no matter how minute, from the exact way Ichiro Suzuki tugs on his sleeve, to how (Red Sox star) Dustin Pedroia’s eyes get wide each time he steps to the plate
He’s got imitating MLB stars down to a science, but has also taken on the challenge of Japanese players (in both MLB and NPB), and says there are a few things that stand out.
“For one, the bat twirl,” he says, referring to Japanese hitters’ penchant for flipping their bats. “Take a normal player, (Kosuke) Fukudome, when he hits a ball, doesn’t even have to be a homer or a double, usually any player from Japan, when they hit, the bat will kind of spring off their shoulders and flip loudly back toward whatever dugout they’re hitting from. “When (the Dodgers’ Yasiel) Puig does it, he gets plunked later in the game. You can’t do that here, you’re going to get a ball in the ribs. Then every time (Hideki) Matsui does it it’s just, Oh, ok that’s just Matsui.”
It’s not only bat-flips The Batting Stance Guy has noticed many Japanese players have in common.
“Generally, players when they bat are falling away,” Ryness said. “So when I do an imitation, let’s just say Matsui, I’m almost falling back on my heels as if, if I swung and missed I’m just going to land on my back. That’s kind of rare. People don’t really fall backwards, they kind of go toward the mound. It seems really crazy when there are righties doing it. Because the righty falling away makes no sense, because you’re not even going toward first base.
“When there’s a player in Japan, I kind of know, they’re gonna stand sort of close to the plate, they’re going to kind of fall away while they’re hitting, and they’re going to kind of start running to first before they’ve even finished their swing.”
Ryness had seen videos of Japanese hitters, but got his first real taste of Japanese baseball in 2000, when he attended a pair of Hanshin Tigers games at Koshien Stadium and, “was stunned with how entertaining the games were and the hitters were.
“I’m so glad that Youkilis is there,” he said. “I hope he plays great. I wish there was a way for Americans to get more into NPB. I was amazed at just how much fun it was, and how alive the stadiums were, and how choreographed all the songs and cheers were for each of the players. It was just so fun.
“I was not used to balloons launching in the middle of the game and chicken on a stick and high school football in Texas-cheering sections the whole game. It was great, and it’s such a fun league.”
Often when Ryness gets recognized, fans will ask him to imitate a stance, usually someone from their favorite team or a player currently in the news.
“The only player who goes to all generations is Julio Franco,” he said. “There’ll be a 9-year-old kid, a 20-year-old, a 40-year-old, an 80-year-old, Julio Franco is the only guy that everyone asks. Because the 75-year old doesn’t know who Craig Counsell is, and the 11-year-old doesn’t know who Bobby Tolan is.”
Ryness gets a special kick out of doing imitations for the players themselves.
“The players pick up on every nuance,” he says. “There are multiple times where I’ve done an imitation of something that I don’t know of one person who would get the joke, and then the players will punch me, throw their glove at me, and high-five each other. It’s like a joke that they never thought they’d hear. Because these guys are their co-workers. They’ve see this person lift up his heel a thousand times a year in batting practice, spring training.”
The players keep Ryness on his toes.
“At this point, my favorite imitations to do are ones that have never been asked for before. I’ve been able to do Youkilis a thousand times for players and fans. So (White Sox infielder) Adam Dunn walked up to me and said ‘Hey, let me see Moises Alou,’ and that was probably my favorite.
“It’s when players will ask me for Ben Oglivie. It feels like you’re a band, and you go to a concert. You know a bunch of people are going to yell out your popular songs. It’s when that one person yells out that weird B-side that you made 20 years ago. And you kind of look at that person like, ‘I wanna hang out with you all evening.’
“So that’s really fun. Adrian Gonzalez’s wife one time pulled me aside and said let me see Coco Crisp. ‘Where did you guys even know each other? Oh, Adrian and Coco were in the minors together.’ I would’ve never thought to prepare Coco Crisp, meeting Adrian Gonzalez. That’s really fun.”Did regulation kill Energy East?
Conservative leader Andrew Scheer thinks it did. So does Premier Brad Wall of Saskatchewan. TransCanada, the project’s proponent, has been circumspect, merely announcing that “changed circumstances” led them to terminate the project earlier this month.
Energy East would have carried 1.1 million barrels of crude oil per day from Alberta to New Brunswick using repurposed existing natural gas pipelines for much of its length. At more than 4,500 kilometres, this project would have been the longest pipeline in the country.
Terrible news this morning about the Energy East pipeline. Make no mistake, Justin Trudeau is to blame. 1/5 — Andrew Scheer (@AndrewScheer) October 5, 2017
It would have required co-operation among the federal government, six provinces, 75 municipalities and more than 50 First Nations. In many ways, this mega-project would have been the most ambitious infrastructure build ever undertaken in Canada, surpassing the political difficulties associated with the construction of the national railways at the end of 19th century.
All energy mega-projects are subject to review by the National Energy Board, the regulatory body that is responsible for overseeing energy projects, pipelines and trade in Canada. The review incorporates extensive public consultation and an assessment of the project’s environmental impacts.
The Liberals made election promises in 2015 to review and improve the environmental assessment process related to energy projects. It set out five principles to guide these improvements, including more time for consultations, greater consultation with Indigenous peoples and the consideration of upstream and downstream emissions generated by the project.
New reviews and delays
At the beginning of 2016, the Liberal government announced it would extend the reviews of two pipeline projects, Energy East and Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline to Burnaby, B.C., to improve the consultation process.
This posed a challenge for TransCanada and added cost to the process. Then, in August 2016, the entire consultation process was derailed due to conflict-of-interest issues, that were uncovered by National Observer. It was restarted from scratch in early 2017 — a delay that exposed the Energy East project to more regulatory uncertainty.
A report outlining a new vision for environmental assessment, which included the five proposed principles, was delivered to the environment and climate change minister at the end of March 2017. The Liberal government is currently considering the implications of the proposed changes.
This undoubtedly led to the National Energy Board’s decision in August 2017 to include the upstream and downstream emissions associated with new oil production and consumption when it considered the environmental implications of the Energy East project.
TransCanada put Energy East on hold in September 2017 and finally cancelled it a month later. The company announced it will write down an estimated $1 billion in costs associated with the terminated project.
So, did regulation kill Energy East? Many other factors also hurt its chances of getting the green light.
Speaking at a news conference in Ottawa on Oct. 5, 2017, Deputy Conservative Party Leader Lisa Raitt blamed the Trudeau government for derailing the Energy East pipeline project. Photo by Elizabeth McSheffrey
The future of energy mega-projects
President Trump’s restart of Keystone XL (TransCanada’s other megaproject), as well as an ongoing slump in oil prices and a slowdown in Alberta oilsands production growth all likely had much more impact on the decision to terminate the project. They may well have led to the project’s end even without the regulatory shifts.
But it’s also clear that changing the way the Energy East project would be evaluated during the active assessment period complicated the issue unnecessarily.
Canada will see more proposals for new energy mega-projects in the future. If these types of projects are to succeed, the regulatory landscape related to environmental assessment must be predictable and consistent.
Video of Trump approves Keystone XL
That's some big pipeline, Trump said as he read over notes at his desk in the Oval Office on March 24, 2017. Video by Riley Sparks
Energy projects face a great deal of market uncertainty, and it’s appropriate for companies to take on the associated business risk. But it’s the job of government to reduce the policy risk by providing a transparent and stable regulatory environment.
Project proponents face significant challenges if the rules are changed in the middle of an assessment. This was particularly true in the case of Energy East, where the extended timeline exposed the project to extreme shifts on the regulatory side. Future projects should be assessed under consistent rules from start to finish.
This is not to say that regulation is undesirable. It’s not unreasonable for Canada to set aggressive rules regarding environmental assessment, particularly when these rules help us meet goals that are broadly supported by Canadians.
Increased consultation with Indigenous peoples and a reduced national greenhouse gas emissions footprint are both worth the effort – and these changes will increase the confidence that Canadians have in future energy mega-projects.
This article was originally published in The Conversation and has been reprinted with permission.Austria’s Constitutional court has today ordered May’s presidential election be annulled and another called after “particularly serious cases” of voting fraud were detected in the photo-finish vote.
The Green party-backed candidate Alexander Van der Bellen originally snatched victory by a mere 0.6 per cent in the second round vote, which was taken to decide the new president of central-European state Austria in May. He had made it to the round alongside Freedom Party (FPO) candidate Norbert Hofer, who campaigned to protect Austria from mass migration and Islamification.
Now the Austrian Constitutional court has upheld a complaint by the FPO about conduct in the election. The party had alleged that there were voting “irregularities” in 94 of the 117 total electoral constituencies in the country, reports Kronen Zeitung.
It is not known how many of the 94 areas alleged to have voting irregularities have been investigated, but the court identified “20 particularly serious cases” after interviewing 67 witnesses. Two witnesses are reported to have refused to give a statement. The allegation is that in these areas the postal ballots were opened and sorted before the arrival of Electoral Commission arrivals, meaning they could have been easily tampered with.
Given that the election was carried by just 30,863 votes, and up to 740,000 postal votes are in question the Constitutional court has now ruled the vote should be re-run, although the date for this has not yet been announced. Until the new vote in Autumn, the role of Austria’s Presidency will be fulfilled by a three-member National President Council (Präsidium des Nationalrats) — on which the FPO presidential candidate Norbert Hofer already sits.
President of the constitutional court Gerhart Holzinger said the ruling “does not make you a loser or a winner” to representatives of the two parties present in the court room this morning, and said the sentence had been passed to “strengthen confidence in the rule of law and democracy”, reports Germany’s Die Welt.
Breitbart London reported in May that Freedom party secretary Herbert Kickl had spoken out before the vote over the “unusually high number” of postal ballots requested. He warned at the time that “[postal votes] repeatedly show inconsistencies”.
The decision comes just seven days before Green-backed candidate Alexander Van der Bellen was due to be officially sworn in as President of Austria.
Even before the allegations of electoral fraud, the vote was already considered extraordinary as it is the first time in modern Austrian history where none of the candidates in the final round were representiatives of the mainstream parties. Rather than a run-off between the Austrian People’s Party (OVP) and Social Democratic Party (SPO), the presidency was up between either the populist-right Hofer, or Green der Bellen.
Hofer, who initially told press his party would not be contesting the elections despite the close vote before the serious voting problems became apparent, campaigned on his Euroscepticism and opposition to mass migration to Austria.
Follow Oliver Lane on Twitter: Follow @Oliver_Lane or e-mail to: olane@breitbart.com
Speaking to host and Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon on Breitbart News Daily on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125, Breitbart London’s Oliver Lane discusses the re-run of the Austrian election:Jesse Lee Peterson sounds off on'spiritual battle' raging across America
CIVIL WAR AND THE CONTROLLED OPPOSITION
I have warned for 27 years since being aware: There is a war between good and evil. Violent liberal riots recently shut down Milo Yiannopoulos’s speech in Berkeley. Trump supporters showed up some weeks ago to rally for free speech. Fights broke out as liberals attacked, and police stood down. Mere threats of violence canceled Ann Coulter’s speech last week. The failing New York Times blamed the victims: conservative speakers. But a growing number of conservatives aren’t taking it anymore.
This war is not about “racism,” although whites are truly hated due to liberal scapegoating. It’s not about “sexism,” although males are manipulated to think and feel like women, and are punished when they don’t (see Bill O’Reilly). The war on whites by those who hate America, and the war on men by those who hate masculinity, is neither about race nor sex, but about power. The intent is to weaken the people who represent good – often white men – so they sink to the moral level of angry blacks, angry Hispanics and liberal women, so no good example remains to stand in the way of the wicked. This evil campaign has been largely successful, until Trump. We could see the country’s division during the close, controversial election of George W. Bush. Because of his weakness in not defending himself, because he catered to political correctness, that division only grew, which brought us Obama. During Obama’s presidency, liberals complained that “racist” Republicans didn’t let him do anything, while conservatives complained that cowardly Republicans refused to stop Obama for fear of being called “racist.” Barack exacerbated the divide like no other president in history, spreading lies and justifying hate against men of authority (including police and good men like Sheriff Joe Arpaio).
When Donald Trump emerged, even some “conservatives” called him a divider. But he divides the way Christ divided – with the truth. He exposed the lie within once-trusted conservatives, do-nothing politicians, the controlled opposition in our midst. Actually, anyone with anger can be controlled, and is controlled opposition – one who pretends or wants to fight for good, but due to weakness actually helps the side of evil. But Donald Trump is also a uniter with the truth like no other president I’ve seen: As a man of strength without anger, he won over supporters from young people, libertarians, tea-party leaders, blacks, Democrats, even Bernie Sanders socialists. I commented a year ago how he beautifully preached unity at Liberty University, and he urged Christians to band together and support one another. Today, we are in a spiritual war. Evil has grown and come out in the open like never before in America. Homosexuals and drag queens are out in public, backed by politicians and judges, suing Christians, forcing us to pretend they’re right. Black Lives Matter, supported by the media and Obama, brazenly hurl false accusations against whites and police, even inciting murder. Illegal aliens, blacks and Antifa communists assault Trump supporters in the streets. Yet mainstream media pretend Trump and his supporters are the hateful ones. The “fake news” media reported a spike in “hate crimes” that ended up being liberal hoaxes, and they gave precious little attention to correcting the record.
Whites, Christians and men feel angry at the insanity, injustice and demonization against them. But I strongly urge against this: With anger, you will lose. I told Owen Shroyer of InfoWars how much fun I’m having: This is the best time to be alive in America. Evil clearly reveals itself now, but because I forgave my mother and father, I am completed within, and I have perfect peace and no doubt. I deal with evil in the world, but it never gets to me. I sleep like a baby each night after a good day fighting evil. It’s not just a “battle of ideas” to convince other people, nor a physical fight, although we wield the truth and should protect ourselves. It’s a spiritual battle. With anger, you become the enemy you’re trying to fight – because anger is of your father, the devil. I interviewed white advocate Jared Taylor about the Alt-Right. He said that some in the Alt-Right are so rabidly anti-feminist that they get accused of hating women. He said some blame Jews for the anti-white direction of the country, many being angry at feeling unfairly villainized from a young age by academia, media and government propaganda. I pointed out that anger does no one any good. Young whites who blame Jews act like blacks who blame “white supremacy” for their plight. Everybody failing in life blames somebody else. In reality, their parents let them down. They must forgive and fight with love, not hate. There will always be evil people doing evil things. But there is never justification for anger. If we are to win this civil war in America, we on the side of good must ourselves become good, not angry and blaming the liberal media, politicians who betray us, nor anyone or anything else. Then we will see clearly to hold media and politicians accountable, as Trump does. Then we can become the leaders that we need.
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Jesse Lee Peterson is the most courageous, outspoken critic of the “civil rights” establishment in America today. Raised without his father on a plantation near Tuskegee, Alabama during the Jim Crow era, Peterson has lived a part of America’s history few have experienced. After a spiritual transformation, Peterson founded BOND, a nationally recognized nonprofit organization dedicated to “Rebuilding the Family by Rebuilding the Man.” Peterson is also a radio talk show host, speaker, and the author of SCAM: How the Black Leadership Exploits Black America, and From Rage to Responsibility. Peterson writes a weekly column for WND.com and appears as a media commentator |
Arctic sea ice loss and a wavy jet stream causing weird and extreme weather. Coincidentally (?) there's an "extreme kink" in it right now that just caused the warmest December temperature ever measured at any site on the Alaskan Arctic Ocean shoreline region.
Freedman wrote the piece following the publication in Nature of a new paper - with Jennifer Francis as co-author - that claims that rapid Arctic warming has an influence on extreme summer weather events. The last couple of years a lot of pioneering research is being done in this area, which in my view is one of the most exciting and important scientific corners currently around. Which explains why more and more experts are keeping an eye on developments.The Latest: New Mexico governor won’t be bullied by lawsuit
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The Latest on the state budget crisis in New Mexico (all times local):
4:50 p.m.
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez says lawmakers are suing her because they want to raise taxes and that she won’t back down.
Martinez spokesman Michael Lonergan said Friday the Legislature is attempting to bully the Republican governor and avoid compromise in a standoff over the state’s financial crisis.
Lawmakers are asking the New Mexico Supreme Court to rescind the governor’s line-item budget vetoes that effectively eliminate the Legislature by canceling its funding in the coming fiscal year. Lawmakers say the governor also overstepped her authority in vetoing all funding for institutions of higher education.
Martinez says the vetoes were within her authority as governor and necessary to avoid a deficit.
___
11:20 a.m.
The New Mexico Legislature has sued Republican Gov. Susana Martinez over her budget vetoes that would effectively eliminate the legislative branch by cutting off its funding amid an escalating clash over how to resolve the state’s financial crisis.
The Democrat-led Legislature on Friday petitioned the New Mexico Supreme Court to block vetoes that would defund the legislative branch and all state institutions of higher education in the coming fiscal year.
Attorneys for the Legislature say the vetoes would upset the constitutional balance between opposing branches of government.
The court challenge stems from a standoff over how to resolve a state budget shortfall linked to faltering tax income from low oil prices and an anemic local economy. Martinez has rejected tax increases offered by lawmakers and is urging further belt-tightening.At 14.2 tweets/minute, #EdTechChat was moving on Monday, August 19. (When school’s in session, #EdTechChat can log up to 2,000 tweets during the hour with several hundred participants.) Susan Bearden, Sharon Plante, and I co-moderated this week’s discussion on Web 2.0 tools, asking tweeps to share the benefits and challenges of using Web 2.0 tools, which ones are their favorites, and where they go to find new resources.
One of the most retweeted tweets captures why educators incorporate Web 2.0 tools into their classrooms: “@julnilsmith: Web 2.0 tools make students MAKERS - not just MEMORIZERS. “ Many other participants echoed that these kinds of tools can expand opportunities for students-- particularly by providing them with an authentic audience and allowing them to collaborate with peers worldwide. When choosing which tools to try, @MrStaubSTEM summed it up best: “The best edtech is the one you can use effectively that meets the needs in your classroom.” It’s not about the flash of the new technology—it’s about how that technology can support student learning.
Want to join the conversation? #EdTechChat happens every Monday 8-9pm ET
The tweet chat surfaced familiar challenges in incorporating Web 2.0 tools: bandwidth, wifi access, technology not functioning as expected, and tools that take a long time to use.
Just how easy do tools need to be to support teachers? A small debate erupted on this point: a few educators shared that if the tool wasn’t immediately transparent or was too complicated, they moved on to other tools.
Scott Messenger, former teacher and founder of Common Curriculum, pushed back, asking, “If Ts ‘don’t have time’ to master complex tools, can we really call them professionals?” He went on to provide an example: “What if an accountant said they ‘didn’t have time’ to learn Excel and QuickBooks bc 2 complex?”
Scott wasn’t alone with his question. Educators will continue to wrestle with how much of their limited time should be spent learning new educational tools, especially as the menu of choices balloons. This debate does underscore the importance of making the user experience clean and as easy to use as possible.
When asked where they found their best resources for identifying new educational tools to try, of course #edtechchat tweeps cited their PLN and #EdTechChat as prime resources for finding new educational tools, but Edsurge, Educlipper, Edshelf, Edutopia, Edudemic, and Graphite were also listed as go-to resources for learning about new educational technology.
EdTechChat tweeps can always be counted on to share their favorite tools! Here are the ones most frequently cited:
· Animoto
· Aurasma
· Citelighter
· CK12Foundation
· ClassDojo
· Diigo
· Edmodo
· Educlipper
· Educreations
· Evernote
· Explain Everything
· GlogsterEDU
· Goalbook
· Gobstopper
· Google Apps
· Kidblog
· KustomNote
· Livebinders
· Nearpod
· NoRedInk
· Padlet
· PollEverywhere
· Popplet
· Remind101
· Schoology
· ScreenLeap
· Socrative
· Storybird
· The Answer Pad
· ThreeRing
· VoiceThread
· Wiggio
Want to see the whole chat or previous chats? Check out the weekly archives.
Want to join the conversation? #EdTechChat happens every Monday 8-9pm ET!Tim Kurkjian says it hurts when management points out specific players who aren't doing their jobs, but believes manager Joe Girardi does a good job of deflecting the attention from the players and putting it on himself. (1:31)
NEW YORK -- Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner has backed manager Joe Girardi and his coaching staff and has blamed players for the team's slow start.
With New York last in the AL East at 16-22 before its 4-2 win over Arizona on Wednesday, Steinbrenner singled out Mark Teixeira, Chase Headley, Michael Pineda and Luis Severino for criticism.
"The first five weeks were disappointing, frustrating, particularly looking at the offense," said Steinbrenner, speaking Wednesday outside Major League Baseball's offices. "Clearly not living up to their potential.
"When you look at a guy like Mark Teixeira, clearly, he's not playing to his potential with the bat."
Steinbrenner said Pineda's decline is "concerning."
"All these strikeouts, and yet he's given up these runs," Steinbrenner said. "Whatever technically is wrong with the delivery, Larry [Rothschild, pitching coach] is going to work on, but the rest is up to Pineda to figure out. He's a professional, and that's what we expect from him, and that's what his teammates expect from him."
As for Severino, Steinbrenner said the pitcher has "a confidence issue" and has "to learn how to push through that downturn."
Hal Steinbrenner, while praising the coaches and the front office, singled out players such as Mark Teixeira, Chase Headley, Michael Pineda and Luis Severino for the team's slow start this season. Jim McIsaac/Getty Images
Not all players felt Steinbrenner's wrath. He praised Starlin Castro and Aaron Hicks, along with Girardi, Rothschild and general manager Brian Cashman.
"The coaches are doing a good job," Steinbrenner said. "These are professional athletes. They're the best baseball players in the world, and sooner or later it comes down to them, on the inside, to push through whatever it is they're going through and to persevere."
Far less tempestuous than his father, George, who goaded the team from his purchase in 1973 until nearly the time of his death in 2010, Hal Steinbrenner discussed the Yankees analytically, but with hope.
"Needless to say, the first five weeks were disappointing, frustrating, particularly looking at the offense," he said. "Clearly not living up to their potential."
Teixeira, a three-time All-Star first baseman, finished Wednesday night with a.203 average and 11 RBIs after going 0-for-5 with three strikeouts against the Diamondbacks. Headley didn't have an extra-base hit until May 12. After going 5-3 with a 2.89 ERA as a rookie, Severino is 0-6 with a 7.46 ERA and is on the disabled list with a triceps injury. Pineda is 1-5 with a 6.60 ERA, 102nd among 104 qualifying pitchers in the major leagues.
"I don't think it's a flaw in the way the team is put together," Steinbrenner said. "I think the team we have this year is better than the team we had last year."
The slumping Teixeira responded to Steinbrenner's assertion, readily acknowledging that he needs to play better.
"I don't blame him," Teixeira said. "I've been terrible the last month. I've been around long enough to know that you're going to get singled out when you're not producing, especially the type of career that I've had. I've always been someone that's been able to carry teams during tough streaks. We've been in a tough stretch the whole season. I'm the kind of player that can carry a team for a while. I just haven't done it yet.''
Pineda echoed this sentiment, telling reporters that he's not bothered by the critical assessment from the New York owner.
"I know I can be better, and that's why I'm telling you guys that I need to keep working hard to improve," Pineda said. "I can be better. I know it."
Speaking in Phoenix before the Yankees played Arizona, Girardi also understood Steinbrenner's sentiment.
"If I was the owner, I'd be frustrated, too,'' the manager said.
Now 46, with his hair starting to gray near the temples, Steinbrenner put off questions about what he would do if the Yankees are far from contention as the Aug. 1 deadline approaches for trades without waivers. After missing the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time in two decades, New York returned to the postseason in October, only to lose to the Houston Astros in the AL wild-card game.
For their first 22 home games this season, the Yankees averaged 38,587 fans, which appears on track to surpass last season's average of 39,992, given the larger crowds that usually show up when school is out.
"Season tickets are slightly up, which is the first time in four or five years that that's been the case," Steinbrenner said. "I don't know if it's making the playoffs one game or not. I don't know if it's some of the young players, Hicks, Castro, [Aroldis] Chapman, some of the guys we brought on. I don't know. But the fans have been excited."
He talked about the need for the Yankees to always have veteran stars, even as they add younger players. He looked ahead to prospects such as first baseman Greg Bird and pitcher James Kaprielian, who are both hurt, and shortstop Jorge Mateo. Steinbrenner said another run of consecutive World Series titles might be more difficult with the parity caused by revenue sharing and the luxury tax, but he thinks it still is possible.
"Sooner or later it comes down to...," he said, stopping to tap his hand over his heart three times.
In a text message to ESPN.com on Wednesday, Cashman said: "We just need to play better baseball, and baseball like we are capable of playing.''
New York won six World Series titles while George Steinbrenner was in charge. Hal Steinbrenner, whose only title since taking over came in 2009, said he knows the standard set by his father.
"If my name wasn't Steinbrenner, I wouldn't be here," he said. "I don't look at this as something I deserve. I've been given this. It's a gift. I respect it, and I enjoy it."
Information from ESPN's Wallace Matthews and The Associated Press was used in this report.EMIGRATE, the side project of RAMMSTEIN guitarist Richard Z. Kruspe, will release its sophomore album, "Silent So Long", on October 17. According to Amazon.de, the CD, which was mixed in February/March by Ben Grosse (MARILYN MANSON, DISTURBED), features guest appearances by Lemmy Kilmister (MOTÖRHEAD) and Jonathan Davis (KORN).
Says Kruspe: "For me, it was important to reach a new level of songwriting, singing and production, and I can honestly say we made it."
EMIGRATE's current recording lineup includes drummer Mikko Sirén of Finnish cello rockers APOCALYPTICA. Kruspe says: "[Mikko] did a great job laying down the drum tracks in the studio." The team is rounded out by co-producer and guitarist Olson Involtini and bassist Arnaud Giroux.
"Silent So Long" track listing:
01. Eat You Alive (featuring Frank Dellé)
02. Get Down (featuring Peaches)
03. Rock City (featuring Lemmy Kilmister)
04. Hypothetical
05. Rainbow
06. Born On My Own
07. Giving Up
08. My Pleasure
09. Happy Times
10. Faust
11. Silent So Long (featuring Jonathan Davis)
A teaser for "Silent So Long" is available below.
In a 2008 interview with All Access Magazine, Kruspe said about EMIGRATE: "It's not a side project. It's a new project and it will continue, and will be always a part of me."
Regarding his decision to launch a band that was different from what he does with RAMMSTEIN, Kruspe said: "It was really important for me to distance myself from what I did with RAMMSTEIN because [several] years I did not feel healthy being in that band. I needed something else. EMIGRATE was formed to balance myself out to cure myself to go back to RAMMSTEIN and be back at the top of my game. Both with RAMMSTEIN and with EMIGRATE."
Asked in another 2008 interview how long he had been wanting to get his solo project off the ground, Kruspe told Ultimate-Gutar.com : "It actually started a long time ago. I think every guitar player kind of has this thing in their head that they actually want to be a singer, and they're just afraid or whatever. I think when I'm in RAMMSTEIN, I always thought I'd want to sing. This time I think I had the confidence to do it. I think not getting the attention of the singer, it all comes down to this anyway. I compromised a lot of things in RAMMSTEIN. I didn't get along with the energy and the rhythm of the other members, and something was wrong. I felt like I wasn't really happy."
He continued: "I think to make music, it is something really selfish. You have to do what you're going to do. That's the only way you can really make the best music possible. You can't think in the beginning about anything else besides yourself. So for that, I never really thought about what everybody else was going to think. I had to make myself happy and do what I have to do. I think it's really important in life in general. We're here basically to do our own things. One of the reasons why I feel this way is because you learn when you go the unsafe way. It's really, really important as an artist to explore and to give yourself a challenge, to go the unsafe way. When I did the record, I realized that there was a dangerous part where the fans would basically try to judge me or think that I would break up the band. I would try to let them be a part of it. At the beginning, I would put songs online that they could listen to, showing them what I was doing right now. I tried to be as truthful as possible to let them know that this is something I had to do basically to go back to my old band and be happy again."12 AUG 3302
According to the Galactic Finance Times, analysis of the largest corporations in the Federation and the Empire reveals evidence of a significant economic downturn in the coming years.
"We're seeing poor revenue forecasts for a wide range of corporations, including big names like Sirius, Gutamaya and Core Dynamics," said a correspondent for the Galactic Finance Times. "They should be concentrating on marketing to leverage new product ranges, but instead they're diverting resources into intensive research and development. They're ignoring the traditional sales cycle, and we don't know why. It's perplexing."
Shareholders have seen poor returns on their investments in recent months, with stock prices dropping across multiple sectors, although this has given others a chance to pick up stock at bargain prices. Several of the pertinent corporations were contacted by the Galactic Finance Times, but none deigned to respond.
Despite the GFT's report, some commentators blame the downturn on the London Treaty, which was signed by the galaxy's three major powers in 3278 following the introduction of the frame shift drive. The treaty enforces strict tonnage limitations for capital ships, and was aimed at preventing an arms race, but in recent years it has come to be perceived as a barrier to economic development.
One option for investors looking for a risky but possibly lucrative venture is a start-up called MetaDrive Inc., a small company based in the Chi Orionis system specialising in hyperdrive research. The company is reported to be seeking investment.I was trained as an agricultural and applied economist, so I have spent a lot of time doing research on risk as it relates to agriculture and development (see here and here for published articles).
Because of this, I have been involved with the annual Economics and Management of Risk in Agriculture and Natural Resources conference for the past few years.
I first presented at that conference in 2009, and since I had then volunteered to organize the conference, I was in charge of the conference program in 2010 and of logistics in 2011.
This year, I was asked to give the keynote lecture, in which I chose to discuss what the “credibility revolution” that took place in economics over the past ten years or so — which has lead to economists to adopting stricter standards of evidence and of statistical identification — means for agricultural and applied economics as a field.
In case you have an interest in this topic, I am making the slides of my keynote lecture are available. I think the content of those slides is especially relevant for current graduate students of agricultural and applied economics.
The Economics and Management of Risk in Agriculture and Natural Resources conference is usually held somewhere on the Gulf Coast. This year, it was held in Pensacola, FL. I took the picture on top of this post while walking along the beach early Saturday morning.Get the latest from TODAY Sign up for our newsletter
July 8, 2013, 9:48 PM GMT By Danika Fears
The baby pudu, the world's smallest species of deer, looking precious at the Queens Zoo. Today
With their big, bright eyes and stately postures, deer are already one of the more alluring animals in the animal kingdom. And now there’s a diminutive doe proving that good (maybe the best?) things come in small packages.
This adorable endangered southern pudu, the world’s smallest species of deer, was recently born at the Wildlife Conservation Society Queens Zoo in Flushing, and his arrival was announced on Monday.
Swooning? So are we.
The doe, who has not yet been named, weighed just 1 pound when she was born on May 3, but could someday reach 20 pounds as an adult, according to a press release from the zoo. It’s still nursing, but zoo staff will soon starting incorporating fresh leaves, grain, kale, carrots and hay into the fawn’s diet.
The fawn hides behind nettles in its exhibit. Today
Pudu may be small, but they have a few helpful characteristics that come in handy when navigating the world: They bark at any signs of danger and can climb over fallen trees.
“Although small in stature, only 12 to 14 inches at the shoulder, pudu are excellent jumpers, sprinters, and climbers,” the press release reads. “What the pudu lacks in size, it makes up in strategy. When chased, pudu run in a zig-zag pattern to escape predation.”An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) took this photograph of the eastern parts of Tijuana, located in the Mexican state of Baja California about 20 kilometers (12 miles) inland from the Pacific Ocean. Tijuana is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in Mexico.
Note the sharp demarcation between Mexico and the United States. Tijuana shares this international border with its sister city San Diego, California, and it is the busiest land-border crossing in the world, with more than 300,000 crossings every day. The population of entire Tijuana-San Diego metropolitan region was estimated in 2012 to be about 4.9 million people.
The image shows Tijuana’s rugged terrain, which includes canyons and steep-sided hills such as Cerro Colorado (Red Hill). The photo is detailed enough to show individual roads and highways. The largest visible in the view is the double highway that follows the Rio Tijuana along both its banks. The Mexicali-Tijuana highway (top center) curves around a mountain near the border. Switchbacks of a steep dirt road wind up the side of a canyon, leading to the border fence road and to the peak of Otay Mountain.
Astronaut photograph ISS051-E-13155 was acquired on April 14, 2017, with a Nikon D4 digital camera using an 1150 millimeter lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 51 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by Justin Wilkinson, Texas State University, JETS Contract at NASA-JSC.The Boston Pops concert and fireworks show each July 4 brings more than a half-million people to the Charles River Esplanade. Ratings of the TV broadcast, however, have fallen.
For the first time in more than 20 years, the July 4 Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular will not be televised nationally after the CBS Television Network declined to renew a contract with the show’s producers.
Instead, the performance will only appear locally on WBZ-TV, pushed out of the national market, a local organizer says, by a competing fireworks show in New York City. It marks a significant downsizing in the profile of the glitzy event — one that could make it harder to draw top stars as headliners — and comes just two months after the Marathon bombing drew the nation’s eyes to Boston.
“The rest of the country will not be able to see Boston in its finest,” said David Mugar, the show’s executive producer. “And that’s too bad — that’s a loss for the city and for our region.”
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Each year, the Boston Pops concert and fireworks show brings more than a half-million people to the Charles River Esplanade, free of charge, and the broadcast was greatly valued as a way to market Boston’s appeal to the nation. Mugar said Saturday that CBS previously had signed two consecutive five-year contracts with the show, but declined to renew the contract for a third time after last year’s performance.
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Ratings have flagged in recent years, he said. The broadcast company believes it will make more money showing reruns of its regular programming, he said.
“The CBS show of the Pops show does not draw the numbers it used to,” Mugar said. “Its ratings have not exactly plummeted but its ratings are way down from prior years.”
In a statement, CBS confirmed that the July 4 show would not air nationally this year, but provided no reason for the decision to end its relationship with the event.
“The Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular is a terrific annual event... celebrating the Fourth of July with such distinction,” the statement said. “Although the CBS Television Network will not broadcast the event, we are proud to broadcast it on our CBS owned station WBZ-TV in Boston.”
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Mugar has his own theory on why the show found itself on CBS Television Network’s chopping block: competition with Macy’s.
The Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks show on NBC features music and fireworks on New York City’s Hudson River, and this year will feature music stars Usher, Mariah Carey, Nick Cannon, and Tim McGraw. Macy’s, Mugar said, had long sought to push the Boston Pops concert out of the number one spot in its 10-11 p.m. time slot.
“It’s Macy’s that did us in,” Mugar said. “We were a victim of our own success.”
Mugar said he believed the NBC’s decision several years ago to show its concert twice in a row — first during an earlier time slot, and again at the same time as the Boston Pops performance — was an effort to siphon off CBS’s viewers. And it seems to have worked. Last year, he said, the number of people who watched the Boston show fell by about 1 million viewers — 15 to 20 percent of the audience — knocking its ratings down to number two.
“That’s what happened with the July Fourth show,” Mugar said. “We were number one, Macy’s could not tolerate that, and Macy’s killed the Fourth of July on national television for Boston.”
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Elina Kazan, a vice president at Macy’s, said the decision to replay the July 4 event in New York City was a natural consequence of the show’s growing audience.
“As our live fireworks show and audience have grown, so has the national broadcast and television viewing audience,” Kazan said in a statement. NBC, she continued, “has chosen to expand the broadcast from its original one-hour show into a longer entertainment format.”
An official at NBC Entertainment called Mugar’s allegations “completely untrue,” saying that the decision to air the show twice on the night of July 4 was made solely because of economic reasons.
“These shows are expensive to produce and we amortize the costs by doing an encore telecast,” the official wrote in an e-mail.
CBS viewers outside the Boston area will see a rerun of the crime drama “Person of Interest.”
WBZ-TV, the local CBS outlet, did not respond to a request for comment.
The Boston Pops show, which has in recent years featured A-list stars such as Jennifer Hudson and Martina McBride, will this year have a more local focus, with Susan Tedeschi and Ayla Brown as headliners.
The show’s big acts are usually not paid, Mugar said, but the production company could attract leading celebrities because of the chance to step onto a national stage. Without the network contract, it will be more difficult for the show to attract the same caliber of star.
Mugar said the lack of funding from CBS will also mean that the production will have to make do with fewer cameras and lights for the broadcast, though he maintained that the quality of the production on stage would be the same for people in the audience.
The show caught flak two years ago after producers superimposed images of Boston landmarks in front of the fireworks on the national broadcast. But the end of the national broadcast may provide some unexpected positive side-effects for the show, Mugar said. Because the show is not beholden to the CBS schedule, he said, it will start an hour earlier, which means that families will not need to stay up so late, and there will be more time for people to get home on the MBTA before it closes.
“It’s brought it back to roots in a sense,” Mugar said. “It’s back so it’s now just a local show, which is wonderful.”
But, Mugar maintained, it’s a loss for the Boston community and viewers nationwide who tuned in each July 4. Other than sporting events, he said, there is no better opportunity for the rest of the country to see Boston on TV.
The lack of a national television appearance may also leave other companies feeling short-changed: Last year, Liberty Mutual Insurance renewed its three-year sponsorship agreement with the Boston Pops fireworks display and concert, a contract that cost the company $8 million.
Martine Powers can be reached at mpowers@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @martinepowersISRO had launched 104 satellites on a single rocket from Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota
Highlights Trump Intel nominee says, was "shocked" over India's 104-satellite launch US cannot afford to be seen lagging behind, stressed Dan Coats ISRO launched a record 104 satellites on a single rocket on Feb 15
The ISRO said the historic launch overtook the 2014 Russian record of 37 satellites in a single launch
US President Donald Trump's nominee to be the Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, has said he was "shocked" to know that India successfully launched over 100 satellites in one go, asserting that the US cannot afford to be seen lagging behind."I was shocked the other day to read that India, on one rocket launch, deposited more than 100 satellites in space," former Senator Coats told lawmakers on Tuesday during his confirmation hearing for the position of Director of National Intelligence. He said the US cannot afford to be seen lagging behind.India's space agency ISRO launched a record 104 satellites on a single rocket from the 'Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh on February 15."They may be small in size with different functions and so forth but one rocket can send up, I think it was 104 platforms," said Mr Coats, who if confirmed would be in-charge of all major American intelligence agencies including the CIA.With this launch, India became the first country to successfully carry so many satellites in a single mission. The ISRO said the historic launch overtook the 2014 Russian record of 37 satellites in a single launch.The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C37 was the star of what has been described as an incredible step for the country's space programme.All 104 satellites were released into space in just about 18 minutes - each travelling at the speed of over 27,000 km per hour.Of the total satellites that were launched, three were Indian-owned, 96 were from US companies, and the rest belonged to companies based in Israel, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates. Most satellites were owned by Planet Labs Inc, a San Francisco-based Earth-imaging company.In September 2014 the country became just the fourth after the US, the former Soviet Union and the European Space Agency to successfully guide a spacecraft into orbit around Mars. (with inputs from PTI)letsencrypt.org is the new awesomeness that happened to SSL on the web. Forget over-priced trusted certificates or self-signed certs for your side & pro bono projects. Try trusted SSL in seconds for free instead :). If you choose to use Let’s Encrypt I want to show you what needs to be done on a pretty average Fedora VPS with NGINX server and how to avoid certbot errors like urn:acme:error:unauthorized and urn:acme:error:unknownHost.
Since I don’t plan to duplicate what’s already said on letsencrypt.org and certbot.eff.org so go read that first. In short Let’s Encrypt will generate certificate for your (sub)domains for free on the fly on your server using the program called certbot. But before that certbot has to actually check that your server is serving your domain and that you have access to it.
So before running certbot you will need to check that your DNS records are in tact. Go to your DNS settings and check A records:
1 2 3 # Example: these are A records for gettandem.com (redirect) and www.gettandem.com (main site) www. gettandem. com 1800 A 46.101.250.40 gettandem. com 1800 A 46.101.250.40
This says what (sub)domains point to which IP address. If you want to generate SSL that is valid for your redirects as well, do not forget A records for them! With correct DNS settings you should be already safe from getting urn:acme:error:unknownHost.
Secondly you will need for certbot to check you have root access on the server mentioned in the A record. In our case that will be by specifying --webroot and --webroot-path options. Depending on your server that path might be able to serve the generated file in question (in $WEBROOT/.well-known/* ). If needed add a specific entry for this to NGINX:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 server {... location ~ * ^ /. well - known { root $ YOUR_ROOT ; allow all ; }... }
You can easily check this by placing a random HTML file under this path and see if it will be served ( $YOUR_ROOT can be your public assets directory for instance). That should eliminate another common error where the bot cannot access your server on the generated URL and so it is saying that you are unauthorized to place its file under yourserver.com/.well-known by raising urn:acme:error:unauthorized error.
If you feel confident that all is set, run the certbot :
1 2 # dnf install certbot -y # certbot certonly --webroot -d domain.com -d sub.domain.com -m your@contact.mail --agree-tos --webroot-path $WEBROOT -n
-n is for non-interactive mode, so you can script this step.
If all is well, you should see something along this lines:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15... Generating key ( 2048 bits ) : / etc / letsencrypt / keys / 0002_key - certbot. pem Creating CSR : / etc / letsencrypt / csr / 0002_csr - certbot. pem IMPORTANT NOTES : - Congratulations! Your certificate and chain have been saved at / etc / letsencrypt / live / www. domain. com - 0001 / fullchain. pem. Your cert will expire on 2017 - 08 - 11. To obtain a new or tweaked version of this certificate in the future, simply run certbot - auto again. To non - interactively renew * all* of your certificates, run "certbot-auto renew" - If you like Certbot, please consider supporting our work by : Donating to ISRG / Let's Encrypt : https : //letsencrypt.org/donate Donating to EFF : https : //eff.org/donate-le
The last step is obvious, replace your old NGINX SSL settings with the new one :).
E.g.:
1 2 3 4 5 6 server {... ssl_certificate / etc / letsencrypt / live / www. domain. com - 0001 / fullchain. pem ; ssl_certificate_key / etc / letsencrypt / live / www. domain. com - 0001 / privkey. pem ;... }ESPN FC: Who is unhappy at United?
Rio Ferdinand confirmed that Manchester United tried to re-sign Cristiano Ronaldo last summer and that he was a part of the campaign to bring the Portuguese superstar back to Old Trafford.
However, the Portugal international ultimately decided to stay in the Spanish capital.
"He was one of the most dialed people on my phone at the time, but I think the opportunity has gone now," Ferdinand said, according to the Daily Mirror.
"If we could have done it, I think it would have been last summer. He's signed a new deal at Real now.
"As footballers, you don't really let on too much to each other. It's like a chess game and in those situations you have got your one and two first-choice moves or scenarios that you want to happen.
"But if he was going to leave Real Madrid, I think Manchester United would have been the place he would have come to. That's my personal view, but no-one will ever know now."
Ferdinand is backing his old team-mates to be crowned as FIFA Player of the Year ahead of Lionel Messi as the Ballon d'Or award is handed out once again.
"We had a debate about it in training, and I think he has been the best in the calendar year, definitely, he's the best," added Ferdinand.
"Look at his goals. He's scored more goals than some clubs have in the calendar year.
"He is a great model to any young player to look up to. He got to being World Player of the Year back in 2008 and he wasn't satisfied.
"Ronaldo has gone on again to another level and he should have won it a couple of seasons ago when Real Madrid won La Liga.
"He wants to become the best player in the world again. He's still got people doubting him - maybe there's a jealousy element to it - and he wants to prove them people wrong. That's how you become the best."
© ESPN Sports Media LtdColorado State Senator to Introduce Stoned Driving Bill
DENVER, CO — A state senator in Colorado has said he will introduce a bill to the state legislature that will make it easier for prosecutors to convict offenders for driving under the influence of cannabis.
State Senator Steve King said Friday that he is writing a proposal that would set limits for how much THC a driver could have in their blood before they would be “dr |
when presidential candidates are interacting with their outside allies like never before, pushing the boundaries of rules prohibiting direct coordination. Ahead of announcing his 2016 bid, for example, former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R) helped raise more than $100 million for Right to Rise, a super PAC supporting him. Hillary Clinton’s campaign is collaborating directly with Correct the Record, a super PAC providing the Democratic front-runner’s team with opposition research.
The two Democratic groups that sought the latest changes were House Majority PAC and Senate Majority PAC, which is run by strategists with close ties to Reid. The groups filed a request in September for guidance on a dozen current super PAC practices, saying that until they were definitively resolved, candidates and political committees would be in “a state of legal limbo.”
“We had watched Republicans reportedly test out new approaches to super PAC activity and wanted the FEC to provide clear guidance on these activities,” said Shripal Shah, a spokesman for Senate Majority PAC.
The super PAC supporting Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush released an ad Dec. 7 questioning the merits of candidates Donald Trump, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.). The ad is set to air in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. (Right to Rise USA)
By a 4-to-2 vote, the FEC gave permission for a candidate to attend small gatherings of super PAC donors and allowed “agents” of a candidate to solicit large super PAC contributions.
Steven Walther, the lone independent on the panel, joined with the three GOP commissioners to approve the activities. He declined to comment.
Democratic appointee Ann Ravel, who is ending her term as FEC chairwoman, said that by blessing such activities, the commission “makes a mockery of the rules that the candidates can’t coordinate and fundraise for super PACs.”
“Now they explicitly have a green light, even those who might have been resistant to the temptation until now,” she said.
[Why super PACs have moved from sideshow to center stage]
Marc Elias, a lawyer for the Democratic super PACs, noted that the panel did not change the rules — it merely offered guidance on how to operate under the current regulations.
“If the majority of the commission believes something is legal, then it’s a good thing that people know what is legal,” he said, adding: “I don’t think anyone benefits from a lack of clarity or a lack of certainty.”
Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, an advocacy group that seeks stricter limits on campaign fundraising, said the advisory opinion conflicts with Congress’s intent to keep candidates from seeking massive contributions.
“All the FEC has done in 2015 is further pervert and undermine the campaign finance laws,” he said.
On the other hand, the panel did conclude that some interplay between potential candidates and well-funded outside groups was out of bounds.
The commission unanimously agreed that individuals who decide to run for office cannot cover their exploratory activities with political committees set up under Section 527 of the tax code and financed by large donations. That opinion might have limited the activities earlier this year of presidential contenders such as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), who were bolstered by such groups before declaring their candidacies.
The panel also said that an individual officially becomes a candidate once he or she has spent more than $5,000 and makes a private determination to run. That ruling could make it harder for prospective candidates to lay substantial groundwork for a campaign while maintaining publicly that he or she is still undecided, as Bush did.
But the FEC, which is riven by a deep ideological divide, deadlocked on several other significant questions, including whether a super PAC can spend money on behalf of an individual who helped form the group before becoming a candidate. The commission also could not agree whether an individual can share information about the needs of their prospective candidacy with a super PAC before officially entering a race.
[2016 fundraising shows power tilting to groups backed by wealthy elite]
It is unclear when the agency will offer any guidance on such activities. Last week, at its final meeting of the year, the commission could not agree on whether to update its coordination regulation to address super PACs.
Veteran campaign finance attorneys said there is an urgent need for the commission to lay down a clear set of comprehensive rules about what interaction between candidates and independent groups is permissible since the Supreme Court transformed the fundraising landscape with its 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision.
“What people want more than anything else is some certainty and some predictability, and now the best they can do is rely on a pattern of hands-off behavior in a number of enforcement matters,” said Larry Norton, a former FEC general counsel who represents corporations, advocacy groups and super PACs on both sides of the aisle. “The rules desperately need to be refreshed and reflect the world we’re in now.”
The narrowly drawn coordination regulation currently on the books was approved in 2010, when super PACs were still a novelty. Goodman said the rule went through extensive reworking in response to legal challenges.
“Some people want the coordination doctrine to carry more weight then the courts have said it can bear,” the Republican appointee said. The First Amendment guarantees that candidates and their outside allies can have “some interaction in the normal give-and-take of the political playing field,” he said.
Caroline Hunter, another Republican on the panel, said that the FEC has yet to determine whether any of the coordination complaints filed this year have merit.
“There’s this notion that everyone is out there coordinating,” she said. “There’s nothing that we’ve decided that shows evidence of coordination.”The deal "will leave U.S. taxpayers holding the bag," Hillary Clinton said. | AP Photo HEALTH CARE Drug merger unleashes Dem fury — and more calls for tax reform At issue: Companies that merge to reduce their U.S. tax bills.
Pfizer’s blockbuster $160 billion merger with Irish pharmaceutical maker Allergan is stoking the partisan debate on corporations that move their headquarters overseas to lessen their U.S. tax bills — with Democrats like Hillary Clinton quickly condemning the deal while Republicans called it a symptom of a broken tax code.
The deal "will leave U.S. taxpayers holding the bag," Clinton said in a statement Monday, calling on Congress to limit corporations’ ability to use the tax-limiting maneuver known as an inversion.
Story Continued Below
Democratic primary rival Bernie Sanders called on the Obama administration to block the deal, and while the White House didn’t go that far, spokesman Josh Earnest accused Republicans who refuse to support limits on inversions of being “bought and paid for” by big business.
The proposed merger would be the biggest inversion ever and create the world's largest pharmaceutical company. It would let Pfizer shift its legal corporate residence to Ireland to lower its adjusted tax rate to between 17 and 18 percent, down from Pfizer’s current 25 percent effective rate.
Republicans, including GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, say the only way to discourage these kinds of deals is to lower the 35 percent U.S. corporate tax rate, currently the highest statutory rate in the developed world, and exempt some foreign earnings.
“The fact that Pfizer is leaving our country with a tremendous loss of jobs is disgusting. Our politicians should be ashamed,” Trump said in a statement Monday.
Despite the heated rhetoric, little is likely to be done to halt the practice any time soon. No major changes to the tax code will happen until after the next president is in office, if then, most analysts say.
And while the Treasury Department has taken some steps to make inversions less attractive — the latest coming just last week — the Pfizer-Allergan deal demonstrates how ineffective those measures have been, despite a temporary lull after Treasury initially issued “guidance” in September 2014.
“It changes things around the edges and it tightens things … but the Pfizer-Allergan transaction is the perfect example of what Treasury can’t affect,” BakerHostetler partner Jeff Paravano said.
Pfizer executives sought to head off political blowback with letters to lawmakers emphasizing the corporation’s commitment to the U.S.
In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) just hours after the announcement of the merger, Pfizer CEO Ian Read said the pharmaceutical behemoth will keep its "global operational headquarters in New York City" and maintain an American employee base of 40,000 across 25 states.
"As a result of this combination we will be gaining greater access to resources that will enable us to make significant investments in the U.S. in research and development. We believe this will be good for patients and for U.S. competitiveness,” Read wrote
But Democrats were in no mood for promises.
Sanders said the merger "would be a disaster for American consumers who already pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs."
While declining to comment on the Pfizer-Allergan deal specifically, Earnest tore into inversions.
"It may serve the corporate bottom line of some of these companies, but it certainly doesn't strengthen the economy of the United States and it certainly doesn't enhance the prospects of middle class families in this country," he said.
Nonetheless, some Democrats — including President Barack Obama — have acknowledged shortcomings in the U.S. tax code’s treatment of American multinational corporations. The U.S. taxes foreign earnings at the same rate as domestic earnings, while many U.S. competitors have moved toward exempting those earnings.
That’s what makes inversions so attractive. While an inverted company still pays tax on its U.S. operations, it no longer has to pay a tax on profits earned abroad if it brings them to the United States.
“It has nothing to do with whether corporations pay high enough taxes, it has to do with who corporations are competing against,” said a person close to Pfizer. “You know, you can’t really make a value judgment on this, because corporations are not people. They’re serving their consumers and their shareholders with the best deal possible.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has endorsed creating a “patent box” that would lower tax rates on intellectual property as one way to encourage companies to stay. House Speaker Paul Ryan said last week that he and Schumer are still in talks to produce a bipartisan international tax reform plan, emphasizing the urgency of the issue as corporations explore ways to invert.
But Schumer’s reaction to the Pfizer deal — blasting the company’s decision to “forsake America” — underscored the difficult politics of lowering taxes for multinational corporations amid reports of some high-profile corporations, including Apple and General Electric, paying obscenely low rates in recent years.
Treasury released new guidance Thursday to make inverting less attractive, but the proposed rules don’t apply to the Pfizer-Allergan deal for a few reasons, analysts said.
Chief among them: Pfizer shareholders will own less that 60 percent of the combined corporation’s stock, tax lawyers pointed out, so the transaction wouldn’t reach the minimum ownership threshold for penalties. Under current regulations, a combined corporation is considered domestic if at least 80 percent is owned by the former U.S. parent, with tax penalties starting to kick in at the 60 percent threshold.
Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said the Treasury rules “can only go so far” in a statement addressing the Pfizer deal.
“The only course of action that will stop this concerning trend of American firms continuously looking for ways to shift their headquarters overseas is comprehensive tax reform,” he said. “The fact is, our tax code and our economy work as an ecosystem, so when Congress or the administration make changes in one area to solve an immediate crisis like inversions, there’s always a risk of unforeseen effects popping up somewhere else.”
Some tax lawyers, for example, argue stricter anti-inversion rules just make U.S. companies better acquisition targets, rather than buyers, but do little to change the motivations for leaving.
“Building walls historically doesn’t work; you can’t trap people into operating against their economic interests,” Paravano said. “If you want companies to have their headquarters here, you need to make it attractive for them to have their headquarters here.”
Sarah Karlin contributed to this report.WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a challenge to Wisconsin’s voter identification law, after having blocked the state from requiring photo IDs in November’s general election.
The justices’ action means the state is free to impose the voter ID requirement in future elections, and is further evidence that the court put the law on hold last year only because the election was close at hand and absentee ballots already had been mailed with no notification of the need to present photo IDs.
The court did not comment on its order.
Wisconsin was one of four states in which a dispute over voting rules reached the Supreme Court last fall. The other states were North Carolina, Ohio and Texas. Of the four states, only Wisconsin’s new rules were blocked.
Wisconsin’s photo ID law has been a political flashpoint since Republican legislators passed it in 2011. The GOP argues the mandate is a common sense step toward reducing election fraud. Democrats maintain no widespread fraud exists and that the law is really an attempt to keep Democratic constituents who may lack ID, such as the poor, minorities and the elderly, from voting.
The law was in effect for the February 2012 primary but subsequent legal challenges put it on hold and it hasn’t been in place for any election since.
The ACLU and allied groups persuaded a federal judge in Milwaukee to declare the law unconstitutional last year. But the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago later ruled that the law did not violate the Constitution.
The Supreme Court refused to disturb that ruling on Monday.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Dalvin Cook left the game for the Minnesota Vikings in the third quarter on Sunday afternoon after his knee buckled on a non-contact play and Mike Zimmer has dished on the latest.
The head coach told radio sideline reporter Greg Coleman that the team fears an ACL injury to the rookie running back and that he will have an MRI to assess the damage on Monday.
(The Minnesota Vikings are working to stay in the playoff hunt and NFC North race --Don't miss out on the action. Sign up for our FREE newsletter today!)
Cook was spotted on crutches in the locker room after the game and wearing a knee brace, per NFL Network's Tom Pelissero.
Latavius Murray and Jerick McKinnon took over in the backfield after Cook left. The Vikings would lose 14-7 to fall to 2-2 on the season.
Follow Vikings on 247Sports' Anthony Broome on Twitter and FacebookResearch in Motion (RIM) has now confirmed that it will not be blocking Android app side-loading on its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.
TechRadar heard yesterday that Alec Saunders, VP of Developer Relations, tweeted; "Piracy is a huge problem for Android devs, and we don't want to duplicate the chaotic cesspool of Android market."
This sent panic through the ranks, with the suggestion that Android app support was about to be ditched on the PlayBook, but fear not as this isn't the case.
140 characters doesn't allow for nuance
Saunders has written a blog post to clarify his tweet and states that RIM will not be removing side-loading from the BlackBerry PlayBook after all.
The post goes on to say that the side-loading feature will be updated to provide better protection for developers, allowing only the user who purchased the app to load it onto their PlayBook.
Although Google Play (formerly the Android Market) was not named in the blog post, it is clear that PlayBook users will still be able to load Android apps onto their tablet and Saunders defended his now infamous tweet by saying "140 characters doesn't allow for nuance".
We did find it odd that RIM would remove the side-loading feature, as the PlayBook has failed to capture the hearts of the tablet market and it needs all the help it can get - but is this news enough to keep BlackBerry in the tablet game?
From BlackBerry Dev Blog via PC Mag“Ham is made from pig bum, isn’t it Mummy?“ This was the question I was confronted with during a recent trip to the local zoo with my young daughter. She had taken a break from feeding Alice, the zoo’s resident pig, to inhale her own lunch (a ham sandwich) when suddenly she made the connection: "I like Alice. She’s my friend!”
This moment of realisation didn’t seem to present a problem for a precocious four year old. But, for many adults, the connection between the meat on our plate and a living, feeling animal is more problematic. This is evident in the increasing number of vegetarians which ranges from as little as 2% of the population in some developed countries to over 30% in India. The rest of us, those who would rather eat cardboard than tofu, arm ourselves with a variety of psychological techniques to overcome the moral dilemma of being responsible for the suffering and death of another living creature.
This dilemma is often called the “meat paradox”. The term refers to the mental conflict between our moral belief that it is wrong to inflict suffering or death on sentient beings and our desire to enjoy a guilt-free sausage sandwich. This kind of psychological brain squabble is referred to as “cognitive dissonance”.
Mental Tug-Of-War
Cognitive dissonance occurs whenever someone holds contradictory beliefs – it can manifest as a range of emotions including anger, embarrassment and guilt. We can see it in people’s desire to smoke despite the significant dangers to their health or in the continuing use of petrol-fuelled cars despite accepting the threat of climate change. To see this conflict first-hand, try reminding the next person you see eating a bacon sandwich of its cute piggy origin.
Most people are hardwired to curb the self-flagellation that occurs whenever we focus our thinking on the subject causing our cognitive dissonance. The logical way for us to silence any meat-focused mental backchat would simply be to alter our eating habits and avoid the problem in the first place.
While this might seem like a straightforward change, arguing that it is a simple move vastly underestimates how deeply ingrained eating meat is in most cultures. Eating meat forms a key part of many traditions and ceremonies as well as everyday cooking, but can also convey status. For example, male vegetarians are often perceived as less masculine compared with their omnivorous counterparts. Plus, many of us really, really like the taste of it.
This means we need a different approach to end the cerebral tug-of-war playing out in our heads. This typically begins by undermining the inconvenient belief that consuming animals entails harming them. A common mechanism for doing this is by denying that farm animals think in the same way humans do – or even other “more intelligent” animals (usually pets). This reduces their inherent worth in our minds and places them outside the circle of moral concern. Surely our treatment of a cow or pig is irrelevant if they are too stupid to think and feel?
Fido’s not coming home Shutterstock
Some might argue that our designation of certain animals as food is due to our understanding and knowledge of the species inhabiting our world. But this kind of labelling is socially defined. For example, the UK greeted the recent mislabelling of horse meat with outrage because of cultural conventions against consuming it.
Yet many countries, including some of the UK’s closest neighbours, have no problem with eating horses. Again, while many of us may be horrified at the thought of eating Fido or Skippy, this is by no means a universal reaction and is heavily dependent on our cultural and familial influences.
Hiding From The Evidence
This representation of livestock as dumb allows us to ignore growing evidence that farm animals lead complex mental and emotional lives and avoid modifying our behaviour. We then reinforce this status quo by avoiding anything that may trigger further dissonance, including those pesky vegetarians. Just reading a description of this group of people causes us to increase our disparagement of animals' mental abilities.
Similarly, supermarkets sell us meat that bears no resemblance to its animal origin. Some people are even disgusted by fish with the head on, never mind larger animals. We buy “beef” and “pork” instead of cow and pig to aid the process of dissociation.
We rarely seek out information on farm animal welfare, preferring to devolve responsibility to higher powers. And when faced with evidence of animal suffering, we under-report our meat consumption. Those of us more aware of animal production methods might buy “welfare-friendly” products to affirm our delusions of cows skipping through green fields. This “perceived behavioural change” reduces our guilt, allowing us to take the moral high ground and still eat burgers.
Avoiding psychological strife in this way might allow us to continue eating meat, but it also reveals a disturbing link between the devaluing of animals and the dehumanisation of our own kind. Reducing the intelligence and moral worth of people we consider “outsiders” is often linked to discrimination and is understood to be an important mechanism in the lead up to many atrocities in human history.
But just as our awareness of – and attitudes towards – human discrimination have changed, so may our views on the mass farming of animals for food. The lengths we go to to avoid confronting our cognitive dissonance over eating meat suggest it might be wise to re-evaluate how comfortable we are with our current level of consumption. The mental hoops we jump through mean feeding Alice the pig might be a joy – but eating her is far from child’s play.
Click here to take part in Queen Mary University of London’s survey investigating people’s attitudes to the animal mind and how they think this varies between different species.
Caroline Spence, PhD Candidate, Biological and Experimental Psychology, Queen Mary University of London
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.Thousands of Syrian troops backed by tanks swept into the flashpoint town of Daraa on Monday, firing on residents and leaving bodies lying in the streets, activists and witnesses said.
Rights activists also reported security force raids Monday in the towns of Douma and Al-Muadamiyah near Damascus.
One witness spoke of five people killed in Daraa when their car was raked by gunfire while activists reached by telephone said they were unable to count the number of dead and wounded as army snipers on rooftops were preventing people from leaving their houses.
"We saw with our own eyes, they were in a car that was riddled with bullets," the witness said, adding that he was on a rooftop and could hear intense gunfire reverberating across the town.
"The minarets of the mosques are appealing for help. The security forces are entering houses. There is a curfew and they fire on those who leave their homes. They even shot at water tanks on roofs to deprive people of water," he said.
A massive crackdown was also underway Monday in Douma, 15 kilometres (nine miles) north of Damascus, a rights activist said, reached by telephone.
"Security forces have surrounded a mosque and are firing indiscriminately. Streets are cut off from each other and Douma is isolated from the outside world," said the activist, adding that there have been sweeping arrests in the town since Sunday.
The military assaults come as Syria is engulfed in anti-regime protests and amid a crackdown on demonstrators across the country in which according to rights activists and witnesses more than 135 people have been killed and scores arrested since Friday.
The crackdown comes despite President Bashar al-Assad signing on Thursday decrees ending a draconian state of emergency, imposed by the Baath Party when it seized power in 1963, to placate more than a month of pro-democracy protests.
He also abolished the state security court that has tried scores of regime opponents outside the normal judicial system and issued a decree allowing citizens to hold peaceful demonstrations.
Rights activists reached by telephone said a 3,000-strong military force swarmed into Daraa in the early hours of Monday, with tanks taking up positions in the town centre and snipers deploying on rooftops.
"Snipers have taken up positions on the roofs and tanks are in the centre of the town... Bodies are lying in the streets and we can't recover them," one activist said, asking not to be named for security reasons.
Activist Abdullah Al-Harriri told AFP earlier on Monday: "The men are firing in all directions and advancing behind the armour which is protecting them.
"Electricity is cut off and telephone communications are virtually impossible," he said.
On Sunday thousands of residents of Daraa province buried several victims of a crackdown by security forces of protesters the previous day.
A demonstration followed, but the security forces did not intervene, a militant said. Asking to remain anonymous, he said the protesters brandished Syrian flags and placards calling for "suppression of Article 8 of the constitution" on supremacy of the sole Baath Party.
Most shops stayed closed in a sign of mourning.
Tens of thousands swarmed cities and towns across Syria on Friday to test implementation of the reforms authorised by Assad a day earlier, but security forces used live rounds and tear gas against them, activists said.
"After Friday’s carnage, it is no longer enough to condemn the violence," Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
"Faced with the Syrian authorities’'shoot to kill' strategy, the international community needs to impose sanctions on those ordering the shooting of protesters," he said.
The protests against Assad's regime started mid-March in Daraa and spread to other major centres, including the capital Damascus. A crackdown by the security forces on the protests have left at least 366 people dead, according to figures compiled by AFP based on reports by human rights groups and witnesses.
Syria blames "armed gangs" for the unrest aimed at fuelling sectarian strife among its multi-religious and multi-ethnic communities.
Wissam Tarif, executive director of Insan human rights group, said that at their last update Friday there were 221 "forcefully disappeared people" in Syria.
The Syrian Revolution 2011 group, a driving force behind the protests, indicated it would keep up the pressure. "We are going out (on the streets) today, tomorrow and the day after," said a statement on its Facebook page.
Short link:A young girl is petitioning the Boy Scouts of America to end its “discriminatory” practice of not admitting girls into certain Boy Scouts programs because it allegedly deprives girls of crucial leadership opportunities they cannot find elsewhere… like, in the Girl Scouts.
Sydney Ireland, a 15-year-old from Bridgehampton, Long Island, wrote a Change.org petition—with the help of her brother—demanding the Boy Scouts end its “discrimination against young women.”
In the petition, Ireland argues, “I cannot change my gender to fit the Boy Scouts’ standards, but the Boy Scouts can change their standards to include me.”
“It isn’t just a hobby, it’s access to some of the best leadership training there is,” she adds. “According to the BSA, over half of all astronauts were involved in Scouting and 16.3% of West Point cadets are Eagle Scouts. Of the current Congress, 191 members were involved in Scouting, 18 current U.S. governors participated in Scouting, and many of them are Eagle Scouts. The facts say it all -- high-level Scouting creates opportunity, and with opportunity comes a chance at success in the global community.”
What Ireland fails to admit, however, is that those numbers reveal approximately half of all astronauts, 83.7 percent of West Point cadets, 344 members of the 113th Congress (where Ireland derived her figure), and 32 governors were able to learn their vital leadership skills without the assistance of the Boy Scouts. Some were even in the Girl Scouts.
According to information provided by the Girl Scouts, which apparently isn’t good enough for girls, 58 percent of the women in the 114th Congress, 75 percent of female senators, 53 percent of female House of Representative members, five of the six female governors, and every single female secretary of state have been Girl Scout members.
The Girl Scouts even has an entire pamphlet dedicated to the leadership skills girls learn as members of the group.
Talking to the Southampton Patch, Ireland admits she is unfamiliar with leadership skills women learn from the Girl Scouts.
She said, “I'm not too familiar with Girl Scouts, but Boy Scouts also has the Eagle Rank. I know there's an equivalent in Girl Scouts, as well, but I want girls to have to have the choice to join whatever program they want.”
Without knowing about the success of the Girl Scouts, Ireland writes in her petition, "I, and many young women like me, want this chance at the best leadership training for our youth. Women can now hold all combat roles, and have already earned Bronze and Silver Stars, and Purple Hearts in war. Women have leadership roles in government, business, academia and entertainment."
In a response to Ireland’s petition, communications director for the Boy Scouts of America reaffirmed the organization will remain for boys.
We understand that the values and the lessons of Scouting are attractive to the entire family. However, the Boy Scouts of America was chartered by Congress in 1916 to serve boys and young men across the nation through the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts programs, which are year-round programs for boys in the first grade through age 18. We have since developed alternative programs that are co-ed, such as Venturing, but to change the Cub or Boy Scouting programs would go outside the bounds of our charter.
In 2015, a group of girls also tried to join the Boy Scouts, but were given a similar response.According to a report from TSN’s Farhan Lalji, Columbus Blue Jackets restricted free agent centre Ryan Johansen will soon receive a one-year contract offer for $5 million US, from KHL team CSKA Moscow.
Report: Blue Jackets Centre Ryan Johansen gets KHL Offer
Johansen is currently holding out of Blue Jackets training camp in a contract dispute that became very public this week when John Davidson called his agent’s tactics “extortion” and released the contract offers from the team to Johansen in a public press conference.
“It makes no sense,” Davidson said to the Hockey News [about Johansen’s camp’s demands]. “When you see numbers that are thrown at us, we shouldn’t even respond. That’s how bad it is. It’s embarrassing. And if the kid sits out, he sits out. I wonder if the agent’s going to pay him his money back that he’s going to lose by sitting out. “With the numbers they come back with…are so one-sided it’s nonsensical. It’s extortion is what it is. I don’t make this stuff up. I’ve been in this league doing this for a long time now and this one here, it’s baffling is what it is. This one’s baffling. Baffling.”
The LWOS Hockey team took a look at Davidson’s comments and debated them in yesterday’s roundtable.
Johansen, 22, scored a career-high 33 goals and 63 points in 82 games with the Blue Jackets last season.
He was the Blue Jackets first round pick, fourth overall in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.
For the latest sports injury news, check out our friends at Sports Injury Alert.
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Main Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty ImagesSamsung's upcoming Galaxy S 4 will utilize eye-tracking technology that enables users to scroll through webpages without touching the screen, The New York Times is reporting today. New paragraphs will automatically come into view when your eyes hit the end of a paragraph. A Samsung employee reportedly provided the Times with this information, though the source didn't disclose the technology being used to power the functionality. Unfortunately it's also not yet known whether Samsung plans to demonstrate eye tracking at its March 14th press event. Such a feature would represent a bold evolution of Samsung's existing experiments in user awareness. Smart Stay, among the software additions found on the Galaxy S III, prevents the phone's display from dimming when a user is looking at the screen. Samsung will unveil its latest flagship Android handset on March 14th in New York City.NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge ruled that a National Security Agency program that collects records of millions of Americans’ phone calls is lawful, calling it a “counter-punch” to terrorism that does not violate Americans’ privacy rights.
A National Security Agency (NSA) data gathering facility is seen in Bluffdale, about 25 miles (40 kms) south of Salt Lake City, Utah, December 17, 2013. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart
Friday’s decision by U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan diverged from a ruling by another judge this month that questioned the program’s constitutionality, raising the prospect that the Supreme Court will need to resolve the issue.
In a 54-page decision, Pauley dismissed an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit contending that the NSA collection of “bulk telephony metadata” violated the bar against warrantless searches under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The judge also referred often to the September 11, 2001 attacks, in which nearly 3,000 people died, and said broad counter-terrorism programs such as the NSA’s could help avoid a “horrific” repeat of those events.
“This blunt tool only works because it collects everything,” Pauley wrote. “Technology allowed al Qaeda to operate decentralized and plot international terrorist attacks remotely. The bulk telephony metadata collection program represents the government’s counter-punch.”
The program’s existence was first disclosed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who is now in Russia under temporary asylum. His leaks have sparked a debate over how much leeway to give the government in protecting Americans from terrorism.
ACLU PLANS APPEAL
Pauley ruled 11 days after U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C. said the “almost Orwellian” NSA program amounted to an “indiscriminate and arbitrary invasion” that was likely unconstitutional.
Leon also ordered the government to stop collecting call data on the two plaintiffs in that case, but suspended that portion of his decision so the government could appeal.
The ACLU has argued before Pauley that the NSA program was an unwarranted “dramatic expansion” of the government’s investigative powers over Americans’ day-to-day lives.
Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director of the ACLU, on Friday said the group was “extremely disappointed” with Pauley’s decision, saying it does away with “core constitutional protections. He said the ACLU will appeal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest declined to comment. U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Peter Carr said the department is pleased with the decision.
Stephen Vladeck, an American University law professor who specializes in national security, said if federal appeals courts in New York or Washington, D.C. ultimately accept Leon’s analysis, “then it seems likely, if not certain, that this case will get to the (Supreme Court) by the end of next year.”
President Barack Obama has defended the surveillance program but has indicated a willingness to consider constraints, including whether to give control of metadata to phone companies or other third parties. Intelligence officials have said this could prove costly and slow investigations.
On December 18, a White House-appointed panel proposed curbs on some NSA surveillance operations.
It said that because intelligence agencies could not point to specific cases where telephony metadata collection led to a major counter-terrorism success, the intrusiveness of such intelligence gathering might outweigh the public benefit.
Obama is expected next month to set forth his own proposals for possible surveillance reforms.
RUBBER STAMP, OR VITAL WEAPON?
In rejecting the ACLU motion for a preliminary injunction to block the NSA program, Pauley said the public interest tilted “firmly” toward the government, for which combating terrorism “is an urgent objective of the highest order.”
While acknowledging that the program “vacuums up information about virtually every telephone call to, from, or within the United States,” he said its constitutionality “is ultimately a question of reasonableness.”
Pauley added that he found no evidence that the government had used bulk telephony metadata for any reason other than to investigate and disrupt terrorist attacks.
The program also faces a legal challenge by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a data privacy group. In a statement, the group said it was “obviously disappointed” with Pauley’s decision, but that it would continue pursuing its own cases.
Larry Klayman, a conservative legal activist who brought the case before Judge Leon, called Pauley’s ruling “an outrageous decision that ignores the legitimate fears of the American people and in effect rubber stamps a police state.”
Pauley was appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton. Leon was appointed by President George W. Bush.
Both cases interpreted a 1979 Supreme Court decision, Smith v. Maryland, that said people have no “legitimate expectation of privacy” regarding phone numbers they dial because they knowingly give that information to phone companies.
While Leon said Smith’s relevance had been “eclipsed” by technological advances and the advent of cell phones, Pauley said this did not undermine the finding that people have “no subjective expectation of privacy in telephony metadata.”
Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican and chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterintelligence & Terrorism, in a statement said Pauley’s decision “preserves a vital weapon for the United States in our war against international terrorism.”
The case is American Civil Liberties Union et al v. Clapper et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 13-03994.Washington
CONGRESS has made a terrible mistake. Amid a rhetorical debate centered on words like “crisis,” “emergency” and “catastrophe,” it acted too fast. While arguments were made about the stimulus bill’s specific components — taxpayer money for condoms, new green cars and golf carts for federal bureaucrats, another round of rebate checks — its more dangerous consequences were overlooked. And now the package threatens a return to the kind of stagflation last seen in the 1970s.
To get a sense of the pressures ahead, we must first assess our fiscal health. We started this year with a projected trillion-dollar budget deficit for the 2009 fiscal year. In 2008, we spent $451 billion just to pay the interest on our debt.
With the stimulus bill now becoming law, we’re digging even deeper into debt. The headline price tag of $787 billion doesn’t include the extra $348 billion it will take to finance the new debt, or what it will cost when Congress extends the spending programs in the bill, as is likely — as much as $2 trillion more. Add in the billions that are being used to prop up the financial system, and when the dust settles on 2009, with millions of baby boomers retiring and entitlement spending exploding, taxpayers will face a financial nightmare.
From a global perspective, the picture only looks worse. As we have debated how much money to borrow and spend in hopes of jump-starting our economy, we’ve ignored the |
of Hitler’s heroes: the creator of the mobile gas vans — forerunners of the gas chambers — which were used to slaughter 100,000 people.
Rauff escaped to Chile after the war, where he began a new life as an air-conditioning unit salesman before working briefly as a West German spy.
Then he became an accomplice to the Chilean secret service under the hideous dictatorship of General Pinochet. The regime tortured almost 30,000 people and Rauff and his Nazi network helped them do it.
Back then, the Villa Baviera was called Colonia Dignidad, which in Spanish means the Dignity Colony. Rauff loved it here. Behind barbed wire and watchtowers, former Nazi soldiers had built an Aryan utopia.
The man Rauff would visit here was called Paul Schafer, a one-eyed Nazi soldier who had reinvented himself as a charismatic pastor after 1945.
His flock followed him to Chile, where he established a colony. But Schafer turned out to be far from the kindly ‘Uncle’ he had led his congregation to believe. He was a paedophile who turned the 230 Germans who travelled with him into his slaves.
Families were separated on the voyage over. When they arrived, the blond children were roomed in a separate ‘children’s house’ — where Schafer had a private apartment.
Blue-eyed men and women lived in their own dormitories. Dressed like German peasants, they tilled the soil while singing.
Barbed-wire sealed them off from the world. Schafer banned newspapers, money and private conversations. He forbade his followers from having sex. He turned Villa Baviera into a concentration camp and his own paedophile paradise.
Schafer alone had a private room — and every night he had his boys. His henchmen spiked the fruit juices in the children’s homes to sedate the victims. Sometimes he raped more than one in a night, calling out for more.
Schafer’s Nazi supporters imposed total surveillance. Rocks hid cameras. Woodland hid torture chambers.
This photograph shows the front of Hotel Baviera in the German colony of Villa Baviera
When Schafer’s Aryan slaves tried to run away they were taken to the hospital. Here the torture started.
First electric shocks to the head, then the genitals and along the spine. Escapees were forced to swallow 20 sedative pills a day to make them too weak to run away again.
Rauff brought in his friends from the Chilean secret service. They saw its potential. This was the perfect place to torture hundreds of communists, democrats and dissident artists. The regime installed Chilean soldiers in the colony, which became a secret torture centre. It is said they learned torture techniques from the Nazis.
The colony’s isolation ensured privacy. Pinochet’s rule ended in 1981, but Schafer was not apprehended until 2005, when he was finally convicted as a paedophile. With Schafer and some of his associates in prison, the barbed wire gates were finally opened.
More than half of the colonists flew back to Germany. Everyone else — including some men responsible for torture and slavery — still live there.
On the road to Villa Baviera I met Franz Baar Kohler. He was brutally tortured in the colony as a boy.
I found him in poverty, living with his nightmares in a peasant shack. Franz was one of the Chilean boys whom Schafer lured into the colony and who were given new German names as he grew ever greedier for flesh.
‘The Germans would come down and parade through our villages for the children. They were playing cymbals and brass trumpets and drums and I loved them. All I wanted was to go and live in the colony.’
His mother did not want to let him go, but he insisted. Franz never saw her again. ‘When I entered the colony they made me shower. I was so unused to washing with soap. I did not know how to do it. Then Schafer came into the shower and began washing me... and touching me.’
Franz tried to run away, but was caught and beaten. ‘They beat me with cables. They beat me until blood spewed... they beat me on my head, on my back, on my arms, my neck. They beat me until I was screaming.’
Franz rolls up his sleeves in the gloom of the shack. ‘They put both of my arms into one of those whirring, round saws.’
His finger traces a long, smooth scar. ‘They took me into the hospital and locked me in a small room. They cut open my fingers and my wrists and stuck in all kinds of drips.’
Franz looked into the distance as if he were a million miles away. ‘Sometimes, I did not know if I was dead or alive.’
The Nazi cult experimented on Franz for 30 years, pumping his body with hallucinogenic drugs and forcing him to work as a slave. He only managed to escape in 2003.
Today, he lives without running water at his home, where he carves wood blocks into the flying saucers and boats he saw in his hallucinations. A prominent Chilean lawyer is now representing Franz, who is seeking reparations for everything he endured.
There is a legend that Adolf Hitler fled to live in exile in Argentina. The truth, of course, is that Hitler shot himself in his bunker in 1945. But the reason South Americans believe these myths is that many other Nazis did escape to the Andes
But Franz has not yet found justice. Dr Harmutt Hopp, who ran the torture hospital, has fled to Germany. Karl Van den Berg, who meted out corporal punishment, still lives in the colony. Charges are currently being brought against him.
Villa Baviera claims it has changed. It now markets itself as a resort; a place for beer and fun. But that wasn’t how it felt the night I slept in the creepiest hotel in the world: Schafer’s old HQ. The next morning I met Jurgen Szurgelis, who was also abused by Schafer. Flatly, Jurgen told me: ‘They were like Nazis. This was like a concentration camp.’
I asked Jurgen if he knew Karl Van den Berg, the most senior of Schafer’s henchmen still living in the colony.
‘Oh yes Uncle Karl, of course I know Uncle Karl.’ Everyone I spoke to in Villa Baviera called the man Franz accuses of torturing him ‘Uncle Karl’.
He was not easy to find. Jurgen shuddered with terror when I asked him to take me to Van den Berg’s house, then he flatly refused. He was not the only one. My inquiries were met with lies. Uncle Karl is in town, Uncle Karl is driving in the hills.
I looked everywhere. Van den Berg was not in the old headquarters with antlers mounted over the entrances. He was not in the old chalet dormitories. He was not in the orchards.
Eventually, I found him in the old people’s home. ‘You can’t come in.’ Jurgen sat blocking the veranda door of this cream-coloured bungalow. It was clear that Jurgen was not fully free. The former torture victim was protecting his torturer. ‘Leave Uncle Karl alone.’
It was a woman in small, thick spectacles who crept into the bungalow to tell Van den Berg I was outside. Net curtains twitched. ‘No. He won’t talk. Uncle Karl is resting.’
The sprinklers hissed. Villa Baviera, I thought, was more than a South American torture chamber.
Villa Baviera was the essence of Nazism — the thrill of power, the joy of abuse — that kept people like Jurgen submissive and terrified, not only in Europe, but as far away as the foothills of the Andes mountains.
Reporting with Frederick Bernason •
Up to 5000 jobs may be lost in the Victorian cocaine industry in the wake of the state government’s decision to no longer fund the annual TV Week Logie Awards.
“Daniel Andrews obviously has no idea how important the cocaine industry is to the economy of the state,” said Jason Sniffle, president of the Victorian Cocaine Dealers Association. “We do 90% of our annual turnover in the week leading up to the Logies, it’s like our Christmas.”
Sectors expected to be hardest hit by the loss of the Logies include importers of wanky prestige cars, retailers of small mirrors and workers employed in the manufacturing of the smallest size of resealable plastic sandwich bags.
“We welcome the opportunity to host the Logies and with it the chance to establish a regional cocaine industry,” said Dubbo mayor Caroline Powders. “We’ve already created 25 new jobs in the shelf building industry as we update the toilets in the town hall to accommodate the influx of Logies guests.”
The town has already imported several tonnes of rolled up fifty dollar notes in anticipation of increased demand during the Logies season.
Peter Green
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Categories: NewsStarting today and continuing until January, Goal.com will publish exclusive extracts from Graham Hunter's new book on Barca. In this piece, he examines the management of Messi
When a tearful Lionel Messi limped out of a Champions League match against Celtic on March 4, 2008, it spelled the end for his and Barcelona's season. It also led to a clandestine meeting of Camp Nou power-brokers, who formulated a radical strategy to protect their 18-year-old golden boy and ensure his place at the forefront of a new era at Barcelona.
BARCA: THE MAKING OF THE GREATEST TEAM IN THE WORLD
EBOOK OUT CHRISTMAS DAY, 2011. PUBLISHED JANUARY 2012 BY BACKPAGE PRESS
Brazilian flair | But the fun fizzled out on the pitch for Deco and Ronaldinho
Ronaldinho and Deco were to be removed from the team - partly to clear the decks for a new coach but, those in the war cabinet decided, this was equally to save Messi from their destructive influence
If Messi found a taste for nightlife too, then Barca might lose three great players instead of just two. The Brazilians had to go
After Lionel Messi collapsed holding the hamstring of his left leg after 38 minutes against Celtic at Camp Nou on March 4, 2008, Ronaldinho and Deco were first to arrive and console, distraught at another calamity for their injury-prone young friend. Messi limped off the field in unrestrained tears – a moment which signified that his, and his team’s season would go up in smoke.A war cabinet was convened in the wake of the injury. Present were the director of football, Txiki Begiristain, and two vice presidents: Ferran Soriano and Marc Ingla.Ingla takes up the story: “We were disappointed with the fragility of Messi and his repetitive muscle strains. After the Celtic match we constructed a holistic plan for his future performance: to manage the number of meals he had; what type of food he should eat; how many hours of sleep he had to get; what type of stretching he had to do every day. It was a multi-faceted plan to keep him healthy and to minimise injuries. We put lots of work into it and invested lots of money to help him.”Juanjo Brau was a fitness and rehabilitation coach who had been working with Messi, but not exclusively, since prior to the 2006 World Cup. It was decided that Brau would be dedicated to Messi, helping him avoid injury, rather than recover from it.Messi's diet would now include previously unknown quantities such as fish and vegetables and these changes in the way he maintains his body have made him leaner and stronger, less susceptible to injury and quicker to recover. However, there was more to the plan than that.Ronaldinho and Deco were to be removed from the team – partly to clear the decks for a new coach but, those in the war cabinet decided, this was equally to save Messi from their destructive influence.Ronaldinho and Deco were living the high life away from the pitch – convinced like so many gifted, rich young athletes before them that they were so talented, so full of the magic dust which makes superstars that they could bend the rules and still excel. They were wrong.Deco's contributions became ever less decisive. He also picked up more niggling injuries and took longer to shrug them off. Ronaldinho was falling from a greater height. The difference was that he gained weight, betrayed by the same physiology which afflicted his mother, brother and sister. From being the world’s best footballer, he turned flabby.The Barca board saw that Messi would have to be superhuman not to be led astray by players whom he not only idolised, but who had treated him like he was family. Messi was a stocky figure by now – grown to his full height, increasingly strong and explosive with the ball - but hooked on the Argentine diet of red meat and carbs. If he found at taste for nightlife too, then Barca might lose three great players instead of just two. The Brazilians had to go.Ingla told me: “Ronaldinho and Deco were completely out of control. They had been our best players for a couple of years and we lost them.” There remains massive affection for Ronaldinho – Soriano calls him the “rock star” signing, one that transformed Barcelona's play and their place in world football. He brought the magic back to the Camp Nou.Soriano told me: “It was becoming clear that Ronaldinho was not going to be a lasting star, although we thought in 2005 that we could achieve this and we were talking to his brother about extending his contract to 2014. By 2007 we knew that he wouldn’t be the club’s icon. We had decided - that was going to be Messi.Ingla spoke for all in attendance at that pivotal meeting when he told me: “To unleash all the power and the image of Messi, we had to push out Ronaldinho and Deco.”
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With every extract published, Goal.com will be giving away one copy of Graham Hunter's new book. To have a chance of winning an ebook or hard copy of Barca - The Making of the Greatest Team in the World, answer the following question: Who set up Lionel Messi's first-ever goal for Barcelona? Send answers to competitions@goal.com - the winner will be announced in next Friday's extract.Commenting on the election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States of America, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has said:
Liberal values of moderation, freedom, respect for the rule of law, openness and concern for one another can no longer be taken for granted. In the United States last night, those values were defeated.
But those values are vital if we are to live together in peace, prosperity and freedom.
Those of us who care passionately for those liberal values need to fight for them, to win the arguments, to inspire new generations to the great and historic cause of liberalism. Never in my lifetime have those liberal values been so under threat, and never have they been more relevant and necessary.
There is nothing inevitable about the rise of nationalism, protectionism and division, Justin Trudeau proves that. I am determined that together, we must make it our mission to build that liberal cause. The alternatives are unthinkable.Throughout the 19th century and up until the Great Depression, the gold standard was used in the United States. It was largely abandoned in the 20th century.
But what is the gold standard? It’s a system for defining the value of a currency in terms of gold. In other words, you could exchange your $20 paper bill for actual gold at one point in history.
Under a fiat money system, such as the one we have in the U.S. today, that $20 paper bill is inconvertible. You can’t exchange it for a backing store of value because there isn’t one.
In this Econ Duel, economists Scott Sumner and Larry White, who both focus on monetary theory and policy, debate the positives and drawbacks to the gold standard vs. fiat money, and the role of central banks.
On the side of the gold standard, White argues that, when properly implemented without a central bank intervening, it provides a more predictable price level and lower average inflation.
Sumner, taking up the banner for fiat money, argues that the gold standard is simply a rule that worked well in the 19th century and that a good fiat money system is, for this day and age, a better alternative.
Who won this Duel? Do you feel like you walked away with a better sense of the complexities of monetary policy? We’d love to hear from you! Let us know what you thought about this Duel in the comments.Before a packed crowd of more than 7,000 evangelical Christians, Senator Ted Cruz asked his fellow Republican candidates where they were when it came to defunding Planned Parenthood and fighting against the Washington, D.C. cartel. Cruz was responding to a question about this election being about outsiders and fighting Washington.
Cruz asked the audience to imagine what a difference it might have made if all eleven Republican presidential candidates had descended on D.C. during the recent battle on defunding Planned Parenthood. What would have happened if they all spoke with one voice and stood up to House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Cruz talked frequently during his twenty minutes in front of this “home court” of Texans. He discussed his frequent legal battles as Texas’ solicitor general where he fought against both Republican and Democrat presidents. He talked about defending the Mojave Dessert Memorial Cross in the case where he helped the Liberty Institute battle to save the cross. Cruz said the federal judge was right about one thing when he ordered the cross be covered and locked. “The image of the cross has power,” Cruz said. That battle was won in a 5-4 Supreme Court decision and the cross still stands.
He spoke of his Religious Liberty Rally hosted in Iowa in August. Breitbart News reported on the successful rally. Cruz said he hosted 9 heroes of religious liberty and told the story of one couple, Dick and Betty Odgaard who is now bankrupt because of a lawsuit after they refused to provide flowers for a gay marriage on religious grounds.
He then spoke of Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran who, after much acclaim as a fire chief, was fired for writing a book titled “Who Told You That You Were Naked?” based upon his teachings in his church’s bible study classes.
Cruz encouraged everyone to watch the entire rally on his website, TedCruz.org.
Dr. Jack Graham, host of the event in Plano, Texas, asked Sen. Cruz about judicial activism. Cruz said there were two problems with judicial appointments. First is that many judges do not have a good paper trail for presidents to look at when picking judges. He said he would only look at judges who have a verifiable track record of not legislating from the bench. Secondly, he pledged to spend the political capital necessary to appoint and confirm true constructionist judges who will follow the law and not make it.
He cited two cases where the Supreme Court has strayed from this philosophy. The Roberts decision on ObamaCare and the recent decision by the court on gay marriage. Cruz explained that in one case, Roberts actually re-wrote Obamacare so that he could rule it constitutional as a tax. In the case of gay marriage, Cruz said the court actually made up law that never existed regarding marriage. The definition of marriage has previously been a state related issue, Cruz told the audience.
“I will not accept it and I will not give up on the Constitution,” Cruz pledged.
Cruz praised Donald Trump for making this election about being an outsider fighting Washington. He said that no one has a better track record of actually fighting D.C. and winning. He said the prevailing question is now, “Who will stand up against Washington?” He said that leads to the next logical question, “Who has actually stood up to Washington?”
Cruz said this election will turn on whether evangelical Christians will turn out and vote, or stay home. In 2012, 54 million of the 90 million evangelical Christians in this nation stayed home. “Is it any wonder we have a federal government that assaults life and marriage?” Cruz asked.
He renewed his pledge that Obamacare will be repealed. He said this election must be a referendum on Obamacare to give the president the moral authority to carry out the task.
Finally Cruz was asked how people could help in prayer for him and his candidacy. Cruz asked that people pray for peace and wisdom for him and his campaign. He then turned the attention to his daughters, ages seven and four. He asked that they receive prayers to know they are loved. “The hardest thing about this campaign is being on the road,” Cruz said about being away from his daughters.
Cruz received resounding approval in the form of applause from the packed crowd at Prestonwood Baptist Church.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas and is a member of the original Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.Senate Republicans on Monday avoided weighing in on the fiery fracas between President Trump and Sen. Bob Corker, and aides and allies of those lawmakers privately worried that a prolonged fight would hurt the GOP's already threatened legislative priorities.
A day after Corker (R-Tenn.) and Trump traded some of the sharpest intraparty blows of the year, Republican senators were mostly quiet. Those who did speak did so obliquely — by praising Corker generally but steering clear of inserting themselves directly into the brutal clash.
[For some foreign diplomats, the Trump White House is a troubling enigma]
"Senator Corker is a valuable member of the Senate Republican caucus and he's also on the Budget Committee and a particularly important player as we move to the floor on the budget next week," said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), walking a line that other Republican senators followed throughout the day. McConnell's remarks were first reported by the Associated Press and confirmed by his office.
The reaction highlighted the broader strategy Capitol Hill Republicans have adopted when it comes to the president's tendency to wage rhetorical war against their own or incite other controversies: Don't engage in public no matter how anxious they may be in private.
That approach grows riskier with each passing crisis — exposing congressional Republicans to culpability for the actions, some with potentially grave global consequences, of an unpredictable and contentious president.
"They should prepare to be the ones who shoulder the blame if Trump does something truly, absolutely catastrophic," said Rick Wilson, a Republican strategist and vocal Trump critic. He later added: "They forgot what moral courage looks like."
[Trump plays golf with Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, at times a critic of the president]
Corker, who is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned Sunday in an interview with the New York Times that Trump's bellicose threats against other nations could put the United States "on the path to World War III." His comments came after Trump wrote on Twitter that he expected Corker to be a "negative voice and stand in the way of our great agenda."
Neither man spoke about the other on Monday. The two have clashed increasingly in recent months on a variety of topics.
With the Senate away all week, lawmakers in the upper chamber of Congress fanned out across the country Monday. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who has also frequently sparred with Trump, spent part of his day playing golf with the president at Trump's private course in Northern Virginia. Afterward, Graham tweeted that he "really enjoyed" it.
In Kentucky, McConnell appeared in public with Scott Pruitt, Trump's Environmental Protection Agency administrator, calling him an "absolutely inspired appointment."
Pressed on Corker, McConnell repeated that the senator from Tennessee is an important lawmaker.
The public airing of the Corker-Trump dispute was enough to prompt McConnell to phone his colleague on Sunday, according to a person familiar with the call granted anonymity to reveal a private chat. Aides to both senators declined to discuss the content of the conversation.
Some Trump administration officials sent warning shots at Corker on Monday. Vice President Pence issued a statement that "no amount of criticism at home can diminish" Trump's accomplishments on the international stage. Pence did not name Corker. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said on Fox News that tweets such as the one Corker wrote Sunday criticizing Trump are "incredibly irresponsible."
Like McConnell, other Republican senators aligned with Corker preferred a less hostile response.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), one of Corker's closest allies, vouched for his colleague in a brief written statement that, to someone unfamiliar with the Corker-Trump clash, would continue to leave them in the dark.
"I work with Bob Corker nearly every day. He is a terrific United States senator, and I'm disappointed he's decided not to seek reelection," Alexander said.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) went a bit further in his own statement — but without any antagonism toward the president.
"Bob Corker has been a leader in Congress on issues as diverse as deficit reduction and combating terrorism, and he is a man of unwavering integrity," Portman said. "If we're going to accomplish our economic and national security agenda we're going to have to work together, period."
Some Senate GOP aides expressed a sense of worry and resignation — worry that the Corker-Trump fight, if broadened, could threaten their effort to rewrite the nation's tax laws, and a feeling that there was little they could do to counter the president's unpredictability in a constructive way.
"The primary concern at this point is for the agenda," said one Senate aide, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. The aide added: "There is some resignation that, you know, the president is just going to throw these bombs."
For Republicans like Wilson, who want to use every last available tactic to fight Trump, that is an unsatisfactory stance. He urged GOP leaders to be more forceful, to use congressional hearings, public comments and other tactics such as refusing to move ahead on executive branch nominees and other business, as ways to pressure the president when he does things they think are out of line.
There is a fear on Capitol Hill that such moves would trigger an all-out GOP war that would leave them with little chance to pass the laws they have long sought and have used to justify collaborating with Trump. For now, that is the winning argument.
The president and congressional Republicans have embarked on an ambitious rewrite of the nation's tax laws they hope will finally give them a signature legislative achievement. The effort comes on the heels of a failed, months-long push to dismantle and replace the Affordable Care Act.
The collapse of that effort left a seven-year GOP promise unfulfilled and raised the stakes for a tax overhaul. With the midterm elections looming, a growing number of Republicans see it as their last chance to notch a major victory they can campaign on next year.
The tax endeavor has already been complicated by disagreements between Republicans — the same force that derailed the health-care push. GOP officials on Capitol Hill are also concerned that other battles in the party could make it even more difficult.
Some of that discord has been driven by Corker, who is not running for reelection next year. Some Republicans think the decision frees him to be more outspoken than most GOP senators about Trump — and more difficult to read in the tax talks. Corker has said he is opposed to any tax plan that "adds a penny to the deficit."
For other congressional Republicans, however, the preferred public position is to avoid the appearance of siding against the president. Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho), who serves on the Foreign Relations panel with Corker, offered a typical statement Monday along those lines.
"Senator Risch knows both Senator Corker and President Trump very well," said Kaylin Minton, Risch's communications director. "He works with both of them. Senator Corker and the president obviously have differences they need to resolve, but Senator Risch has no intention of getting involved in this matter."
Paul Kane, Karoun Demirjian and Ashley Parker contributed to this report.The staff behind the live-action JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable film had their sights set on major fanfare and a possible sequel, but the film series may end before its second installment. The film's title is JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond wa Kudakenai Dai-Ichi-Shō (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable Chapter I), although the staff have not yet confirmed additional installments for the series.
The film opened on 325 screens in Japan on August 4, and ranked #5 on its opening weekend. The film dropped to #11 in its second weekend. According to insiders, the film's mediocre box-office reception may mean that a major film franchise based on Hirohiko Araki's manga is unattainable now. They said that the number of people who attend screenings from now on will determine whether the film will have a sequel.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond wa Kudakenai Dai-Ichi-Shō's performance has been lackluster compared to other live-action film adaptations of manga that opened in Japan this year. In its first weekend, the film sold 117,000 tickets to earn a total of 166 million yen (about US$1.5 million). The live-action Tokyo Ghoul film, which opened the previous week, sold 166,000 tickets to earn a total of 232 million yen (US$2.1 million) in its first weekend. The film also debuted at #5 on box-office ranking charts.
The live-action Gintama film, perhaps this year's most successful live-action production based on manga so far, opened on July 14. The film sold 393,000 tickets to earn a total of 541 million yen (US$4.9 million) in its opening weekend. For the above comparisons, the opening weekend refers to the two-day period of Saturday and Sunday in the first week the films opened.
Some fans had criticized the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond wa Kudakenai Dai-Ichi-Shō's character visuals before the film premiered. Seeing the film's negative pre-release reception, the filmmakers held events and released videos shortly before the opening. However, it seems those proactive measure were insufficient to encourage fans to attend screenings.
On the other hand, some people who saw the film have posted positive reviews on Twitter and elsewhere online. Some fans of the original manga approve of the film, and many people are discussing the work online. Many commenters believe the characters' appearances are harsh but think they fit in when combined with the set and the world of the movie as a whole.
The film held its world premiere at the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) in Switzerland on July 2, and it won the RTS Audience Award. The film also screened at Montreal's Fantasia International Film Festival last month.
Prolific filmmaker Takashi Miike (live-action Terraformars, Ace Attorney, Crows Zero, Yatterman, For Love's Sake, Ichi the Killer ) directed the movie.
The cast includes:
Kento Yamazaki as Jōsuke Higashikata
Ryunosuke Kamiki as Kōichi Hirose
Nana Komatsu as Yukako Yamagishi
Masaki Okada as Keichō Nijimura
Mackenyu as Okuyasu Nijimura
Takayuki Yamada as Anjūrō "Angelo" Katagiri
Yusuke Iseya as Jōtarō Kūjō
Alisa Mizuki as Tomoko Higashikata
Jun Kunimura as Ryōhei Higashikata
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable is the fourth part of Hirohiko Araki's Jojo's Bizarre Adventure manga. The story is set in Morioh, located in S City in M Prefecture of Japan, and it follows the misadventures of Jōsuke Higashikata and his companions, as they are involved in a series of bizarre incidents in their town.
Source: Oricon News via Yaraon!Story highlights One person is killed in clashes outside the presidential palace, a hospital says
Protesters hurl Molotov cocktails and rocks; security forces respond with tear gas
Egypt has been embroiled in violence since last week
Protesters, security forces battle outside presidential palace
A fire erupted at the entrance to Egypt's presidential palace Friday night as protesters hurled Molotov cocktails and rocks at security forces, who responded with tear gas and water cannon.
One person was fatally shot during clashes, according to an official from Cairo's Heliopolis Hospital, and authorities were seen dragging away demonstrators.
Egyptian television aired live footage of security forces beating a naked man on the ground. The Ministry of Interior said it would investigate the incident.
The nation has been rocked by violence since last week's second anniversary of its revolution. Protesters have fumed over the slow pace of change and recent edicts by President Mohammed Morsy, who imposed a 30-day curfew on areas engulfed by violence.
State TV reported that security forces were clearing the area in front of the palace as rioting continued.
"The continued attacks suggest a real breakdown in central power, we're coming close to that," said Steven Cook, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "None of the political forces have control over the people in the streets."
Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – An Egyptian protester throws a tear gas canister toward riot police during clashes outside the Egyptian presidential palace on Friday, February 1, in Cairo. Egypt has been embroiled in violence since last week, the two-year anniversary of an uprising that led to the ouster of then-President Hosni Mubarak. Hide Caption 1 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – A protester holds a smoke flare outside the presidential palace on February 1. Hide Caption 2 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – The entrance of Egypt's presidential palace in Cairo is in flames February 1, as protesters battle security forces. Hide Caption 3 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – A protester faces off against riot police during clashes near Cairo's Tahrir Square on Wednesday, January 30. Hide Caption 4 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – A police officer fires a tear gas canister during clashes with protesters near Tahrir Square on January 30. Hide Caption 5 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – Police in plainclothes detain a youth suspected of being a member of the Black Bloc opposition group during a demonstration on January 30 in Cairo. Hide Caption 6 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – A protester sprays water into the eyes of a man after his exposure to tear gas during clashes with police near Cairo's Tahrir Square on Tuesday, January 29. Hide Caption 7 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – The lobby of Cairo's Semiramis InterContinental Hotel is full of debris on January 29 after protesters stormed the entrance. Hide Caption 8 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – An Egyptian man takes part in a rally in Port Said on January 29. Protests in Port Said and nearby cities along the Suez Canal are symbolic because that region was among the first where the Mubarak regime lost control during the 2011 unrest, analysts say. Hide Caption 9 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – Mourners carry the coffins of six people killed in clashes after the soccer riot ruling in Port Said on Monday, January 28. Rage exploded when a judge sentenced to death 21 residents of Port Said for roles in a deadly 2012 soccer riot. Hide Caption 10 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – Egyptians walk past destroyed cars in Port Said on January 28 following the funeral of those killed in clashes. Hide Caption 11 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – A riot police officer clashes with a protester near Cairo's Tahrir Square on January 28. Hide Caption 12 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – A protester throws a tear gas canister toward riot police in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Sunday, January 27. Hide Caption 13 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – Egyptian policemen and relatives on January 27 gather upon the arrival of the coffins of their colleagues killed in the violence one day earlier in Cairo. Hide Caption 14 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – A protester throws a rock toward opposing demonstrators on January 27 in Cairo. Hide Caption 15 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – Egyptian protesters throw stones toward riot police on January 27 in Tahrir Square. Hide Caption 16 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – An Egyptian protester runs with a live tear gas canister toward Egyptian riot police on Saturday, January 26, in Cairo. Hide Caption 17 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – Egyptian fans of Al-Ahly football club celebrate outside the club's headquarters in Cairo on January 26. Hide Caption 18 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – Egyptian fans of Al-Ahly football club celebrate outside the club's headquarters in Cairo on January 26. Hide Caption 19 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – Egyptian protesters stand by the burning door of a school building on January 26, in Cairo. Hide Caption 20 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – An Egyptian protester carries an injured boy away from clashes with Egyptian riot police on January 26, in Cairo. Hide Caption 21 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – Egyptians climb over a fence at the Al-Ahly home stadium on January 26 in Cairo. Hide Caption 22 of 45 Photos: Photos: Egypt unstable after days of protest Egypt unstable after days of protest – An Egyptian fan of Al-Ahly football club fires celebratory shots in the air and lights a flare as |
in Washington over the weekend before addressing the AIPAC conference Monday and a joint meeting of Congress on Tuesday.Carte Vitale 1, which does not have a photograph
The Carte Vitale is the health insurance card of the national health care system in France. It was introduced in 1998 to allow a direct settlement with the medical arm of the social insurance system. The declaration of a primary health insurance company (Caisse primaire d'assurance maladie) substitutes the card usage.[1]
Since 2008, a second generation of smart cards is being introduced—the "Carte Vitale 2" carries a picture for identification and the smart card has additional functions of an electronic health insurance card to carry electronic documents of the treatment process.[2] The first generation had been a family card carrying the names of all family members, thereby simply declaring they are covered by the French social security health care, while non-residents would need to use the European Health Insurance Card to prove their health insurance status.[3]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Ishmael Bermudez’s small wooden home in the centre of this frantic, frenetic city is an oasis of peace and restfulness. It even has its own spring.
Located close to Brickell Avenue and a metro train stop, the 65-year-old’s property is greatly desired by developers. There has been plenty of interest and it’s reckoned his modest home and its plot of land could fetch up to $1.8m.
But Mr Bermudez, who has Native American ancestry, is disinclined to sell. The reason? He says the property stands on sacred ground.
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.
In particular, he will not sell unless he can be assured that the buyer will not touch the garden, where several years ago he found a spring.
Mr Bermudez, who calls his garden the “Well of Ancient Mysteries” told the Miami Herald he had discovered a series of remains and artefacts that he believed were used in rituals. He believes the land was a sacred place for member of the Tequesta, one of the first Native American tribes to have contact with Europeans and who were subsequently forced out or killed.
“There's not enough money that can buy what's on this land because it's simply priceless,” he told the newspaper. “How can you put a price on the history of humanity? It has none.”
He added that he might sell if the location was turned into a museum or an archaeological landmark for the city. “But in these difficult times, it’s hard to believe that someone would have a clean enough soul to do something like this because people only care about making money,” he said.
Reports say that Mr Bermudez, also known as Golden Eagle, was born in Colombia to a Colombian mother and an American soldier father. His father was a descendant of the Pueblo and Navajo tribes.
The family moved to Miami when he was eight. When he was 12 his sixth-grade teacher told him to search for one of the springs the Tequesta drank from before they escaped from the Europeans during colonisation - which sparked the excavation project in his back garden.
“Many thought I was crazy,” Mr Bermudez, who has established a Facebook page to share material about the Tequesta, told the newspaper. “While other children played, I spent the time digging.”
Finally, at the age of 19, he discovered a spring of pure water located alongside a mango tree. It has supplied him with water ever since.
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 nowTime For Anti Freedom Brady Campaign To Act Stupid…Again
With 4 million new guns last year and violent crime now at historic lows the Brady Campaign still insists more guns equal more crime…LOL
FAIRFAX, VA –-(AmmoLand.com)- Since its inception as the National Council to Control Handguns over 30 years ago, the Brady Campaign has premised its entire agenda on the notion that having more gun control laws and, therefore, fewer guns, means that crime must necessarily decrease.
History has not been kind to the group’s delusion, however. In recent decades, the severity of gun control laws has been diminished at the federal, state and local levels, the number of guns has increased by over four million a year on average, and today, the nation’s murder and total violent crime rates are at 45-year and 35-year lows, respectively.
If you’re a gun control group, this isn’t the kind of thing you want to put in your press releases to the Washington Post, of course. So, every year the Brady Campaign instead runs a little gimmick where it assigns arbitrary school-grade values to whatever gun control laws the group happens to be pushing at the moment. And since most states don’t have the laws Brady advocates, Brady gives most states very low grades. Naturally, gun control supporters plaster Brady’s school-grade nonsense on the pages of newspapers around the country, hoping people will take it seriously.
Brady came out with its 2010 “grades” this week, and once again we’ll take them as seriously as they deserve.
With the nation’s murder rate having been cut in half since 1991, as Brady’s agenda has been dismantled or rejected by Congress and one state legislature after another, and the numbers of guns, gun owners, Right-to-Carry states, and carry permit holders have risen to all-time highs with no end in sight.
Here are the “highlights” of Brady’s annual exercise in school-grade silliness:
Out of a possible 100 points and four “stars,” if a state had all of the gun control laws Brady wants, our nation’s 50 states received an average score of only 17 points and only eight-tenths of a star.
Brady gave only two states “passing” scores for having some of the gun laws it wants, California with a C+ and New Jersey with a C. There were no “Ds.” The other 48 states received “Fs.” Yes, we are talking about states with restrictive laws, such as Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, Hawaii and Illinois–all of which got “Fs.”
Brady gave California its best grade, for having the most gun control, even though California’s murder and total violent crime rates are 10 percent and 13 percent higher, respectively, than the rates for the rest of the country.
its best grade, for having the most gun control, even though California’s murder and total violent crime rates are, respectively, than the rates for the rest of the country. Utah got Brady’s lowest grade because it has the fewest gun control laws, a fact lamented with all the feigned sorrow and indignation that gun control supporters in the Beehive State can muster. Fortunately, every cloud has a silver lining. Though certainly disillusioned with their low standing among the nation’s anti-gun fringe, the good people of Utah can take at least some comfort in the fact that their murder and violent crime rates are 76 percent and 56 percent lower, respectively, than California’s.
Is it our imagination, or are Brady’s state grades getting worse as the nation’s crime rates go down?
About:
Established in 1871, the National Rifle Association is America’s oldest civil rights and sportsmen’s group. Four million members strong, NRA continues its mission to uphold Second Amendment rights and to advocate enforcement of existing laws against violent offenders to reduce crime. The Association remains the nation’s leader in firearm education and training for law-abiding gun owners, law enforcement and the military.My latest paper (with the excellent Brandon Pizzola) is on occupational licensing in the funeral services industry. Almost all of the previous work on occupational licensing has used cross-sectional data, comparing outcomes in states that license an occupation with outcomes in states that do not. Since many factors vary between states it’s difficult to be sure whether those studies are identifying causal effects. Pizzola and I take advantage of a unusual change, Colorado delicensed its funeral service industry in 1983. The time-series variation combined with the cross-sectional variation lets us examine and test the data in many ways.
In 1983, Colorado delicensed funeral services….the results from difference-in-differences, difference-in-difference-in-differences, and synthetic control specifications suggest occupational licensing causes a wage premium of 11-12 percent.
Importantly, we also do a cross-sectional test similar to those that have been done before in other industries and that test is also consistent with a wage premium of 11-12 percent. In other words, our paper makes all the previous papers on occupational licensing that use cross-sectional data more credible.
We find similar results from a standard cross-sectional wage regression using data on individuals in 1990. Thus, this suggests that cross-sectional regressions of wages on occupational licensing in other industries are a good baseline estimate of a causal effect.
Finally, consistent with an earlier paper by David Harrington and Kathy Krynski that used cross-sectional data, we find some evidence that licensing, which requires training in embalming, increases prices even more than the wage premium alone would suggest because under licensing consumers appear to be pushed away from cremation and towards more expensive burial.
Consistent with Colorado’s decision to delicense in 1983, we find no evidence that delicensing reduced quality in the funeral services industry.IPLv2 Product Overview
Christine Thayer Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 29, 2017
As discussed in this previous blog post, some of the teams at Kik have transitioned to working on projects integrating Kin into Kik. I’ve been fortunate to work on one of these projects, called the IPLv2. This project will get Kik users to experiment with Kin inside of Kik.
So what are the goals for this project?
Introduce crypto to Kik users. Most Kik users are new to crypto. For the vast majority of participants this project will create their first cryptocurrency, wallet, and blockchain transactions! We’re excited to start learning how to best introduce complex concepts like “crypto wallets” and “public addresses” to Kik’s users in a way they can easily understand and use.
We care deeply about all of Kik’s users and especially our TDE participants! For the successful integration of Kin into Kik, we need to deepen our understanding of users who don’t have existing expertise with cryptocurrencies. Since our token distribution event (TDE) participants are experts in crypto, this project is targeted to our day to day Kik users. Over time we will migrate all Kik users and TDE participants to a rich Kin wallet experience. Look for more updates in early 2018.
Start simple and minimize time to production. We know our community is eager to see Kin up and running inside of Kik, and we are too. Successfully integrating Kin into rich Kik experiences like public groups, isn’t a trivial task. There are many technical and product hurdles to overcome in order to prepare Kik as an appropriate launch pad for Kin, but we don’t want to wait until Kik is the perfect launch pad either. As a result we are starting with some minimum viable product (MVP) earn and spend use cases within Kik. Over time we will build richer experiences and deeper Kik integrations.
Experiment with an example use case of a two-sided economy (both earn and spend). One of the concepts we discussed at length in the Kin whitepaper was a focus on building two-sided economies. For the IPLv2, we want to see the full cycle in motion, users can earn and spend Kin within the same digital service.
Given these requirements, we defined a simple MVP product that includes a real Ether wallet, modifications to Kik’s Sticker Shop to support spending Kin on sticker packs, and updates to our Bot Platform to facilitate earning of Kin through bot surveys. Some of these simple experiences are built using similar concepts to our previous experiments with Kik Points.
What should you expect to see from this project?
1. Introducing Kik users to the Kin wallet
First and foremost, we need to introduce users to the Kin wallet. One of the benefits of integrating with a chat app like Kik is that we can easily broadcast messages to users via our bot platform.
One of the bots that Kik uses to communicate with our users is Kik Team, Kik’s onboarding bot. For this project, Kik Team will message a subset of Kik’s power users and ask them to try out Kin.
Once the user has decided to participate, and they tap on the chat bubble with the link to the wallet, it will open the Kin wallet for the first time. As you might expect, we need to explain to users how the Kin wallet will use their information, and users will need to accept our terms of Service and privacy policy to continue. Once the user accepts, it kicks off the initial wallet creation and opens a real Ether wallet for the user!
2. What can you do with the IPLv2 Kin wallet?
Once a user has successfully created their wallet, they are awarded an initial Kin amount. Why grant users Kin from the start? Opening an empty wallet is a sad user experience in any application, and we also want users to have a frictionless start to their Kin experience, allowing them to participate in the economy right away.
In addition, users can earn Kin by completing polls to help make Kik better responding to some of our partner companies’ polls or by uploading sticker packs they have created to be listed for purchase in the Kin sticker shop. Users will be able to spend the Kin they were initially awarded or Kin that they earned on one of the exclusive Kin sticker packs.
3. What does it look like to spend Kin?
When a user chooses to spend Kin on a sticker pack, they transition to a Kin-only section of the Kik Sticker Shop. When the user taps to “Spend ## Kin,” the Kik sticker shop calls the Kin wallet to initiate the transaction. The Kin wallet then displays the “Spend Kin?” confirmation dialog. If the user confirms the transaction, they will return to the Kin sticker shop unlocking the pack. Now, the user can send the Kin stickers they purchased.
There’s an interesting product consideration that needed to be addressed for this flow. Because we’re using the Ethereum public blockchain for transactions, it is not guaranteed that the transaction will actually complete in a timely fashion. In fact, it’s possible that it will take several minutes (or longer) until a transaction is processed and confirmed. This is not an acceptable user experience for a consumer app. Imagine waiting 30 minutes after paying for an app in the App Store before being able to download it.
For the scope of this project, we try to make sure all transactions appear instant to users and that delays are handled in the background. How we evolve the product while achieving this experience is going to be an important part of our technical implementation over time.
4. What does it look like to earn Kin?
When a user chooses to earn Kin by answering poll questions, the user is transitioned to a chat with a bot, in this case we integrated with Kik Team. As a user answers the poll questions, they incrementally earn Kin for every question answered. But, in order for the bot to send Kin to the user, the bot needs to know the user’s Kin wallet public address to complete the transaction.
When should the user give their public address to the bot? Generally, any two users or bots that exchange Kin will know the other’s public address, and therefore, can look up the user’s transaction history. In the interest of user privacy for this project, we will specifically prompt the user to confirm receiving Kin from a bot the first time the user is to receive Kin, which will share the user’s public address behind the scenes (even in this case where Kik Team is a trusted bot).
Once a user shares their public address with a bot, earning Kin becomes a seamless experience.
That’s the gist! There are obviously a ton of other details we could elaborate on, but hopefully this gives you an idea of what we’re building and some of the considerations to our approach.Kyoto Animation has released the first still image of episode 12 of Hibike! Euphonium earlier today, which consists of the characters Kousaka Reina and Oumae Kumiko in an empty classroom on the floor with their legs locked.
When Anime Maru reached out to Kyoto Animation to inquire as to whether this image indicated a lesbian relationship between Kumiko and Reina, KyoAni representatives were surprised. “Where did you get that idea? This image takes place after Reina walks in on Kumiko practicing in an empty classroom, and in her surprise Kumiko bumps into Reina and they wind up on the floor. See how their clothes are askew since they’ve just fallen? And look here at Kumiko’s face, how she has her eyes closed and she’s gasping, that’s because she’s in pain.”
“Honestly though, even without context I’m not sure how you took this as a romantic moment,” Hibike! Euphonium director Jukki Hanada said to reporters. “We’ve made it very clear that both of these characters are straight. Kumiko is very obviously in denial about her love for Tsukamoto, and Reina has outright stated that she loves Noboru Taki, so I’m not sure where you’re getting the lesbian vibes from. Kumiko and Reina are simply very close friends who do things like go out on long walks together, comment on how hot the other one is and touch each other closely because they’re so comfortable with their friendship.”
At press time, Kyoto Animation has released a preview clip from episode 12 of Hibike! Euphonium, which consists entirely of a two minute scene in which Reina licks peanut butter off of Kumiko’s face like a good friend trying to help their best buddy get clean.Sleep. Work. Play. Rinse and repeat. This is the gist of most people’s daily routine, but the amount of time varies as more responsibilities kick in. Some people spend more time taking care of others in the house, some don’t have a paying job, and of course, the weekday schedule is usually different from the weekend’s.
The chart below shows a picture of the American daily routine and how it changes for different groups. Each bar represents an activity, and they sort by the time of day that most people are engaged in an activity. Color indicates the percentage of people during a given time frame.
So reading from top to bottom you get a sense of a schedule.
As a parent of two, I’m always interested in the balance between work and taking care of kids. So it’s interesting to see “caring for household members” shift up and down when you toggle between male and female. The percentages are always low for males.
Or, if you toggle between employed and unemployed, you see a routine of sleep, work, commute, and relax for the former. You see dark colors in fewer bars. But when you switch to unemployed, the color range looks more sparse and the schedule shifts to the right for later wake-up times.
Maybe the most important thing I learned is that schedule of the male not in the labor force (“not looking” above) on a weekend looks pretty sweet. That’s the dream right there.
A Day in the Life of Americans
I simulated an average day for 1,000 Americans.
NotesAt the People’s Climate March in New York City on Sunday, a 4-ft.-tall walking banana was passionately articulating his feelings about wind turbines.
“They can make things run just by the wind,” said 9-year-old Danny Haemmerle, who dressed up as the yellow fruit to attend the march with his family. “And my parents don’t have to pay as much,” added his brother Eddie Haemmerle, 11, sporting a lime green wig.
The Haemmerles were joined by an estimated 400,000-strong crowd that flooded the streets of Manhattan to demand U.N. action on global warming — a showing that quadrupled expected attendance and made the march the largest climate protest in history and largest social demonstration of the past decade.
Timed to coincide with the U.N. summit on climate change, which meets this week to discuss an international carbon-emissions agreement, the demonstration was an international effort with 2,646 events in more than 150 countries, attended by hundreds of thousands more people.
Coalesced by several organizations, including Bill McKibben’s 350.org, the swarming crowds were there to pressure Obama and other leaders to make addressing climate change a top political priority. “Today, civil society acted at a scale that outdid even our own wildest expectations,” said May Boeve, executive director of 350.org, in a statement. “Tomorrow, we expect our political leaders to do the same.”
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made an appearance, along with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, former Vice President Al Gore, and movie stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Edward Norton. Nearly every labor union joined the march, including the Service Employees International Union, the largest union in the city. The march was supposed to start at 59th Street, but the throng of people stretched past 93rd Street, and there were so many marchers that it took the back of the line over two hours to start moving. The march was so well attended that organizers had to send a text at 5 p.m., asking marchers to leave because the route had filled to capacity.
People marched in clogs, dreadlocks, optimistic T-shirts, Native-American headdresses, bike helmets, feathered hats, Lorax costumes and biohazard suits. Babies wore diapers. One woman dressed as Charlie Chaplin and carried a sign depicting a blackened earth, with just the word “Oops.” And Danny Haemmerle wasn’t the only person dressed as a banana.
Zak Davidson, a 20-year-old junior at Tulane, iconoclastically wore a suit, explaining, “A lot of conservatives try to marginalize environmentalism as a fringe movement, like just people wearing hemp skirts. But I have a job offer in the government for when I graduate, and I’m going to continue fighting for climate change within the system.”
Davidson and 60 of his classmates drove 26 hours up from New Orleans to attend the march, and after it’s over, they’ll hop right back on the road and drive 26 hours again in order to make it to class on Tuesday.
“Moving to New Orleans really politicized me about climate change, since the Gulf Coast is predicted to have the worst sea-level rise,” said Davidson’s classmate, Emma Collin, 21. “It’s like being in Rome before the fall.”
The props at the Climate March were as colorful as the costumes: a massive model of the earth, along with hundreds of smaller balloons and beach balls; a giant, inflatable cow intended to highlight how the meat industry hurts the environment (a U.N. report found that animal agriculture accounts for 14.5% of greenhouse-gas emissions). People carried massive sunflower signs, sculptures of waves, goddess puppets and angel kites.
There was also a dinosaur, made of car parts and gas jugs, named BP-Rexosaurus, built by BikeBloc, a group dedicated to promoting bicycle transportation. “He’s here to tell us how to get pass fossil fuels before humans go extinct like dinosaurs,” explained Elissa Jiji, who was biking with the group. Other bikers dressed their bikes as swordfish, noting that swordfish bills often pierce oil pipelines. People chanted, “Exxon Mobile, BP, Shell, take your oil and go to hell!”
Often, people’s attire reflected the particular social issues within climate change to which they felt the closest.
A cohort of doctors marched in lab coats to protest the global health effects of climate change. “It’s one of the most important threats to world health, and it’s completely preventable,” said Dr. Erica Frank, who specializes in preventative medicine in British Columbia. “It would be irresponsible for us to do nothing.”
“Carbon pollution directly results in asthma, heart disease and cancer,” said Dr. Steve Auerbach, a New York City pediatrician who also marched in his lab coat. “From a micro and macro point of view, climate change is a global health issue.”
For demonstrator Favianna Rodriguez, climate change is inextricable from social issues like feminism and immigration policy. To protest a “culture of hypersexuality,” she marched topless, with yellow butterfly stickers over each nipple.
Rodriguez works with CultureStrike, an organization that supports the arts movement around immigration, but she helped design signs for the Climate March because she says climate change is an example of social inequality.
“The destruction we’re facing has been wrought under male leadership, and women and children are disproportionately affected,” she said. “Addressing climate change is going to require a very strong shift in leadership, and require us to include the vision of women and youth.”
The one thing that the whole crowd seemed to agree on, whether doctors, vegans, bike enthusiasts, hippies, feminists, students, Christians, toddlers, Native-Americans, farmers or grandparents: changing nothing about global environmental policy is a scary prospect.
“Inaction, dude,” said green-haired fine-arts student Joe George, when I asked him what was the scariest part about global warming. “I keep imagining where I live in Brooklyn, just under water. It’s horrifying. You can’t stop the Atlantic Ocean.”
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Write to Charlotte Alter at charlotte.alter@time.com."League of Rights" redirects here. For the British group, see British League of Rights
The Australian League of Rights is a far-right political organisation in Australia. It was founded by Eric Butler in South Australia in 1946, and organised nationally in 1960, with principles based on the economic theory of Social Credit expounded by C. H. Douglas.[1] The league describes itself as upholding the virtues of freedom, with stated values of "loyalty to God, Queen and Country".
History [ edit ]
The league was formed in South Australia in 1946. A national organisation was launched in 1960. The league formed offshoots in the white dominions, Britain, Canada and New Zealand. In 1972 Butler created an umbrella group the Crown Commonwealth League of Rights to represent the four groups; it also served as a chapter of the World Anti-Communist League.[2] It was linked with far right groups in the United States such as the John Birch Society.[3] The first Crown Commonwealth League of Rights conference was held in Melbourne in 1979.[4]
Veritas is the publishing company of the league. The league publishes a weekly newsletter called On Target.
Political views and ideology [ edit ]
From the start, the league has described itself as being based on the principles of Christianity. It is anti-communist and anti-World Government. Its leaders argue in favour of capitalism, by promoting the inviolability of private property and individual enterprise. They are monarchist and opposed to Australian republicanism and see strong relations with Great Britain as fundamental to Australian identity.
The league has been described as neo-Nazi in various sources[5][6] although at least one writer differentiated it from neo-Nazi groups saying that unlike such groups, the League "under the leadership of Eric Butler, sought to maintain a veneer of respectability..." while using its publications to promote "the crudest forms of anti-Semitism... Butler's The International Jew presented the argument that "Hitler's policy was a Jewish policy".[7]
In Faces of hate: hate crime in Australia David Greason wrote: "The League is not Nazi, yet its propaganda themes are similar in many ways to those used in Nazi Germany 60 years ago. The League refuses to acknowledge any similarities with neo-Nazi organisations, and either points to its philosophical opposition to the centralisation of power, or claims that neo-Nazi organisations are created by powerful Jewish organisations to discredit patriotic groups. In fact, the League has always had a relationship of sorts with such groups. They read the same books, cite the same authorities, and blame the same scapegoats. The nuances of any anti-centralist philosophy are invariably lost on the average neo-Nazi".[8]
Andrew Moore has cited anti-semitism as the "touchstone of the League's ideology",[9] although the league has in the past characterised anti-semitism as "a political swear word used to criticise those who do not agree with Zionist policies".[10] The league has described the Holocaust as the "alleged Holocaust"[11] and the "Holocaust Hoax".[12] Its founder, Eric Butler was well known for his anti-Semitism and support of such documents as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a well-known anti-Semitic hoax.[13] The historian Andrew Markus wrote that "In the 1990s league publications were still promoting The Protocols, describing the Holocaust as a 'hoax', the invention of Zionist propagandists, identifying prominent Jewish individuals in public life and declaring that modern Christianity was 'little more than a form of Liberal Judaism'. The Jewish plot was also described using various code words, notably the 'one world conspiracy' hatched by 'international elites', international bureaucracies, international bankers, members of the Fabian Society, or the United Nations.".[14]
The league supported David Irving and assisted his visits to Australia; Veritas published Irving's work in Australia.[15][16]
Opposition to liberal democracy [ edit ]
The league is opposed to liberal democracy, the party system and the processes of parliamentary democracy.[17] However, the league has tried to use entryism or support various political parties and community or social groups.
Butler in his book The Money Power versus Democracy (1940) stated "The Party system of Government can play little part, if any, in the struggle for real democracy. In principle, it is the antithesis of democracy."
C. H. Douglas regarded the party system as a "criminal absurdity" and argued for the end of the secret ballot. He believed that with the implementation of social credit, party politics would end.
Connections to political parties [ edit ]
In the early 1970s, the League attempted to gain control of the National Party of Australia, encouraging members to join the party in sufficient numbers to take control, a tactic known as entryism. Doug Anthony, who had recently become the Nationals' leader, led an effort to defend the party from the League by recruiting people who would vote against League candidates. After a struggle lasting several years, Anthony's forces prevailed. A consequence of this struggle was that the National Party had more members than either of the Labor or Liberal parties, despite always getting a fraction of the votes they did. This fact became much more widely known than the reason for it, both sides having kept the struggle out of the media.
Many years later various League members offered support to the One Nation party.[16]
Former Western Australian Labor MP, founder of the Australia First Party and later One Nation member Graeme Campbell was associated with the league at the same time as he was a member of One Nation and Australia First. Mr Campbell stated that "Australia First has no association with the League. It's me with the association."[18]
In 1987 Liberal MP Alexander Downer made an address to the League a fact of which was not made publicly known until 1994 when Downer had in recent months just become his party's leader.[19] It was one of Downer's many mistakes that would ultimately see him step down as Liberal leader in January 1995.
Former treasurer Peter Costello stated that One Nation's policy of a state bank which would issue low-interest loans was directly taken from the league, and that "the League of Rights is driving its policy in relation to banking and money"[20]
Connections to other groups [ edit ]
The league operates, and has operated, a number of front organisations such as the Institute of Economic Democracy, the Christian Institute of Individual Freedom, and the Australian Heritage Society.[21]
The league has been linked with Australians Against Further Immigration (AAFI). Franca Arena raised a question in the New South Wales Legislative Council in 1994 about the links between the AAFI and the "notorious and dangerous League of Rights, which has been described as the most influential, effective, best organised and most substantially financed racist organisation in Australia".[22] She questioned whether the AAFI was just a front for the League.
In 1998 the Australian branch of the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission issued a press release that "The Co-founder of Australians Against Further Immigration (AAFI), and One Nation's Victorian leader Robyn Spencer has addressed numerous League of Rights meetings as well as delivered a speech with League of Rights, Advisory National Director Eric Butler."[23]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]If you’re looking for a fast, IMAP compatible email client for Linux, why not try Trojita?
Trojita aims to fetch and display email as quickly, and as efficiently, as possible. The open-source email app adheres to ‘open standards and modern technologies’, and is built around ‘the vendor-neutrality that IMAP provides’.
Did You Know? Dekko, the converged Ubuntu email client, is a fork of Trojita
It’s important that I stress at this point that the app is not a regular run-of-the-mill email client. It doesn’t support the POP3 protocol, nor Exchange (but what does, right?). It also lacks some of the fancier features you’ll find in modern clients like Nylas Mail.
The application is also not designed to be an all-in-one personal information manager, so you won’t find any built-in calendar, scheduler or note taking features. Development on the client has also slowed in recent years but hasn’t stopped completely.
Having seen the app recommended in the KDE Neon Telegram group I was intrigued enough to try it out — and I came away pleasantly surprised.
Trojita Email Client
Trojita’s big sell is that it’s lean and finely tuned IMAP client, designed from the ground up to be fast — but it’s also fairly resource efficient, too. The Trojita wiki says the app focuses on “conserving the network bandwidth, keeping memory use at a reasonable level or not hogging the system’s CPU.”
Trojita certainly lives up to its claim of being fast. The client loaded my (rather large) Gmail inbox in literal seconds, complete with Gmail labels, and custom folders.
The reason it is so fast is because the app doesn’t download the message body of an email until you open it. This means reading email takes the most marginal of marginal seconds longer than in, say, Geary. consider the tradeoff worth it, but you may not.
Helpfully, Trojita caches read emails for offline browsing.
Three layouts are available: a default view that puts the message window underneath the mail list; a wide-layout that moves the message window to the right of the mail list; and a ‘one at a time’ view that (I guess) helps you focus on specific mails at a time.
Trojia features and plus points include:
Qt5 app with no additional dependencies
Robust IMAP core
Standards compliant
On-demand message list and body part loading
Offline IMAP support
Bandwidth-saving mode
OpenPGP and S/MIME cryptography
IMAP over SSH, and SSL/TLS connections
As it’s a Qt app you’re able to rearrange UI components. If you want the main toolbar on the left (like Dekko). To do this, just drag the toolbar down and dock it to the side.
Other features/settings let you hide read messages, hide unsubscribed folders, adjust the ‘mark as read’ interval, and more.
It’s not all perfect, though.
For one, I received the sum total to zero new email notifications, even though the app was left running in the background. There’s no option to set a ‘check for new mail’ period, which I guess is related to the IMAP compliance (it gets new mail as new mail arrives).
Searching seems to be a little slower than in Gmail, but as Trojita isn’t ferreting through a local clone of my entire email catalog but still lets me search by subject, body, sender, and even complex IMAP queries, I’m happy enough!
Should you use it? That depends
This post isn’t intended to do anything other than tell you about the app. It’s not a Trojita vs Thunderbird (or any other Linux email client post) comparison. Thunderbird, Geary, Clawsmail, Sylpheed, Kmail, et al are all capable email clients with their own strengths and weaknesses.
If whichever client you currently runs ticks all of your boxes, carry on using it!
How To Install Trojita on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
You won’t find an official Trojita PPA on Launchpad, but the app is available to install on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.
The set of commands that follow may, at first blush, look intimidating but they’re not. They’re just a lengthy way to add an OBS repository on Ubuntu.
Open a new terminal and run the following command. This adds the official Trojita stable PPA for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS to your software sources. Enter your sudo password where prompted.
sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/jkt-gentoo:/trojita/xUbuntu_16.04/ /' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/trojita.list"
Oith the repository added you next need to download and add the Trojita repo GPG key to avoid any pesky command-line errors:
wget http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:jkt-gentoo:trojita/xUbuntu_16.04/Release.key
sudo apt-key add - < Release.key
Finally, with everything else done, you can go ahead, update your software sources, and install Trojita:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install trojita
Depending on your desktop environment this may or may not pull in a stack of additional KDE dependencies, so be patient if the installation takes a little time.
Once done you’ll find the app available to launch from the Unity Dash, the KickOff menu, or whatever app launcher you use.
How To Add a Gmail Account
The next step is to add an account so that you can send |
) gold-plated flagstaff, has already told the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) it won’t divulge any details.
“The gold we have is mostly offered by the devotees. They would not like the details to be shared with anybody,” said V M Gopala Menon, commissioner of the temple’s administrative board.
The World Gold Council estimates there are about 2,000 tons of gold locked away in temples—worth about $84 billion at current prices—which Indian devotees have offered in the form of jewelry, bars, coins and even replicas of body parts, in the hope of winning favors from the gods or in thanks for blessings received and health restored.
Curbing gold imports and getting the gold squirreled away back into circulation has become a priority for the government and RBI this year. Import duty is at a record 10 percent and the latest new rule—that 20 percent of all imports must leave the country as jewelry exports—caused confusion that dried up buying for two months.
The head of the Hindu nationalist main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kerala state, V Muralidharan, said the RBI wanted to “take possession” of the gold and maybe sell it for dollars.
Data Collecting?
The central bank said there was “no proposal under its consideration to convert idle gold into bullion at this juncture.”
But its letters, sent to leading temple trusts in Kerala, were prompted by a report looking at “issues related to gold imports” and loans outside the banking system in February, which zeroed in on temples and domestic hoards for fresh supplies.
Under the heading “supply-related measures,” the report looks at recycling domestic gold and notes: “Temples in India hold large quantities of gold jewelry offered by devotees to the deities.”
Subha Unnikrishnan, a clothes shop owner worshipping at one of the temples in Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram, said whatever had been given to the temple should stay there.
“We have given it to the god with a purpose,” he said. “Nobody can take them away.”
Of the three major temple boards in Kerala, which administer more than 2,800 temples, Cochin board has also decided against providing details of its gold, while another has yet to decide and a third says it has not yet received a letter from the RBI.
Some of them cite security reasons for their reticence—and the wealthiest temples do have tight controls and metal detectors at gates to keep their assets safe.
There has been no inquiry from the RBI yet at the centuries-old Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, where two years ago treasure then estimated to be worth over $20 billion—more than India’s education budget—was discovered in secret subterranean vaults. But its hoard is already being checked by the Supreme Court to make sure it is adequately protected.
There are some, for sure, who feel the temples should divulge their centuries of gold offerings.
“Everything the temple gets should be known to the devotees,” said Shankaram Kutty, head of an advertising firm based in Cochin, who goes at least once a year to Guruvayur with an offering. “I feel every temple should declare their assets.”
Mumbai’s Shree Siddhivinayak Ganpati temple, often visited by Bollywood celebrities, had already put 10 kg (22 lbs) of its gold into a bank deposit scheme. It still has 140 kg in its vault.
“The gold we have is the nation’s property, we will be proud if the nation can benefit from it,” said Subhash Vitthal Mayekar, chairman of the temple’s administrative trust. He has not yet received an inquiry from the RBI.
It is not alone. The Tirupati temple in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, considered one of India’s richest, has lodged 2,250 kg of gold with the State Bank of India, which pays it interest.
As the central bank ponders its options, it could take heart that the temples themselves are already doing their bit to circulate the gold.
“We use some of it for making gold lockets that we sell in our temple counter. For making the lockets, we send some gold to the Mumbai mint through the State Bank of India, which is one of our bankers,” said a source at the Guruvayur temple’s administration.African Streets
Berlin’s U6 train stops at some lesser-known local oddities. African Streets station – a nondescript platform in Wedding – seems strangely ordinary given its history. Döner shops. Sports bars with frosted windows, and occupants with frostier stares. Names on doorbell buzzers betray a big mix of peoples. Croatian restaurants are in vogue here, whilst the window of a Middle Eastern restaurant advertises Türkische Pizza.
Exiting the U-Bahn, Swakopmunder Straße is a leafy residential street named after Swakopmund, a port in Namibia. Nearby Togostraße intersects with Windhukerstraße, another residential street with a Namibian root to its name.
These are the streets of the African Quarter, a project of Carl Hagenbeck. A wild animal merchant, Hagenbeck’s intention was to found a permanent exhibition in the Wedding-Rehberge district to display the animals and peoples of Germany’s African colonies. Hagenbeck’s human zoo was never realised – the outbreak of the First World War putting paid to his plans. Yet the street naming continued. The Weimar Republic saw the additions of Ugandastraße, Dualastraße, and Sambesistraße among others. The Nazi-era addition of Petersallee still remains, although the Peters it now commemorates is a post-war conservative politician rather than the colonial general whose brutality in German East Africa led to his dismissal in 1897. Ghanastraße, a 1958 addition, commemorates Ghanaian independence. A more recent explanatory sign of the streets’ history has appeared on Otawistraße. A passerby on nearby Kongostraße was less forthcoming. “The street names? Don’t know. Well, we have our own jungle over there,” he mused, thumb jerking towards the wilds of the Togo Colony Park.
Auf Vorposten für Deutschland was one of the stranger books in the eclectic Nuremberg bookshop I had visited a couple of years before. Passed the black-white-red German Imperial Flag on the cover lies a land of bold assertions and bolder Fraktur typefaces. A 1935 eulogy to Germany’s colonial past, it mourns the loss of Germany’s African and Asian colonies. “The hour of separation has come” reads the final paragraph. “Love and adoration […] of the loyal black soldiers chains them to their superiors. They are not ashamed of their tears, and a single cry resounds across from the natives to the retreating Germans – ‘Wann kommt ihr wieder?’- When will you return?” A photograph shows three African soldiers of the Kameruner Schutztruppe. They stare, blankly, at the camera, from a distance the reader could never have hoped to cross. On the front page, a handwritten addition reads, “On your sixteenth birthday, from your comrades.” The Günter Grass lookalike at the till removed his bifocals and squinted at the front cover. He put them back on again and squinted. “Ten Euros,” he said.
I could have seen the book as an eccentric irrelevance, but the role it had once played as a birthday present to a sixteen-year-old gave it a deeper resonance. A word such as Vergangenheitsbewältigung (“coming to terms with the past”) – one which Mark Twain would have doubtlessly described as “not a word, but an alphabetic procession”- recounts Germany’s making amends for its lesser-known and brief colonial past. In 2004, Germany acknowledged the genocide of the Herero and Namaqua people in present-day Namibia, though ruling out financial compensation. Germany’s great awareness of its past and acquiescence of guilt has come to form an important part of post-war German identity. As I write this, the poppies in lapels across the United Kingdom give me pause for thought. An equestrian statue in the city where I study honours Sir Redvers Buller. ‘He saved Natal’, reads the inscription (though the traffic cone which often crowns Buller is of much higher interest to passerby.) Brazen, curt, unapologetic- a quintessentially English nod to a dark colonial legacy.
In contrast, Germany’s post-war introspection has already led to some cartographical changes. For some, the overgrown foliage of the Togo Colony Park and the backalleys of the African Quarter represent darker thoughts left in urban shadows, calling to memory the worst excesses of Germany’s brief ‘place in the sun’, as von Bulow called the Imperial Colonies in 1897. A street in Kreuzberg (where else) is a particular case in point. May-Ayim-Ufer has since 2011 honoured the Afro-German poet, not Brandenburg slaver Otto Friedrich von der Groeben.
Yet the retrospection stretches still further- Mohrenstraße, the ‘Street of the Moors’, was home to twelve African slaves demanded by Friedrich Wilhelm I, the King of Prussia, in 1720. The street, claim African organisations in Berlin, perpetuates a ‘perception of the European imagination that sees Africans as stupid, uncultured, lazy, with no history, as servants of Europeans’. Moor Street, however, remains Moor Street, as does its U-Bahn (which at various stages during the Cold War also bore the names of Communist luminaries Otto Grotewohl and Ernst Thälmann). Moors, it would seem, are a legacy which can be lived with. No letterheads will need updating just yet.
“The street names of a city,” pointed out historian Götz Aly, “document the mindsets, horizons of experience, mistakes and false certainties of the various epochs they represent.”
“The thoughtless, ideological street renamers of today – lack humility,” he continued. “They lack the ability to see themselves as fallible. They lack respect for the generations to come who will judge our own era with uncomprehending head-shaking or horror. It is a disgrace.”
The discourse surrounding the African Quarter works under the assumption that the colonial significance of its street names is seared, irrevocably, into the collective conscience of the neighborhood. Wedding is one of the poorest districts of what was West Berlin, with a large immigrant community, some 2500 Africans living in the African Quarter alone. Hagenbeck and Nachtigal would presumably be spinning in their graves at the very thought. Long may they do so, with ruthless colonial efficiency.
A dull rumble beneath Müllerstraße is the U6, onward towards Tegel Airport, passed African Streets. The dust-caked Transvaal Pharmacy has long since closed down, and nearby a drunk wanders deep into the darkness of the Togo Colony Park. A Cameroonian restaurant, the Bantou Village, on the appropriately named Kamerunstraße, is gradually filling up for community meeting- dishes of Ndolé, okra and cassava, hard-boiled exiles with simmering disagreements. The music is loud and the décor deafening. The Cameroonian colours grace the walls as my friend and I eat fried plantains, fish, and a fluorescent chilli sauce with attitude.
I ask again- why Kameruner, Togo and Kongo Straße?. I know what the streets are named after. But who they stand for still remains a mystery.
The Cameroonian waitress exchanges glances with the fish. The fish glances back.
‘These streets’ she wonders aloud ‘were probably named for us’
[Snorts of derision, or the Francophone equivalent, fill the next room. The debates have begun.]
“I mean, as you can see, there are a lot of us around.”PEARL RIVER COUNTY -- Authorities have released the names of all four people involved in a shooting at a Pearl River County gun store that left two dead and two injured.
Jason A. McLemore, 44, the owner of McLemore Gun Shop, and his son, Jacob Edward McLemore, 17, were killed in the shooting, said Pearl River County Deputy Coroner Albert H. Lee. Both died of multiple gunshot wounds.
Audy McCool, 52, and his son Michael McCool, 29, both sustained life-threatening injuries. As of Sunday morning, Michael McCool was stable in the intensive care unit. There was no update on Audy McCool's condition, said Pearl River County Chief Deputy Shane Tucker.
The shooting occurred around 3 p.m. at the gun store on Mississippi 43, Tucker said.
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Jason McLemore's wife was working at the shop when the McCools entered to pick up a firearm that had been repaired. There was some sort of argument about a $25 fee, Tucker said.
The woman called her husband, who arrived with their son, Tucker said. An argument ensued and the shooting began.
No further details were available Sunday and Pearl River County Sheriff David Allison did not return calls.
Around Pearl River County and on social media, those who knew the McLemores described Jason McLemore as a kind and fair person to whom many brought their firearms for repairs. Jacob McLemore was talented at working with metal and leather, several said.
Outside the store, which had its front entrance boarded up with blood visible outside, several crosses and condolence cards had been left.
The case remains under investigation and no charges have been filed.
"It's still under investigation. There will be lots of work to sift through the evidence collected and statements and see where that steers the investigation," Tucker said. "That will be done in the following weeks and months."
Wesley Muller and Justin Mitchell, Sun Herald reporters, contributed to this report.Analysis UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd kicked off a firestorm in the tech community Tuesday when she argued that "real people" don't need or use end-to-end encryption.
In an article in the Daily Telegraph timed to coincide with Rudd's appearance at a closed event in San Francisco, Rudd argued: "Real people often prefer ease of use and a multitude of features to perfect, unbreakable security."
She continued: "Who uses WhatsApp because it is end-to-end encrypted, rather than because it is an incredibly user-friendly and cheap way of staying in touch with friends and family? Companies are constantly making trade-offs between security and 'usability,' and it is here where our experts believe opportunities may lie."
The reference to "real people" struck a nerve with a host of security experts, sysadmins, privacy advocates and tech-savvy consumers who took to Twitter to point out that they were real people, and not ISIS sympathizers – as Rudd implied in her piece. Rudd essentially declared that people who use strong encryption are not normal, not real people, which is a rather dangerous sentiment.
More broadly, her argument is an effort to square the circle on the issue of encryption: where tech companies and security experts say they cannot allow access to encrypted messages without compromising the entire system; and politicians and the security services argue that they need to be able to gain access to all communications for national security reasons.
Magic
The politicians' argument has long been disparaged as "magical thinking" by the tech industry (and some federal agency representatives): simply wishing something to be true does not make it possible.
"This is not about asking the companies to break encryption or create so-called 'back doors'," Rudd argued, while failing to recognize that any method of breaking encryption on demand is, by definition, the introduction of a backdoor. She added:
I know some will argue that it's impossible to have both – that if a system is end-to-end encrypted then it's impossible ever to access the communication. That might be true in theory. But the reality is different.
"There are options. But they rely on mature conversations between the tech companies and government – and they must be confidential. The key point is that this is not about compromising wider security. It is about working together so we can find a way for our intelligence services, in very specific circumstances, to get more information on what serious criminals and terrorists are doing online."
What Rudd appears to be arguing for is encryption on people's devices, but with tech companies providing and storing the encryption keys so they can decrypt messages when ordered to do so by the authorities – or perhaps provide some sort of secret backdoor access so investigators can leaf through decrypted chatter remotely on suspects' devices. The existence of these skeleton keys, or secret back passages, would undermine security and privacy for everyone.
And the reference to conversations having to be confidential – well, that was borne out by the fact that the first meeting of the "Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism" was kept entirely secret – with limited details only put out the day before. Even the location of the meeting was kept secret.
We asked to attend and were told: "The event isn't open to the press at the request of some of our participants." Some tweets from inside the event by the organizers provide a very limited window into discussions.
Remember Snowden?
What Rudd's argument fails to acknowledge, however, is the entire reason that the encryption debate took off in the first place: mass surveillance carried out by the National Security Agency (NSA) that was revealed in confidential documents released by Edward Snowden back in 2013.
Lest anyone forget, Snowden revealed that not only were the US authorities monitoring every phone call made in the US, but they had tapped the internet's backbone and tech giants' data centers without letting them know.
Many of those programs have since been declared illegal, but the enormous breach of trust felt by the US tech companies that had been working with the authorities to provide legal access to communications resulted in immediate efforts to encrypt all data and so cut off the NSA's data firehose.
The tech companies also responded to massive consumer demand for more secure systems when the extent of government spying became clear. The earliest and most high-profile shift was when Apple updated its mobile operating system to provide true end-to-end encryption, meaning that it was unable to read its own users' messages.
That move was swiftly followed by others, including Facebook-owned WhatsApp, after competitors like Signal suddenly appeared on the market and picked up tens of thousands of new users almost overnight.
Rudd's argument essentially boils down to asking everyone to forget about the fact that the US government illegally hoovered up and stored everyone's personal communications, and then let them do it again. Because terrorists.Stars of the show for me:
Dragon Ball FighterZ (Bandai Namco)
Looks great. I love Arcsys' Guilty Gear tech, and I'm really glad DBZ fans are getting the game they've always wanted. I like DBZ, but I wouldn't call myself a fan - so this one's going to be a pass for me, even though the game looks amazing. I'd rather just play Guilty Gear instead. I'm happy for fans.
Dynasty Warriors 9 (Koei Tecmo)
This might be the shakeup I've been waiting for. I really liked WO3 and it's the best Warriors game by far IMO - if this is truly amazing I'll have to buy it.
Earth Defense Force 5 (D3 Publisher)
I want this, but I really want to see more before I drop cash on it. I still haven't bought 4.1. Who knows, I might end up skipping 4.1 and going straight to 5. Either way, I have little doubt it'll be awesome.
Monster Hunter: World (Capcom)
The last MH I played was Portable 3rd PS3 port. This looks incredible, might just be the game I need to jump back in. I didn't own a 3DS and never did buy one, so I skipped all the 3DS MH games.
Yakuza: Kiwami 2 (Sega)
Day 1.Stockton University professor Tara Luke (from left) and students Danielle Ertz of Woodlynne and Valkyrie Falciani of Hammonton pack their fungus experiment for its trip to the International Space Station. They are heading to Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch set there for Monday. (Photo: Stockton University)
A rocket carrying two South Jersey science experiments is set to launch Monday afternoon at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA and the space center have announced that contractor SpaceX is scheduled to launch a Falcon 9 rocket at 12:31 p.m. Monday with a resupply and experiments payload to the International Space Station.
Aboard this CRS-Mission 12 and inside the Dragon cargo vehicle will be science experiments from the Waterford Elementary School and Stockton University in Galloway Township.
More: Waterford school experiment to rocket into space
More: Rowan's first geology head works on space case
Five girls developed the winning experiment team from the elementary school under the supervision of teacher Debbie Parker. The purpose is to see how well eggplant seeds will grow in near zero gravity in order to provide high-moisture content food for the astronauts on board the space station.
The Stockton fungus and flax experiment was devised by students Danielle Ertz of Woodlynne and Valkyrie Falciani of Hammonton, who want to test fungus as a potential force to improve agriculture in space.
The two students and professor Tara Luke plan to travel to Florida to watch the launch, said Stockton spokeswoman Diane D'Amico.
Later this month, the students from both schools will conduct the same experiment on Earth at the same time as the astronauts aboard the station.
The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket will be fired from Launch Pad 39A, which SpaceX leases from NASA and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Pad 39A is a historic pad that was used for the first Apollo manned moon mission in 1969 via a Saturn V rocket and also by the first and last space shuttles.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 will attempt a controlled landing at Cape Canaveral after it separates from the upper stage shortly after launch.
Carol Comegno (856) 486-2473; or ccomegno@gannettnj.com
CLOSE A Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Kennedy Space Center at 7:38 p.m. Wednesday, July 5, 2017 – the company's third attempt after two previous technical scrubs.
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Read or Share this story: https://www.courierpostonline.com/story/news/local/2017/08/11/spacex-falcon-9-rocket-south-jersey-experiments-crs-12-stockton/559497001/Fulham attacker Clint Dempsey has equalled an American scoring record in the Premier League.
Dempsey has now scored 36 League goals, the same as Brian McBride, but Fulham's away win in Wigan was clearly what pleased the American most on Saturday evening.
"I'm happy we got the points today and I'm sure people back home in the States like to see me doing well," Dempsey told fulhamfc.com.
"The good thing is that after losing at home against Everton we've bounced back with a win away today. Now hopefully we can push on.
"The funny thing is we've played some good football in the last few weeks and not got the results, whereas today we may not have played our best but we got the points. It's crazy how it works sometimes.
"Hopefully we can take some confidence from grinding out a result today and keeping a clean sheet. Now we've got to push. on."Earlier this year we made some updates to the Azure Nebula Rescue queue. These changes addressed some concerns we had with how the Queues were rewarding players and how difficult optional objectives on Advanced queues might be blocking player progress. After watching the numbers and listening to feedback, we believe that the STO community has approved of these changes. With this mandate, we will be rolling out similar changes to the rest of our Advanced queues. What follows is a general overview of what has been done to the queues. Because every queue is different, this blog will not detail the individual changes made to each queue.
The first big change is that, excepting a few cases, Advanced queues no longer fail due to not completing required objectives which were optional objectives on Normal. These previously required objectives are now optional on Advanced queues, and you will be able to continue playing the rest of the queue even if you fail these objectives. Like Normal queues, these objectives are tied to additional rewards, so you will want to succeed at them, if possible.
The second big change is that all Normal and Advanced queues now reward the same amount of marks for finishing the mission without completing any optional objectives. However, we still want Advanced queues to reward more marks than their Normal versions due to the fact that the critters are tougher and there is added challenge in completing the mission while fighting them. The difference is now made up for in greater rewards on the optional objectives on Advanced.
Additionally, there were cases where Advanced queues had optional objectives which were not present on Normal, and sometimes a Normal queue had optional objectives which were different from its Advanced counterpart. We have largely synched the optional objectives together so they are the same between Normal and Advanced. And as stated before, the rewards for doing optional tasks on Advanced are greater than doing the same tasks on Normal, providing the greater reward for the greater challenge.
What Does This Mean for Rewards?
As Advanced queues no longer fail due to non-completion of difficult objectives, we expect that players will be able to earn more marks from playing these queues as they progress will no longer be halted prematurely. Additionally, it will be easier to earn elite reputation marks (Borg Neural Processors, Isomorphic Injections, etc.) and rare crafting materials as players will be able to finish these queues and earn those specific rewards as a result. The total number of marks that players can earn from a given queue will be, with very few exceptions, either the same as they earned before this update or slightly improved.
Can Queues Still Fail?
Certain queues have failure conditions built into them even on their Normal modes, an example being Mine Trap. In these cases failure has been built in as a fundamental part of those queues. In these cases the queues rewarded the full array of rewards (elite marks, crafting packs, etc.) that they would if they had been succeeded, however the queue ends early. These queues will function in the same way they have before, however optional objectives will now be the same across Normal and Advanced versions and the rewards will similarly be updated as mentioned above with similar rewards for base gameplay and additional rewards for completing optional objectives in Advanced versions.
Did Normal Queues Change?
Slightly. To accommodate the new reward structure some Normal queues have had new optional objectives added to them (which had previously been exclusively optional objectives in Advanced and/or Elite versions). In these cases, some of the potential rewards for completing objectives in these queues have been shifted around to ensure that these new objectives would reward comparably to their counterparts.
What Happened to Elite?
Elite queues have been untouched by this process. We are continuing to monitor their performance.
The changes we've made have reduced bottlenecks in player progress, and increased the potential for reward for all players. We look forward to hearing your feedback on these changes that will be coming to Tribble.
Katherine “Shelana” Bankson
Staff Content Designer
Star Trek Online
Discuss in the forumsShuttling between England and Germany for business during the recent Euro 2016, this author saw the matches in the fan zones. The English and German fans reacted quite differently after the matches and this could explain to an extent the difference in the teams’ performances.
Going into a match the English fans were very enthusiastic about their team but would despair mid-way into the match when the team didn’t perform to their expectation and ended up being very cynical about their players after the match. England underperformed in the group stages of the tournament with mounting criticism from the fans. The team couldn’t cope with the pressure and lost to minnows Iceland in the next round (R16).
Being the current world champions, Germany was fancied by many fans to win the tournament. The team also started slowly in the group stages with a draw against Poland and a narrow win over underdogs Northern Ireland. The German fans and media were not as critical as the English fans and their team didn’t face the intense pressure that the English team faced. Germany went on to play in the semi-finals of the tournament and lost to hosts France.
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The negative fan behaviour shown by the English football fans is not typical of the British sports fans. Great Britain has spent quite a lot to ensure success in the Olympics and has high hopes from its cycling team who won eight gold medals last time. So far they have won only one bronze medal in four events. Yet there has not been a public criticism on the performance in the media or among the fans. They continue to support the cycling team wholeheartedly for the coming events.
Given the contrasting fortunes of the teams and the contrasting behaviours of the fans, it seems the unrealistic expectations and cynical reactions of fans have a significant role to play in the failure of the players. The English footballers choke under the pressure unlike the British Olympic athletes or the German footballers.
Indian athletes never faced this issue in the past, except for Hockey and Cricket. For every other sport, we have faced the opposite problem of unconcern from fans and other stakeholders.
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In recent years with the success of our athletes in the past two Olympics fans have started following all our athletes. This is in stark contrast to previous Olympics, particularly before Beijing 2008. This is a very positive development that will go a long way to encourage sports in the country.
Unfortunately for India, we have not managed to win any medal so far and this has led to a lot of frustration among the fans. While disappointment is natural, many of the comments in the media and among fans are very reproachful to the athletes. This sort of knee-jerk emotional reaction is typical of quite a few Indian fans and does not help in any way to improve the future prospects. In fact, it adds immense pressure to the athletes and reduces our chances further.
All our Indian athletes have struggled hard to qualify for the Olympics. It is a matter of immense pride to the nation that this time in Rio we have 118 athletes who have qualified compared to 83 in London 2012. 48 of those 118 have come from economically backward conditions striving in a system that doesn’t do enough to nurture talent. Facilities are not easily accessible even for those athletes who come from affluent families in the cities.
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Take swimming, where USA has won 18 medals (7 gold) out of its total tally of 26 (9 gold) so far. India had two swimmers who participated and neither could progress beyond the heats of their events. On the surface, it seems like the Indian swimmers lack talent and/or will. However, considering that in USA elite swimmers are strongly nurtured in swim clubs all over the country (at least 3000 swim clubs are officially registered) while even in Delhi, people struggle to access a swimming pool - forget elite coaching, the difference in performance is no longer a mystery.
Bangalore with a population of 9.5 million has about 10 swimming pools (including 6 private pools) for public access, while Maryland (from where Micheal Phelps comes) with a population of 5 million has about 45 swimming clubs for elite swimmers. It is ridiculous to expect Indian swimmers to compete for medals in such a situation.
Swimming is a sport that doesn’t need expensive equipments. The lack of resources is even more acute when it comes to sports like shooting or archery, where our fans have been most anxious of a medal.
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Take Archery, where three Indian archers (Atanu Das, Bombayla Devi Laishram and Deepika Kumari) have qualified for the R16 in the Individual competition (two matches away from medals).
Bows at the elite level are quite expensive (Atanu’s first bow cost Rs 30,000) and each arrow costs Rs 2,500. There are not many facilities in India to practice the game even if one can afford to play the sport. The Archery Association of India struggles to get sponsors to organize the annual national championship. Tata Archery Academy is doing a good job by providing good facilities and coaching but there are not many other institutions doing the same.
In contrast, in South Korea the Government allocates more than Rs 7 crores per year for the game through the Archery Association and this is only 30 percent of the total funding for the sport. There are regular archery league competitions conducted in the country where 33 company teams participate. These companies provide wages, pensions and careers to the archers they hire to compete on behalf of their company. This level of investment ensures that Korea currently has 147 elite archers compared to a handful in India (and almost every other country). Is it any surprise then that South Korea dominates archery and has already won the 2 gold medals so far on offer?
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We should be praising our athletes who are competing with such handicaps instead of reprimanding them for not bringing enough medals. Elite sports needs years of efforts from multiple directions (athletes’ dedication, coaching excellence, quality of equipments, access to facilities and a conducive environment that promotes talent). Unless we start addressing the root causes of failure, India will not win many medals and by criticising our Olympic athletes during competition, we will reduce our minuscule chances of winning medals even further.Share this...
The Church of Global Warming is shattering in Germany, one of the last bastions of the movement. Even the environmental bishops are leaving the Church.The print edition of FOCUS magazine has an article today on a new upcoming skeptic climate book, Die kalte Sonne, authored by former warmist Prof. Dr. Fritz Vahrenholt and geologist/paleontologist Dr. Sebastian Lüning.
Even though the book will not be available until February 6th, it has climbed to no. 4 on the Amazon-Germany bestseller list under the category of environment and ecology.
(Thanks Die Zeit!)
That number will of course rise soon now that national weekly FOCUS has a write-up in today’s issue, and once it’s officially launched on February 6.
Only 31% of Germans are afraid of global warming
One very interesting statistic in today’s FOCUS article that even surprised me:
Only 31% of Germans are afraid of a global warming. In 2006 that number was double.”
Indeed skepticism has reached a point where now even leading environmentalists are abandoning the movement, as profoundly demonstrated by Vahrenholt’s and Lüning’s book. Many simply feel they have had the wool pulled over their eyes. Although there have been skeptic books in Germany, none had the impact that the soon-to-be-released Die kalte Sonne is expected to deliver. With the book ready to take off in Germany, preparations have already been taken for a possible launch of an international edition in English.
The book cites more than 800 sources, many are peer-reviewed papers that appeared after the IPCC 2007 report. It’s the latest summary of the state of climate science out there. It does not dispute CO2 as a driver. The book simply cuts it down to size, and backs it up with hard literature and data.
No more trust in the IPCC
Undeniably there’s a feeling that the stars are now aligned, the mood has swung, and key players are changing their minds. As FOCUS reports, even the most die-hard of warmists are converting, or at least softening their tones. Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt, a renewable energy expert, was once one of the fathers of the modern green movement in Germany and believed everything the IPCC preached – until 2 years ago. FOCUS writes:
Fritz Vahrenholt, one of the fathers of the green movement, no longer trusts the forecasts of the IPCC.”
and FOCUS tells us why, quoting Vahrenholt:
Doubt came two years ago when he was an expert reviewer of an IPCC report on renewable energy. ‘I discovered numerous errors and asked myself if the other IPCC reports on climate were similarly sloppy.”
In his book he explains how he dug into the IPCC climate report and was horrified by what he had found. Then add the 10 years of stagnant temperatures, failed predictions, Climategate e-mails, and discussions he had with dozens of other skeptical elite scientists. That was more than enough. FOCUS quotes:
I couldn’t take it any more. I had to write this book.”
Latif, Schellnhuber and Edenhofer softening?
In December we wrote about Mojib Latif backpedalling away from alarmism here, greatly scaling back from his earlier alarmist scenarios.
FOCUS also reports that even Climate Pope Hans Schellnhuber appears to be softening his tone. Recently at a speech he made at a seminar before agricultural experts, he admitted that “warmer temperatures and high CO2 concentrations in the air could very well lead to higher agricultural yields”. Is Schellnhuber preparing a back exit?
And FOCUS adds that even Ottmar Edenhofer might be softening his climate hard line. A few days after Schellnhuber’s admission, Vahrenholt and Edenhofer were both at a press conference in Munich, where Vahrenholt claimed that temperatures had not risen in a decade and that they would likely cool a bit in the future. FOCUS tells us Edenhofer’s reaction:
Edenhofer did not wish to contradict, even when requested.”Google just demoted your television set into a second screen, a slave to your phone or tablet or laptop. With the $35 Chromecast you can with one click move anything you find on your internet-connected device — YouTube video, Netflix, a web page as well as music and pictures and soon, I’d imagine, games — onto your big TV screen, bypassing your cable box and all its ridiculous and expensive limitations.
Unlike Apple TV and Airplay, this does not stream from your laptop to the TV; this streams directly to your TV — it’s plugged into an HDMI port — over wi-fi via the cloud … er, via Google, that is. Oh, and it works with Apple iOS devices, too.
I’m just beginning to get a grasp on all the implications. Here are some I see.
* Simply put, I’ll end up watching more internet content because it’s so easy now. According to today’s demonstration, as soon as I tell Chrome to move something to my TV, the Chromecast device will sense the command and take over the TV. Nevermind smart TVs and cable boxes; the net is now in charge. There’s no more awkward searching using the world’s slowest typing via my cable box or a web-connected TV. There’s no more switching manually from one box to another. If it |
are essential to mitigate the legal and economic consequences of any grants or status to DACA recipients," White House legislative affairs director Marc Short told reporters in a Sunday evening conference call. "We're asking that these reforms be included in any legislation concerning the status of DACA recipients."
But it remained unclear whether the president considers each of the more than a dozen priorities to be non-negotiable or whether the White House sees them more as a starting point for negotiation with members of Congress. Officials on the call notably declined to say whether the president would veto legislation that did not include each and every one of them.
Trump last month appeared to reach at least the broad outlines of a DACA deal with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer in which he would agree to extend DACA protections in exchange for a package of border security measures.
While Trump made clear that he was not backing down on his wall demand, he and other administration officials said then that they would be comfortable with wall funding coming later, in a separate legislative vehicle.
In a joint statement Sunday night, Pelosi and Schumer said Trump's list of proposals failed "to represent any attempt at compromise."
"The Administration can't be serious about compromise or helping the Dreamers if they begin with a list that is anathema to the Dreamers, to the immigrant community and to the vast majority of Americans" they wrote. "The list includes the wall, which was explicitly ruled out of the negotiations. If the President was serious about protecting the Dreamers, his staff has not made a good faith effort to do so."
Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said the president's "draconian and anti-immigrant principles" threatened to jeopardize "the bi-partisan, bi-cameral progress that has been made to pass a legislative solution that will protect nearly 800,000 Dreamers."
"It is immoral for the President to use the lives of these young people as bargaining chips in his quest to impose his cruel, anti-immigrant and un-American agenda on our nation," she added in a statement.
The demands could also divide Republicans, several of whom have introduced legislation providing a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers in exchange for less drastic changes.
House Speaker Paul Ryan's spokesman Doug Andres said the House immigration working group will review the list and consult with Republican members and the administration.The Slovakian has won the points classification at the last three editions of the Tour de France
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AFP) — Tour de France green jersey winner Peter Sagan will join Tinkoff-Saxo next season, the Slovak daily Sport said on Tuesday.
It claimed the Russian-owned team would probably officially announce the deal after Thursday’s stage 5 of the Tour of Poland.
“The three-time winner of the green jersey from the Tour de France has signed a contract with the team of Russian entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov,” the report said.
Although the 24-year-old Slovak, currently with Italian team Cannondale, won the Tour’s green jersey for the third year in a row last month, he failed to win a stage this year.
He has had a fairly unsuccessful season by his high standards, with victories at E3 Harelbeke and the Slovakian national road race on his palmares.
He was second in Strade Bianche, third at Gent-Welvelgem, sixth in Paris-Roubaix, and 10th at Milano-Sanremo.
Sagan also finished second in four Tour stages while coming fourth in another four.
Sagan was courted by Astana as well as the new Spanish team being built for next season by Formula One star Fernando Alonso, the report said.Show Summary
Tim starts off the show talking about his recent experience at the Masters & Seniors Worlds Jiu-Jitsu tournament, Francisco’s recent aggressive behavior, and Ernest pot-shot double leg from the weekend training sessions. The guys talk about the upcoming U.S. Open, the recent premium podcast with Chuck Walker, and Tim growing tired of doing the show. Afterwards, the guys talk about the upcoming ADCC in China, Rousimar Palhares and his recent suspension from the UFC, and the upcoming World Jiu-Jitsu Expo.
Tim plays an interview from earlier in the week with Renzo Gracie talking about the World Jiu-Jitsu Expo, Renzo’s potential return to Mixed Martial Arts, Chris Weidman’s rematch against Anderson Silva, and a recent fight story between Renzo and a New York City street hustler.
The guys then call Gumby for a talk about training at the old Ralph Gracie Mountain View, CA academy, the origins of On The Mat, teaching kids, and Cameron Earle.
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Be Sociable, Share!MV Agusta is putting those new cash investments to work, expanding its dealer network in the United States by 20 percent.
In January, I wrote about MV Agusta's double influx of cash, which came from investments from both Mercedes Benz and an Italian financial group. In February, MV Agusta hosted a group of journalists at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., for a presentation about the company's plans for all that money and to demo a few of their bikes.
Throughout the presentation, MV Agusta USA's new CEO, Helen Vasilevski, spoke at length about plans to expand the business and grow annual sales to 20,000 motorcycles. (MV Agusta sold 3,650 in 2010 and 9,200 in 2014.) The United States, along with Brazil and Asia, is one of the main places they're looking to make that growth, and the plan is to do it by increasing the dealer network, improving the level and speed of technical and maintenance support, and improving the bikes' overall quality.
I didn't write about the event at the time because... well, because I'm lazy. More accurately, other things came up and it was a week or two before I had time to sit and write something that wasn't timely news or a bike review. That, and I didn't feel it was worth your time to read about a cool day I had where I didn't learn much, besides what a company "planned" to do, and where I rode some bikes just long enough to know I wanted to ride them more, or where I learned about the MV Agusta F4 RC — which I was then sworn to secrecy about. I had some ideas kicking around, and then Jensen over at Asphalt & Rubber wrote an incredible piece about the day and, while I normally don't like to shine a light on other sites, it's a great read and I knew I couldn't really add much.
Now, there's more follow-up on the promises made in February.
The MV Agusta Brutale 675 is like a Street Triple on steroids. Photo by Jose Gallina.
Dealer network
MV Agusta USA has announced that nine new dealerships have been added to their network in California, Florida, Louisiana, New York, Michigan, Texas and Utah (see the full list of worldwide dealers here). My impression of Helen Vasilevski was that she seems really smart. With a background both in the powersports world and big business (she also worked for Proctor & Gamble and Diageo Liquor), she fully understands that simply increasing the numbers of dealerships with an MV Agusta in back wouldn't be enough.
Those dealers will also have to provide quality tech service and will need support from a reliable pipeline of parts. I can speak from experience when I say that the new MV Agusta dealer in my part of the country, Newport Italian, is a great dealer and the perfect guys to start carrying the brand.
Maintenance and tech support
During their presentation, MV claimed that their goal was to have a master tech at each MV Agusta dealer within 18 months. From the few friends I know with MVs, I've heard that parts support has gotten much better, and I know that's one of the main areas they were looking to improve. This latest press release claims further changes have been made as a part of their proactive effort to increase parts availability, though it isn't like we haven't heard that from brands before.
This MV Agusta Brutale 800 RR might be my favorite naked bike. Photo by Jose Gallina.
2015 MV Agusta motorcycle quality
While I didn't get nearly enough time on the bikes that day at Auto Club Speedway to give you any sort of real review (the event was held at a track because the units hadn't been registered yet, and we only rode two, street-speed laps on each unit), I can tell you that the bikes were miles ahead of what I expected. The Brutale 800 RR and 675 absolutely blew my mind with spot-on fueling, incredible powerbands, and near-perfect handling. Not nearly the issues I've heard of needing fuel re-mapping and suspension issues.
The real question
I went into that first presentation a skeptic and walked out a believer. I heard claims of how MV was an uber premium brand, competing with and at times topping the likes of Ducati and Aprilia, and I thought it was all bullshit until 300 yards into my first ride on an MV Agusta Brutale 800 RR. Many of these motorcycle companies remind me of working in education (I was a teacher in my past life), where the good ol' boys rise to the top and the entire industry ignores both common sense and the techniques proven in big business. I think Vasilevski is the right person to bring MV Agusta to life in the United States, and the only question now is will they be able to change public perception and convince people they can spend their hard earned money on a new MV Agusta before their money runs out.
The good news is that Vasilevski now tells me that press units should be available for evaluation shortly, which means we can finally get to the bottom of the Street Triple/Brutale 675 and Monster/Brutale 800 debate.The Civil Guard has released a video recorded before and after the tragedy of Ceuta where at least 14 people died last Thursday while trying to reach the Spanish coast swimming.The Civil Guard use this video as a response to criticism from the opposition groups and NGOs because of their actions during the attempt to jump the border fence by the migrants, but it really does not explain anything: images, recorded by security cameras, do not show neither the desperate attempt of Sub-Saharans to reach Spanish territory swimming nor the attitude of the agents, which do not appear in the video.It shows the arrival of hundreds of migrants to the border, and after a cut off, how some of them throwed stones, but this second part was allegedly recorded after their companions drown in beach of Tarajal after skirting the border jetty, not before.Thus, the video criminalize migrants, while not bring light on what happened in the water and, most importantly, how was the behaviour of the Spanish agents, who have been accused by some survivors of shooting rubber bullets to the migrants.From article:Spanish police continue to find bodies of African immigrants following Thursday's massive stampede of the Morocco-Spain border in which 250 people launched themselves at the barbed-wire fence on Tarajal beach, which is shared between two countries.So far, 15 sub-Saharan Africans have been found dead off the beach after having drowned during what has been described as an 'assault' on the fence on Thursday night at around 18.35hrs.Although it is far from a rare occurrence for would-be migrants to attempt to climb the fence into the Spanish-owned city-province of Ceuta – the nearest part of the African continental mainland to Spain – and its neighbouring Spanish enclave, Melilla, the latest tragedy is of a much greater magnitude with hundreds of people charging at the fence en masse leading to a number of deaths which are said to be rising as further victims are found.Most of the sub-Saharan Africans who had travelled by land to Ceuta's border fence on the Tarajal beach were stopped in their tracks by the Moroccan Gendarmerie, or caught on the other side by the Guardia Civil in Spanish territory, but a significant minority attempted to climb the fence where it juts out into the sea to make it more difficult for authorities to catch them.Nine of these were found drowned at the scene by the Moroccan authorities, and five sub-Saharan Africans were discovered on Friday.At least one of the dead is said to be female and none of them have passports, so border police are unable to tell what nationalities they all are.MP for Ceuta, Francisco Antonio González Pérez, described the 'extreme and hitherto unseen violence' employed by the would-be migrants as they attempted to enter Spanish territory which necessitated the use of riot equipment such as guns loaded with rubber pellets and tear-gas, although González Pérez says none of these were aimed at the people, 'only in the air as a scare tactic'.All the deceased are thought to be from Cameroon, the Ivory Coast and Guinea, although this cannot be proven as they did not have any identification documents with them.They have been taken to morgues in Tetuan, about 40 kilometres from Ceuta, and in the town known to those on the Spanish side as Castillejos and those on the Moroccan side as Fnideq.Border authorities have been considering lengthening the fence further into the water for some years now, since at low tide it is possible for border-crossers to wade around it and, if they get caught by sudden high tides in the process, can be washed out to sea.This is what has happened with the 15 migrants found so far, given that sudden high waves off the coast of Ceuta caught them unawares.Sources:First American Case Of MERS Reported In Indiana
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the first case of Middle Eastern Respiratory Virus, or MERS, has been confirmed in the U.S. A health care worker in Indiana who recently returned from Saudi Arabia has been hospitalized and is critical condition.
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
And I'm Robert Siegel. The first case of MERS has been confirmed in the U.S. MERS stands for Middle East Respiratory Virus Syndrome. Health officials say a man in Indiana was hospitalized on Monday and is in stable condition. NPR's Rob Stein reports that while precautions are being taken to contain the virus, there is no reason for widespread alarm.
ROB STEIN, BYLINE: International public health authorities have been keeping an eye on the MERS virus since it emerged in Saudi Arabia in 2012. It causes a serious, often fatal respiratory infection. And there's no vaccine to protect people against it or drugs to treat it. Anne Schuchat at the CDC says officials knew it was just a matter of time before MERS showed up in this country.
ANNE SCHUCHAT: In this interconnected world we live in, we expected MERS to make its way to the United States and we have been preparing for this.
STEIN: The first U.S. MERS patient is an American who got infected while working in a hospital in Saudi Arabia. Late last week, the man flew from Riyadh to London and then on to Chicago. He then took a bus to Indiana. On Sunday, he started coughing, developed a fever and began having trouble breathing and went to an emergency room. The CDC's Schuchat says he's now in stable condition in an Indiana hospital.
SCHUCHAT: MERS is now in our heartland.
STEIN: Officials are trying to determine exactly how he got infected and whether he infected anyone else on his trip, including people on the two planes, the bus and the hospital where he's being treated. But Schuchat says it doesn't appear the virus spreads very easily.
SCHUCHAT: There is currently no evidence of sustained spread of MERS in community settings.
STEIN: Nevertheless, the hospital caring for the first U.S. MERS patient is trying to make sure the virus doesn't start to spread there. And state and federal health officials are keeping a very close eye on the situation to make sure no one else gets infected. Rob Stein, NPR News.
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NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.It doesn’t need to be restated that comic book movies are a hot format for mass entertainment these days--just look to last week’s swath of television premieres with two high-profile story worlds amongst them. Gotham and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., different properties on different networks, are both trying out similar methods to cash in on their cinematic big brothers.
On Mondays, Fox has Gotham, which is based on the early police days of Jim Gordon - eventually to become Commissioner - beginning with his investigation of the Wayne murder that we the audience know will lead to Batman.
On Tuesdays, ABC has brought back Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a TV show that takes place on the periphery of the main event that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The show follows MCU character Phil Coulson as he runs a team of secret agents on secret missions in the same world as Captain America and Thor.
Both these series represent the burning embers of a bonfire franchise: Gotham is charged with filling America’s caped crusading pop-culture addiction without featuring Batman, while Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. keeps the franchise warm for May’s Avengers sequel without (presumably) featuring any of the Avengers.
The good thing about a mega franchise is it can expand in all directions as the fanbase realizes they have an innate desire to engage with these characters and the fictional worlds they live in regardless of the timing of official installments. Gotham and S.H.I.E.L.D. are similar in the central goal of the series: to scratch a fan-itch while telling compelling stories at the same time. Gotham is new to this game and hasn’t had time to build a base of actual television characters to carry the Easter eggs. The show spent far too much of its pilot winking and nodding to the canon we all know is coming and too much of it's second episode finding the balance between grit and camp.
S.H.I.E.L.D. has the benefit of being in its second season and having a line-up of characters the audience has grown with. The show looks to have learned how to combine the realities of television production with the fan-service of adapting outsized comic book characters. The Absorbing Man, a villain who can become any substance he touches, is a villain for Season Two’s first story arc, but the true mysteries for the comic book fans are glimpses of an alien corpse and the return of immortal Nazis.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had Gotham’s problem early on in their first season, putting too much emphasis on Easter eggs from comics or references to the much more popular Marvel films. It wasn’t until the earlier this year when Captain America: The Winter Soldier directly affected the ongoing storyline of the show, and challenged both its premise and title in a fundamental way. The series’ characters swiped of the cinematic laurels of the franchise and the mysteries of the series managed to be intriguing outside of the possibility of their inclusion in an upcoming Marvel movie.
Despite critical praise favoring S.H.I.E.L.D. ever so slightly, Gotham’s the rating winner after the final numbers come in. In the ever-important adult core demographic (18-49) Gotham found itself in a tie with CBS ’s series Scorpion at a 3.2 rating (a little over 4 million adults) after Live + Same Day ratings were calculated, but once viewers were given 3 days to catch up with the premiere, the Live + 3 ratings boosted Gotham to a 5.0 (6.3 million) over Scorpion’s 4.6 adjusted rating. S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn’t a new show, but didn’t do too shabby either, getting a 2.1 rating in the adult demo adjusted up to 3.2 once Live + Same Day numbers got the + 3 Day boost. The numbers put both series with over a 50% gain in their ratings once the delayed viewing numbers were added in, and with S.H.I.E.L.D. tying NCIS: New Orleans after the boost, puts that show in a similar situation to Gotham’s improved standing against Scorpion.
Gotham and S.H.I.E.L.D. aren’t performing like event television, they’re the content that’s readily available when you think about Batman or wonder when Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is going to come to Blu-Ray. Both of these shows will continue to complicate themselves within the mythology - S.H.I.E.L.D. specifically as it has an Agent Carter mini-series to lead into before Avengers: Age of Ultron - but it’s Gotham that has the greater challenges ahead. Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice will actually show us an older incarnation of The Dark Knight -and therefore the city of Gotham - than we last saw on film. That sudden shift in story world time will only end up being jarring if Fox fails at committing to Ben McKenzie’s Jim Gordon in favor of a weekly Easter egg parade bordering on camp.
GOTHAM airs Monday nights at 8PM on Fox.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs Tuesday nights at 8PM on ABCA number of buildings collapsed in Manokwari
At least four people have been killed and dozens injured after a series of powerful earthquakes hit eastern Indonesia, officials say.
The strongest tremor, with a magnitude of 7.6, struck north of the city of Manokwari in West Papua province at 0443 (1943 GMT on Saturday).
It was followed by another big quake and a string of aftershocks.
Witnesses said the tremors triggered mass panic in Manokwari, where several buildings were flattened.
A tsunami alert was issued by Indonesian authorities following the earthquakes, but withdrawn within an hour.
Assessment teams and medical supplies are expected to arrive in the remote region, some 2,955km (1,830 miles) east of Indonesia's capital Jakarta, within the next 24 hours.
The first quake struck on land about 95 miles (150km) north of Manokwari at a depth of 22 miles (35km), the US Geological Agency said. It was followed by another tremor and aftershocks.
The BBC's Lucy Williamson said eyewitnesses described crowds of people running terrified through the streets of the region's main city amid fears of a tsunami.
Among the four victims of the quakes was a 10-year-old girl who was crushed by a falling wall, officials said.
At least 37 people were injured and were being treated in hospitals.
An official with the World Vision aid organisation said 10 buildings had been totally destroyed, including several hotels and the house of a government official.
Officials said three people, who had been staying at the Mutiara hotel in Manokwari, were pulled alive from the rubble and taken to hospital.
Electricity was also cut off in the city with a population of some 160,000 people.
Japan's Meteorological Agency told Reuters news agency the earthquakes also triggered a small tsunami which hit the Japanese coast, but did not cause any damage.
A huge quake off western Indonesia on 26 December 2004 caused a massive tsunami that killed around 230,000 people around the region.Police sources told Dawn.com that the weapons included 4 M4 assault rifles with 36 magazines and 4 pistols with 30 magazines.—File Photo
PESHAWAR: Six people, including three US nationals, were detained Monday after police discovered a large cache of illegal arms from their vehicles.
According to police sources, the “suspicious cars” were stopped for a routine check at the Peshawar Motorway toll plaza when the weapons were discovered.
Police sources told Dawn.com that the weapons included 4 M4 assault rifles with 36 magazines and 4 pistols with 30 magazines.
US Consul General Mary Richard also reached the police station where the Americans were detained for questioning, urging officials to seize weapons but not to detain the foreigners.
The US Consul General however refused to give any comments on the arrests when approached by our reporter.
Reuters news agency reported a US embassy official as saying: “These officials were returning from a visit to Malakand University where they were preparing for an English education event for underprivileged children. They had all proper permissions but were stopped when returning to Peshawar.”
The six detained included three foreigners described as US diplomats, as well as three Pakistanis, which included a security guard and two drivers.
According to recent instruction from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, foreign diplomats are prohibited from carrying weapons or travelling to prohibited areas in the province unless expressly permitted by the provincial government with a No Objection Certificate (NOC).Yesterday, six dogs were stolen out of the back of a pickup truck while it was parked in the 4400 block of 206 Street.
The dog walker/sitter had taken the dogs to an off leash park in Brookswood and put them in the back of her pickup truck (with a canopy) so she could use the washroom. When she returned ten minutes later, the canopy had been unlatched and all six dogs were gone.
She searched the area for hours but wasn’t able to locate any of them.
The owners believe their dogs were taken as opposed to having escaped from the truck. The canopy had been latched and when the sitter returned, the canopy was open.
If you have information that would assist police to locate these dogs, please call Langley RCMP at 604-532-3200 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477)
The six missing dogs are:
Teemo – a grey Bouvier Poodle cross
Buddy – a black and white Boston Terrier’
Oscar – A black and brown Rottweiler / Husky cross’
Salty – A Border Collie
Molly – a black and white Pit Bull
Molly – A grey and black Blue Heeler / Shepherd cross
No photo was provided of Molly, the Blue Heeler / Shepherd Cross.
Source/Images: RCMPDIY flight simulators have been around since the desktop PC became affordable. Some hobbyists go all out and build a recreated cockpit using large displays as windows to simulate flying, which is incredible in itself but doesn’t really give the pilot that feeling of flight.
To get that feeling you would normally turn to professional simulators that move hydraulically and feature realistic flight controls. Since those types of simulators are usually restricted to professionals, some hobbyists such as Gago Meisler turn to the technology at hand to create their own realistic homemade motion simulators.
Gago designed his DIY 6-DOFMotion Platform using a wooden carriage that moves and tilts using a series of linear actuators and different Unite motors. To get that feeling of flight through movement, Gago programmed his actuators to move in sequence with the Flightsim controls, almost in the same fashion as professional mockups.
The setup looks bare next to other simulators, however Gago doesn’t need a myriad of controls or massive displays to simulate flight. Instead, he makes use of the Oculus Rift VR headgear, which features immersive views no matter where you turn your head.
The Oculus was paired with Lockheed Martin’s prepar3D and DCOC-Extension for head tracking while using Flightsim software. This lets him ‘see’ virtual controls and airspace as though he was sitting in a real cockpit, which judging from the YouTube video looks impressive to say the least.
For more details on how he built it all, and many more videos, check out his site.Camden Jack is going to be a big brother! Kristin Cavallari and husband Jay Cutler are expecting their second child together.
PHOTOS: Kristin Cavallari's life as a mom with Jay Cutler
UPDATE: "Thank you for all the love!! We are so excited for Camden to be a big brother!" she expressed to fans via Twitter, confirming the news Wednesday afternoon. The pregnant-again Hills alum, 26, and the Chicago Bears quarterback, 30, are already parents to their 14-month-old son. They tied the knot back in June of this year after two and a half on-and-off years of dating. Now a fashion designer with a shoe line for Chinese Laundry, Cavallari has been hinting for months that they were anxious to expand their brood.
PHOTOS: Kristin Cavallari's chic pregnancy style
"It's funny — before we had Camden I was like, 'Yeah, four kids, no problem!'" Cavallari told local Chicago news station, WCIU, during an Oct. 11 appearance. The designer mom also told WCIU that she and Cutler were "working on" baby no. 2.
PHOTOS: Celebrity wives and girlfriends of NFL players!
"We're doing all the necessary things to get pregnant," she teased. While the gender of the baby is not yet known, Cavallari revealed to Us Weekly in September that she would "love to have a little girl…But if I had another boy, that would be great, too."
E! News first reported Cavallari's second pregnancy. The Cutler clan splits their time between Chicago, L.A. and Nashville.
Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox!
Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone? Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now!Next to Donald Trump, the presidential candidate suffering the roughest media treatment in the last few weeks has been Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson. He’s been mocked after failing to recognize Aleppo, identify North Korea’s leader, or name a living foreign head of state he admires. He was denied an invite to the presidential debates. An odd MSNBC interview in which Johnson talked with his tongue sticking out went viral. And his running mate strongly signaled he’s going to spend his time attacking Trump instead of touting Johnson.
Yet the former New Mexico governor will almost certainly win the highest vote percentage of any Libertarian Party candidate in history. The title is now held by 1980 nominee Edward Clark, who earned 1.06 percent of the vote (his campaign was buoyed by the checkbook of his running mate, David Koch). Johnson is currently registering at 6.7 percent in the RealClearPolitics polling average; even if he fades in the stretch, he still should be able to top Clark.
But such a symbolic victory is less enticing for Johnson than the potential prize he could win for his party. If Johnson snags 5 percent of the national popular vote, the Federal Election Commission will classify the Libertarians as an official “minor party,” granting the 2020 nominee a lump sum of cash for the fall campaign, courtesy of the American taxpayer. (And don’t you think for a second that the vehemently anti-big-government Libertarians won’t cash that big government check in a heartbeat.)
The exact amount of federal funds depends on the size of his vote, but Green Party officials – who have been chasing 5 percent for years – estimate that meeting the threshold would yield about $10 million. That may seem like chump change compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars major party presidential nominees routinely raise. But Johnson has gotten this far after raising only $8 million through August. The prospect of knowing the Libertarian Party’s nominee is guaranteed $10 million will allow him or her to hit the campaign trail running, improving the odds of getting into the debates, winning an even larger share of vote and fortifying the party’s place in the American political landscape.
For Johnson to clear 5 percent would require retaining the support he’s getting in the polls once voters cast real ballots. This is far from certain. Third-party candidates often tank at the end. They lack the money for robust get-out-the-vote operations. Their media attention dries up once they are shut out of the debates. And in Johnson’s case, he has compounded his fall campaign challenges with his string of mind freezes.
Or has he? Johnson may be following Step No. 1 of the Donald Trump Method of Political Success: the more crazy things you say, the more media coverage you get.
Such a strategy may not be the best way to crack 50 percent – Trump won the Republican nomination with a plurality – but it may prove an excellent way to hold on to a niche vote. Johnson’s high-profile blundering has successfully boxed out the Green Party’s Jill Stein, who has struggled to get media attention since her August CNN town hall, and is scraping bottom with 2.1 percent in the RCP average. Johnson’s own number is down a tick after his “What is Aleppo?” gaffe – in August his average was a fraction above 8 percent – but he hasn’t collapsed, at least not yet.
Johnson may also be better equipped than past third-party candidates to retain support on Election Day, thanks to social media. In the past, if you didn’t have money for TV ads, you might as well be a tree falling in a forest with no one around to hear the sound. Today, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can let your ardent fans know you are still in the arena, giving them reason to believe their third-party vote will mean something.
Finally, Johnson may be further abetted if the latest revelations about Donald Trump cause the GOP to crater. Disgusted Republicans, resigned to a Hillary Clinton presidency, may flock to Johnson as a protest vote. And Clinton skeptics on the left may feel more liberated to support Johnson – who has appealed to progressives with his positions against military intervention and the “war on drugs” -- if they feel Clinton’s margin is so wide that the third-party candidates can’t tip the race to Trump.
But no one should treat voting for Johnson as a one-day protest vote, especially Republicans. A federally funded Libertarian Party is a party that can attract higher-quality candidates, at the presidential and down-ballot levels. It’s a party that just may be able to bust onto the presidential debate stage in 2020. It’s a party that could permanently divide the right, making it exceedingly difficult for Republicans to win the White House, or, in the most apocalyptic of scenarios, make the Republican Party go the way of the Whigs.
Granted, the possibility also exists for the Libertarians to continue attracting support from both the left and the right, mitigating any spoiler effect on Republican Party. And it’s also possible that clearing 5 percent could prove to be a high-water mark for the Libertarians, as it has been for some in the past. For example, the nominee of Ross Perot’s Reform Party in 2000, Pat Buchanan, got a $12.6 million government check after Perot won 8 percent in the 1996 election. Yet Buchanan ended up with less than 1 percent of the vote.
But make no mistake: A vote for Gary Johnson is a vote that could elevate the Libertarian Party out of fringe status, establish a three-party political system and shrink the Republican Party. So before you cast that vote, ask yourself: Is that what you really want?The Northeast has seen its fair share of snow this week, but New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie can’t blame the winter weather for the slippery slide in his approval ratings.
A new poll from Rutgers-Eagleton reports that Christie’s approval ratings are the lowest they’ve been since he took office in 2010. Just 37% of the state’s voters have a favorable view of the 2016 Republican presidential hopeful, a figure that’s down seven points since the poll was last conducted two months ago. A majority — 52% — disapprove of the job he’s doing as governor.
RELATED: Back from a rough trip to England, Chris Christie heads to Iowa
When those surveyed were asked why they believed Christie’s numbers had dropped, 10% said they were turned off by his presidential ambitions and his negligence toward his current office. Fifteen percent cited the “Bridgegate” scandal from September of 2013, when high-ranking Christie officials allegedly closed lanes of the George Washington Bridge allegedly out of political retribution. Another 20% said that the drop was a result of “overall attitude, behavior, and personality.”
The recent numbers, which come from a poll conducted between Feb. 3 and Feb. 10, represent a continued approval-ratings slide, which has been precipitated in recent weeks by the governor’s comment on vaccines. He said during a trip to England that parents should have more choice in decided whether their children should be vaccinated.
The three-day trip to the U.K. — similar to those taken by other GOP hopefuls including Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — was seen as an opportunity for Christie to beef up his foreign policy credentials. Instead, he remained mostly silent on world issues while abroad.
RELATED: More bad news for Chris Christie
A recent trip to Iowa — his sixth — also did little to boost Christie’s popularity. To add to his problems, Christie is also facing a federal criminal investigation into whether he illegally stopped grand jury indictments for a political ally.
A Monmouth University poll from earlier this month reported that 66% of Christie’s believe the governor is more concerned about his own political future than the future of the state, a 10-point jump since September. When asked if Christie’s trip across the pond was to build trade relations — which was how the visit was billed — or if it was simply to help the governor fun for president, 65% said the latter. Just 17% believed it was to build trade relations.
Aliyah Frumin contributed reporting to this article.Spanish cathedral to host Ai Weiwei incarceration exhibit
An installation by Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei portraying his experience in solitary detention in China will go on display at a cathedral in Spain later this month, organisers said Thursday.
The exhibit, which consists of six hulking, iron boxes containing sculptures depicting scenes from his 81-day incarceration in 2011, will be on show in the nave of cathedral of the central city of Cuenca from July 26.
The work, entitled S.A.C.R.E.D., show him sleeping on a white cot, being interrogated by officers and watched as he used the bathroom.
Ai Weiwei is China's most prominent contemporary artist ©Patrick Kovarik (AFP/File)
The installation was first displayed in 2013 at the Venice Biennale. It will remain on diplay in Cuenca until November 6.
This is the first time that the Gothic cathedral will host a modern art exhibition, said a spokeswoman for the regional government of Castilla La Mancha which is organising the display.
The exhibit is part of commemorations held across Spain to mark the fourth centenary of the death of its most famous author, Miguel de Cerv |
the AMA decides to go forward in banning the marketing power of energy drinks, the Monster brand could see a noticeable drop in sales. More than 90% of total revenue for the company comes from the Monster Energy brand of energy drinks. In the end, it also means that fewer teens and young adults would be exposed to this 'devilish' beverage.August is an odd month for a football reporter, and not just because each team plays four practice games whose results have no real bearing on the trajectory of the season.
The guys with the most at stake this month are the ones playing for their very jobs, a process that culminated with Saturday’s roster cuts. Now, those guys go from being the center of attention to being the supporting actors in a drama that will feature stars like Russell Wilson, Michael Bennett and Richard Sherman.
But before we move on to the main course of the regular season, let’s take a look back at both what the past month told us and what we’re still trying to piece together:
Three things we learned:
1. The reports of this draft’s depth were NOT exaggerated.
Of the 10 players Seattle drafted, eight remained with the team after the roster was trimmed to 53 players. That’s the most draft picks kept by the Seahawks since 2010 when eight of the nine players Seattle chose made the cut. Not only that, but Seattle initially kept six undrafted rookie free agents. That’s utterly remarkable. To put that in perspective, Seattle has been lauded for the opportunities afforded undrafted rookies to earn playing time, and deservedly so. In Pete Carroll’s first six seasons, the team kept a total of seven undrafted free agents heading into the regular season. They have almost that many this year alone.
2. There’s a big change up front with Seattle’s offensive line.
The Seahawks kept 10 offensive linemen in 2010, Pete Carroll’s first year as Seahawks coach. Average weight: 305.6 pounds. Stacy Andrews was the only one of those 10 players listed at more than 310 pounds. Six years later, the Seahawks have a starting center who’s 315 pounds in Justin Britt. Of the nine offensive lineman the Seahawks kept this year, five are listed at more than 310 pounds and Seattle’s starting line won’t include anyone who’s lighter than 310.
3. Seattle’s running game is going to look very different this year.
That’s not just because of Marshawn Lynch’s retirement. Last year, Seattle entered the season with two fullbacks on the roster – Will Tukuafu and Derrick Coleman. This year, there are none. Everyone loves the way Thomas Rawls fits into Seattle’s run game, and Christine Michael was the single biggest surprise of any player in training camp for Seattle. Then there’s C.J. Prosise, whose background as a wide receiver at Notre Dame is going to give the Seahawks a unique third-down option now that he’s healthy.
Three things we’re still trying to figure out:
1. What will Seattle’s nickel pass rush look like?
This was the most dynamic unit in 2013 – the year Seattle won the Super Bowl. The Seahawks would insert Cliff Avril at defensive end and slide Michael Bennett to defensive tackle and unleash holy hell. Well, those guys are still in place, but who’s going to round out the group? Jordan Hill was pegged to be a defensive tackle in that package, and his release was the single biggest surprise of the roster cutdown. He had been effective when healthy in his three seasons with Seattle, but a hamstring injury has him on Seattle’s injured reserve after he cleared waivers. Seattle has a couple of options. It could move Frank Clark from defensive end to defensive tackle in the nickel pass rush – playing him alongside Bennett – with Cassius Marsh stepping in at defensive end. Or perhaps this will be an opportunity for Quentin Jefferson, the rookie out of Maryland, to play defensive tackle.
2. Are Seattle’s kick coverage units a concern?
Special teams has been the single most consistent element for Seattle’s franchise since Brian Schneider came to Seattle along with Carroll in 2010. That’s what made some of the preseason results at least a little jarring as Seattle allowed an average of 28.8 yards per kickoff return during the practice games. They were below average with punt-return coverage, too. Throw in the fact that there are 14 rookies on the roster – some of whom will have to be special-teams contributors – and that’s something that bears watching going into the regular season.
3. Are the Seahawks going to have eight offensive linemen active on game days?
Teams usually keep seven, but that requires having at least one backup capable of playing either both guard and tackle or both guard and center. It doesn’t look like Seattle has that. The Seahawks will have either J’Marcus Webb or Garry Gilliam as the backup tackle, rookie Rees Odhiambo at guard and then Joey Hunt at center. Essentially, Seattle could be costing itself a body that could otherwise be used on special teams.Aura Kingdom - AuraKingdomPatchnotes
Alabastren Temple / OW: Alabastren Temple
Gydaie Glen / OW: Gydaie Glen
Miner's Steppe / OW: Miner's Steppe
Deep's Cavern / OW: Deep's Cavern
Candeo Core / OW: Candeo Core
Wrathborne Temple
Ghostweep Cave
Ozymand Temple
Titan's Root / OW: Titan's Root
Cadilla Felwood / OW: Cadilla Felwood
Frozenlea Plains
Twilight Forest / OW: Twilight Forest
Sarpa's Forbidden Laboratory / OW: Sarpa's Forbidden Laboratory
Tomb of the Ancients / OW: Tomb of the Ancients
Chronowood Cavern
Shattered Netherworld
Lament of The Thunder-Dragon King
Landing of the Sky Dragon King
Siege of the Aqua-Dragon Queen
Pyroclastic Purgatory
Tempestuous Temple
Darkthunder Temple
Frozen Ruins of Zahr-Kazaal
NPC added for the awakening quest
Spend gold to get a buff to certain stats during the awakening quest
Several masteries/mastery boxes additionally added to Vault of Eternia (Team) “Attack-Box”, “Defense-Box”, “Special-Box” and “Tactical-Box”
Several Eternia related items additionally added to Vault of Eternia (Team) “Eternia's Fantasy Academy Style", "Hand-dyed Clothing: Eternia (F)", "Hand-dyed Hairstyle: Eternia (F)" and Eternia's Timeless Hourglass”
Level of certain masteries changed which are only available through Vault of Eternia (Team)
Auto hit delay issues fixed
Hidden walls in “Obscura Temple” removed
“Evil Smiting Edge Repent” stacking bug with different mastery levels has been fixed
Some display issues for overcapping CRIT DMG have been fixed
Quest “A Sacred Ceremony” has been fixed
o(≧▽≦)oWhat a long journey – and you all were part of it!To celebrate this milestone, Patch 50 includes several events! So let’s get the party started and enjoy the patch and the events!Every day at 12:00 am, 08:00 aAM and 08:00 PM the parade will happen in Navea (X850 Y580)!Join the parade and receive fancy buffs for 24 hours!There are several Eidolons in Navea who are participating in a collection event. The Eidolon with the most Eidolons Contest Ticket and Aura Kingdom Anniversary Coin will win this championship!(¬‿¬ )To help your favorite Eidolon you have to help the NPC Eidolon Contest Judge Glenn (X 480 Y595) first. She will provide your with Eidolons Contest Ticket. To get Aura Kingdom Anniversary Coin you have to run party and hell dungeons.The winning Eidolon will distribute its special statue for housing AND a fancy Eidolon pillow with itself as cover to all participating players! Time to get all cozy and sleep with an Eidolon pillow! (╯✧▽✧)╯The following table and list will show where you can find the Eidolons in Navea and in which dungeons you can drop Eidolons Contest Ticket:(only team and hell modes) (￣▽￣)/Little devils go wild! Save the world in this new Gaia Chronicle event and enslave these little devils, otherwise they will destroy everything and you will despair inandLast, but not least, for the events in this patch.Re-run of the latestt!They are back and ready to share their fragments with you!new dungeons, well...The new Dimensional Hall you can find on Hidden Valley at X:111 Y:613.This Dimensional Hall is for players with at least SLvL 1!And with the most exciting dungeon announced, it is time for some more challenging stuff!New chapters in Eternias Vault! Chapter 13, 14 and 15!Get ready to meet your fate!Gainey, Ruth and Von are awaiting you.A new team challenge awaits you all! Eternias Vault Chapter 1, 2 and 3 –This dungeon is not like others –, demanding and groups need to work together!But possible drops make it more than worth.Not just new, shiny SLvL 5 armor can be dropped, but also key fragments of Hermes, Demeter and Eirene! Last but not least, in both dungeons you can also drop new masteries!Let the farming begin!( ￣ー￣)φ__Your Aura Kingdom teamUsing your Mac after sunset may be keeping you up. Even at its dimmest setting, the kind of light given off by its LED display can affect your ability to fall asleep. Changing the warmth or color temperature may help and there’s free software that can do it automatically, called F.lux.
A lot of science has gone into the study of sleep, most likely because there are a lot of us not getting any. It could be that we’re not getting enough sleep, or it takes too long to fall asleep, or we can’t stay asleep. Maybe the sleep just isn’t restful. We go to great lengths for a good night’s sleep from simple ear plugs and eye-masks, to expensive mattresses, sleeping pills and even breathing machines.
What the latest science is learning, however, is that our electronic devices may be keeping us up, and it’s not because we can’t get past the next level in Angry Birds. The prime suspect they’re investigating is the light from electronic displays: specifically the blue wavelengths generated by today’s flat-panel LED displays. Our Macs use them. iPads, iPods and iPhones use them. Think about it: That’s hundreds of millions of devices capable of disrupting normal, healthy sleep!
Turns out those blue wavelengths of LED light do a great job of simulating daylight, much better, in fact than fluorescent light, regular incandescent light or the original artificial light, fire. Go back as far as you care to in human evolution, and you’ll find that we’ve never been exposed to this much convincing daylight after sunset.
A few developers have come up with a free (and patent pending) method of addressing this, called F.lux, a free download. Available for OS X PPC/Intel (and compatible with Lion) as well as Linux and Windows, F.lux runs in the background and adjusts the color temperature (red or blue) of your display depending on the time of day and your location. As the sun sets wherever you are, F.lux warms up the color of your display, gradually removing the blue wavelengths.
The F.lux preferences window
F.lux lives in your menu bar. Tell F.lux how you’d like your display to look night and day, then tell it where you are (It can use OS X Location Services). F.lux will then determine when sunrise and sunset is. You can transition quickly (20 seconds) or gradually (1 hour) and preview the results. There are also presets that match real-world lighting (tungsten, halogen, fluorescent and daylight).
For those of you that need to do color accurate work, you’ve not been forgotten. There’s a setting to disable F.lux for one hour at a time. The developer plans to add the ability to allow for automatic disabling of F.lux when using certain apps, so its auto-updating ability should ensure you get the new features as soon as they’re available.
Using F.lux, I’ve noticed that reading on my MacBook Pro before bed makes me tired the same way reading a book might. Perhaps it’s a placebo effect, but I don’t recall that happening in the past. Watching videos when F.lux is active hasn’t been an issue for me, but again, you can easily disable it an hour at a time.
Now, don’t go pulling out your iPad or iPhone and potentially ruining a good night’s sleep…until there’s an app for that.A Gofundme campaign to raise money for the developmentally challenged victim of the brutal attack broadcast on Facebook Live, on January 5, has raised over $100,000 in two days.
The assault saw an 18-year-old man tied up, beaten, and tortured over the course of four to five hours. He forced to say “Fuck white people,” and, “Fuck Donald Trump,” in the video. The attackers also allegedly cut the victim several times and forced him to drink toilet water.
Read more
The GoFundMe campaign, which is called “Let’s show the Chicago victim love”, was set up with a goal of $10,000 however it raised over $110,000 in just two days.
GoFundMe’s regional communications manager Bartlett Jackson confirmed to AP the account is genuine and that its manager has been working directly with the victim’s family. The page says the victim has been "amazed to see all the support and prayers he is receiving."
READ MORE: Chicago beating: US eye-for-an-eye principle will leave us all eyeless & toothless
Suspects Jordan Hill, Tesfaye Cooper and Brittany Covington, all 18, and Tanishia Covington, 24, have been charged with battery, kidnapping and hate crimes in connection with the attack on the 18-year-old. They have been denied bail.
President Barack Obama and the Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, have led the widespread condemnations of the attack.Should the Hanshin Tigers be worried about the “road trip of death?” Sure, it sounds ominous, as do most things when you tack “of death” onto the end, but it’s not nearly as bad as in the past. Either way, the team has to face it now.
The Tigers were full of life at home in Koshien Stadium on Friday night, earning a 5-4 win over the Yokohama BayStars on a sayonara single by Kosuke Fukudome in the 10th inning. Rain washed away the next two games of the weekend series, and preparations for the stadium to host the National High School Baseball Championship, which starts Saturday, begin this week. So the Tigers won’t play another game in their home ballpark until Aug. 27. They’ll play five road series and also “host” six games at Osaka Dome during that span.
Their extended time away from home came to be referred to as the shi no rodo or “road trip of death” through the decades as many past Tigers teams returned to Koshien after the grueling jaunt with their pennant hopes having been dealt a fatal blow.
It’s not as taxing these days, thanks to advances in travel and Osaka Dome and Kobe’s Hotto Motto Field, as it’s known now, having sprung up.
Even so, the trip still manages to shake the team out of its normal routine. Former Tigers reliever Jeff Williams described the experience to Japan Times columnist Wayne Graczyk in 2004, saying, “It’s 27 days living out of a bag. Even with the three games at Osaka Dome, when you get to go home at night and sleep in your own bed, much of that time is spent washing clothes and packing for the next segment of the road trip.”
Since 2005, the Tigers are 89-92-7 over the period when they’ve had to vacate Koshien Stadium. The team has alternated between winning and losing records during the trip each year over that span. Hanshin was 14-9 last season.
As always, the shi no rodo falls right in the middle of the pennant race, and this year the Tigers are in the hunt.
Hanshin leaves home in second place in the Central League, 2½ games behind the first-place Yomiuri Giants and one ahead of the third-place Hiroshima Carp. Finishing first means not playing a road game until the Japan Series — not to mention an automatic 1-0 advantage in the final stage of the Climax Series — and finishing third means having to win a three-game and six-game series on the road before getting a chance to play at home in the Japan Series.
So there is a high premium on Hanshin playing well away from home to stay in the race.
Then again, the 2003 team went 4-11, yet hung on to win the pennant. Hanshin later, somewhat ironically, lost all four road games against the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks during that year’s Japan Series.
A few years ago, pitcher Atsushi Nomi dismissed the “road trip of death” as an old wives’ tale. Even if he’s right, playing on the road is not without its perils.
No NPB team has done particularly well away from home this season. The Giants have NPB’s best road record at 23-19, with the Tigers 24-23 and the and Fukuoka Softbank Hawks 24-23-3. No other team is above.500.
So, no, there might not be a boogie man waiting for the Tigers on the road, but they’ve still got a hill to climb.
The club leaves home solidly in the mix to compete for its first pennant since 2005. The challenge is to make sure it comes back that way.Not all users worry about the kernel. Often the kernel becomes more important to users when:
system hardware is new and not yet working perfectly in Linux
system hardware behaves differently after a kernel update
Arguably, however, the kernel is the most important part of your Fedora (or any Linux) system. It mainly handles two things: hardware, and time on your CPU. It is made up of millions of lines of code, contributed by hundreds of regular developers and countless others. The kernel used in Fedora comes courtesy of this upstream community, where releases happen regularly.
In this blog post, Josh Boyer from the Fedora kernel team explains how upstream releases work. Our team integrates the release into Fedora, but we still rely heavily on upstream development. When you use and test Fedora kernels, you can help contribute to a healthy upstream community. If you want to know more about how the kernel community releases their code, Josh’s article is a great introduction.Story highlights Chuck D said Trump is "stupid" for blaming police shootings on "Black Lives Matter"
He slammed Melania Trump for "biting" Michelle Obama's speech
(CNN) Rapper Chuck D slammed Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, in an interview with CNN's Carol Costello Tuesday, calling the presumptive Republican nominee "stupid" for saying that the "Black Lives Matter" movement has in some cases instigated police shootings.
"I'm a musician so I can say things like 'he's stupid,'" Chuck D said when asked about Trump's most recent criticism of the "Black Lives Matter" movement. "And this convention is stupid for having him. How about that? He's out of his mind."
JUST WATCHED Side-by-side of Melania Trump, Michelle Obama speeches Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Side-by-side of Melania Trump, Michelle Obama speeches 01:42
He also addressed the allegations that Melania Trump's Republican convention speech plagiarized portions of future first lady Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic convention speech.
"In hip hop... the biggest travesty is to bite somebody's lyrics and rhymes," Chuck D said. "His wife just bit Michelle -- the first lady's speech and I think they planned it," he said.The main event won't be the only women's fight at UFC 190.
Claudia Gadelha will compete on the UFC card Aug. 1 in Rio de Janeiro, the organization announced Wednesday. Her opponent has not yet been determined.
Gadelha (12-1) is regarded as one of the best women's strawweight fighters in the world. Her lone career loss came against current champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk via split decision at UFC on FOX 14 last December. Many feel that Gadelha should have won that fight on the judges' scorecards.
While the Brazilian's foe has not been decided, it will likely be a top contender and the winner will have a solid chance at fighting for the title next. Gadelha, 26, won her UFC debut last July against Tina Lahdemaki and probably would have fought Esparza for the belt had she beaten Jedrzejczyk. Instead, Jedrzejczyk knocked out Esparza in the second round of their UFC 185 co-main event in March.
Gadelha trains out of Rio's Nova Uniao with the likes of Jose Aldo and Renan Barao. She's a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt with power in her hands.
UFC 190 is headlined by a women's bantamweight title fight between Ronda Rousey and Bethe Correia. The co-main event pits Brazilian legends Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Antonio Rogerio Nogeuria. Also on the main card, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will return against Stefan Struve.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
A man who spent the past 16 years in prison for the sexual assault of three women in L.A. County was exonerated Monday after recently-tested DNA evidence pointed to the long-sought "Teardrop Rapist" as the likely attacker.
Luis Vargas, 46, was sentenced to 55 years in prison in 1999 for raping a 15-year-old girl, and attacking and attempting to rape two other victims, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Upon his conviction, Vargas told the court: “I’m concerned (the) individual (who) really did these crimes might really be raping someone out there, might really be killing someone out there,” according to a news release from the California Innocence Project at California Western School of Law.
Vargas’ case first grabbed the attention of the Innocence Project in 2011 because it was “riddled with textbook post-conviction red flags.”
“The most prominent red flag of all: eyewitness misidentification,” the organization’s website stated.
The prosecution’s case relied heavily on eyewitness identification, which included victims noting their attacker had a teardrop tattoo similar to the one victims of the “Teardrop Rapist” have described, according to members of the Innocence Project.
Vargas — who previously served time for forcibly raping a girlfriend, according to the Times — later wrote to members of the Innocence Project about his case. He said the “Teardrop Rapist” and he had a similar tattoo and description — a middle aged Hispanic man with a small build.
In 2012, members of the project requested DNA testing be done on evidence collected from the crime scenes that had not previously been examined.
The testing showed the DNA did not match Vargas’ but was “very, very close” to the DNA collected from victims of the “Teardrop Rapist,” Michael Semanchik, with the Innocence Project, told the Times.
The project also noted the three assaults Vargas was convicted of occurred within a 1.6-mile radius of some 30 attacks the “Teardrop Rapist” was accused of.
In a recent interview, the teenager who was raped told investigators she stood by her identification, the Times reported, but prosecutors believe she “honestly, but mistakenly identified Vargas.”
This problem is not uncommon, according to members of the Innocence Project.
“Bad eyewitness identifications are one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions,” said project director and Professor Justin Brooks.
A judge reversed Vargas’ conviction on Monday, and Vargas cried in the courtroom.
"It's a relief because I believed that my father was innocent the day he told me he was innocent," his daughter Crystal Vargas said outside the courthouse.
She said was she grateful for the California Innocence Project and its staff attorney Raquel Cohen, who worked on the case.
Vargas was released to federal custody in connection with his immigration status. His green card was revoked when was under prosecution.
The new allegations against the “Teardrop Rapist” come after Los Angeles police in January asked for the public’s help in locating the person linked to 35 sexual assaults in a 16-year period.
“Although it has been almost two years since the last assault, the attacker is still out there,” police said on a Facebook page created to help catch the assailant. “We have no fresh leads and are still looking for the community’s help to identify the suspect.”
The “Teardrop Rapist” earned his name because of a teardrop tattoo witnesses said he had below one of his eyes.
Police believe it may have been removed, and he may now have a scar where it once was.
KTLA's Melissa Pamer contributed to this article.
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Please enable Javascript to watch this videoWe want you to feel secure in purchasing needles from us-even if they break-which is why we started our broken needle exchange program! We will replace any broken needles from any order that you placed with us, as well as pay the shipping costs to send a new pair out to you! Here's how it works: Simply send the broken needle(s) back to us at:
ATTN: Broken Needle Exchange
4850 Joule St. Ste A1
Reno, NV 89502 Please be sure to include your full name, order number, shipping address, phone number, and e-mail address. We know that this might seem like a lot of information to ask for but we've found that if there is a problem (your needles are out of stock, etc.), its easier to contact you if there are a few choices! Depending on what type of needle was damaged, you may only have to send back part or all of the item:
Circulars: We need the entire needle.
Straights, Double Points and Interchangeable tips: We need just the broken needle and not the entire set.
Interchangeable Cords or Needle Set Accessories: We just need the broken part/s Have a broken needle that you didn't order from us? Not a problem! We'll still take back damaged needles, even if you didn't purchase them from us (of course, as long as we carry needles from that company). We do ask for $1 in shipping charges, in order to send you a new pair. If you have any questions pertaining to our broken needle exchange program, please feel free to call us at 877-JBW-KNIT (529-5648)! Below is a list of the companies that provide us with great needles and who support us in this program: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
Christine Keeler, the model who was at the centre of a scandal that shook British politics, has died aged 75, her family have said.
Keeler’s son, Seymour Platt, 46, told the Guardian she died on Monday at the Princess Royal university hospital in Farnborough.
“My mother passed away last night at about 11.30pm," he said.
She had been ill for several months and was suffering with lung disease.
It is over fifty years since John Profumo, Secretary of State for War, lied in the House of Commons about having an affair with call girl Keeler.
The denial resulted in the exposure of a searing story of sex, suicide, intrigue and espionage - and demolished Profumo's world of red-leather despatch boxes, scrambler telephones and the panoply of a Minister of the Crown.
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(Image: Popperfoto)
(Image: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Keeler was reportedly was briefly married twice, both ending in divorce.
She had two sons - James from her first marriage and Seymour from a second - and a granddaughter, it was reported.
What was the Profumo affair?
KEELER was said to have met Profumo in 1961 through the party scene for aristocrats and VIPS after working as a cabaret dancer in London's Soho.
Profumo was a rising star of the Tory Party, close to Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, a favoured visitor at Buckingham Palace, a war hero and the dashing husband of a famous film star.
(Image: Daily Mirror)
Then, seven shots fired at a house in a quiet Marylebone mews by a jilted boyfriend of Keeler triggered Britain's most notorious political sex scandal of modern times.
The Profumo affair convulsed Westminster for nearly six months.
Keeler was jailed for nine months for perjury.
(Image: UGC)
(Image: Hulton Archive)
Macmillan's Cabinet was shaken by Keeler's revelations that she had sex with both Profumo and Commander Eugene Ivanov, a handsome Russian intelligence officer and the Soviet assistant naval attache in London.
At the height of the crisis, Cabinet ministers feared some of their colleagues might become the targets for scandal-mongers.
(Image: Popperfoto)
In the end the seediness of the Profumo affair proved fatal to 13 years of unbroken Tory rule.
Before the year was out, Mr Macmillan resigned as prime minister and was replaced by Sir Alec Douglas-Home, who lost the general election.
Profumo suffered scandal without reply.
(Image: Rex Features)
(Image: Daily Mirror)
The summer he fell, he made a vow of silence and never opened his mouth again to answer any criticism or misrepresentation, however unfair.
The only time he spoke of it was to his son David who produced the memoir Bringing The House Down.
Profumo served penance for parliamentary dishonour with more than 30 years of charity work among the poor in the East End of London.
(Image: Getty)
Friends believe he more than made up for the ruin he brought on a brilliant political career.
In 1975 he came in from the cold with a CBE for his work at Toynbee Hall, the East End settlement where he began the long road to rehabilitation washing dishes and helping meths drinkers.
Profumo's wife's death was a terrible blow to him, but he carried on his work as best he could.
(Image: Mirrorpix)
In 2003, the 40th anniversary of the Profumo scandal, all-party efforts were made in the Commons to restore his Privy Counsellorship.
Profumo died in hospital on March 9 2006 after a stroke.
In October The Mirror reported how the scandal being turned into a TV drama.
The Trial of Christine Keeler will tell the personal story behind the political scandal in 1963 which helped to topple Harold Macmillan’s Conservative government.
The six-part BBC drama by the writer of the hit show Apple Tree Yard will explore the 19-year-old dancer’s concurrent relationships with Profumo and Eugene Ivanov.A native of Kamsak, Sask., Hordichuk appeared in 542 NHL games over the course of his career with Nashville, Atlanta, Florida, Vancouver, Phoenix and Edmonton. Acquired by the Predators on July 27, 2005 from the Panthers in exchange for a fourth-round selection in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, Hordichuk would go on to play on the left wing in Music City for three seasons, seeing action in 172 games.
After spending two season with the Edmonton Oilers from 2011-12 to 2013, Hordichuk ended his NHL career and now lives with his wife and two sons, ages two and five, in Scottsdale, Ariz. Hordichuk, who now works in commercial real estate and recently completed a project he was involved in to build a private air strip in Edmonton, is enjoying having more time to spend with his family following the end of his playing days.
Back in town to take part in the Preds vs. Blues alumni game on Saturday night, March 15, Hordichuk answered a few questions about memories, the fans and the city of Nashville.
Can you talk about your memories of Nashville, the community, your teammates and the fans?
“It’s been incredible to see the fans and how they come to their feet during the games for whether it’s a big hit or someone scoring a goal. The passion that they exert through the whole game is amazing. From the live music and just the whole atmosphere around town before and after games, it’s incredible.”
What is your best memory of your time playing in Nashville?
“The memories of that year we were in the playoffs, we picked up Forsberg and we had Paul Kariya and we tried to make a push their in the playoffs. The whole playoff atmosphere was great, seeing the stands full to capacity and how loud it was in here. It is something I’ll never forget.”
What are your impressions on how the city has been growing and expanding?
“I’m blown away by how big the city is getting and how it’s really grown. It’s such a hot spot with the hockey arena downtown and having the football stadium right there and all the Honky Tonk bars to go to after the game; it’s all just a great little area. People never expect me to answer the way I do when they ask, ‘What was your favorite team to play for,’ when I played for so many great Canadian teams. But I always tell them, 'Until you go to Nashville you don’t understand how friendly the people are and how great the city is.'”Being that it’s BLOXtober and we’d like to see all of you running around in any costume you can dream up, we’ve decided the time is right to open our selection of body packages to everyone. Body packages are full makeovers of the standard ROBLOX character — complete with anything from hulking armor to penguin fins to peg legs — and have long been a small benefit of a Builders Club membership.
This is not a Halloween special. From here on out, body packages will release initially as Builders Club exclusives, then soon become available to any ROBLOXian who wants them. While most body packages have already made the transition, there are a few we have yet to make available to everyone. That will happen next week.
Go check out our body packages in the catalog — you might find the perfect Halloween costume for your character.
We hope you’re enjoying BLOXtober. We’re only getting started.Using modern statistical tools, a new study led by the University of Washington and the United Nations finds that world population is likely to keep growing throughout the 21st century. The number of people on Earth is likely to reach 11 billion by 2100, the study concludes, about 2 billion higher than widely cited previous estimates.
The paper published online Sept. 18 in the journal Science includes the most up-to-date numbers for future world population, and describes a new method for creating such estimates.
"The consensus over the past 20 years or so was that world population, which is currently around 7 billion, would go up to 9 billion and level off or probably decline," said corresponding author Adrian Raftery, a UW professor of statistics and of sociology. "We found there's a 70 percent probability the world population will not stabilize this century. Population, which had sort of fallen off the world's agenda, remains a very important issue."
The paper explains the most recent United Nations population data released in July. This is the first U.N. population report to use modern statistics, known as Bayesian statistics, that combines all available information to generate better predictions.
Most of the anticipated growth is in Africa, where population is projected to quadruple from around 1 billion today to 4 billion by the end of the century. The main reason is that birth rates in sub-Saharan Africa have not been going down as fast as had been expected. There is an 80 percent chance that the population in Africa at the end of the century will be between 3.5 billion and 5.1 billion people.
Other regions of the world are projected to see less change. Asia, now 4.4 billion, is projected to peak at around 5 billion people in 2050 and then begin to decline. Populations in North America, Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean are projected to stay below 1 billion each.
The figures largely support U.N. projections from 2013 but add a new dimension, said first author Patrick Gerland, a demographer at the U.N.
"Earlier projections were strictly based on scenarios, so there was no uncertainty," Gerland said. "This work provides a more statistically driven assessment that allows us to quantify the predictions, and offer a confidence interval that could be useful in planning."
World population projections are based mostly on two things: future life expectancy and fertility rates. Earlier techniques relied largely on expert opinion for how those trends were expected to change.
The newer forecast instead uses statistical methods to combine government data and expert forecasts for such things as mortality rates, fertility rates and international migration.
Also, earlier reports represented uncertainty by using scenarios in which women would have 0.5 children more or less than the experts' forecast. That method, Raftery said, generates too great a range.
"In a given year and country the fertility rate might be half a child higher, but the probability that it would be half a child higher in all countries in all years in the future is very low," Raftery said.
The new method uses statistical models to narrow the range, finding an 80 percent probability that the population in 2100 will be between 9.6 billion and 12.3 billion.
"This paper brings together the research from the past seven years, and also brings in recent data," Raftery said. "We can answer questions about future population growth using standard principles of statistical inference, which has never really been done before."
Rising population could exacerbate world problems such as climate change, infectious disease and poverty, he said. Studies show that the two things that decrease fertility rates are more access to contraceptives and education of girls and women, Raftery said. Africa, he said, could benefit greatly by acting now to lower its fertility rate.
The research was supported by the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and Science Foundation Ireland. Other co-authors are Hana Ševčiková and Nevena Lalic at the UW; Nan Li, Danan Gu, Thomas Spoorenberg, Guiomar Bay and John Wilmoth at the U.N.; Leontine Alkema, a former UW graduate student |
fall with children Alfie and Amelia at Stansted airport. Photograph: Jessica Elgot for the Guardian
He said some tourists had arrived late on Thursday, and told they had to go home almost immediately. “They had breakfast and went home again. But people don’t want to go home, they wanted to take the risk. But all the flights are being cancelled so they can’t stay. The communication all round has been terrible.”
Many had managed to enjoy some semblance of a holiday before they were told to fly home. Danny Tappin, 30, from Malden, said his three-year-old daughter had begged to stay longer. “We’ve been there 10 days, it’s been absolutely lovely, we felt very secure, there were armed guards everywhere, checking the beach every night, but it’s also good to be home safe. We feel that they brought us home for a reason, so I’m happy.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alex Neve-Vince and Amy Robinson at Stansted airport after returning from Tunisia. Photograph: Jessica Elgot for the Guardian
His partner Kirsty Horsfall, 27, holding her one-year-old son Alfie, said the family were determined to return. “We went there last time and it was during the revolution and we felt safe then. The staff are incredible, it’s heart-breaking. Even for the Thomas Cook staff, it’s really sad for them, they love it there.”
Clive Spooner, 54, from Ipswich, said he had felt the effects of the tragedy a fortnight ago during his stay at the Sahara Beach hotel, close to where the shooting took place. “We were there for a minute’s silence, there were a fair few tears shed. I feel for people still there, with all the Brits flying home. And I feel a lot for the staff too, you can see in their eyes, they’re devastated.”
Alex Neve-Vince and his girlfriend Amy Robinson, both from Ipswich, were on their first holiday together, and arrived just after the tragedy. “They have overreacted a little bit,” Robinson said of the FCO advice.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Chris Lee at Stansted airport after returning from Tunisia. Photograph: Jessica Elgot for the Guardian
“The same thing happened in Paris and no one stopped people flying out there. The same thing happened in Kuwait. Why are they eliminating Tunisia compared to all these other countries? England are on red alert now, same as Tunisia, but people are still flying to England.”
Both said they were frustrated with their treatment on the way home. “We were all bundled in a lounge together, we had to fly first to Manchester and then to here. No one from the airline told us what was going on, they pushed us to one side. We kept going up to ask but were told nothing,” said Robinson.
Neve-Vince said the evacuation of tourists had “crippled the country”. “We’d definitely go back to Tunisia,” he said. “It’s not the country’s fault, all everyone did was apologise to us, for something that’s not their fault.”Struggling Minneapolis-based retailer is thinking big by betting on a small store, urban revolution.
Target posted a 1.5% decline in same-store sales and adjusted earnings of $1.45 a share in the fourth quarter of 2016, badly missing estimates. The discount retailer has now seen same-store sales decline for three straight quarters. Amidst pressure from online retailers like Amazon, who plan to open a series of drive through grocery stores nationwide, Target is looking to ignite slumping sales trends by expanding into new urban neighborhoods with a small-store format tailored to each local market.
A new flex-format store opened in 2016 within the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago, IL. Image credit: Target Corporation
The company announced that it is rapidly expanding a flexible-format storefront that is aimed at attracting Millenials and city-dwellers. These new urban-oriented stores will be less than 50,000 square feet in size. These small, urban storefronts are also tailored serve as pickup points for online orders. Comparable digital channel sales grew 34% in the 4th quarter of 2016 and accounted for 6.8% of the company’s sales, up from just 5% in the 4th quarter of 2015. Target is accelerate efforts to grow their online channel, and tailoring urban stores to make ship-to-store merchandise pickups a convenient process is seen as a key strategy to capture urban customers increasingly purchasing everything from apparel goods to food over the web.
Target’s new urban stores have emphasized convenient pickup areas for purchases made via Target.com. Image Credit: RSP Architects
Of the nearly 1,800 stores that Target operate, around 32 are small-format stores. That small-format number is set to rapidly expand in 2017 as the company is looking to enter new neighborhoods such as dense, urban areas and college towns. The retailer has announced that will open 30 small-format stores in 2017, and plans to have 130 of such stores open by 2019.
A 17,000 square foot urban store in Packard’s Corner near Boston University. Image Credit: Arrowstreet.
After testing the urban store model in cities like Berkeley, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, the company has tinkered with supply chains and refined a curated product mix that caters to neighborhood-specific demographics in the areas of apparel, home good, and food products with an emphasis on grab-and-go items. Over the past two years, results from these urban store formats have been encouraging. Sales and profitability within these flex-store models have exceeded company store averages.
Target’s small format stores are meant to appeal to a couple between the ages of 28 and 35, likely with a young child at home. Not surprisingly, this is the same demographic sweetspot of the core Amazon Prime customer. The stores are a major part of the company’s plan to rethink the store experience, and focusing on the stylish, but value-driven private-label products that once fueled Target’s popularity. And while the company has struggled with growing market share within their grocery business, the emphasis within the Target urban format on beer and wine, frozen food and grab and go sandwiches, salads and meals means the company can capture more frequent shoppers- instead of competing head-to-head against Whole Foods and Trader Joes, where it has clearly not found success.
A view of the layout of a typical urban Target ‘flex-store’. Image Credit: Arrowstreet.
An additional image depicting the interior of Target’s new lineup of urban ‘flex-stores’. Image Credit: Arrowstreet.
Cover Image: Urban Target Express in Berkeley, Ca. Image Credit: Mike Field, ModernCitiesWe are finally back on from the Toy Fair where the Coleco Chameleon was going to be demo-ing a working console. It was a very cool and exciting trip where we got to meet several individuals which are passionate about retro gaming and are very hopeful to make the Coleco Chameleon a Success. I was happy to see that the Coleco brand owners are actually interested in this project and have very cool Ideas for future releases on the console (like a 16bit remake of Coleco classics; did I just leaked something? wups!)
I was hoping to see the intestines of the console, however I was not able to see the insides to confirm or deny the console rumors flowing on the internet the very first day of the show. I tried as much as possible to gather information about the insides of the console. My overall impression of the team was that Mike Kennedy has put all his 110% trust on his hardware guy; I knew from the beginning that Mike was not a hardware engineer and had just basic knowledge of how the console was going to be working and what things were going to do what. So I requested to have a call with the person responsible of all the techno talk (I will keep anonymous until the day of the Kickstarter; although I only got a very common shortname from him). I asked him to debunk the rumors and he assured me that the console was not a SNES mini inside a Jag shell. At this moment I am putting 100% of my trust Coleco Chameleon’s Hardware developer and hope to see the final specs and PCB reveal (as everybody else) the date of the Kickstarter; at the end of the day, I believe that he is the one that should have all the weight on his shoulders and be responsible on what Mike or the CCH team say and show when it comes to the system/proto. I requested a couple of times to see the Proto board of the console, if they wanted my confirmation or statement on record regarding the rumors, but I was told that the proto was put together by hand and even using scrap parts to get something working for the show, so it was not safe to open the case as we could break something (I witnessed the console acting up several times actually).
The Hardware developer then revealed what it seemed to be spec details on the console which I will keep undisclosed until the KS is launched out of pure honor, ethics, respect, whatever you call it. These details, if correct and part of the final and commercial version of the console, would make a heck of a good system! If what we were playing on at the Toy Show was indeed a FGPA powered system, then we are coming into exciting times on the retro gaming scene as well as the game developers/hobbyist scene (he told me other details that involve developers, and If what understood was correct, the console will be sooooo coooool!).
We will still give our support to the project from a game publisher/developer standpoint and will keep our announced games available for the system; and who knows, we might bring new exclusive developments depending how the KS is progressing.
In a not-so-business stand point, It seems like Piko is a child in the middle of a messy divorce where the parents are the Coleco Chameleon vs the Community. So may be, we can all relax for a week and a half and come back on the KS launch day and see what they have been cooking behind the scenes.
After the KS campaign is launched, I will make a 2.0 post about this with a bit more details and information, impressions and criticism that I choose to retain until then. We will hang in tight until the full reveal on the KS campaign and hope for the best for every party involved.
EliCapcom on Friday announced at the PAX East video game conference in Boston that it will release this summer a "remastered" version of its classic Nintendo game, "Ducktales," based on the Disney cartoon.
A trailer for the game that was posted to Capcom's official YouTube feed March 22 suggests that the remaster's look and gameplay is quite similar to the original, a platform action game in which protagonist Scrooge McDuck pogos his way through haunted mansions and the like.
The game will be released for Xbox Live, PSN and Wii U, according to Kotaku, which noted that the original "Ducktales," a "cult classic," is "remembered for its solid platforming gameplay and some killer music."
Iconic as the original game's music might be, it doesn't hold a candle to the animated series' theme song, which is included as a sing-along in the trailer for the remastered "Ducktales." That theme, some have noted, bears a startling resemblance to the Hall & Oates song "You Make My Dreams Come True."It usually takes months for mobile devices to get Android updates, but Intel and Google want to slash the wait time.
Tablets and smartphones made as part of a new Intel mobile-device development program will be able to receive new Android versions and features in two weeks via over-the-air upgrades.
Intel's program, called Reference Design for Android, provides a blueprint for device makers to build tablets, smartphones and phablets with a consistent set of components and system images. The hardware consistency will make updating Android in mobile devices much easier.
The quick delivery of updates will keep mobile devices fresh and "always available with the latest capabilities in Android," said Doug Fisher, senior vice president and general manager for the Software and Services Group at Intel.
Intel and Google worked closely on fast delivery of updates to mobile devices as part of the program, Fisher said during a speech on Wednesday at the Intel Developer Forum in Shenzhen, China.
It's not possible for Google to deliver one version of Android to all mobile devices because of different hardware configurations. Mobile device makers typically modify Android to work with the chipset in their devices. As a result, Android development is heavily fragmented. This is the problem Intel is trying to resolve through its reference design program.
Today there's only one device based on Intel's reference design program: a 7-inch tablet from a Philippine company called Cloudfone. Most mobile devices, including popular Android handsets from Samsung, LG, HTC and others, are based on ARM processor designs.
Small companies like ECS, Malata and ChipHD are developing mobile devices based on the specifications, Fisher said.
No major companies have announced tablets based on the reference design program.
Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com"Our nation's system of retirement security is imperiled, headed for a serious train wreck. That wreck is not merely waiting to happen; we are running on a dangerous track that is leading directly to a serious crash that will disable major parts of our retirement system."
-- John Bogle, Feb. 24
If several years before the financial and credit crisis hit, someone had told you that the housing market was preposterously overvalued and derivatives were headed for cataclysm, would it have been worth paying attention to? The answer's pretty clearly yes, ain't it? Of course, some of the best minds in finance -- from Warren Buffett to Yale housing economist Robert Shiller -- did. It's just that hardly anyone listened.
Now there's another crisis building. It's just as big. Again, some of the best thinkers in the financial world are warning about it. (Yes, Buffett's one of them.) And yet again, as is often the case with gathering storms, most of us are doing our best to ignore the warning signs.
Americans lost almost a quarter of their retirement savings last year. Yet even if there were no market drop, we'd still be facing a disaster in the making.
The urgent lines at the top of this story come from John Bogle, founder of the Vanguard group of mutual funds and father of the low-cost stock index fund, the simplest and most cost-efficient tool yet devised for individuals investing in stocks. Of all the people who've thought longest and best about individual investing, Bogle has to rank near the top. For decades before the financial crisis ripped open the country's retirement accounts, Bogle was tirelessly warning people away from their brokers' fads and follies.
Bogle's voice is now one of the loudest and most cogent of those calling for a rethinking of American retirement. His words are from remarks that Bogle made to a congressional panel looking at the security of American savings. Like much of what is said about retirement, Bogle's comments passed by without much attention.
The bad news from Bogle is that the way it's set up now, the 401(k) isn't the panacea that policymakers on all sides of the spectrum hope it will be. What's wrong with the 401(k)?If you are Catholic, what if you are allergic to the body of Christ? The answer may be hard to swallow.
Monsignor Mark J. Merdian [pictured here] takes a stab at solving the problem. His analysis appears in the magazine Homiletic and Pastoral Review:
Celiac Disease and Holy Communion: A Medical and Spiritual Dilemma In this article, I hope to inform as many people as possible … about the damaging spiritual and physical effects of celiac disease. And … provide resources and pastoral recommendations for caring for individuals who may be unable to receive the Holy Eucharist in the sacred host because of this disease The first time I had to deal with the issue of celiac disease, I was the pastor of a large suburban parish when the parochial vicar came into my office and asked if we had any Communion options for those suffering from celiac disease. He asked if we provided the precious blood to them or offered them some other spiritual remedy. Sadly, I responded in the negative…. [A letter from the] the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) of the Vatican [specifies]: Hosts that are completely gluten-free are invalid matter for the celebration of the Eucharist….
His is not the only word. Here are others:
(Thanks to Miss Conduct for bringing this to our attention.)
BONUS: Tom Lehrer’s view (in 1967, approximately) of the bureaucracy that, ultimately, decides such questions:Nikolai Vitti, superintendent for the Detroit Public Schools Community District, speaks during a news conference Thursday. (Photo: Lori Higgins)
Enrollment in the Detroit Public Schools Community District is up 3.8% this year - a gain of 1,808 students over what the district projected -- boosting the count to its highest levels in years.
The total increase was nearly 5,000 students - with enrollment rising from 45,500 in fall 2016 to 50,100 this school year.
Some of it is due to the return of students who previously were enrolled in the now-defunct Educational Achievement Authority. But the district's data also indicates hundreds of students who formerly attended charter schools enrolled in the district this fall, likely due to the closure of a handful of charters.
It's the first enrollment increase in the district in 15 years, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said Thursday. And the gains will mean an additional $11 million in per-pupil funding from the state.
"This allows us to have some stability with our budget," Vitti said.
At some schools, the gains were in the double and triple digits. Ronald Brown Academy grew the most, gaining 172 students. A few more examples: Mumford High gained 127; Noble Elementary-Middle, 109; J.R. King Academy of Performing Arts, 85; and Western International High, 77.
The gains were announced at a news conference at Charles Wright Academy on the city's far west side.
"We're in a different place this year than we were last year," said Angelique Peterson-Mayberry, vice president of the DPSCD board of education.
What's happened since last year? Detroit voters elected a new, empowered board of education. In the previous eight years, the district was operated under the control of an emergency manager who had broad powers. The new board in turn hired Vitti to lead the district.
"Right now we're in a good place," Vitti said, responding to a question about what enrollment targets the district would need to meet to remain stable. He said the district "will be more analytical" in determining what those targets are, but he said he has no doubt the enrollment gains will continue.
"I honestly believe that the average Detroiter wants their child in traditional public education. There's a legacy. That's our advantage. We have roots and we have tradition. Now we just have to deliver something that's different and unique and scalable."
In addition to the enrollment numbers, Vitti laid out a strategic plan he said would guide work in the district over the next three years.
The big priorities of that plan include improving student achievement, transforming the district's culture, championing a "whole child" approach, building a strong team and being responsible stewards of the district's resources.
The plan was exciting to Kari Jordan, a parent at the Wright school who spoke during the news conference.
"I am fired up now," she said after hearing Vitti speak. "And I'm ready to take on this challenge."
Ivy Bailey, the president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, who attended the news conference, said it's the first time a leader in the district has laid out such a bold plan for the future.
"We had no vision, no mission, no priorities. Nothing," she said, describing what it was like under emergency management. "That wasn't on everybody's mind because they just wanted to destroy the district."
More stories:
Part of the increase has to do with the return of students from the Education Achievement Authority, the state reform district for some of the worst-performing schools in the city. The EAA was dissolved on June 30 and the schools that were a part of it are now a part of DPSCD.
But the district had built in the return of the EAA students into its budget projection. So the gain of nearly 2,000 above its predictions indicate more.
For instance, a news release from the district said more than 1,600 students entered the district from charter schools. The district heavily recruited students from charter schools that closed their doors in June.
And, the district said in its release, DPSCD saw the lowest exodus of students to charter schools in four years and a decrease in the number of students who left the district to attend surrounding school districts.
Alycia Meriweather, a deputy superintendent in the district who's in charge of enrollment, said there was an all-out effort to recruit students. Staff knocked on doors, and they did what she described as an "intense data drive," to map out neighborhoods where there is a high rate of chronically absent students.
They also made personal phone calls to the parents of EAA students, who weren't obliged to enroll in DPSCD when their district closed.
Vitti said increasing enrollment is just a first step. That's why the strategic plan is important, he said.
The district first started working on developing the plan during a board retreat in August. The district then held more than a dozen meetings with students, families, staff, teachers and community stakeholders, collecting 800 ideas for improving the district.
They developed a new mission, which states: "We educate and empower every student, in every community, every day, to build a stronger Detroit."
They also developed a set of core values, in addition to establishing priorities.
One of those core values - integrity - is all about doing "the right thing, even when no one is looking. Be honest. Be trustworthy. Be accountable."
Vitti said that core value will help address "some of the malfeasance, some of the cronyism" that has existed in the district.
"We're going to shed that and start making decisions... that are transparent," Vitti said.
Over the last couple of years, more than a dozen principals and administrators in the district either pled guilty or were convicted of taking bribes from a vendor.
Jordan, the parent, said the core values Vitti unveiled "are the same values Detroit has always had," but were lost over the years.
"We were creative. We were innovative. That's who we are," Jordan said.
Contact Lori Higgins: 313-222-6651, lhiggins@freepress.com or @LoriAHiggins
Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/2haMBVmShare. Seth MacFarlane's A Million Ways to Die in the West is dead on arrival. Seth MacFarlane's A Million Ways to Die in the West is dead on arrival.
Disney's Maleficent debuted atop the weekend box office with an estimated $70 million.
The Angelina Jolie-starring fantasy film dethroned reigning champ X-Men: Days of Future Past and crushed fellow new release A Million Ways to Die in the West. Maleficent, a riff on Disney's Sleeping Beauty, also earned $100.6 million in its overseas bow.
Exit Theatre Mode
The western comedy A Million Ways, directed by and starring Seth MacFarlane, bowed in third place with a less than expected $17.1 million. MacFarlane's previous film, Ted, opened to $54.5 million back in 2012.
Last weekend's champ, X-Men: Days of Future Past, slipped to second place with $32.6 million, a drop of about 64% from its opened weekend. The Bryan Singer-directed sequel's current domestic total is $162.1 million; globally, Days of Future Past's tally now stands at $500.2 million and counting, making it the highest-grossing entry in the X-Men franchise (not adjusted for inflation).
Exit Theatre Mode
Here are the weekend estimates via Rentrak:
1. Maleficent $70 million
2. X-Men: Days of Future Past $32.6 million
3. A Million Ways to Die in the West $17.1 million
4. Godzilla $12.2 million
5. Blended $8.4 million
6. Neighbors $7.7 million
7. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 $3.8 million
8. Million Dollar Arm $3.7 million
9. Chef $2 million
10. The Other Woman $1.4 million
Listen to the Keepin' It Reel podcast to find out what our weekend predictions were!Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during a press conference in Beijing, China December 5, 2016. REUTERS/Greg Baker/Pool
BEIJING (Reuters) - The “one China” principle is the basis for developing ties with China and no country can be an exception to this rule, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his French counterpart.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has upset China by speaking with the president of self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its own, and casting doubt on Washington’s nearly four-decade policy of recognizing that Taiwan is part of “one China”.
Speaking with French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, Wang said the Taiwan issue concerns China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, China’s Foreign Ministry said late on Thursday.
“The one-China principle is the prerequisite and basis for other countries to develop their relations with China and that when it comes to this vital issue of right or wrong, no country can be an exception,” the statement cited Wang as saying.
Wang said he appreciated Ayrault’s clear stance on the “one China” issue.
Beijing regards Taiwan as a renegade province and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control. China considers Taiwan independence a red line issue.A pair of Delta passengers are facing criminal charges after allegedly being caught having oral sex mid-flight.
The female passenger, 48, was allegedly caught performing the sex act on a man 20 years her junior as they remained in their seats on the flight from Los Angeles to Detroit on Sunday.
Airport police say both were connecting in Detroit to other flights and the pair only met on board the aircraft.
The pair were on a Delta flight from Los Angeles to Detroit on Sunday when the woman, 48, was allegedly caught giving the man, 28, oral sex (file image)
After landing in Detroit, they were met by airport police and given citations.
Neither has been named but the pair are both now facing charges from the FBI.
Because the alleged encounter happened in the air, it falls into the jurisdiction of federal investigators.
The FBI did not respond to questions on the incident on Tuesday morning.
Airport police in Detroit said the woman was on her way to Nashville and the man was flying on to Miami.
It is not known if they missed their flights as a result of their brush with the law.
Delta has not revealed whether the pair had been drinking during the flight. The airline declined to comment on the investigation on Tuesday morning.Traditional big media firms have contributed more than $5 million to the sponsors of the Stop Online Piracy Act, with California Democratic Reps. Howard Berman and Adam Schiff as the top recipients.
The bill, known as SOPA, would strengthen and extend the penalties for online copyright violations, and could force websites hosting pirated content to come down or prevent search engines from sending users their way. Legacy media companies stand to benefit if there's less unlawful movement of their content on the web, like pirated movies and songs for download.
Some of the nation's top tech companies — Facebook, Google and Microsoft, among others — have spoken out against the bill while media companies have pushed to defend it. SOPA's companion legislation in the Senate, the PROTECT IP Act, is on hold.
Earlier this month we noted that Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the bill's sponsor in the House, has received nearly $400,000 from the TV, music and movies industry during his career, including some recent timely donations from broadcasting and television groups that are lobbying for the bill.
Among the 25 SOPA cosponsors from both sides of the aisle, here's a breakdown of which legislators have brought in donations from big media in TV, music and movies during their careers in Congress.
The nearly 40 cosponsors of the Protect IP Act, SOPA's partner legislation in the Senate, have received more than $13.5 million from the TV, music and movies industry since entering Congress. Here's a rundown:
(An earlier version of this post incorrectly characterized Comcast's position on the proposed internet piracy regulations. Comcast supports the SOPA legislation.)
Many groups have lobbied for the PROTECT IP Act, including several that employ lobbyists who have worked for the members of Congress who have signed on to the legislation. Among them:
Amazon spent $450,000 on lobbying during the third quarter, some of which was pushing against this bill. Google Inc. also spent some of its $80,000 in third quarter lobbying on fighting this measure, as did Intel, which spent nearly $1 million lobbying in Q3.
SOPA was introduced at the end of October, so lobbying on that bill will show up on fourth quarter lobbying disclosure forms.A month before the election, President Donald Trump stood before a cheering crowd at a rally in northeast Pennsylvania and declared: "I love WikiLeaks!"
Back then, Trump loved anything that made his rival Hillary Clinton look bad - even if the information had been hacked, stolen or leaked. Trump repeatedly celebrated and shared information released by WikiLeaks, calling the anti-secrecy organization "a treasure trove." During a news conference last summer, Trump even urged Russia - which U.S. intelligence agencies believe has links to WikiLeaks - to look for tens of thousands of emails from Clinton's private server that were not handed over to the Justice Department.
But now that he is in the White House, Trump is having to confront the threat of hacking, along with leaks from within his own administration - and, suddenly, he is not a fan. Trump and his aides have angrily railed against leakers, threatening to find and prosecute them and urging congressional allies to investigate, while being uncharacteristically quiet when it comes to WikiLeaks.
The latest sign of how the tables have turned came Tuesday when WikiLeaks announced that it had obtained a vast portion of the CIA's closely guarded cyberweapons and began posting files online. The breach could cause massive fallout among U.S. allies and poses a serious challenge for Trump, who has been feuding with the intelligence community over probes into alleged ties between his campaign and Russia.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer declined to comment on the latest WikiLeaks dump during a briefing with reporters Tuesday, saying it "has not been fully evaluated." But moments later, Spicer did decry leaks generally, saying they "are threatening our national security."
"You're seeing the leaks happen over and over again that come out throughout the administration, throughout government and undermine national security," he said.
The president has said that the emails released by WikiLeaks during the campaign do not compare to the information now being leaked, some of which he says is classified.
"In one case, you're talking about highly classified information. In the other case, you're talking about John Podesta saying bad things about the boss," Trump said at a news conference last month, referring to Clinton's presidential campaign chairman whose private email account was hacked.
While the files being posted by WikiLeaks on Tuesday have yet to be authenticated, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said that if the group "can hack the CIA, they can hack anybody." McCain also mocked Trump for belittling earlier hacks by suggesting that they were being carried out by "somebody in the basement of his mother's house smoking a cigarette in his underwear" rather than a foreign government. McCain said the White House needs to focus on the issue quickly.
"I'd like to see a greater emphasis, to tell you the truth," McCain said. "I really would. I'd like to see a greater emphasis."
For months, a variety of people have warned Trump that hacking is something that should always be condemned and never encouraged - even in a joking tone.
In July, WikiLeaks published thousands of emails from the Democratic National Committee. Days later, Trump scoffed at accusations that the Russians could have been involved with the hack, saying that it was "probably China, or it could be somebody sitting in his bed." He added that he hoped Russia had all of Clinton's emails, even the "beauties" that were deleted or were not turned over to the Justice Department.
"I will tell you this, 'Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,'" Trump said, referring to messages that Clinton did not hand over because she and her team categorized them as personal. "I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let's see if that happens."
Republicans rushed to denounce the comment, and Trump's running mate Mike Pence quickly issued a statement that read: "If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences."
Months later, in October, Podesta's emails were hacked and then released by WikiLeaks. At the time, Podesta said the FBI was investigating the "criminal hack" as part of a wider inquiry into potential Russian cyberattacks - and he suggested Trump might have known about the hack ahead of time.
Trump and his associates have denied having anything to do with the hacks, although at a Jan. 11 news conference, Trump conceded that Russia was probably behind the hacks. He added that the Russians might have tried to hack the Republican National Committee but were unable to because it had "a very, very strong hacking defense."
"The Democratic National Committee was totally open to be hacked. They did a very poor job. They could have had hacking defense, which we had," Trump said. "They tried to hack the Republican National Committee, and they were unable to break through. We have to do that for our country. It's very important."
Jennifer Palmieri, the communications director for Clinton's 2016 campaign, said watching Trump decry leaks within his own administration after praising WikiLeaks during the campaign has been an exercise in the absurd.
Now, she said, Trump may be forced to confront the consequences of normalizing a culture of leaks and hacks.
"He was playing with fire all during the campaign, and he's started to get burned," she said. "When you bring leaks and investigations into the political realm, you're playing with fire."
Robby Mook, Clinton's former campaign manager, said Tuesday that he hopes Trump finally realizes that the hacking that happened during the election is "an anti-American problem," not a partisan one, and needs to be investigated so it does not become a regular part of the political process.
"The problem at its core is that a country that our own Joint Chiefs of Staff said was our greatest enemy and greatest threat to our security stole information from one of our national political parties and used it against one of the candidates," Mook said, referring to Russia. "Do I believe that this is going to come back to haunt the Republicans? Absolutely, I do."
The Washington Post's Karoun Demirjian contributed to this report.The Ashlar Company For the good of the craft... info@MasonicShop.com 800-357-6502
Freemason Rings, Regalia & All Things Masonic
The Ashlar Company is the fraternal supply company and hub of masonic resources that is preferred by the most brethren all around the globe. Legendary customer service, affordable prices to accomodate every brother, a jobs program for those in financial need and everything you have come to expect from the only shop that is owned and operated exclusively by members of the Masonic Family. When you do business with The Ashlar Company, you can rest assured you are dealing with an organization backed by over 300 years of tradition. Located in sunny Southern California, The Ashlar Company can get a package anywhere in the country within 3 days using USPS priority shipping. If you need something overnighted, please call us for assistance.
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Sometimes you just don't know what to get. In cases like that, purchase a masonic gift certificate
Over the last decade The Ashlar Company has grown from a small one man operation into the worlds leading manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer of Masonic rings and regalia. Since day one, we have been staffed exclusively by brothers, mostly past masters. We provide a steady stream of work for brethren that manufacture Masonic goods all over the world. Orphans and widows repeatedly turn to us for honest, objective advice on what to do with rings and regalia left to them by loved ones.
At our peak, we carried over 10,000 unique products but have since cut that number down through a long evaluation process taking class, quality and demand into consideration. Today we focus primarily on Masonic rings, car emblems, artwork and lapel pins. Unfortunately many of our exclusive designs have been poorly reproduced by counterfeiters and now litter the internet on faceless websites. We repeatedly get calls from defrauded brothers upset that an item broke almost immediately only to have to tell them that they were the unfortunate recipient of a Chinese counterfeit sold by another website unrelated to us.
In terms of manpower we still remain a relatively small company and because we refuse to contract out work that could provide a job for a fellow brother, we do not use call centers, drop shippers or any of those types of services that you so frequently see on thin shell companies based out of China or Pakistan. The trade off for this is that some days there is simply no one in the office and sometimes it may take us a day or two to return your phone call. But worry not, we have advanced computer systems and databases (Built by a brother) to prevent things from falling through the cracks and we will always make our best efforts to bring you the best service possible. We don't store your credit card numbers so there is nothing here to hack. Shop with confidence, trust, safety and the knowledge that you are helping another brother.
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round of recordings with Paul we might get to hear a Yusuf scream.
Yusuf: Um, I’m not sure about that. Well, maybe.A UNITED STATES JUDGE has given Samsung permission to add the Iphone 5 to its ongoing patent lawsuit against Apple, while allowing Apple to pursue the Galaxy Note and Galaxy S3 but not Android Jelly Bean.
On Thursday US Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal gave Apple and Samsung the nod to add more products to their never ending patent lawsuit.
Samsung first sought to add the Iphone 5 at the beginning of October, claiming that the latest Apple smartphone infringes eight of its patents relating to wireless data technology.
Grewal said that Samsung acted with "reasonable diligence" in asking to add the Iphone 5 to the case, Reuters reports, a decision that Apple did not oppose. He always warned Apple to "think twice before opposing similar amendments reflecting other newly released products - e.g. the Ipad 4 and Ipad Mini - that Samsung may propose in the near future."
Still, Apple is unlikely to be all that bothered, as it has managed to get the Samsung Nexus, Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy S3 handsets added to the lawsuit, but not Android 4.x Jelly Bean. The Cupertino company revealed its intentions to add these products to the lawsuit earlier this month, although it's still unclear why it is gunning for these products.
According to Adam Leach, principal analyst at Ovum, Apple is doing so merely to slow down its competitor Samsung. He told the INQUIRER, "I think Apple's agenda is just to slow down the competition wherever they can.
"I think ultimately they know they're not going to be able to stop Samsung and Android from trading they're just going to try and slow them down, tying their time money and executives up in a court case. The only thing they get out of this is slowing them down."
Apple has yet to respond to our request for comment, but Samsung told The INQUIRER, "We have always preferred to compete in the marketplace with our innovative products, rather than in a courtroom.
"However, Apple continues to take aggressive legal action that will restrict market competition. Under these circumstances, we have little recourse but to take the steps necessary to protect our innovations and intellectual property rights." µ“Don’t eat gabagool, Grandma,” says Meadow Soprano on an early episode of The Sopranos, perhaps the most famous depiction of Jersey Italian culture in the past few decades. “It’s nothing but fat and nitrates.” The pronunciation of “gabagool,” a mutation of the word “capicola,” might surprise a casual viewer, although it and words like it should be familiar to viewers of other New Jersey–based shows like Jersey Shore and The Real Housewives of New Jersey, where food often drives conversation. The casts are heavily Italian-American, but few of them can actually speak, in any real way, the Italian language. Regardless, when they talk about food, even food that’s widely known by the non-Italian population, they often use a specific accent.
And it’s a weird one. “Mozzarella” becomes something like “mutzadell.” “Ricotta” becomes “ree-goat.” “Prosciutto” becomes “pruh-zhoot.” There is a mangling of the language in an instantly identifiable way: Final syllables are deleted, certain consonants are swapped with others, certain vowels are mutated in certain places.
Most immigrant groups in the United States retain certain words and phrases from the old language even if the modern population can’t speak it. But for people outside those groups, and even, often, inside them, it’s next to impossible to pick out a specific regional accent in the way a Jewish American says “challah” or a Korean-American says “jjigae.” How can someone who doesn’t speak the language possibly have an regional accent?
Yet Italian-Americans do. It’s even been parodied. On an episode of Kroll Show, comedian Nick Kroll’s character Bobby Bottleservice, a Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino–type, describes his lunch in this thick accent, eliminating the final syllable of each item. “Cap-uh-coal,” he says, pointing at capicola. “Mort-ah-dell,” he says, as the camera pans over a thin, pale arrangement of mortadella. “Coca-coal,” he finishes, as the camera moves over to a glass of Coke. “Capicola,” made famous in its mutation by The Sopranos, gets even more mutated for comedic effect on The Office, where it becomes “gabagool.”
Gabagool? Over here! Corina Daniela Obertas / Alamy Stock Photo
I spoke to a few linguists and experts on Italian-American culture to figure out why a kid from Paterson, New Jersey, who doesn’t speak Italian, would earnestly ask for a taste of “mutzadell.” The answer takes us way back through history and deep into the completely chaotic world of Italian linguistics.
“One thing that I need to tell you, because this is something that is not clear even for linguists, let alone the layperson—the linguistic situation in Italy is quite complicated,” says Mariapaola D’Imperio, a professor in the linguistics department at Aix-Marseille University who was born in Naples and studied in Ohio before moving to France. The situation is so complicated that the terms used to describe pockets of language are not widely agreed upon; some use “language,” some use “dialect,” some use “accent,” and some use “variation.” Linguists like to argue about the terminology of this kind of thing.
The basic story is this: Italy is a very young country made up of many very old kingdoms awkwardly stapled together to make a patchwork whole. Before 1861, these different kingdoms—Sardinia, Rome, Tuscany, Venice, Sicily (they were called different things at the time, but roughly correspond to those regions now)—those were, basically, different countries. Its citizens didn’t speak the same language, didn’t identify as countrymen, sometimes were even at war with each other. The country was unified over the period from around 1861 until World War I, and during that period, the wealthier northern parts of the newly-constructed Italy imposed unfair taxes and, basically, annexed the poorer southern parts. As a result, southern Italians, ranging from just south of Rome all the way down to Sicily, fled in huge numbers to other countries, including the United States.
About 80 percent of Italian-Americans are of southern Italian descent, says Fred Gardaphe, a professor of Italian-American studies at Queens College. “Ships from Palermo went to New Orleans and the ships from Genoa and Naples went to New York,” he says. They spread from there, but the richest pockets of Italian-Americans aren’t far from New York City. They’re clustered in New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and in and around Philadelphia.
New York’s Little Italy, c. 1900–10. Library of Congress/LC-D418-9351
Yet those Italians, all from southern Italy and all recent immigrants in close proximity to each other in the United States, wouldn’t necessarily consider themselves countrymen. That’s because each of the old Italian kingdoms had their own … well, D’Imperio, who is Italian, calls them “dialects.” But others refer to them in different ways. Basically the old Italian kingdoms each spoke their own languages that largely came from the same family tree, slightly but not all that much closer than the Romance languages, such as French, Spanish, or Portuguese. The general family name for these languages is Italo-Dalmatian. (Dalmatian, it turns out, refers to Croatia. The dog is from there, too.) They were not all mutually comprehensible, and had their own external influences. Calabrian, for example, is heavily influenced by Greek, thanks to a long Greek occupation and interchange. In the northwest near the border with France, Piedmont, with its capital of Turin, spoke a language called Piedmontese, which is sort of French-ish. Sicilian, very close to North Africa, had a lot of Arabic-type stuff in it. I use the past tense for these because these languages are dying, quickly. “Dialects do still exist, but they’re spoken mainly by old people,” says D’Imperio. (Sicilian put up more of a fight than most.)
During unification, the northern Italian powers decided that having a country that speaks about a dozen different languages would pose a bit of a challenge to their efforts, so they picked one and called it “Standard Italian” and made everyone learn it. The one that they picked was Tuscan, and they probably picked it because it was the language of Dante, the most famous Italian writer. (You can see why calling these languages “dialects” is tricky; Standard Italian is just one more dialect, not the base language which Calabrian or Piedmontese riffs on, which is kind of the implication.)
Standard Italian has variations, like any other language, which we’ll call accents. Someone from Sicily would have a Sicilian accent, but when speaking Standard Italian, a person from Milan will, hopefully, be able to understand them, because at a basic level, they’ll be using a language with the same structure and a vocabulary that is mostly identical.
Mulberry Street in more recent years. Library of Congress/LC-HS503-699
But this gets weird, because most Italian-Americans can trace their immigrant ancestors back to that time between 1861 and World War I, when the vast majority of “Italians,” such as Italy even existed at the time, wouldn’t have spoken the same language at all, and hardly any of them would be speaking the northern Italian dialect that would eventually become Standard Italian.
Linguists say that there are two trajectories for a language divorced from its place of origin. It sometimes dies out quickly; people assimilate, speak the most popular language wherever they live, stop teaching their children the old language. But sometimes, the language has a firmer hold on its speakers than most, and refuses to entirely let go. The Italian dialects are like that.
“I grew up speaking English and Italian dialects from my family’s region of Puglia,” says Gardaphe. “And when I went to Italy, very few people could understand me, even the people in my parents’ region. They recognized that I was speaking as if I was a 70-year-old man, when I was only 26 years old.” Italian-American Italian is not at all like Standard Italian. Instead it’s a construction of the frozen shards left over from languages that don’t even really exist in Italy any more, with minimal intervention from modern Italian.
There’s a spectrum to all this, of course. Somebody, even in their 70s or 80s, who was born in Italy and lived in the United States can still be understood in Italy. But Italian has undergone huge standardization changes in the past few decades, and it’ll be hard for modern Italian speakers to understand them, even harder than if somebody showed up in New York today speaking in 1920s New Yorker “Thoity-Thoid Street” slang and accent.
For whatever reason, foods and curse words linger longer in a disrupted language. I think of my own complete lack of knowledge of Yiddish, with my lousy vocabulary made up entirely of words like blintzes, kugel, kvetch, nudnik, and schmuck. If you can’t eat them or yell them, foreign words don’t often stick around.
Italian-American Italian is a construction of the frozen shards left over from languages that don’t even really exist any more.
Ann Marie Olivo-Shaw, who grew up on and studied the sociolinguistics of Long Island, thinks the various pockets of southern Italian immigrants could understand each other, sort of, a little. (Jersey Italians are not, linguistically, distinct from New York or Rhode Island or Philadelphia Italians when speaking Italian.) Generally being fairly close in proximity, even if they were only speaking similar languages, they would necessarily have some cultural similarities. Culinarily similarities also abound: less meat-heavy, more like Provence or Greece in the use of seafood, vegetables, and even, rare for western Europe, spice. (Capicola and mozzarella are, probably, creations of southern Italy, though there are versions elsewhere and Italians love to argue about who invented what.)
And they shared some qualities linguistically as well. Let’s do a fun experiment and take three separate linguistic trends from southern Italian dialects and combine them all to show how one Standard Italian word can be so thoroughly mangled in the United States.
First: “The features that you’ll find across a lot of these dialects, and one that you still hear a lot in southern Italy today, is vowels at the ends of words are pronounced very very softly, and usually as more of an ‘uh’ vowel,” says Olivo-Shaw. D’Imperio is a little more extreme, calling it “vowel deletion.” Basically, if the final syllable is a vowel? You can get rid of it. Vowel deletion is common in many languages, and is done for the same reason that, sometimes, vowels are added: to make the flow from one word to another more seamless. It’s easiest, in terms of muscle movement, to transition from a vowel to a consonant and vice versa. A vowel to a vowel is difficult. In English, that’s why we have “a” versus “an” in phrases like “a potato” or “an apple.” Some Italian words that would follow food words, such as prepositions or articles, would start with a vowel, and it’s easier to just remove it so you don’t have to do the vowel-to-vowel transition.
The stereotypical Italian “It’s a-me, Mario!” addition of a vowel is done for the same reason. Italian is a very fluid, musical language, and Italian speakers will try to eliminate the awkwardness of going consonant-to-consonant. So they’ll just add in a generic vowel sound—“ah” or “uh”—between consonants, to make it flow better.
Second: “A lot of the ‘o’ sounds will be, as we call it in linguistics, raised, so it’ll be pronounced more like ‘ooh’,” says Olivo-Shaw. Got it: O=Ooh.
Nothing like fresh “mutzadell.” Picture Partners / Alamy Stock Photo
And third: “A lot of what we call the voiceless consonants, like a ‘k’ sound, will be pronounced as a voiced consonant,” says Olivo-Shaw. This is a tricky one to explain, but basically the difference between a voiced and a voiceless consonant can be felt if you place your fingers over your Adam’s apple and say as short of a sound with that consonant as you can. A voiced consonant will cause a vibration, and voiceless will not. So like, when you try to just make a “g” sound, it’ll come out as “guh.” But a “k” sound can be made without using your vocal cords at all, preventing a vibration. So “k” would be voiceless, and “g” would be voiced. Try it! It’s fun.
Okay so, we’ve got three linguistic quirks common to most of the southern Italian ancient languages. Now try to pronounce “capicola.”
The “c” sounds, which are really “k” sounds, become voiced, so they turn into “g.” Do the same with the “p,” since that’s a voiceless consonant, and we want voiced ones, so change that to a “b.” The second-to-last vowel, an “o” sound, gets raised, so change that to an “ooh.” And toss out the last syllable. It’s just a vowel, who needs it? Now try again.
Yeah. Gabagool.
If you were to go to southern Italy, you wouldn’t find people saying “gabagool.” But some of the old quirks of the old languages survived into the accents of Standard Italian used there. In Sicily or Calabria, you might indeed find someone ordering “mutzadell.” In their own weird way, Jersey (and New York and Rhode Island and Philadelphia) Italians are keeping the flame of their languages alive even better than Italian-Italians. There’s something both a little silly and a little wonderful about someone who doesn’t even speak the language putting on an antiquated accent for a dead sub-language to order some cheese.
“Language is so much a part of how we identify,” says Olivo-Shaw. “The way we speak is who we are. I think that for Italians, we have such a pride in our ancestry and such a pride in our culture that it’s just kind of an unconscious way of expressing that.”
Correction: An earlier version of the story had the wrong age for Fred Gardaphe.
This story was updated with new images and minor edits on October 25, 2018.The official press deck for Coffee Lake-S was leaked to the public, so Intel gave us the go-ahead to discuss the product line-up in detail (minus benchmarks). While the chips are still manufactured on the 14nm process that Kaby Lake, Skylake, and Broadwell were produced on, there’s more on them. The line-up is as follows: Core i3 gets quad-core without HyperThreading and no turbo boosting, Core i5 gets six-core without HyperThreading but with Turbo boosting, and Core i7 gets six-core with HyperThreading and Turbo boosting.
While the slide deck claims that the CPU still has 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes, the whole platform supports up to 40. They specifically state “up to” over and over again, so I’m not sure whether that means “for Z370 boards” or if there will be some variation between individual boards. Keep in mind that only 16 lane of this are from the processor itself, the rest are simply a part of the chipset. This unchanged from Z270.
Moving on, Intel has been branding this as “Intel’s Best Gaming Desktop Processor” all throughout their presentation. The reasoning is probably two-fold. First, this is the category of processors that high-end, mainstream, but still enthusiast PC gamers target. Second, gaming, especially at super-high frame rates, is an area that AMD has been struggling with on their Ryzen platform.
Speaking of performance, the clock rate choice is quite interesting compared to Kaby Lake. In all cases, the base clock had a little dip from the previous generation, but the Turbo clock, if one exists, has a little bump. For instance, going from the Core i7-7700k to the Core i7-8700k, your base clock drops from 4.2 GHz to just 3.7 GHz, but the turbo jumps up from 4.5 GHz to 4.7 GHz. You also have a little more TDP to work with (95W vs 91W) with the 8700k. I’m not sure what this increase variance between low and high clock rates will mean, but it’s interesting to see Intel making some sort of trade-off on the back end.
(Editor's note: the base clock is only going to be a concern when running all cores for a long period of time. I fully expect performance to be higher for CFL-S parts than KBL-S parts in all workloads.)
The last thing that I’ll mention is that, of the two i3s, the two i5s, and the two i7s, one is locked (and lower TDP) and one is unlocked. In other words, Intel has an unlocked solution in all three classifications, even the i3. Even though it doesn’t have a turbo clock setting, you can still overclock it by hand if you desire.
Prices range from $117 to $359 USD, as seen in the slide, above. They launch on October 5th.The most commonly used indicator of forest cutting in the United States is volume removed, which has been tracked by the USFS FIA in a relatively consistent manner for a long time period22. Therefore, we compared our estimate of the bole C loss with multiple studies based on FIA inventories. Since our estimate is for the eastern United States (e.g., 104 Tg C yr−1 for 2002–2010), the total removal of bole (e.g., 128 Tg C yr−1) was calculated based on the assumption that the removal in the western United States accounts for 19% of the total removal in the conterminous United States, proposed by Oswalt et al.23, which is comparable to the average of previously published estimates (115 ± 19 Tg C yr−1) (Table 2)8,12,13,14,15,16,17,24,25,26. These estimates might not be comparable in a strict sense as they represented estimates for different time periods (experienced various land use practices) using different inventories and calculation methods. The purpose of this comparison is to provide consistency and verification check on our calculation procedures. However, most of the previous estimates are based on periodic inventories and empirical models or process models; the results were highly dependent on the capability of the inventories and the models in tracking forests changes11,16,27. Apparently, the varying sampling designs and data collection methods of periodic inventories would introduce large uncertainties into detecting the nation's forest dynamics by comparing the successive inventories directly28. In addition, the accuracy of the model, if utilized, depended strongly on the model parameterization16. In contrast, we estimated the bole C loss in live biomass using the re-measured plots in annualized forest inventory data directly. The high consistency of the collected data ensured an unprecedentedly direct and integrated quantification of U.S. forest cutting and its impacts on C dynamics in this study10,20.
Table 2: Comparison of live C loss in bole (Tg C yr−1) for the conterminous United States from this study and a sample of previous estimatesa Full size table
Top-limbs, stump, and belowground biomass of the removed trees together were estimated to account for 38% of the total C loss in this study. These sectors can exert substantial impacts on the C cycle since 1) the top-limbs of the removed trees are an important source of woody debris, and their post-treatments have a great impact on the C cycle29; and 2) the cutting-related loss of live biomass in stump and belowground roots would increase the down deadwood in the forest ecosystem30. Unfortunately, all of the components were usually ignored or simplified in the cutting-related C accounting15,16,24,25. Therefore, it is important to consider the C dynamics of the other sectors of trees induced by forest cutting disturbances besides the bole biomass.
Partial cutting, usually ignored in large-scale C accounting4,8,21, was found to be the dominant activity in the eastern United States (Figure 2), which was broadly in agreement with earlier estimates22,23. We further revealed that partial cutting was the major cutting practices regardless of forest type, stand age, and geographic location (Figures 3 and 5, Table 1). The C changes following partial cutting differ greatly from the well-known clear-cutting events31. For instance, most studies reported a decrease in the total ecosystem C stocks following the direct removal of live tree biomass via clear cutting32,33. On the contrary, partial cutting was documented to exert variable impacts on the total ecosystem C stocks34,35. Thus, our results highlight the critical role of partial cutting in regional and global C budgets.
The cutting activities occurred at different rates among forest types. Overall, softwood forests experienced more intensive cutting activities than hardwood and mixed forests (Table 1), mainly because of the high productivity of softwood that attracted large investments in practicing high-intensity forestry22. However, hardwood cutting accounted for a larger amount of total C loss relative to softwood harvesting, which was attributed mainly to the substantially large forest area (Table 1) and high merchantable biomass of timber on the landscape taken by hardwood23. That justifies a comparable amount of C loss to softwood (hardwood vs. softwood: 81 vs. 75 Tg C yr−1) even with a significantly lower C loss per unit forest area (0.79 vs.1.96 Mg C ha−1 yr−1).
Softwood was mostly cut at a much younger age than hardwood, and mixed forest was in between (Figure 4a). Interestingly, the C loss density decreased substantially after a dramatic increase for softwood, but it remained nearly stable after a gradual increase for hardwood along cutting ages (Figure 4b). This feature can be attributed to both natural and economic factors. First, the frequency distributions of the forestland area across various forest types (Figure 7a) is closely linked to the C loss distributions (Figure 4a) over age gradients (with the square correlation coefficients of 0.86, 0.69, and 0.53 for hardwood, softwood, and mixed forests, respectively), suggesting the pre-disturbance forest area is a major factor in determining cutting events. Second, the rapid growth of softwood ensures younger-age harvesting in softwood22, which can be seen by the differences of frequency distributions between C loss and forest area (Figures 4a, 7 a, and 7 b) over age gradients. For example, the frequencies of C loss in age 20–60 for softwood were greater than the frequencies of forest area over the same age ranges (i.e., the ratio in Figure 7b was more than 1). By contrast, the large and stable C loss density in hardwood over age 60 may be due mainly to the high and stable pre-disturbance live C density in old-age hardwood37, indicating by a relative larger frequency in C loss than in hardwood forest areas over age 60.
Figure 7: The frequency distributions of forest area (a), and the ratios between the frequencies of total C loss and the forest area derived from both Figures 4a and 7a (b) over different age ranges for each forest type. Full size image
Cutting-related C loss showed a large geographical heterogeneity. In the northern portion of the eastern United States, the Northeast experienced the largest C loss, followed by Northern Lake States and Northern Prairie States (Table 1), which can be primarily explained by the availability of their pre-disturbance live biomass15 or forest area. The region with a large forest area was estimated to share a large live C loss (Table 1). The southern regions of the eastern United States, however, accounted for a substantially greater amount of C loss and had a higher C loss per unit forest area than the North (Table 1), although their pre-disturbance live C densities are less than those in the Northeast15. This can be mostly attributed to the fast growth conditions and large area allocated to forestry use in the South and forest management policies11,22. First, the southern portion of the eastern United States contributed 54% to the forest area in the eastern United States (Table 1), and over half of the area was allocated to forestry use36, which provides a strong foundation for forest cutting activities. Second, the high productivity and rapid growth conditions in the South mean a high-return investment and thus this region usually experienced high-intensity forestry22,37. Finally, public policy greatly affected the rate of forest cutting. For example, timber harvest on federal lands in the Northwest declined since the enactment of Northwest Forest Plan in 199338; consequently, harvests increased on private lands that were largely distributed in the southern portion of the eastern United States10,36.
This study estimated that the total cutting-related loss of live biomass in the eastern United States was 168 Tg C yr−1 in 2002–2010, which was equivalent to 70% of the total U.S. forest C sink (240 Tg C yr−1)5 and 11% of the national annual CO 2 emissions from fossil-fuel combustion over the same period39, emphasizing a great potential to mitigate climate change by forest management.
However, the C loss estimated in this study does not equate to the net cutting-related C emissions as some of the dead biomass is not returned immediately to the atmosphere but remains stored in a durable status such as in wood products19,40, which (if long-lived) can be considered a C sink8. In contrast, emissions associated with forest cutting from combustion, decomposition of debris, disturbed soil, the slow decay of leaves, wood, and roots, and harvested wood products are potentially large sources of C to the atmosphere12,16, and the source is likely to be strengthened by the reduced C accumulation rate due to the removal of leaf area (which is the physiological basis for tree productivity41). These uncertainties demonstrate the importance of a systematic quantification of the C fate in each forest sector following forest cutting.After his release from prison Mahmoud burned his Austrian passport in a video. Photo: Site
Austrian Islamist Mohamed Mahmoud, who was released from custody in Turkey in August, has published a photo of himself on the Internet posing in front of several half naked, decapitated corpses.
The photo is reported to have been taken a few days ago, in the eastern Syrian city of Raqqa, considered to be the unofficial capital of the Islamic State extremist group Isis.
Mahmoud served four years in an Austrian prison for joining and actively supporting al-Qaeda and its affiliates. He is now linked to Isis and calls himself Abu Usama al-Gharib.
He is reported to have married Ahlam Al-Nasr, an Isis propaganda official known as the “poet of the Islamic State” a few weeks ago.
Earlier this year an extradition request from Austria for Mahmoud was rejected by the Turkish authorities. According to the Kurier newspaper there was some speculation that he was released from a detention camp for foreign nationals in exchange for Turkish hostages.
In Austria Mahmoud was considered a troublesome hate preacher but an advisor to the German secret service has painted a different picture, saying that he is an important ally of the Islamic State and may even be one of its founders.
"Mohammed Mahmoud is an enormously important figure. One should not be fooled by his somewhat ridiculous appearances on the Internet,” German jihadism expert Guido Steinberg recently said to the press. Steinberg added that it was “completely irresponsible” for Turkey to free him.
Peter Neumann, Director of the London based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, has said that Mahmoud caused a “chain reaction” by founding the first militant salafist movement in Central Europe (Millatu Ibrahim) and radicalising Austrians and Germans.
Mahmoud, originally from Egypt, was arrested in Austria in 2007 after authorities said they became alarmed when he started to buy components for a possible suicide belt and his organisation Media Front published a video threatening to carry out attacks in Germany and Austria if they did not withdraw their troops from Afghanistan.A PRIVATE school which promised to widen access to poorer families by offering 105 per cent bursaries has been accused of charging those who apply £50 per child.
Loretto School in East Lothian advertised the bursaries after being threatened with losing its charitable status.
Despite targeting the poorest families, the school has been asking for a £50 “registration fee” to be paid – even though it warns there will be more applications than there is funding available.
Last night Loretto said those applying for the 105 per cent bursary would not be charged, despite an earlier e-mail sent from the school’s registrar to a parent, which has been seen by The Scotsman, suggesting otherwise.
Loretto, which charges more than £19,000 a year for senior day pupils and up to £28,590 for boarders, was said to have “insufficient measures” in place to widen access following an investigation by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) last year.
The regulator found that, in 2012-13, a total of 91 pupils – 14.7 per cent of the school roll – received means-tested support. The value of the support was £756,210, equivalent to 6 per cent of the school’s income. However, the majority of the remissions were “low value”, the regulator said.
In response, Loretto, the alma mater of former chancellor Alistair Darling and broadcaster Andrew Marr, announced means-tested bursaries worth 105 per cent of school fees.
The school said the bursaries were intended to cover the cost of fees, but also additional expenses such as uniform and extra-curricular activities. It said the number of bursaries would only be known once it had assessed applications later in the year.
But one parent who considered applying to the school said its failure to mention the registration fee had been “misleading” and would leave many “priced out of the market”.
“The £50 non-refundable, no-guarantee fee seems very high for low-income families and gives false hope for this prestigious opportunity,” the parent said. “The school will make money from parents wishing to try and better their child’s education.
“Education is an important part of life. Having myself been fortunate to attend university and achieve an honours degree, this is what I would hope for my own children and would jump at the chance of Loretto. I would be very interested to see how many parents paid the registration fee in comparison to how many actually are accepted.”
Labour’s education spokeswoman, Kezia Dugdale, said the decision to levy the fee was a “PR disaster”. She said: “I’m speechless at this sort of practice from Loretto. I think that this shows that the school is being very badly advised. If nothing else, it just seems a little bit grubby. Loretto is a good school. It really doesn’t need to take this approach to ensuring it is fully integrated into the community.”
Yesterday, the school initially said the £50 fee could be waived in “exceptional circumstances”. However, it later said no applicant for the 105 per cent bursary would be charged.
Jonathan Hewat, director of external affairs at Loretto, said: “If it’s felt they qualify for the 105 per cent bursary, then they are not asked to pay £50.”
About one in 20 children in Scotland is educated at a private school, although the Edinburgh figure is closer to one in four.
In October, the charity regulator said Loretto had 18 months to comply with its tests or risk losing its charitable status, which allows tax breaks and rates relief.Viosergy Rosa and the Jacksonville Suns scorched their way through the postseason so quickly, it may take them a little while to realize what they've done.
"It went by really fast," Rosa admitted. "It's crazy how this is my reality. It hasn't sunken in yet. It's a little surreal."
The Marlins prospect homered, singled and drove in four runs Friday night to help the Suns beat Chattanooga, 6-1. The win completed a three-game sweep -- the first in the Southern League Finals since 2002 -- and gave Jacksonville its third title in six years and sixth overall.
"This is the stuff I visualized from a long time ago. Everything worked as planned," Rosa said. "We said, 'Man, we're going to make a run for it. We've got to sweep these guys.'"
The Suns won 16 of their last 17 games dating back to the regular season.
"I'm glad I could be a part of that because the team was winning before I got here [on Aug. 12]," Rosa said. "Everybody in that locker room, everybody did their part. We stayed together and we had each and everybody's back. It was just awesome baseball. It felt like a family."
Rosa hit.379 (11-for-29) with four homers, three doubles, 14 RBIs and five runs scored in seven postseason games and was named Southern League playoff MVP.
"I've always been like that, even as a kid. In the postseason, I'm straight locked in," said the Bronx native. "Some at-bats, I didn't get to score, but I said, 'Forget it, I'll have another at-bat.'"
His home run in the clincher came in the bottom of the first and established a 3-0 lead in support of fourth-ranked Marlins prospect Justin Nicolino.
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"It felt great. I was definitely just trying to hit a single to get that RBI in," Rosa said. "I knew if we had the first punch, having Nicolino on the bump would be the difference-maker."
Rosa made it 5-0 with an RBI single in the fifth.
"I was ecstatic because when it's 3-0, teams come back from that," he said. "They get a walk or two, and... but you can't hit a five-run home run. From there, I knew if we played crisp defense, we wouldn't even need to score anymore, knowing how our bullpen and pitching has been."
Nicolino gave up a double to Bobby Coyle in the first and a two-out single to Daniel Mayora. With runners on the corners, the 22-year-old southpaw fanned top Dodgers prospect Corey Seager.
Nicolino put the leadoff man on in the second, third and fifth and ended up scattering seven hits and two walks over 6 2/3 scoreless innings. He struck out three and improved to 2-0 with a 1.98 ERA in the postseason.
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During the regular season, Nicolino was 14-4 with a 2.85 ERA and was named the league's Most Outstanding Pitcher.
"I don't know what to say. It's been a great year all year," Nicolino said. "I couldn't be happier."
Suns manager Andy Barkett thought Nicolino's title-clinching gem was an appropriate way to close the season.
"He's been our horse all year, him and [Jose] Urena," Barkett said. "Nicolino had a big game tonight. He went almost seven solid innings and put up zeros. You couldn't ask him for anything more."
When Barkett removed his starter in the seventh, the fans in Jacksonville gave Nicolino a loud ovation. The skipper sent him back out from the dugout for a curtain call.
"I didn't want to [leave the game], honestly," Nicolino said. "But I started falling behind and I was a little tired. Barky told to me go out and tip my cap. That ovation, I got chills just thinking about it right now, and I almost had tears."
Reid Redman struck out three over 1 1/3 perfect innings and Matt Ramsey gave up a run on two hits in the ninth.
Austin Nola doubled, walked twice, scored twice and drove in a run for the Suns, while Marlins No. |
move to lock up a young driver who is still up-and-coming, and his crew chief and sponsor, too.
At the time of Logano’s extension, team owner Roger Penske said he was actively working on a contract extension for 2012 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski, who is in the final year of his deal.
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Saturday at Dover International Speedway, Keselowski was asked if he was in or out of the Silly Season discussion that picks up about this time every year as drivers, teams, and sponsors contemplate making changes for the upcoming year.
“I’m standing now, that’s good,” Keselowski said, laughing.
But that’s about all he had to say about his future prospects.
“I don’t know, I really don’t have anything to announce,” said Keselowski. “A lot of stuff getting worked on.”The Red Cross has updated its first aid guidelines for conscious choking victims. They now recommend that you give five back blows before performing the heimlich maneuver.
Reproduced below are the updated guidelines:
If you encounter a conscious, choking individual that is coughing, encourage continued coughing. If the victim is unable to cough, speak, or breathe, complete the following: Send someone to call 9-1-1
Lean person forward and give 5 back blows with heel of your hand.
Give 5 quick abdominal thrusts by placing the thumbside of your fist against the middle of the victim's abdomen, just above the navel. Grab your fist with the other hand.
Repeat until the object the person is choking on is forced out and person breathes or coughs on his or her own.
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And now, all of those choking victim posters in NYC are pretty much out of date.
CONSCIOUS CHOKING | The American Red Cross
Photo by Brandon Otto.Sergey Kovalev has been granted an exception by the IBF to put his title on the line against Jean Pascal on March 14, making that fight official, and meaning that all three of the belts held by Kovalev will be on the line. HBO will be televising the fight, with the venue to be announced for either Montreal or Quebec City, where Pascal will have home field advantage, as he is a solid draw in Quebec.
Kovalev (26-0-1, 23 KO) gained the WBA and IBF belts on November 8, adding them to the WBO title he won in 2013, by dominating Bernard Hopkins at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. Pascal (29-2-1, 17 KO) is coming off of a no-contest on December 6, when his fight with Roberto Bolonti was thrown out in the second round.
Pascal's last actual fight came in January of this year, when he rather handily beat former super middleweight titleholder Lucian Bute.
Kovalev and Main Events had to seek an exception from the IBF because the sanctioning body has a mandatory challenger in Nadjib Mohammedi. But Mohammedi is also promoted by Main Events, meaning that a deal for an exception was easier to work out.Quebec, the world's largest maple-syrup producer, says this season's harvest rose 2.7 per cent to a record amount large enough to fill 24 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Production this spring rose to 152.2 million pounds from 148.2 million in 2016 after farmers increased the number of syrup-extracting taps on maple trees by 1.4 million, the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers said Wednesday in a statement.
The producer group, which regulates how much farmers can sell, allowed more tapping as part of a push to win back market share lost to the United States in the past decade. Quebec farmers chafed against the federation's quota on output with some sellers turning to the black market to boost sales.
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"Since 2013, the weather has been on our side," Serge Beaulieu, the federation's president, said in the statement. "We've been getting cool springs and slow thaws. That means more maple syrup for us."
The extra syrup will allow Quebec to "increase its presence in foreign markets and keep investing in promotion and marketing" of the province's "liquid gold," Mr. Beaulieu said.
The increase in output doesn't signal a drop in prices because the federation is a sales agency that sets bulk prices for about 72 per cent of the world's syrup and limits production through quotas. The government-sanctioned cartel stores unsold production in a reserve in Laurierville, Que., where 60 million pounds are set aside in case the crop is reduced by weather damage or pests.
Quebec farmers have expressed frustration with output limits in recent years after U.S. producers increased their share of the world market.
U.S. output last year jumped 23 per cent to 4.2 million gallons from 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in June.
The number of taps rose 5 per cent in 2016 after increasing 45 per cent from 2007 to 2015.
Quebec announced last autumn that it would increase the quota on tree taps by 5 million in order to boost output. All new taps should be in production by 2018, which will increase syrup production by an additional 15 million pounds, according to the federation.About 20,000 scientists left Greece to work abroad in the 2009-2014 period, while 83.5 percent of startups are funded by home savings, said Deputy Minister of Research and Technology Costas Fotakis.
The deputy spoke at the opening of the fourth scientific knowledge and technology conference “Patras IQ” in Patras on Saturday. He said that 20,000 scientists left the country to seek work abroad in the 2009-2014 period, while the number of scientists who fled between 2004 and 2009 was 2,500.
Regarding young people with university degrees who remain in Greece and start their own business in the technology sector, 83.5 percent of them are funded by their families’ savings and only 4.7 percent received bank loans.
Finance ministry figures show that the average capital an existing research and technology business needs is 200,000 euros while the average startup needs about 100,000 euros. Funding is the most crucial need for 87.7 percent of existing businesses and 93.7 percent of startups.
The majority of startups (60 percent) aim at the international market, while 47 percent aim at both the domestic and international market. Also, 25 percent of startups aim at regional markets only.Today, in the biggest step forward for clean water in more than a decade, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers proposed a rule to close loopholes in the Clean Water Act that leave more than half of America’s streams and millions of acres of wetlands at risk of unchecked pollution and development.
The EPA's proposed rule would reinstate Clean Water Act protections to 20 million acres of wetlands and more than half of U.S. streams, restoring protections to the drinking water for 117 million Americans.
“Whether we look back to the recent spill in West Virginia that left 300,000 people without drinking water or ahead to the dead zones that will blight Lake Erie and the Chesapeake Bay this summer, it’s obvious that our waterways are not as clean or safe as we need them to be—for our drinking water, for recreation, or for the health of our ecosystems and wildlife,” said Margie Alt, executive director of Environment America. “Today’s action by the EPA will help ensure that all our waterways get the protection they need so we can enjoy them for years to come.”
This rule-making comes after a decade of uncertainty over the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act, following polluter-led Supreme Court challenges in 2001 and 2006. The rule, which could be finalized by the end of this year, would restore Clean Water Act protections to 20 million acres of wetlands and more than half our nation’s streams, restoring protections to the drinking water for 117 million Americans.
“Today’s action is vital to the health of America’s great waters,” said Alt. “By protecting the streams that feed into mighty rivers like the Mississippi and the wetlands that filter pollution from the Puget Sound and other iconic waters, this rule is a safety net for all the waterways Americans care about.”
With so much at stake, Environment America and its state affiliates have waged an intensive multi-year campaign to restore these Clean Water Act protections—including more than 1 million face-to-face conversations across the country, and rallying more than 400 local elected officials, 300farmers and 300 small business owners to call on the Obama Administration to take action.
“Water is so important for all farmers—big and small. It’s critical to our way of life,” said Lynn Utesch, owner of Guardians of the Field Farm, a cattle farm in Kewanee County, WI. “Here in Wisconsin, we’ve experienced a new dead zone in Green Bay as an effect of the health of our streams and other waterways. To protect the waters we love and need, like Lake Michigan, we need to make sure the Clean Water Act protects all our waterways.”
Unfortunately, many of the nation’s biggest polluters have opposed the EPA’s action. Thousands of miles of pipelines running through wetlands prompted Big Oil to threaten “legal warfare” over the issue. Factory farms that dump millions of gallons of manure annually attacked the rule as a “land grab.” And with mountaintop removal literally burying valley streams in rubble and waste, big coal is also opposing these common sense clean water protections.
In Sept. 2013, the EPA announced plans to move forward with the rule-making and simultaneously released a draft science report on the connection between smaller streams and wetlands and downstream waters, which makes the scientific case for the rule-making. Members of the public submitted more than 150,000 public comments in support of the report’s findings.
“When finalized, this rule will be the biggest step forward for clean water in more than a decade,” said Alt. “Thank you, Administrator McCarthy and all the staff at the EPA, for fighting to protect clean water. We look forward to working with you to get the job done.”
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Grassroots Organizations Mobilize to Meet Community Water Needs Following WV Chemical SpillAfter four long years, it’s finally here: the Fuji X-Pro 2. Fuji fans have been waiting for an update to the original X-Series interchangeable lens camera for a long time, and Fuji has seen fit to update quite a bit with this new rangefinder-styled flagship. While the exterior of the camera looks very similar to the original X-Pro 1 released in 2012, the X-Pro 2 has the first all-new image sensor for the series and a host of new features, most of which center around the controls of the camera. I was excited to get my hands on the X-Pro 2, and after running it through its paces the past two weeks, I’m excited to tell you about it.
If you’re not familiar with my reviews, I review from a real world shooting perspective. You won’t find lens charts or resolution numbers here. There are plenty of other sites that cover those. I review products on how they act for me as a photographic tool. I am not a videographer, so my reviews concentrate on the still imaging capabilities of a camera.
Construction and Handling
The X-Pro 2 stays true to the original styling and construction of the X-Pro 1. If you were to quickly look at both cameras, you’d be forgiven for failing to notice any differences. The X-Pro 2 is solidly constructed of magnesium alloy, and Fuji’s done a great job putting together a package that feels tight and very high quality. The metal top and bottom plates are single piece items, with no seams to be found. There are no creaks or points of flex anywhere on the camera body. Fuji has also added weather sealing, such that it should hold up to shooting in light rain when using a WR designated lens. The center of the camera is covered in the classic black leatherette to add even more to the retro styling.
Concerning that styling, the X-Pro 2 truly looks like a classic rangefinder. It doesn’t have a rangefinder mechanism, but the hybrid optical/electronic viewfinder sports a large front window, and the classic dials of the Fuji X-Series interface cement the retro look. It’s truly a beautiful camera, in my opinion. Fuji’s even replicated the old self timer lever on the front of the camera, as it did with the X-Pro 1, though in both cases, the lever serves to switch the operation of the viewfinder rather than set a mechanical timer. Fuji isn’t a slave to tradition, however, as they’ve thoughtfully modified the original X-Pro design to add some extra grip and improved shooting ergonomics. The front grip is similar in depth to the X-Pro 1 and the X-E1 and X-E2, but it adds a soft tacky rubber edge where your fingers fall. This rubber edge is duplicated on the rear thumb grip as well, and while it’s a subtle change, it’s one that adds excellent purchase to the grip of the camera.
While some will want a more substantial grip, especially with some of the larger Fuji lenses, for most shooting I found the grip to be perfectly adequate. The camera fell naturally into my hand, with easy access to almost every control. For those who want a larger grip, Fuji sells a metal hand grip that extends the front handhold and adds an Arca-Swiss style dovetail for use with most premium tripod heads.
The buttons on the X-Pro 2, despite having weathersealing, feel much the same as those on the X-E2, rather than the mushy buttons of the X-T1. Response is firm and clicky, while the top dials move with excellent firmness to resist accidental activation but still offer easy manipulation.
The only ergonomic concern was the rather thin nature of the front and rear command dials. These small dials don’t have particularly firm detents, and while both are pressable, they lack the firm response of earlier Fuji command dials. I’ll get into the newest feature: the focus stick, in the controls section, but for ergonomic concern, it’s well placed and very easy to use.
In all, Fuji did a great job with construction and handling on the X-Pro 2. It’s a classic design, but with some modern touches and a design that makes it easy to get the shot.
Operation and Controls
The X-Pro 2 has changed a lot from its predecessor, but gains almost all the features of the X-T1, plus a few more. While there are some unique features on the X-Pro 2, they are almost entirely focused on improving the usability of the camera and simply getting the shot. This starts with the controls.
The main control scheme is similar to almost every other Fujifilm camera out there. The aperture is controlled by the ring on the lens (for most Fuji lenses), while shutter speed is controlled by the dedicated dial on top. Exposure compensation is controlled via a dedicated dial on the right side of the body. The X-Pro 2 features two command dials as well, which can operate 1/3 stop intervals of shutter speed, or adjust aperture for those lenses that lack an aperture ring. The command dials also can take over exposure compensation duties as well, if the dedicated dial is moved to the new ‘C’ position. This also allows EC to be adjusted up to + or – 5 stops instead of the maximum of 3 offered by the dedicated dial. One oddity that occurs in this ‘C’ mode is that pressing in on the front command dial switches the EC control away from it. If you’re in Program mode (both shutter speed and aperture set to ‘A’), this command dial will then control the program shift of aperture and shutter speed, but if you aren’t, it simply disables the control entirely until you press it again.
The rear command dial is also pressable, and like earlier Fuji cameras, pressing acts as a magnification button, both in image review and when shooting with the rear screen or the EVF.
The final dial control is ISO, and like the X-T1, the X-Pro 2 features a dedicated ISO dial. However, the X-Pro 2’s ISO control is built into the shutter speed dial. In a nifty bit of engineering that harkens back to film cameras, lifting the edge of the shutter speed dial allows you to change the ISO. This works just fine, though it’s a bit more fiddly than the more standard dial on the X-T1, and has a big downside of losing tactile feedback: you can’t tell how far you’ve moved the ISO dial by feel, so you’ll need to watch the display if you’re changing ISO in dark conditions. I would rather have this control than move ISO to a button like on many other Fuji cameras, but the implementation is a step down from the dedicated control on the X-T1.
The rear of the camera has a similar array of buttons to many other X-Series cameras, but instead of splitting some of them to the opposite side of the camera like on the X-E2, everything is within reach of your thumb with the X-Pro 2. This improves handling in the field and makes the camera easier to work with. While these improvements are great, the single best new feature with regards to controls is the new Focus Stick.
The Focus Stick is an 8-way joystick that sits just to the left of where your thumb rests when holding the camera, and it is something that I hope will be coming to all future Fujifilm camera bodies. The stick provides direct control over focus point positioning, which not only makes choosing your focus point significantly faster and easier, but frees up the four buttons on the four-way controller to be used for other actions. The stick is quick and responsive, and makes switching focus points extremely simple, even when using the viewfinder. Pressing in on the stick twice will reset the focus point to the center, and pressing the stick during image review allows you to easily switch between the two SD cards that can be placed in the X-Pro 2. After using this method for focus point selection for even a day, I was absolutely sold. It’s my favorite improvement on the camera, as it simplifies shooting and speeds up operation significantly.
One big change that Fuji implemented for the X-Pro 2 is a new menu system. Instead of the old system that grouped things into catch-all ‘camera’ pages and ‘setup’ pages, the X-Pro 2’s menu breaks up the options into Image Quality, Focus, Still shooting options, Flash, Video and Setup. The resulting menu system is easier to navigate and is more logical. They’ve also added a new page called ‘My Menu’, that allows the user to select specific functions from any of the other menu sections for easier access. Above, you can see the options I’ve chosen to put in the My Menu.
In all, the changes to the X-Pro 2 almost universally enhance the shooting experience, and yet will be very familiar to existing Fuji shooters. These aren’t earth shattering changes on a spec sheet, but when taken together, the control scheme on the X-Pro 2 is predominantly excellent, and a big step up from earlier bodies. I hope these changes make their way to the X-T2 when Fuji updates that body.
Now let’s talk about the main reason why people would be drawn to the X-Pro 2: the hybrid viewfinder.It appears The French's Food Company's expansion into ketchup production is a hit with consumers.
The company is looking to increase its order of tomato paste at Highbury Canco to about three million kilograms, three and a half times more than its original order.
French's, most famous for its mustard, recently began its expansion into the ketchup industry. It's promised to only use tomatoes grown in Leamington, Ont.— the self-proclaimed Tomato Capital of Canada — and other parts of southwestern Ontario.
"It's kind of a walk before you run exercise, but it's all going in the right direction," Elliott Penner, French's CEO told CBC News in a phone interview. "There was nothing concrete when we started, but it seems that week by week, month by month, the story builds and gets better."
The increased supply of tomato paste is expected to be used in barbecue sauce in the United Kingdom and the United States.
French's is also planning on continuing to sell its ketchup and continue expanding into other tomato-based products in Canada, Penner said. He said French's could be looking to Highbury Canco to increase its manufacturing capacity.
"We'll clearly keep expanding our ketchup business, that makes sense," Penner said. "We're also working with Highbury to purchase tomatoes and then make tomato paste, but also working to see if they can help us with manufacturing some products we can enter in the Canadian marketplace."
"That could be further use of tomatoes, but also some employment for manufacturing as well," he said.
Though a deal hasn't been signed yet, Sam Diab, the president of Highbury Canco, is cautiously optimistic in this development.
"It's very encouraging," Diab said. "I think things are going very well with the group at French's and we're doing a lot of negotiations this time of year for tomato paste for sale with many potential customers."
Diab said the company is set to begin negotiations with farmers and other manufacturers on the price of tomatoes on March 1.By
I have played fantasy baseball for a long time.
My dad and I first co-managed a team way back when we got online using dial-up and signed in through Prodigy. (Holy crap that sounds like a long time ago.) For what it’s worth, we won that league, and I’ve played fantasy baseball every year since.
While I am excited about the mainstream acceptance that fantasy sports have attained, there are still prominent segments of society (read: most women and assorted douchebags) who look down upon those of us who enjoy fantasy sports. I have heard these massively misinformed people refer to me and my fantasy sports loving kind as “losers”.
Well, for any guys out there who are questioning whether or not they should sign up this year, I’m here to tell you that fantasy baseball is not for losers. Quite the contrary. In fact, I bet fantasy baseball provides benefits that most of those condescending women and douchebags never even considered.
This post aims to set the record straight and ensure that you, my fantasy baseball playing brother, register proudly and confidently for your league(s) this year.
1. You don’t have to just live and (mostly) die with your crappy “real” team
If you’re a fan of the Cubs, Indians, Royals, Pirates, Blue Jays, and a handful of other teams, you already know going into the season that you have a greater chance of marrying Heidi Klum (and remember, she’s already married) than seeing your team win a World Series.
Having a fantasy baseball team gives you a reason to stay interested in baseball past the month of June, when you otherwise would already be lamenting the fact that you root for a loser…and questioning what exactly that says about you as a person (hint: that might be a loser). Plus, if your baseball fortunes rise and fall only with the fortunes of a crappy, hopeless team like ones mentioned above, it can make for a pretty salty summer for you and your loved ones.
More importantly, it isn’t just the MLB teams that enter the month of March with a fresh, positive feeling every year and dreams of September glory to come. You harbor these very same feelings, because it’s a new season for you too. And whether the Yankees or the Cubs are the “real” team you root for, only one of which has any prayer at a title, you have the opportunity win a title thanks to your fantasy team.
And really, at the end of the day, things don’t really change much for us guys whether we’re 7 or 37. We all just want to win a trophy.
2. It gives you at least one inalienable guy’s night
While I don’t think the founding fathers ever envisioned the word they made famous – “inalienable” – being applied to men and fantasy leagues, I can only attribute that to their lack of foresight.
Guys, I’m going to level with you: if you are with a chick who would come between you and your fantasy sports, run don’t walk to the nearest exit.
We all know that one of the most important reasons we love fantasy sports is for the draft. Whether it’s live around a big table with all of your buddies and some beer, or whether everyone congregates online (still with beer, of course), this is easily one of the most relaxing, entertaining, anticipated nights in the year of a dude.
Now look, I’m not saying cut the cord with your significant other if she gives you some grief about your draft. In most cases, a little bit of grief and guilt is to be expected. (And if in your case it is not to be expected, you should go out and by your woman flowers. Now. Stop reading this and bow down to your better half you fortunate fool.)
Fantasy draft night is one of the most important turf wars in any relationship. If your girl cannot understand the importance of this night to you, that should be a pretty conspicuous red flag.
And because this test is so important, it’s a great reason to play fantasy baseball. You need to know how she’ll react.
(By the way, one strategy to try if you are given some grief about draft night is to say this: “Fine, I won’t participate in any fantasy leagues, and thus won’t go to any drafts, if you don’t buy shoes all year.” She’ll be left speechless, obviously will have no comeback, and you’ll be well on your way to a peaceful night of drafting.)
(And one more hint: if you really want it to be a peaceful night of drafting that possibly even has a happy ending, and you’re more successful than 99% of us so you have some extra cash, give her some money to go shoe shopping. Yes, it always comes back to shoes.)
3. Productive procrastination
Most of us that play fantasy baseball are in our late 20s, 30s, or early 40s, and thus we have jobs. For most of us, this means trudging to our place of work every Monday through Friday (and sometimes Saturday) for whatever our particular daily 9-to-5 grind is.
During fantasy football season, you can get by without thinking about your fantasy team during the workday; you have all day Saturday to prep and get your lineups for Sunday. Fantasy baseball, however, is a different animal.
Baseball is played every day, and every day can have a huge influence on your fantasy standing. There is nothing worse than having someone who is sitting on your bench hit two home runs when he could have been playing because your normal starter was off that day. Similarly, it sucks to not realize a bench guy is going up against a pitcher that he has owned historically. So fantasy baseball requires daily attention.
And let’s face it: you are going to procrastinate at some point during the day. (Some of you may actually spend the entire day procrastinating, getting just enough done so that you’re not asked to leave immediately upon arriving to the office the next day.)
The best part about procrastinating by doing fantasy baseball research, hypothesizing trades, and setting your lineups, is that you actually accomplish something at the end of it. You may not have achieved anything worthwhile for work, but you can still have a sense of achievement. Try matching that by wasting a half hour on Twitter or blog hopping.
So instead of leaving the office feeling like a complete failure, you only leave feeling like kind of a failure. Over the long haul, that will do wonders for your self-esteem.
4. Networking benefits
The biggest and most important metropolitan areas in the United States have baseball teams. Some of them, like New York and LA, have two. If you are a businessman, chances are good that you will have to network and do business with other guys that you do not know in these large cities. And if you’re a fantasy baseball manager who does his homework, you’ll have the ability carry on in-depth, intelligent conversations about the local baseball team.
You might laugh when you first read this and think it’s ridiculous, but you shouldn’t.
Look, maybe you are Mr. Personality or your name is Greg Arious and you never have a problem striking up a conversation with someone you’ve just met, but if you’re like many guys you probably experience some awkwardness and choppiness when it comes to small talk. Being able to knowledgeably converse about the bullpen struggles, outfield platoon, or rotation woes of the local team immediately boosts your networking power.
Successful networking is all about finding common ground and establishing ease of conversation as quickly as possible. Researching for your fantasy baseball team arms you with the information power you need.
See? And you thought you were just procrastinating. It’s productive in more ways than one.
5. Fantasy baseball teaches you the concepts of successful stock market investing
That’s right, another business angle.
Seriously.
I’ve played in one league for going on about ten years now. Our commish works for a hedge fund. He and the other smart, “businessey” people in our league (remember, I’m just a basement-dwelling blogger) are always using stock market euphemisms to describe and analogize things that happen in our fantasy league.
And when you think about it, it makes sense.
Successful fantasy baseball managing requires picking the best players based on how they will perform tomorrow and in the futre. Their numbers up until that point are absolutely meaningless for the future success of your team. When it comes to working the waiver wire and trading, you want sell high and buy low.
Successful stock market investing, similarly, requires picking and buying the stocks that will perform above their current value moving forward and selling those that have peaked in value. All of the past upward trending is meaningless if you buy a stock and then it starts to drop, and vice versa.
When you buy and sell is of tremendous importance in both fantasy baseball and the stock market. You cannot become a successful fantasy baseball player without developing the kind of mindset required to invest successfully.
6. You get a 6-month panacea for boredom
The MLB Network and GameCast ensure that for six months out of the year, you cannot possibly have a night with nothing to do. Why? Because you always have the pleasure of tracking your fantasy players on a nightly basis.
Before last year, you could always count on your league’s live scoring system or GameCast to provide instant statistical updates. Now, with the introduction of the MLB Network and their live look-ins on the important moments of nearly every game, this ability to track your team in real-time has been, to use an unfortunate (but appropriate) metaphor, injected in the ass with Deca-Durabolin.
Never again will you have to go home at the end of a long day and lament the fact that there is nothing on TV and nothing to do. Even if you live alone, you won’t have to lament another night of useless boredom. Pop open a cold beer, sit in your recliner with a laptop, and turn on the MLB Network.
And if you juggle the job-wife-kid triumvirate, but every now and then get an evening or even just a few minutes of solitude, this will most likely be the most relaxing and enjoyable part of your night/week/month.
7. You can take pride in your war stories, championships
Remember three years ago when you agonized over whether you should drop injured Star Pitcher A to pick up unknown Pitcher B off the waiver wire, ultimately choosing Pitcher B because of some in-depth injury analysis / statistical algorithm (referred to in common parlance as a “coin flip”) you came up with?
Of course you do. Because Pitcher B went on to win 13 games, have an ERA around 3.50, and helped lead you to a fantasy championship while Pitcher A ended up going on and off the DL all year.
No one else may care but you and the other guys in your league (actually, they don’t really care either, but they occasionally humor you), but you know how ballsy it was to make that move and you know that without it you wouldn’t have that silly purple bobblehead on your dresser commemorating your title.
Well guess what? Those lonely, pathetic chumps who don’t play fantasy baseball never have the opportunity create such memories and tell such war stories. I know…I laugh at those losers too.
Ultimately, that’s the point: you don’t want to be a loser, or feel like one, and you definitely don’t want to allow yourself to become an angry, bored old man
And the way to combat all of this is to play fantasy baseball.
It may not get you chicks – in fact, it might even cost you the one you’re with – but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t make you a better, happier man.
**********
* – Loser picture credit: Confessions of a She-Fan
* – Man and woman photo credit: Mars Venus Living
* – Networking photo credit: HereFrom Friends of Science Newsletter by Albert Jacobs
Kenneth Richard has compiled a list of 770 papers published since January 1, 2014 that contradict the IPCC consensus statement, see here.
This includes 240 papers published during the first half of 2016, as shown here.
The list of papers includes 43 on solar influences, 27 on natural ocean oscillation, 2 on Rossby waves, 3 on ozone, 6 on the small effect of CO2, 11 on natural variability, 11 on clouds and aerosols, 3 on CO2 stratospheric cooling, 15 on past climates, 4 on settled science, 19 on Climate Model Unreliability, 2 on urban warming, 6 on volcanic forcing, 2 on warming oceans, 7 on miscellaneous topics, 2 on forest fires, 2 on cold vs heat deaths, 6 on climate policy, 7 on extreme weather, 20 on polar ice, 9 on sea level rise, 12 on ocean acidification, 2 on hurricanes, 4 on droughts, 3 on natural climate catastrophe, 7 on greening and crop yields and 1 on low climate sensitivity.Editor's Note: Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion scholar and author of "The American Bible: How Our Words Unite, Divide, and Define a Nation," is a regular CNN Belief Blog contributor.
By Stephen Prothero, Special to CNN
When it comes to doubt, sometimes a little skepticism is in order.
As CNN's Dan Merica reported earlier this week, a recent Pew Research Center survey sees doubt rising sharply inside the millennial generation. Between 2007 and 2012, this survey says, the portion of young Americans (those 30 and uner) who say they never doubt the existence of God dropped sharply between 2007 and 2012, from 83% to 68%.
This report has stirred up a chatstorm in the blogosphere, with 2600 comments and counting on Merica's Belief Blog post alone. But does this data really say what many atheists want it to say? Is American religion really heading for a fall?
Look carefully at the survey question. What this data is tracking is the percentage of young people for whom doubt has never creeped into their faith. I don’t know about you, but most of the religious people I know experience both doubt and faith over the course of their spiritual lives. So the fact that more than two-thirds of young people say they have never doubted God’s existence seems to me evidence of America's extraordinary religiosity, not its disbelief.
That suspicion is supported by the fact that this same Pew survey found that millennials who identify with a religion is not declining. Moreover, according to Pew's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, only 3% of millennials are atheists.
The takeaway, it seems to me, is not that religion is declining in America but that it is changing. Or, to paraphrase my Boston University colleague and sociologist of religion Peter Berger, what is shifting here is the how of religion. In short, doubt is a part of the spiritual lives of more young people than it has been in the past.
I have been spending way too much time lately with Google’s Ngram Viewer. This website allows you to see how prominent certain key words are in books published in various languages from 1800 forward. It’s also possible to see how these key words match up against one another over time.
I searched the Ngram database for the words “faith” and “doubt” in American English from 1800 to 2008. Here’s what I found:
For much of the nineteenth century, “faith” won out over “doubt.” But as Biblical criticism, evolutionary theory, and comparative religions started to chip away at traditional understandings of Christianity, “doubt” ran past faith in the late 1880s. For roughly the next century, the two terms tracked rather closely. During the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s, however, faith bypassed doubt.
What matters here is not the horse race. More significant is the fact that, since the late Victorian period, doubt has become part of the landscape of faith in America. To see doubt as a denial of faith is to misunderstand how most Americans live their religious lives.
The fact that doubt is now a part of faith for a significant minority of American believers strikes me at least as a sign of faith’s maturity, not its demise. Perhaps, like the millennials themselves, American religion is growing up.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Stephen Prothero.Note: By submitting this form, you agree to Third Door Media's terms. We respect your privacy.
Bing is expanding its image search toolset with a new product that lets users search for specific items shown within a larger image.
They’re calling it Bing Visual Search, and it’s available now as part of the Bing’s existing image search tools. It’s pretty simple to use and pretty impressive, too.
In my first sample search, I queried Bing for landscape ideas and chose a photo that showed dozens of different plants and bushes in someone’s backyard. On the individual image screen, a small magnifying glass appeared in the upper left — clicking that launched the new visual search tool that let me pinpoint one specific plant from the dozens available. And after I did that, Bing identified my chosen plant as a snapdragon (I’m no green thumb, so can only assume that’s correct) and showed me a new set of search results just for this one plant from the original photo.
My results were a bit mixed when doing people-based searches.
For example, I searched for a photo of my favorite band, U2, but when I |
6-foot-6, 240 pounds, with a shock of long, blond hair, Syndergaard’s nickname, “Thor,” fits perfectly. Just ask Yunel Escobar.
Wednesday, July 29: The Trade That Wasn’t
Mike Stobe/Getty Images
A couple of thirtysomething infielders and a reliever were nice. But rumors suggested the Mets were after a big bat: preferably an outfielder who could offer team control beyond the end of this season. This was the acid test for Alderson and the Wilpons: get a legitimate cleanup man and accusations of passivity (against the GM) or financial handcuffs (against the owners) would quiet down.
A few minutes before first pitch, it looked close to a regular night at Citi Field — an impromptu media scrum with the commissioner appearing to be the big news on an otherwise quiet day. So much for that.
By the middle innings, the Internet lit up with word that the Mets were trading right-hander Zack Wheeler and Flores to the Brewers for center fielder Carlos Gomez. The 29-year-old was exactly the kind of two-way player Alderson & Co. wanted: the best available player at his position, equipped with an affordable contract that would keep him in New York through 2016. Wheeler, the 25-year-old starter with big upside but who underwent Tommy John in March, was the main attraction for Milwaukee. Flores, a 23-year-old infielder who had some potential but probably not enough to be a quality everyday shortstop on a championship-caliber team, was the afterthought.
By the time Flores came to bat in the seventh inning, word of the trade had spread through the stands, and Mets fans responded by saluting the soon-to-be-traded youngster. At the time, only Flores, Collins, and a few others hadn’t heard the news. So as the shortstop started jogging out to his position in the eighth, a fan relayed news of the deal to him. That led to a surreal scene: A member of the Mets organization since his 16th birthday, Flores was about to become property of the Brewers, yet he was still on the field, playing for his soon-to-be-former team. As the Mets tossed the ball around the infield in preparation for the top of the inning, Flores began to cry.
[mlbvideo id=”309624883″ width=”510″ height=”286″ /]
Of course, Flores never became a Brewer. Not long after tears streamed down his face, he and everyone else learned that the deal had dissolved.
When asked about it a few days later, Alderson expressed regret for how the situation played out.
“I can remember having an internal discussion on whether we would make the deal with Milwaukee as the anthem was being played,” Alderson said. “Then making the call to [Brewers GM] Doug Melvin right as the game was starting. This was [middle infielder] Ruben Tejada’s first off day in a while, so if we took Flores out, we would have played with a man short. I figured the medicals would take a while since Wheeler had been on the DL all season, and they would have to be comfortable with Zack’s health.
“Maybe it’s the technocrat in me that wants to make sure we’re not playing short. Maybe it was someone from my generation underestimating the speed of media and access. I apologized to him later, though. Wilmer is such a great kid — he’d been with the Mets since he was an adolescent. It shouldn’t have been surprising to us that he reacted the way he did.”
Speculation swirled over what exactly had happened, and blame eventually landed on the Mets being the ones who cancelled the trade. From there, theories spread that New York’s ownership had balked at paying the approximately $12 million left on Gomez’s contract. Alderson quickly denied that claim, though, noting that it was the Mets’ doctors who’d advised not going through with it due to concerns about the health of Gomez’s hip.
That explanation was only marginally better, though. This season, the Mets had made multiple public statements about players with health concerns, only for those comments to be proven far too optimistic, raising doubts about the team’s ability to properly diagnose injuries. When Gomez; his agent, Scott Boras; and the Brewers all denied that Gomez was hurt, the situation looked even weirder, even Mets-ier. And when the Astros acquired Gomez (and right-hander Mike Fiers) from Milwaukee less than 24 hours after the Wheeler-Flores deal blew up, the Mets were, simply, the laughingstock of the baseball world.
Thursday, July 30: It’s Like Raiiiinnnn, Just Before Deadline Day
On Thursday, things hadn’t changed. With the Mets up 7-5 against the Padres, Familia was two strikes from a save. Dark clouds had been forming all day, though, and a nasty thunderstorm smacked Citi Field, triggering a 44-minute delay. How’s that for symbolism? Once the tarps were removed, San Diego’s next two batters got on base, and then, as rain began to fall once more, Justin Upton launched a three-run homer over the wall in right-center to make it 8-7.
Of course, the agony couldn’t end there. The skies opened again and the umps called for another stoppage. The grounds crew couldn’t even get the tarp rolled out onto the field, and the delay lasted an excruciating two hours and 52 minutes. When play resumed, the Mets went down 1-2-3 in the ninth. The loss dropped the Mets to three games behind the division-leading Nats. The latest chapter in the history of Mets misery looked like it was complete.
Friday, July 31: Redemption
Despite the embarrassment of the past few days, there was still time to push the story in another direction. And with just minutes to go before the deadline, Alderson got his man — multiskilled outfielder Yoenis Cespedes came over from the Tigers in exchange for minor league pitchers Michael Fulmer and Luis Cessa. New York’s weak offense was even worse against lefties, and Cespedes is a strong righty bat to slide directly into the middle of the lineup. With only the rest of this season left on the slugger’s contract, dealing for Cespedes is more of a risk than bringing in someone like Gomez, but it’s also a clear-as-day win-now move from the front office. There was much rejoicing.
Oh my god. @Mets I can't believe I can actually say this, but is it true that there is now "A Cespedis for the rest of us"? #mets #T7L — Jerry Seinfeld (@JerrySeinfeld) July 31, 2015
“Cespedes was not in the picture before we made [the aborted trade for Gomez],” Alderson said. “It was actually that night, when everything fell through, that we learned he would be available.”
With their new bat in tow, next on the docket was a three-game series against the Nationals, who led the division by … three games. First to take the mound: Matt Harvey, who’d posted a sparkling 1.97 ERA in the seven starts before facing Washington, but had some clunkers in his rearview mirror, too, as he worked to regain his pre–Tommy John form.
“I felt like for a stretch there I could not find a rhythm,” Harvey said. “From talking to people that have had [Tommy John] before, that’s something they go through quite often. I know [John] Smoltz had made some comments regarding certain things he wasn’t able to find for a while. For me, it was more of a mechanical issue than anything. That and just getting used to being out there every fifth day and playing a whole season again.”
Going 7.2 innings with one run, five hits, no walks, and nine strikeouts, Harvey didn’t disappoint. But he wasn’t the story of the night.
Come the 12th inning, Flores had already received three standing ovations: for a diving stop in the first inning, his first at-bat since Wednesday, and an RBI single. Mets play-by-play man Gary Cohen had declared it “Wilmer Flores Night at Citi Field,” while color man Keith Hernandez said that Flores was “rising like a phoenix.”
Then, with the game tied 1-1, Flores drove a 1-1 fastball into the stands. Walk-off homer. Mets win.
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After the game, Flores summed it all up in one word: “Unbelievable.”
Saturday, August 1: Duda and deGrom
As good as Harvey and Syndergaard have been this year, it’s been Jacob deGrom who’s pitched like the team’s ace, even if he’s never been given that title by name. The second-year right-hander has shown impeccable command, as only Max Scherzer, Colon, and Clayton Kershaw own a better strikeout-to-walk rate among National League starters. After winning the 2014 NL Rookie of the Year Award, deGrom has been even better in 2015, thanks to a confusing five-pitch repertoire and pitching coach Dan Warthen.
“Dan taught me a lot,” deGrom said, three days before his Saturday start. “He realizes right away whenever I’m starting to get off mechanic-wise, or flying open, and he’ll even tell me during the game. That way, the next inning I’ll go out and try to make the adjustment — that seems to work out a lot.”
In front of the second-largest crowd in Citi Field history (trailing only this season’s Opening Day gathering), deGrom went six innings, striking out seven and allowing two runs on six hits and one walk. A resurgent Lucas Duda, who’d looked like an MVP candidate through May (.298/.394/.539) but had hit like a pitcher in 39 games from June to mid-July (.159/.272/.262), smashed two homers and hit the game-winning RBI double in the eighth. The Mets won 3-2 and were now a game back of first.
Sunday, August 2: Dropping the Hammer
Rich Schultz/Getty Images
After a couple of nail-biters, Sunday never felt close. The Mets treated their fans to something extraordinarily rare at Citi Field: a fireworks display.
A five-run, three-homer third inning was all the hosts needed, especially with Syndergaard on the mound again. As fans brandished Thor hammers and chanted “WE WANT FIRST PLACE!” from the bleachers, the big right-hander went eight innings, allowing just two runs, striking out nine, again issuing no walks, and clinching a 5-2 win, a series sweep, and a first-place tie for the Mets. Syndergaard became just the third Mets pitcher to go at least eight, strike out nine or more, and walk none. The other two? Pedro Martinez and Dwight Gooden.
“So much emphasis in the minor leagues is about development,” Syndergaard said. “Here, you’re encouraged to develop, to get better every day. But the big thing is, it’s about winning.” He paused, and smiled. “And when we’re winning, it’s a lot of fun.”
Epilogue
After a pair of wins against the Marlins, the Mets now lead the Nationals by one game in the NL East.
The good news is that the Mets will get a bunch more games against lesser teams like the Marlins, as no club in baseball owns a weaker schedule the rest of the way.
In addition to keeping pace with a talented Washington team that figures to get better as it gets healthier, New York will face an internal challenge as the season wears on: managing its young pitchers’ workloads. The plan is for the Mets to return to a six-man rotation if and when Steven Matz returns from the DL next month, thus limiting innings for Harvey, deGrom, and Syndergaard. They’ll likely lean on Jon Niese a little more in the meantime, and the veteran lefty owns a 2.45 ERA in his past eight starts. They’ll also hope for a continually improving offense, as catcher Travis d’Arnaud returned over the weekend, and they could soon welcome Cuddyer and even Wright back into the fold.
A disastrous week doubled as an exhilarating one, and somehow, it’s got the Mets — in first place, with playoff odds hovering around 50-50 — right where they want to be. Even their normally stoic GM couldn’t help but marvel at the past few days.
“It’s been a pretty tumultuous time in Mets Land,” said Alderson. “And then the excitement level in the stadium [Saturday] was something I’d never seen before. This could all come crashing down tonight, or tomorrow. But so far, it’s all been crazy to watch.”
This piece has been updated to correct an error regarding the Mets’ August 1 game: It was the second-largest in Citi Field history, not Mets history.Supporters of Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz claim he has been framed as a killer as part of an elaborate cover-up.
A Facebook page called "Andreas Lubitz A320, we are against the hunt" offers a range of alternative theories for why the Germanwings plane crashed, including the suggestions that Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, has sought to pin the blame on Lubitz to hide mechanical problems with the plane.
Prosecutors announced last week that Lubitz deliberately flew the plane into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board. They said the black box voice recorder, found at the site of the crash, showed that Lubitz had locked the plane's captain out of the cockpit and intentionally crashed the aircraft.
But supporters of Lubitz insist he is innocent. More than 4,500 people have liked the Facebook page that claims he is being used as a "scapegoat" to cover up technical problems.
According to Vocativ, hundreds of these supporters are from Lubitz's hometown in Germany, Montabaur, and the surrounding area.
Here are some of the conspiracy theories to emerge so far:
Technical fault cover-up
Some commenters on the Facebook page suggest the cockpit voice recorder was tampered with to make Lubitz the "fall guy" and to hide mechanical problems with the plane. The fact that the flight data recorder has still not been found apparently plays into this suspicion. Others suggest that evidence has been planted. Bild and Paris Match claim to have seen a video of the final moments of the flight found on a memory chip, despite officials denying the report. Lubitz supporters question how the memory chip could have remained intact when the rest of the plane was said to be "pulverised".
Liquid lasers
A second theory posted on the Facebook page is that the plane crashed after a failed "liquid lasers" manoeuvre by the US armed forces. "The American Northern Fleet was experimenting with liquid lasers, the 'High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System'. But instead of an intercontinental test rocket, it accidentally hit the Germanwings plane," said the poster. They suggest the flight data recorder has been stolen as part of the cover-up.
CERN's energy field
Another theory that emerged elsewhere on the internet was that the cause of the crash was somehow related to the delay in restarting CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva. The restart was postponed indefinitely due to a short circuit in its electrical system, leading some conspiracy theorists to conclude that the electric fault generated a mysterious energy field that interfered with the aircraft's electronic system.The Tarantula is a fuzzy spider. It crawls your rails app, fuzzing inputs and analyzing what comes back. We have pointed Tarantula at about 20 Rails applications, both commercial and open source, and have never failed to uncover flaws.
How does your Rails app stand up? It's easy to find out. Install the plugin, and create a Tarantula integration test: (Update: Note that Tarantula integration tests live in test/tarantula so that you can treat them separately in your cruise builds. For a substantial app or fixture set Tarantula can take a while to run!)
# somewhere in your test require'relevance/tarantula'# customize to match your security setup def test_with_login post'/sessions/create ', :password =>'your-pass'assert_response :redirect assert_redirected_to'/'follow_redirect! t = tarantula_crawler( self ) t.crawl'/'end
Then rake tarantula:test, and then start looking through the Failures section of the HTML report.
Tarantula is just a baby now, but we plan to feed it until it is a lot bigger and meaner. Suggestions and contributions are welcome via the Relevance Open Source Trac.
Hat tip to Courtenay, whose SpiderTest plugin inspired me to go down this road. Also congrats to Mephisto, which is the best behaved app under Tarantula to date (only three problems, all minor broken windows).A psychic fortune teller (Shutterstock)
U.S. authorities on Monday said they have shut down a long-running international “psychic” mail fraud operation that bilked more than a million Americans, including many who were elderly or infirm, out of more than $180 million.
A federal judge has approved a consent decree that bans Montreal’s Infogest Direct Marketing, Hong Kong’s Destiny Research Center Ltd and six individuals from using the U.S. mail system to send ads, promotional materials and solicitations on behalf of alleged psychics, astrologers and clairvoyants.
In a scheme dating to 2000, the defendants were accused of sending seemingly personalized form letters in which French psychics Maria Duval and Patrick Guerin predicted great wealth, such as winning the lottery, for people who bought products and services to ensure their good fortune came to pass.
One such letter touted how Duval and Guerin shared “clear visions” that recipients would come into “massive sums of money on games of chance,” so long as they paid $50 for a “mysterious talisman” and a copy of “My Invaluable Guide to My New Life.”
Authorities said people who bought products or services would be “bombarded” with additional solicitations. More than 56 million pieces of mail were sent in the past decade, they added.
“To line their own pockets, the defendants preyed upon the superstition and desperation of millions of vulnerable Americans,” U.S. Attorney Robert Capers for the Eastern District of New York said in a statement.
The civil consent decree was negotiated by Capers’ office, and approved by U.S. District Judge Sandra Feuerstein in Central Islip, New York.
None of the defendants admitted wrongdoing. A lawyer for the defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The case is U.S. v. Metro Data Management Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, No. 14-06791.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)It's no surprise that demand for an expansion berth in the Big 12 Conference has two dozen or more universities queuing up with last-lifeboat urgency. A chance to join a "power-five" conference, with all the cache and revenue that go with it, is increasingly rare.
So if the Big 12 wants to add two or even four schools, why not Southern Methodist University?
If you've examined the lists of top contenders -- Brigham Young, Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis, Connecticut and Central Florida, among others -- you may have wondered what happened to Dallas' university.
Since the Southwest Conference dissolved in 1996, SMU has found homes in three minor conferences, most recently the American Athletic. Many of its SWC rivals combined with the former Big Eight to create the Big 12 and, in a bit of irony, put its headquarters just outside Dallas in Irving.
Big 12 championship games and tournaments have filled AT&T Stadium and the American Airlines Center. The region is laced with enthusiastic fan and alumni bases from Texas, Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas and former Big 12 member Texas A&M.
In fact, that's one of the arguments used against SMU, that the Big 12 owns much of its turf already. Yet that's also a potential weakness in Houston's bid, and that didn't stop Texas' governor and lieutenant governor and University of Texas president from publicly backing the Cougars.
What SMU offers the Big 12 is a stronger case to consolidate a top-five U.S. media market around one power-five conference. That unified presence would only increase penetration and market share in a market that truly matters.
And no offense to Cincinnati, Memphis, Orlando or Provo, Utah, but there's no fair way to compare them to Dallas.
A Big 12 checklist also would include athletic competitiveness and academic standards, including research. To the latter point, SMU's U.S. News & World Report ranking would be second in the conference to UT; SMU's average entrance test scores for first-year students would rank first.
Still, football is king, and there's no denying that SMU has ground to make up. After four consecutive bowl teams, the bottom fell out the past two seasons. The needle is pointing up with a well-regarded coach in Chad Morris and two solid recruiting classes behind him.
Another benefit of being Dallas' university is the support of 50,000 alumni, many of whom help form our civic and community leadership. And with that comes the financial backing that provided $120 million in facility upgrades, with a new $150 million master plan in the works.
One centerpiece of the current effort is a new indoor performance center, an outdoor natural-grass football practice field and new soccer stadium.
"I would say that we are looking for members that will grow over time as we grow, that will bring stability to the conference and that have a high top end," Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said.
All things considered, that sounds precisely like Dallas' university, SMU.Still, Mr. Donovan stressed that the agency, which had a role in one out of five home purchases in the last year, would not need a direct taxpayer bailout.
“There is no extraordinary action that Congress or anyone else needs to take,” he said during a news conference in Washington.
Instead, the agency would borrow from the Treasury, under authority previously granted by Congress. In the worst case, involving a protracted recession, the audit said the F.H.A. would run out of capital in 2011 and have to borrow $1.6 billion from the Treasury to pay insurance claims, a relatively small sum.
That is not a situation the agency considers likely. In line with many analysts, the agency expects the housing market to turn down again over the next nine months and then to recover. Under this projection, foreclosures would be manageable and the reserves would quickly grow.
The F.H.A.’s annual audit was scheduled for release last week, but was mysteriously delayed at the last minute. On Thursday, as it released the document, the agency explained that it wanted its auditors to include more negative forecasts as a way of understanding the worst-case risk.
The audit showed reserves to be 0.53 percent of the total portfolio, far below the 2 percent minimum mandated by Congress and far less than the audit last year had forecast. In 2007, just before housing prices began their worst slump in decades, the reserves were above 6 percent.
Ann Schnare, a consultant who has analyzed the F.H.A. balance sheet, put the situation this way: “They’re running on empty.”
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As the fortunes of the F.H.A. have deteriorated over the last few months, the agency has become a focal point for dissatisfaction over federal efforts to prop up the housing market.
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It is drawing comparisons to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the giant agencies created by Congress to keep the mortgage market supplied with cash by buying up pools of home loans. With borrowers defaulting in the downturn, Fannie and Freddie have required enormous bailouts.
The F.H.A.’s role differs from that of Fannie and Freddie. Through its insurance, it helps marginal buyers get loans if they do not have the 20 percent down payment a traditional bank loan requires. The agency requires a 3.5 percent down payment. Critics say it went overboard and insured too many loans to unqualified borrowers in 2007 and 2008, a position with which the agency itself now agrees.
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Nearly one in five loans it insured in 2007 falls into the category of “seriously delinquent,” it said Thursday. These loanholders are at least three months behind in their payments. For 2008 loans, 12 percent of them were seriously delinquent.
The F.H.A. says it is insuring loans to more financially secure buyers with higher credit scores. The average credit score of new borrowers, it said, is 693, compared with 633 two years ago.
In a sense, the agency is bulking up and giving as many loans as it can to qualified buyers as a way to diminish the relative size of the pool of problem loans. It guaranteed more than $360 billion in mortgages in the last year, four times the amount of 2007.
Critics say this is only increasing the size of the ultimate peril.
“They keep saying they’re going to outrun their problems, but some way, somehow, the taxpayer is going to end up on the hook,” said Edward Pinto, a former executive with Fannie Mae.
During the news conference, Secretary Donovan and the agency’s commissioner, David H. Stevens, said that the cash reserve, the figure that has fallen to 0.53 percent of loans outstanding, was merely a supplement to a much larger fund that the F.H.A. was holding against expected losses. Between the two accounts, the agency has $31 billion to cover losses over the next 30 years.
The F.H.A.’s problems stem from its rapid transition from a wallflower to the most popular student in class.
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During the housing boom, buyers flocked to private subprime lenders, who offered deals that required no money down and no documentation. The F.H.A., which required its token down payment and documentation of the borrower’s earning power, lost ground.
But as the market tumbled and the subprime outfits failed, F.H.A. loans became the next best thing. Brian Montgomery, who ran the F.H.A. for the Bush administration, said in a recent interview that the agency felt it had no choice but to open the doors to a broader group of applicants.
Citing pressure from Congress and the White House, Mr. Montgomery said: “We had to let these loans through.”
Mr. Montgomery, now a consultant, says that anyone dismayed by the possibility of yet another bailout should feel a different emotion toward the Department of Housing and Urban Development and, for that matter, himself: gratitude.
“They should be going over to the H.U.D. building and frankly thanking the career staff for saving them from a depression,” Mr. Montgomery said.Meat processors under fire as beef farmers complain of exploitation
Updated
The meat processing industry is coming under fire for the way the big players treat farmers.
Takeovers and mergers have led to a massive concentration in the meat processing industry and sheep and beef producers say they are being exploited, with evidence meat processors use heavy handed tactics and abuse their market power.
Currently beef is selling at near-record prices across Australia, but farmers like Mark Ritchie said they were not getting much of a cut.
"Farmers feel like they've been missing out," Mr Ritchie told the ABC from his farm in Mansfield near the Victorian alps.
"They know that there's a lot of money being made in the red meat industry and they haven't seen it for the last few years."
Farm gate returns at the property, which runs 2,000 cows, have flat-lined over the past decade despite inputs rising sharply.
It is a problem across Australia and producers blame the rapid consolidation in the processing industry.
"Farmers feel the level of consolidation we've seen in the past 15 years has meant a reduction in options for them every time a plant is taken over, or there's a consolidation that effectively one more buyer out of the market," Mr Ritchie said.
In the past 10 years 40 per cent of abattoirs in New South Wales have closed as they have been bought out or merged with larger groups.
Under the nose of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Brazil's JBS and Australian-American owned Teys Cargill have taken control of 50 per cent of the market.
The remainder is in the hands of just a few firms.
'We are getting into a duopoly type situation'
Less processors mean less competition between buyers at saleyards and farm gates, which NSW Farmers Association president Derek Schoen said was worrying.
"We are very closely getting into a duopoly type situation similar to the Coles and Woolworths in the grocery," he said.
"There's consolidation by creep and one by one the processors are getting picked off and its no good for competition."
If we can get more transparency, then we can make better decisions on how, when and where we sell... Cattle farmer Julian Carroll
Mr Schoen said the market was open to abuse, made evident at a boycott that was staged at a saleyards in Barnawatha, on the Victorian-New South Wales border.
When major meat buyers failed to show at the opening sale at Barnawatha, it sent cattle prices tumbling and left many unsold.
The boycott was designed to pressure the saleyard into changing the sale method from pre-sale to post-sale weighing.
As cattle can lose up to 4 per cent of body weight while in the yards, processors prefer to weigh and pay after the sale.
The saleyard caved in to processors demands.
The ACCC launched an investigation and a Senate inquiry was set up in response to the boycott.
But Teys boss Geoff Teys was unapologetic about not turning up to Barnawatha.
"In our years of experience in buying cattle in saleyards over direct from paddock, post weighing gives us the best, most consistent result," he told senators.
Lack of transparency through supply chain
Victorian Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie, who prompted the inquiry, was scathing about the boycott but said the problems go far beyond the saleyards
She said there was an incredible lack of transparency throughout the supply chain.
Most animals do not even go through saleyards and are sold directly by farmers to processors at undisclosed prices.
Cattle farmer Julian Carroll said he wanted the senators to change that.
"If we can get more transparency, then we can make better decisions on how when and where we sell them," he said.
Victorian and New South Wales farmers associations are both lobbying the Government for change, saying there was too much opportunity for processors to take advantage of producers.
What goes on inside abattoirs is a major rub point between processors and producers.
The final price of many animals is determined by how the carcass is scored for things like fat depth and colour, and a poor score can mean hundreds of dollars less per animal for the farmer.
But the people scoring the carcasses are employees of the processors, and farmers said that was a clear conflict of interest.
Senator McKenzie said more transparency would lead to a better deal for farmers, but not necessarily higher prices for consumers.
"That is up to the retailers, at the end of the day there is a huge margin between what the producers of what that beef are being paid and what you are paying for at the supermarket," she said.
The Senate committee is due to report next year.
More on this story on The Business today at 4.30pm AEST and at 8.30pm AEST on ABC News 24.
Topics: beef-cattle, rural, business-economics-and-finance, australia
First postedScreencap via YouTube user Movieclips trailers
The first time I went to Snopes.com, I thought the internet would become the miracle cure for urban legends. I especially hated the outright lies, like the one about gang members going around with their car headlights off and shooting you if you flash them. I thought access to information would help the truth prevail. OK, you can stop laughing at me.
Now the kids think there are going to be real-life purges, and they’re spreading the notion via the Giant Lie Factory. Perhaps it's some last-minute marketing for The Purge: Anarchy, now playing in a theater near you. But it's almost certainly no coincidence that this hoax got started around the same time as the Ferguson protests.
If you don’t read the taglines on movie billboards, a purge—as defined by the movie The Purge and its recent sequel—is a night on which everything is legal. The cops pack it in. Looters and murderers have a field day, and the audience has a good time.
On Friday night, in real life, Louisville, Kentucky, lost its mind when kids there started tweeting about a Louisville purge, and the grown-ups believed what the kids were telling them—something you should never do.
They started shutting down businesses and locking themselves in their homes. Police went on high alert, because, according to the cops there, "We have to err on the side of caution, to keep our city safe.”
You have to? Really? Even when what you’re preparing for, on the taxpayer's dime, is based on internet rumors that don’t even make sense when taken at face value?
Next, purge hysteria escalated because people started saying one had happened. A Redditor posted what they claimed was photographic evidence of a Louisville purge. According to the post, someone let a giraffe out of the Louisville zoo. This was—are you sitting down?—a lie. The image was taken from a different news story in a different city, eight months ago.
Also, we suggest that you guys stay safe if you go stalking because of purge threats in Detroit. Hopefully everything will be fine. -R — Larry Updates (@1DLarryNews) August 16, 2014
Next, a vortex of stupidity took hold. One Direction were gearing up for a performance in Detroit Sunday night, and either because of it or in spite of it, people started tweeting about a Detroit Purge. Such an event might set the stage for a tragedy if One Direction were to be robbed and beheaded by a roving gang of masked psychopaths.
By then the idea had caught fire, and it was everywhere.
THE PURGE DATES* Spread This around if you see your city ✖️ Be safe pic.twitter.com/74EgVVpDM2 — VINE: ImJustinRay (@Imjustinray) August 16, 2014
Before long, there were people making up all kinds of stories about purges in every major city in America. Everyone gave themselves the rhetorical authority to tweet sensational nonsense by couching it in concern for others. Most tweets about Purges have the refrain “Be safe” tacked onto the end.
I liked the movie The Purge but with everything it's caused, it wasn't worth making the movie. if you live in Louisville be safe! — Shelby Waddell ✌ (@shelbyy512) August 16, 2014
Inevitably, with all these rumors swirling around, the idea of a St. Louis purge during the Ferguson protests was irresistible. It didn't happen. Ferguson got hit with a curfew, now in its second night. Looting wasn't exactly at an LA Riots level Saturday night, but just being outside was illegal. It was the exact opposite of The Purge.
But look, kids, there’s no purge coming to your town anyway. You 100 percent cannot just have a purge. Here's why:
Purges Are Impossible in the United States.
I'm going to take this seriously for a second.
No city or state in the US has the authority to declare a purge. If, hypothetically, the police intentionally backed off for a night, and the people who were the victims of crimes pressed charges afterward, but the bored receptionist at the police station was like, “Sorry your grandma was murdered, but nothing was illegal that night. Next!” they could just take their complaints to the state or federal level. It would be easy to argue, even though there’s no law that explicitly bans a jurisdiction from decriminalizing things like theft and murder. You would just use the always handy Ninth Amendment, which says you have rights not explicitly outlined in the constitution. It wouldn’t be hard to get a judge to agree that you have the unalienable right not to be murdered or robbed with the tacit approval of the local authorities.
The purge in the movie was made possible by amending the constitution. I feel like I would remember reading about it if there had been a 28th Amendment that added purges to the fabric of our political system.
Rumors of Violent Flash Mobs Are Mostly Racist Hysteria.
If the people spreading this idea around don't actually think crime is going to be legal, and instead they think a "purge" is just the new name for one of those violent flash mobs they heard about on TV, I've got more good news: That shit doesn’t really happen. “Wilding” isn’t really a thing, except when followed by "out." The Central Park Five case, often cited as the quintessential example of young people running amok, didn’t happen like you think. Bad things happened that night, but accounts of events were tainted by racism and paranoia.
People get in crowds sometimes, yes, and they lose their shit sometimes, yes. Ten unruly members of a peaceful crowd of 10,000 can cause the whole crowd to get blamed for a few stores being looted. Ferguson isn't the only case where something like this has happened. Cops tell stories to newscasters that further this "the world is going to hell in a handbasket" narrative because it keeps them in a job. Similarly, when a newscaster interviews Sylvester Stallone, he'll tell you it's a good idea to see The Expendables 3. That doesn't make it true.
For instance, looking for an example of a "violent flashmob," I found an often cited story from 2011 in which 1,000 gang members were supposedly fighting on a beach in Boston. It turns out there were just a few fights, and the vast majority of the people in that crowd were just guilty of hanging around while being black or Hispanic.
The Purge Is Just a Movie.
When I was 14, and the Columbine shooting had just happened, there were whispers |
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"You focus on what is important for you and what can help you. The way the team plays and what is important and accept the assessment of people around you.
"Fans are part of our game and they have the right to be happy, not to be happy. My job is to focus on my job and trying to make them happy.''
For Swansea, they will head to north London for Bob Bradley's first game as manager after he was appointed as Francesco Guidolin's replacement during the international break.
It will be the 58 year-old's first job in England and Wenger feels the American's arrival can only be a good thing for the Premier League.
"Bob Bradley has a lot of experience. He's not a beginner, he has travelled a lot and has accumulated experience in the United States,'' added Wenger.
"He has been in Egypt, France recently and is now in England which is certainly a fantastic opportunity for him. It's also good for the Premier League because the Premier League is taking off in the States.
"To have an American here will create even more interest for the Premier League in the States. He is equipped to deal with what is asked of him.''MANILA, Philippines – The venue for the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Jeff Horn has not been finalized yet, but a stadium in Brisbane, Australia’s third largest city, is a favorite to land the hosting rights.
The 52,500-seat Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, which is located the state of Queensland, has a good chance of being picked as the venue for the fight scheduled April 23.
In a report by boxingscene.com, Queensland tourism and major events minister Kane Jones said they have yet to hear from Top Rank Inc. and Duco Events, which represents Horn, about holding the fight at Suncorp.
But Jones claimed the stadium would be the perfect choice.
"Suncorp Stadium is one of the best outdoor sporting venues in the country so I think Queensland would be at an advantage compared to other states," Jones said.
Horn, who will challenge Pacquiao for the WBO welterweight title, earlier said it will be a dream come true for him to face the Filipino icon in front of his countrymen at the massive venue.
"There isn't a bad seat at Suncorp so we've got a real home advantage in having such a great stadium here that would be the perfect place to hold a fight of this magnitude,” added Jones.
Queensland officials are reportedly asking for a site fee of more than $5 million for the fight to be held at Suncorp.
"Like any deal, we always have to look at value for money for taxpayers," Jones said.
In the event a deal can’t be reached for the fight to be held anywhere in Australia, the Middle East is another option for promoters.Photo
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As far back as he can remember, the character actor Frank Sivero has been best known for playing gangsters, in films like “The Godfather Part II” and, most famously, in “Goodfellas,” which cast him as the mobster Frankie Carbone.
And as the real-life mobster Henry Hill could have told you, being a goodfella means nobody can mess around with you, not even a long-running animated series that may or may not be paying homage to your work.
Mr. Sivero, who evidently wants it to be known that he is not a clown and not here to amuse you, has filed a lawsuit against Fox and the creators of “The Simpsons,” saying that the character of Louie, a cartoon mafia man who occasionally appears on that show, is an appropriation of his likeness and an infringement on his right to publicity.
Court documents reported at Deadline.com show that Mr. Sivero’s suit was filed Tuesday in California Superior Court for Los Angeles County. The lawsuit states that Mr. Sivero has had contact with “The Simpsons” since 1989 (when he lived in the same Sherman Oaks apartment complex as some of the show’s writers), and that the “appearances and mannerisms” of the Louie character, who first appeared on the show in 1991, “are strongly evocative of” Mr. Sivero.
The suit asks for up to $250 million in damages and injunctive relief, considerably more than was netted in the notorious Lufthansa heist. A representative for Fox said the studio had no comment. A lawyer for Mr. Sivero did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.I had seen her dancing at the bar earlier. Tall, thin, with long straight blonde hair and pale blue eyes. I caught her eye a few times, and noticed she was sitting with a girlfriend and a guy I had briefly talked to earlier. So I walk over to her, start talking, and her body language just blew up, touching her hair, grabbing my clothes, etc. So, we flirted for a while. I talked to her girlfriend and the guy a little bit, then she wanted to go outside to have a cigarette, so I went with her and bummed a smoke.
Well, it didn’t take long to notice two things. She was drunk, and she was vulnerable. As in, emotionally vulnerable. A strong, independent woman with her own successful career, obviously emotionally directionless. Biologically, she should be a married mother with three kids by now. But since women don’t do that sort of thing anymore, she was lost.
She starts telling me way too many personal details. She tells me she’s 35. I ask her to guess my age, she said 28. I laughed and smiled, and told her I knew she was just flattering me, but to keep it up because it was working. She said she had just come back from LA. She had been married, but never had children. She was evidently hooking up with the guy inside, but was frustrated because he never got jealous. She complained that while she didn’t mind hooking up, and didn’t mind keeping things casual, she just couldn’t handle the fact this guy didn’t care what, or who, she did. She complained that he had never gotten married, and didn’t do “relationships.”
Well, at first I objected. I said, “oh so this is what this is about, you’re just talking to me to make this guy jealous?” She says, “no he doesn’t get jealous, that’s the problem. I don’t mind hooking up, it just seem … I mean, wouldn’t you want to be exclusive with the girl you’re sleeping with?”
Of course I told her that when we hook up, I’ll keep her all to myself.
Little miss, my designated driver, was walking out so if I wanted a ride home, and a sure thing, I’d better cut loose now. She tells me she’s at the bar every week. So I will see her again, with or without the guy.
Women these days are clueless. She had promised before God, her family, and her community to love, honor, and obey the man she married, until death do they part. She decided to break her vows. She likely hired lawyers, went before a court of the law, and dragged whatever personal issues she had with her husband out in public, humiliating him, his family, and her family. But likely not herself, because she likely doesn’t feel any shame. The entire media and the culture tells her, if she wasn’t haaaapy, if the guy did something she didn’t like, or if she just got bored, she should divorce him. Take time to focus on herself, and her own needs.
Now, she’s prowling bars, hooking up with guys who treat her like a low cost escort, and wondering why men won’t commit. She’s good looking enough that she’s obviously had many men interested in her. But she has already proven that she’s not worth committing to. She doesn’t keep her promises, she’s willing to go to the police and courts over personal issues, and willing to walk away from a relationship with a man she supposedly loved enough to marry.
She almost certainly wasn’t a virgin bride, so the sex was never really exclusive anyway. Men don’t burn with romantic passion for 35 year olds. They burn with romantic passion for teenagers and early 20 somethings. When they are young enough there’s still the possibility – however remote – that they are different, not like the others. Not callous, selfish, self-centered, solipsistic, and ruthless. Real romantic passion has to have that element of fantasy to it so you can suspend disbelief long enough to actually risk so much on a woman – an unstable woman who will go through violent mood swings on a monthly basis and most of the time won’t even know her own feelings. There’s an old saying, “there’s no fool like an old fool.” That saying refers to the well known phenomenon of older men falling helplessly in love with a woman 20 year younger. A 40 year old man might have a blast pumping and dumping 30 somethings, but get a 21 year old to pay attention to him, and all the jadedness – and sanity – go right out the window. It’s a biological reaction to the years of fertility that a young woman has left.
When a woman is young, and a virgin, commits to a man for life, and bears him many children, a man is capable of loving her, forever, even when she is old and wrinkly. He will always remember the bride of his youth, and even when the romantic passion is long gone, love remains. Real, adult, human love.
It really shows the immaturity of modern women that thirty something childless divorcees, who have likely pumped and dumped many men, are surprised that men their age won’t “commit.” They have shown, with their actions and attitudes, how much their commitment is worth. Precisely zero.
But hey, if you still look good at 35, and are interesting to talk to, there will be plenty of men interested in hooking up, being friends, and even “dating.” But let’s not pretend that the men are going to be exclusive. Why turn down offers because you happen to be in a temporary arrangement with a particular woman? Serial monogamy may be a woman’s preference, but it’s not a man’s preference. Mate guarding and keeping a woman exclusive to you is the natural instinct of men, due to the aversion to cuckolding, but a modern man knows the deal, with birth control and genetic testing there won’t be any cuckolding, and if she wants to fuck some other guy, she’s going to whether you like it or not.
So, men have adapted. They’re “going our own way” as it were. No commitments to women, just enjoy each other’s company, and bodies, with no pretense of exclusivity. I mean, after all, it’s not like women are the property of men they are fucking, right? That would be awfully misogynist wouldn’t it?
The guy was a good networking candidate, likely having some contacts in the local business scene that would be useful to me. Who knows, maybe he and I will trade notes on the blonde’s performance over beers at some point?Raymond Felton doesn’t want to influence Carmelo Anthony’s free agent decision. He says his former Knicks teammate should “do what’s best for Melo.”
But he certainly wouldn’t mind if Anthony ended up in Dallas with him next season.
“I would like to play with anybody who has that type of talent. Melo’s a great friend. We’ve known each other since the high school AAU tournaments and camps and stuff. We go way back. So definitely. I would love to play with him, who wouldn’t?” Felton said in a phone interview with ESPN New York on Thursday.
Dallas is expected to make a strong push for Anthony. The Mavs will likely have the cap space to sign Anthony as a free agent. Dirk Nowitzki and ex-Knick Tyson Chandler have already expressed a desire to lure Anthony to Dallas.
Felton wouldn’t get involved in a public courting for Anthony, who he played with in New York for the past two seasons.
“Me and Melo are great friends. We conversate. But that’s a decision he has to make on his own. That’s a decision that if I did know I couldn’t leak that out. At the same time Melo ‘s going to do what’s best for Melo and that’s what he should do,” Felton said.
Felton struggled with injuries and inconsistent play at times last season and drew negative attention off the court when he was charged with two felony counts of gun possession during the season. Felton recently reached a plea deal in that case and will avoid jail time.
Phil Jackson traded Felton and Chandler to Dallas earlier this week in exchange for Jose Calderon, Samuel Dalembert, Shane Larkin, Wayne Ellington and two second-round draft picks.
He looks at his new opportunity with the Mavericks as a “fresh start.”
“I love it. Great organization, great team. Great group of guys I’m going to play with. I’ve got my big fella Tyson going out there with me. On top of that, it’s just a fresh start for me. I loved it here in New York. New York was great to me. The fans, but it’s just a fresh start. A lot of things happened last year. It’s going to be good to just put all that behind and just move on and start off fresh,” Felton said.
Of his reaction to the trade, Felton added, “It was one of those things where you hate to leave somewhere where you played but at the same time I was happy because it’s a fresh start for me and it’s a good situation, a great team, great coaches a great organization. It’s like a new beginning for me. I was excited.”
You can follow Ian Begley on Twitter.To those peoples in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required, not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
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Page 262 - I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. Appears in 329 books from 1936-2008
Page 261 - I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. Appears in 1398 books from 1910-2008
Page 262 - This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning — "my country 'tis of thee; sweet land of liberty; of thee I sing; land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride; from every mountain side, let freedom ring" — and if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. Appears in 229 books from 1933-2007
Page 261 - Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our Northern cities knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. Appears in 176 books from 1959-2008
Page 261 - I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. Appears in 943 books from 1892-2008
Page 261 - I have a dream that one day even the State of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream... Appears in 431 books from 1910-2008
LessThe Seahawks' front office is no longer secretly awesome -- NFL teams looking for rebuilds or reloads have raided the shelves for this franchise's front office execs and coaching staff, looking to get a piece of Seattle's methodologies and philosophies. Defensive Coordinator Gus Bradley is gone, taking a head coaching job in Jacksonville and he'll propagate the Seahawks' competition culture and rather unique schemes; John Idzik is gone to the Jets, where he'll propagate the Seahawks' Draft-focused, team-friendly salary-cap managing methods. Before them, the Buccaneers stole Seattle's Assistant Director of College Scouting, Eric Stokes, to be their new Director in that same area, and with him, Stokes would be taking his expertise on identifying unique talents and skills in prospects, an expertise that was integral in Seattle's last few Drafts.
When John Schneider took the podium this afternoon in Indianpolis at the NFL Combine, he almost had a rock-star aura about him, just based on my twitter feed, with a multitude of media members professing their admiration and respect for the guy that had the balls to draft Russell Wilson (among many other great steals along the way).
The Seahawks now have a reputation for being savvy drafters, something I'm not sure a lot of people were saying a little under a year ago, when the general consensus was that Bruce Irvin was a total reach, Bobby Wagner wasn't who they wanted, and Russell Wilson was 'the worst pick in the Draft.'
So how is it that Seattle has been able to completely overhaul their roster in three years and have surprisingly quickly become legitimate contenders? From how I see it, and how it makes sense to me, it comes down to a harmony on the different levels of the organization, fom the front office to scouts to coaching staff to trainers. It starts with Carroll and Schneider, whom both work with a weights and balances system that has given Pete Carroll the final say, but allows Scheider to make a lot of decisions on his own.
Schneider was undoubtedly the Russell Wilson benefactor last year, and Carroll even had to warn the scouting team to act happy for John when the Seahawks were readying to take Wilson in the third round. That wasn't a popular decision, as it's come out, among some of the scouts, but Carroll took Schneider's back on that and I'd say that turned out pretty well. (I would think that Schneider now has a pretty strong trump card anytime someone doubts his judgement.)
Still, Schneider is very careful to foster a culture that looks to avoid groupthink and encourages differing opinions among scouts. "We take a lot of pride in giving our scouts a lot of leeway in terms of their opinions on players," said Schneider. "So there is a concern about that, but in giving our guys a lot of leeway and confidence in the job they do, they know they're going to be heard and at the end of the day we're going to take all the opinions and put them together. I don't feel we do anything necessarily different than other clubs. We try to work it where we feel like we don't have all the answers all the time. We're looking for more and more questions, and answers to be questioned. If that makes sense to you."
"We've been on the same page enough and been through this enough with the coaches where we know when we're putting our board together and we're choosing players, we're selecting players for the coaches that we know will fit the coaches' philosophy at each position and have a legitimate chance to compete," as he told Clare Farnsworth recently. "That's all you can ask for a coaching staff - guys that are willing to teach and let guys compete."
These aren't John Schneider's guys. They're guys that he thinks will fit perfectly in this system.
"We breakdown each player from just a pure athletic standpoint at the beginning. We breakdown their game as it is now," says Seahawks Director of College Scouting Scott Fitterer. "Then we put them through the filter for our team - because we grade specifically for our team, we don't grade for the NFL. So they have to fit our scheme."
This, unsurprisingly, was echoed by Schneider, this afternoon in Indy, "We grade for our team; we don't grade for the league. Our board basically represents that, if that makes sense to you. We grade a guy based on whether we think he can compete with Bruce Irvin, or Malcolm Smith, or Bobby Wagner, and that's the way our board falls."
It would be insanely interesting to see just how different Seattle's big board looks compared to most other teams around the league.
"Pete and his staff have done a great job of telling us what exactly they're looking for," Fitterer notes. "And then some guys just have such a unique skill set that our coaches are great at adapting and letting players come in. If they think they can make plays, they'll figure out a role for them. They'll create a role if they have to. The flexibility of this staff is incredible that way."
No square peg in round hole. Every player is chosen with a specific role in mind. Not, - 'oh, this guy is really good'.
John Schneider, echoing this sentiment today, said, "I can't speak for other organizations, but as for our group, we know our coaches have trust in us as far as acquiring players that fit what they're looking for, or fit a certain position. They're going to compete, and obviously for them to do that, the trust in the coaches to teach, work, and develop those players. And Pete's main philosophy is all about competition. So, he opens that door, and you have a chance to play."
"When we're selecting players, we're giving the coaches players who are legitimate competitors at each position. Rather than having a head coach who has his mind made up and he's not going to change and be flexible, Pete is very flexible in terms of the players that we can provide."
From what I understand, you can have a lot of tension between scouts and coaches and front office when scouts give high grades to players but the coaching staff or front office wants nothing to do with that guy. Carroll's philosophy is to find out what a player does well and then fit him into the system and allow him to do it.
"It gives you more flexibility to keep guys alive," Southwest region scout Matt Berry told Farnsworth. "If a guy can play, that gives you hope that they're going to find a way to make that guy's skill set fit with everybody else. So you try not to pick apart the things they can't do. You keep your focus on what they can do."
All that is a bit vague - I understand that. Finding guys that fit in your system sounds nice, but in practice, how does the "I like this guy" become "we got this guy" on Draft day?
Schneider, at the podium this afternoon: "The draft has so many different components to it - the evaluation process; knowing other teams, our personnel staff is very involved as well trying to figure out what other teams' needs are. Really, I thought our pro staff did a great job last year identifying who would be the teams that would be involved or interested in specific players. So we just had to look at our board and kind of work with specific teams and see what types of different trades were available to try to put us in a position where if we went back we weren't completely losing a player. Say maybe we had one of three players. Last year, it was one of two players. So we felt if we went back we'd be able to get one of those two players."
The numbers game. You like two or three guys where you're sitting? That allows you to trade back, with confidence, strong in the belief that you'll still get at least one of them at a specific number of slots back. I've always wondered how they gauge that. Turns out they have a dedicated staff assigned to espionage, more or less.
"A big part of my responsibility," Schneider told SIRIUS radio today, as transcribed by our friend Glen Peer, "is to know where guys are going to be taken. We have a pro staff of guys who do a great job of knowing other teams needs. They scour every paper, listen to interviews, do whatever to try and figure out who's "hot." Schneider specifically mentioned Russell Wilson, Bobby Wagner, and Bruce on names they monitored closely last year.
For instance, said Schneider, "Bruce's name got real hot about 10-15 days out from the Draft last year. So, it's about - are you going to be cute, or are you going to come away with a guy you want? So that's basically what we do."
You may remember interviews following the Draft last season, where Schneider said that he started to get worried because, about three or four days before the draft, nobody was talking about Bruce, and that's when he gets the most nervous - when names aren't being talked about close to the Draft.
More from Schneider soon...
Follow @FieldGulls on Twitter | Like Field Gulls on FacebookA funny thing happened on Monday night. Although Bruce Jenner had just come out as a transgender woman in a groundbreaking interview with Diane Sawyer, almost every late-night comedian who joked about the story did so respectfully and creatively.
Which is harder: Winning an Olympic decathlon or singlehandedly changing the tone of jokes about transgender people? They’re different challenges, each daunting in their own right, but Bruce Jenner has made both of them look easy.
The late-night comedy crowd has long subjected Jenner and other transgender people to cheap jokes, some of which were re-aired in the middle of the Sawyer interview.
A recent Conan O’Brien zinger about Jenner being assigned a Dancing With the Stars partner as soon as he “assigns himself a gender” felt particularly crass coming straight off of Jenner’s admission that he has struggled with gender dysphoria for decades.
Even as the interview aired, Bill Maher was filming a crude wisecrack comparing Jenner to his TiVo because both of them “cut things off.” Funny, TiVo is also a joke that belongs in 2005.
But almost as soon as Diane Sawyer signed off on Friday night, something palpable shifted in the television comedy world.
Chalk it up to Jenner’s honesty, his vulnerability, or his fame but he may have made cheap jokes about trans people seem mean to a mainstream audience on an unprecedented scale.
Almost 17 million people tuned in to watch the interview and judging from his post-11:30pm treatment, Jenner may have charmed nearly all of them.
When the late-night hosts first broached the subject of Jenner’s transition on Monday night, their audiences didn’t laugh, they cheered as if Jenner had just crossed another finish line—and he has.
Instead of turning Jenner’s gender identity itself into a punchline, Fallon, Kimmel, and crew used his transition as topical fuel for jokes with other targets: 2016 candidates, the Kardashians, and themselves.
On Jenner’s proclaimed allegiance to the Republican party at a time when he requires medical care for his transition, Conan O’Brien joked, “Bruce said he looks forward to bashing Obamacare as soon as he finishes using it.”
For a comedian with a track record of mean-spirited anti-trans humor, this was a refreshingly nuanced dig at Jenner’s political views.
Jimmy Fallon, who tweeted his support for Jenner over the weekend, kept The Tonight Show classy with punchlines that landed on politicians instead of on Jenner.
Now that Jenner is an out female Republican, he joked, “the GOP finally found someone that might be able to beat Hillary.” He followed it up by invoking the image of Joe Biden rushing to rub Jenner’s shoulders as soon as he heard the big news—uncomfortable, sure, but still fair game.
Jimmy Kimmel told seven or so jokes about the Sawyer interview—he apparently doesn’t subscribe to Johnny Carson’s rule of threes for monologue humor—but he kept them all sharp without ever twisting the knife.
Kimmel introduced the topic by saying that Jenner “went from being kind of a boring man” to becoming “a charming woman.”
That’s definitely not an ideal, GLAAD-approved way of framing a gender transition, but it’s hard to fault Kimmel for that when he seemed to be speaking from the heart: He genuinely likes the new Jenner and it showed.
Last year, Kimmel mocked Jenner’s surgeries, but he seems to have changed his tune after seeing the interview.
Instead of pillorying Jenner’s gender, Kimmel pointed out the implausibility of there being “only one full-length mirror in the Kardashian house” and joked that Jenner could finally get his possessions monogrammed if his initials are no longer “B.J.” once he changes his name and pronouns.
Across the board, late-night comedy writers found inventive ways to joke about the subject without continuing to ridicule an already-beleaguered transgender woman.
Their extra work paid off: The topic didn’t have to be put off-limits, the humor stayed on point, and Jenner was able to collect some well-deserved rounds of applause in the process. In situations like these, it’s so rare for everybody to win but that’s exactly what seems to be happening.
Jenner came out as transgender to overwhelming public support and comedians got to tell jokes about it without sparking yet another tired debate about political correctness and comedy. Imagine that.
At the start of the interview, Jenner even explicitly invited humor about his story—presumably as long as it remains good-natured.
When he first sat down with Sawyer, he cautioned her, “One thing that’s so important in this whole process is we have to keep our sense of humor about this. It’s really pretty funny to me, of all people.”
What Jenner understands, however implicitly, is that comedy is one of our most accurate barometers of cultural change.
The surest sign that a marginalized group is on the path to social acceptance isn’t when comedians stop telling jokes about them, it’s when comedians finally cross the critical threshold from mockery to creativity in their joke-telling.
A punchline about Jenner undergoing sex reassignment surgery is just plain bad comedy, mostly because it’s easy. But jokes about legal name change, monograms, and Obamacare’s inclusion of transgender healthcare require actual legwork.
The fact that comedians are finally making that effort is a subtle but powerful indication that public opinion on transgender people is finally beginning to turn.
Late-night monologues might be minor victories compared to the legal battles facing the trans community but, as it so happens, they’re excellent predictors of success in that realm as well.
This same pattern has borne out before in the late-night comedy world’s treatment of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people. Jay Leno, never one for innovation during his Tonight Show tenure, kept the bad gay jokes coming well into the 2000s. As recently as 2008, he asked Ryan Phillippe to give the camera his “gayest look.”
These kinds of comments were once commonplace on television—especially on late-night shows—but they have since been replaced by more sharp-witted humor about lesbian, gay, and bisexual identity, which has evolved temporally alongside the string of legal and judicial victories for the LGB portion of the LGBT community.
But the off-color trans jokes never stopped coming. In 2010, after Obama appointed an openly transgender woman to a position in his administration, David Letterman and his announcer Alan Kalter acted out a skit in which the latter feigned disgust at having slept with her before running off the set.
That’s just one of countless jabs that Letterman and his colleagues have taken at the very existence of transgender people over the years.
On Monday night, however, Letterman stayed quiet about the Sawyer interview. He could have made jokes about it, but after taking his comedic cues from The Crying Game for that 2010 skit, maybe it’s best that he didn’t.
We live in a post-Jenner interview world and gags like that one just won’t fly anymore. Indeed Nightly Show anchor Larry Wilmore and Late Late Show newcomer James Corden proved to be Jenner’s most markedly vocal allies.
Wilmore devoted his entire Monday episode to a playful discussion of the interview with a panel of transgender commentators. And in his Monday night monologue, Corden called the interview “genuinely one of the most incredible pieces of television that I’ve seen in years.”
That led him into an impassioned, seemingly unscripted declaration of sympathy for those who have felt Jenner’s pain firsthand.
“I truly hope that after this weekend’s interview, that this world that we live in is a better, more understanding, more educated place for [them] to live in,” he said, to loud applause, before personally thanking Jenner.
Of all the media reactions to Jenner’s story, a comedian making that announcement in the hetero male territory of after-midnight TV may be one of the most promising signs of progress yet.
Corden followed up his earnest message by joking that the interview has given his wife hope that “one day I might fully transition into becoming a man.” It was a perfect, lighthearted coda for a heavy topic and a reminder that laughter does not have to be antithetical to social change.
Bruce Jenner may have taken the fun out of making fun of transgender people, but that doesn’t mean we can’t laugh alongside him and, soon, her.Whether the Trudeau government was baited into supporting what Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion called a “divisive” opposition resolution, the Liberals in the end backed a Tory motion that condemns the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.
The Feb. 18 motion, introduced by Conservative MPs Tony Clement and Michelle Rempel, states, “That, given Canada and Israel share a long history of friendship as well as economic and diplomatic relations, the House reject the BDS movement, which promotes the demonization and delegitimization of the State of Israel, and call upon the government to condemn any and all attempts by Canadian organizations, groups or individuals to promote the BDS movement, both here at home and abroad.”
Jewish groups applauded the motion, which is expected to pass next week with the support of the Liberals and Tories, but not the NDP and Green party.
READ: DION’S COMMENTS TO ISRAEL SPARK CONCERN – AND SUPPORT
Shimon Fogel, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), stated: “A clear, all-party consensus rejecting the divisive BDS movement was reaffirmed in the House of Commons. One after the other, members of Parliament spoke up in support of Canada’s friendship with Israel and spoke out against efforts to delegitimize, isolate and discriminate against Israel by advancing the false idea that Palestinians bear no responsibility for the Arab-Israeli conflict.
“The boycott movement does not contribute to peace and is not pro-Palestinian. It is discrimination based on nationality, and it harms both Israelis and Palestinians alike by driving the two sides further apart. The BDS movement is a fringe movement and is outside genuine peace efforts.”
JSpace Canada spokesperson Karen Mock said her organization “opposes all forms of BDS of Israel and all forms of vilification, demonization or delegitimizing of Israel as a state. JSpace supports the motion in Parliament. Although BDS is a non-violent form of protest, it has been found not to be effective and divisive in Israel and Canada.”
B’nai Brith Canada’s CEO Michael Mostyn stated, “We are very pleased to see that Parliament is recognizing the anti-Israel boycott and sanctions movement for what it is: a discriminatory global propaganda campaign to demonize Israel and the Jewish People.”
READ: MCGILL UNDERGRADS ASKED TO CONSIDER YET ANOTHER BDS MOTION
Avi Benlolo, CEO of Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said the parliamentary debate reflects “a general consensus that needs to be heard.”
“There is a sense that everybody is pushing back against BDS… It will send a signal to the community, campuses and other groups that they don’t have government support,” he said.
The motion comes as a number of jurisdictions in North America and Europe have taken steps to oppose BDS. In the United States, state legislatures in New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and Indiana passed anti-BDS resolutions, while the British parliament also announced a plan to enact legislation outlawing BDS. France passed such laws in 2003.
Canada’s parliamentary motion comes a little more than a year after former foreign affairs minister John Baird signed a memorandum of understanding with Israel that pledged the two countries will “work together to oppose efforts to single out or isolate Israel by developing a co-ordinated public diplomacy initiative to oppose boycotts of Israel, to oppose those who call into question the Jewish state’s right to exist and to work to counter the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.”
Despite voicing support, statements by Dion suggested he backed the motion reluctantly.
Responding to a question from NDP MP Helene Laverdiere, who asked whether by adopting the motion he was condemning the Ontario arm of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which endorsed BDS, Dion stated: “We have to make choices. We did not draft this motion, but we have to vote yea or nay. The government that I represent here chose to vote in favour of it even though we would have written it differently. I agree with the member that most of the people in the movement are acting in good faith, including many of the organizations, but they are misguided. We therefore support this motion, but we wish to make it clear that we are in no way seeking to limit freedom of expression in Canada or to encourage any kind of bullying one way or the other. ”
In debate prior to adoption of the motion, Dion analyzed the BDS movement and said, “The Liberals do not support this boycott movement, because we do not believe it is conducive to achieving peace in the Middle East… We will support it because we agree with the substance of it, although we do have some reservations about its form and about the Conservative party’s real intentions.”
NDP MP Charles Angus suggested the principle of free speech was at stake in the debate.
READ: FSWC CAUTIONS STUDENTS ABOUT YORK OVER DIVESTMENT ISSUE
“I note that last August the United Church of Canada, which represents two million Protestants, supported the divestment movement… This has nothing to do with my colleague’s claim that it is delegitimizing the State of Israel. This was a choice it made.
“My Conservative colleagues are asking Parliament to stand up in the House and condemn individuals in this country for their right to debate… We are being asked… to deny and condemn individual students for debating politics.”
Responding to Angus, Rempel stated: “Madam Speaker, my colleague is wrong… He is saying that we are trying to stifle free speech. We are not. All of the groups the member mentioned absolutely have the right |
it was nice to see a happy queer ending in a mainstream comedy like Rough Night, despite the film’s general mediocrity.) Still, it was a good year. Instead of waiting months to see the One Big Queer Movie, which might not be all that big or all that great, we were instead blessed with what felt like an unprecedented number of options: some movies that were terrible, some that were iffy, and some that were spectacular. Granted, many of the best offerings were small indies in limited release, so only those of us living in a few select cities have been able to see them right away. Also, mirroring mainstream media at large, queer stories by and about cisgender men, white people, or both have gained most of the attention and clout — and are still the most likely to get made. The LGBT sea change we’ve been hoping for still hasn’t dramatically shaken up Hollywood, at a time when Hollywood’s been grappling with some other major reckonings. But during a year when I haven’t felt hopeful about much, I do feel hopeful about the future of queer cinema. Here are the 2017 films about LGBT characters I think are worth seeing, generally categorized, but in no particular order. It’s by no means a comprehensive list, and for the sake of space I only included narrative features (but do check out Chavela, On Top, and The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, plus all its backlash). I only included films that explicitly dealt with overarching queer themes, but LGBT people working behind the camera are just as notable and just as significant, so you really need to see, for example, Dee Rees’ remarkable Mudbound (while you’re at it, check out her 2011 film Pariah, about a 17-year-old black girl coming to terms with her sexuality, one of the best lesbian films ever made). And please — avoid The Assignment at all costs.
Earnest, crowd-pleasing biopics
Claire Folger / Via Annapurna Pictures
Professor Marston and the Wonder Women If you, like me, were a little disappointed that Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman didn’t include any explicitly queer characters, take comfort in the fact that at least Wonder Woman’s origin story is really, really queer. Angela Robinson’s biographical drama is based on the life of the psychologist William Marston, who helped invent the lie detector and later created the character of Wonder Woman. Marston (Luke Evans) and his wife, Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall) both fall in love with their research assistant, Olive (Bella Heathcote), and their yearslong romantic relationship serves as the foundation upon which Wonder Woman is built. For a film about radical feminist ideals, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is told in quite conventional ways, including an awkwardly forced framing device. Even the sex scenes feel rather chaste and goofy — despite the frequent deployment of role-playing outfits — but Robinson treats this relationship with such tenderness and a refreshing lack of sensationalism that it’s worth watching. Find out how to watch it here.
Fox Searchlight
Battle of the Sexes Lesbian feminist icon and tennis champion Billie Jean King goes to battle with the self-described male chauvinist Bobby Riggs in Battle of the Sexes, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’s film that’s loosely based on a major turning point for women’s tennis. Steve Carell’s is wonderfully wacky and charismatic as Bobby Riggs, and Emma Stone as Billie Jean is charming and easy to root for, especially as she starts grappling with her sexuality. She begins having an extramarital affair with her hairdresser, Marilyn Barnett (Andrea Riseborough), while on the road. Her relationship with Marilyn involves some lovely scenes, from bookended erotic haircuts to the requisite 1970s “driving in a cool car in California” moment, but Marilyn mostly serves as an inconvenience Billie Jean needs to wrestle with on her road to victory rather than a fully fleshed-out love interest. But, like Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, Battle of the Sexes is a sweet, earnest, easy-to-root-for film, one that highlights an important part of LGBT history with gusto. They’re both a little corny and a lot predictable, but they’re also uplifting stories of triumph — still rare for queer films — and I’m glad they exist.
Find out how to watch it here.
Men fighting internalized homophobia and coming out of the masculine closet
Samuel Goldwyn Films
God's Own Country Francis Lee's God’s Own Country is basically Brokeback Mountain if it were set in modern-day Yorkshire on a farm (if it had more explicit sex and didn’t end in murder and tragedy). Johnny (Josh O’Connor), a surly and thoroughly unlikable young man who’s been charged with taking on the responsibilities of his family’s farm after his father has a stroke, ends up having an affair with Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu), a Romanian migrant worker who lends a hand during lambing season. Johnny is a gruff guy of few words who uses racist and anti-gay slurs to avoid dealing with his internalized homophobia, but Gheorghe, who can bring nearly dead lambs back to life, teaches Johnny how to be more tender. Though God’s Own Country participates in what my colleague Pier Dominguez recently called “‘masc-centrism’: a perspective in which same-sex desire is largely separated from any kind of gender nonconformity, while centralizing conventional masculinity,” the film’s gorgeous, moody shots of the English countryside, paired with a (sorta unbelievable but welcome) happy ending, make up for its basic, masc-heavy politics.
Find out how to watch it here.
Neon
Beach Rats In Eliza Hittman’s Beach Rats, the naturalistic setting isn’t a rugged Wyoming mountainside or English pasture, but the beaches of Coney Island. Frankie (Harris Dickinson) is a deadbeat young Brooklynite dealing with the death of his father and his newfound sexual interest in men. Late at night, he chats with older guys online, eventually meeting up with some of them to have sex under the cover of darkness in the brush alongside the cruising beach. Frankie’s attempts to keep these activities secret from his friends, coupled with his insistence that he isn’t gay or bisexual, but just someone who happens to sleep with men, forces him into evermore precarious situations. The film’s final act is one of startling and uncomfortable violence — which feels, ultimately, like a cop-out. Dickinson’s performance, however, keeps Frankie from sliding into a purely stereotypical tortured closet case; his realistically brusque dialogue is belied by flickers of hurt or fear across his face. And the world through which he roams is captured in gorgeous 16-millimeter grit, the aching neons of Coney Island’s boardwalk dancing across the boys’ exposed bodies.
Find out how to watch it here.
Queer women doing cool and/or bad shit in action and horror
Focus Features
Atomic Blonde The convoluted plot of David Leitch’s Atomic Blonde, a Cold War–era spy thriller, barely makes any sense, but it’s such a good time you’ll (mostly) forgive that. Charlize Theron is Lorraine, a special agent who’s sent on a mission to Berlin to recover The List, a crucial collection of Stasi-assembled intelligence. Throughout the course of her mission, Lorraine runs into a French agent, Delphine (Sofia Boutella) and their eventual sex scene is, well, sexy — without being too unrealistic or male-gazey. There are plenty of twisty-turny identity reveals, but far more enjoyable than the overarching political drama are the incredible fight scenes (including one memorable long take on a set of stairs), all the fabulous outfits Lorraine wears, and a romantic relationship between women that actually feels both organic and believable.
Find out how to watch it here.
Diane Russo
Women Who Kill
Ingrid Jungermann’s horror-comedy perfectly captures multiple subcultures — chiefly, cranky Park Slope lesbians with too much free time and people obsessed with murder podcasts. Morgan (Jungermann) and Jean (Ann Carr) are ex-girlfriends who host the titular podcast together, for which they interview famous murderesses and pontificate about which female serial killer was the hottest. Morgan and Jean’s sad ex-girlfriend dance is interrupted when Morgan starts dating a new girl in town, Simone (Sheila Vand), who may or may not be a serial killer herself.
Those already familiar with Jungermann’s dry, morbid humor will find plenty of it here. The trope of lesbians who break up but continue to spend all their time together —bickering one minute and seeming to be on the verge of getting back together the next — is a painfully relatable one. And Morgan and Jean’s engaged friends, played by Shannon O’Neill and Grace Rex, capture the queer-specific anxieties around their impending matrimony with cringey, hilarious results. A collection of great performances and a sharp script buoy this small indie film, Jungermann’s first as a writer, director, and star. The final act undergoes a rather abrupt tonal shift that leaves the film in a strange place: We’re not totally sure how much moral weight we should place on the actions of these droll New York hipsters. But, especially up until that point, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable, pitch-perfect satire. Find out how to watch it here.
Coming-of-age movies that manage to feel different than the millions of other LGBT coming-of-age movies
Sony Pictures Classics
Call Me by Your Name And now we come to what’s easily been the most talked-about queer film of the year. Luca Guadagnino’s stunning coming-of-age romance, based on André Aciman’s novel of the same name, has been making audiences cry since its acclaimed premiere at Sundance.
The movie is set in the anonymous lushness of Italian countryside in the '80s. Elio (Timothée Chalamet), a 17-year-old living on an estate with his parents for the summer, becomes infatuated with Oliver (Armie Hammer), a 24-year-old student who’s come to work with Elio’s archaeologist professor father (Michael Stuhlbarg). He eventually learns that Oliver reciprocates his affections, but it’s the lead up that makes their coupling so deeply, soul-affirmingly satisfying, even more so than their actual brief relationship — not least because, as has been thoroughly dissected elsewhere, Guadagnino decided not to include more explicit sex scenes to “create this powerful universality” (which sounds suspiciously like making the film more palatable to straight people). Before they get together, Elio shoving his face into Oliver’s shorts and smelling them, as we worry for him that Oliver could walk in at any moment, is one of the most remarkable scenes in a film filled with so many other strange, sensual moments. Plus, duh: original Sufjan Stevens songs. Find out how to watch it here.
Wolfe Video
Princess Cyd Like his excellent 2015 film Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party, Stephen Cone’s Princess Cyd is another film about teenagehood, sexuality, queerness, and religion — all common themes in LGBT coming-of-age narratives that Cone handles with such specificity, warmth, and generosity that they manage to feel quietly groundbreaking. Sixteen-year-old Cyd (Jessie Pinnick) goes to stay with her aunt Miranda (Rebecca Spence) in Chicago for a summer, getting away from her depressed single father. Miranda, a well-known novelist, hasn’t seen Cyd in a long time, and the two get to know each other again across the gulf of generational, religious, familial, and sexual differences. The film amounts to a gorgeous portrait of both women, who are complicated and funny and smart and different.
So much of Princess Cyd’s quiet magic is in the details. I so loved Cyd and her love interest Katie (Malic White)’s height difference — having myself been the taller, more femme person in a relationship with smaller, more masculine women — which means Katie’s at the exact right height to kiss Cyd between her shoulder blades. I loved Cyd’s questions for the two older women in a relationship who come to a party at Miranda’s house, because meeting queer people who have been in this boat much longer than you have is such a special part of learning who you are and who you someday might be. I loved that Miranda, an older single woman, has such a rich and rewarding personal and professional life. And I loved that Cyd shows up to Miranda’s party in a tux she borrows from Katie, to many compliments from Miranda’s friends. There are conflicts in Princess Cyd, but how refreshing that they aren’t intrinsically tied to shame around queer sexuality or gender nonconformity. Cyd is given the space to figure these things out with the help of the women around her she’s beginning to love. Find out how to watch it here.
Fantastic, genre-busting foreign language films (okay, I said I wasn't ranking, but these three were the best LGBT films of the year, IMO)
Magnolia Picture
Thelma In this Norwegian art-horror psychodrama, the familiar themes of coming of age, queerness, religion, and battling repression crop up in the unique context of a formalist Scandinavian thriller. Thelma, played by incredible newcomer Eili Harboe, is a first-year college student who starts having seizures soon after she starts noticing another student named Anja (Kaya Wilkins). Strange things begin to happen, seemingly connected to the seizures — people, including Anja, disappear.
Thelma takes the tired trope of the Evil Queer Who Deserves To Be Punished and turns it on its head. Her powers eventually go off the rails because she’s denying something fundamental, and she’ll only be healed when she embraces the part of herself she tries desperately to bury and deny. Not quite Lynchian and not quite Hitchcockian, but borrowing elements from both filmmakers, director Joachim Trier plays with body horror, visions of wild creatures, and biblical and folkloric doom. But there’s also a warm kind of intimacy woven through the formal, highly stylized scenes and dramatic wide shots. Ultimately, Thelma is a love story in which Thelma is learning to love both herself and another woman. Constantly afraid of losing control, she starts to harness the power of her body — sexually, physically, metaphysically — until the oppressions of religion and her parents’ desperate hold on it can’t hold her down any longer. Find out how to watch it here.
Sony Pictures Classics
A Fantastic Woman (Una mujer fantástica) When nearly all of the few transgender characters in mainstream media are played by cisgender actors, it’s worth celebrating that, in this Chilean drama by Sebastián Lelio, our protagonist is a trans woman played by a trans woman — and the incredible Daniela Vega’s performance as Marina Vidal is nothing short of breathtaking. A singer and waitress, Marina is in love with her older boyfriend, Orlando (Francisco Reyes), who at the beginning of the film finds her singing at a salsa bar before he takes her out to dinner for her birthday. They drink, they dance, they go home and have sex — they exist, even if only for a short while, in a world that seems unmarred by bigotry or prejudice. But then Orlando wakes up in the middle of the night complaining of pains, and Marina rushes him to the emergency room after he takes a violent tumble down their apartment stairs. Before the night’s over, he’ll have died of an aneurysm in the hospital. Suddenly, the future Marina and Orlando had planned together is gone. And that’s when trouble starts for Marina, who’s questioned by the police in the first of a series of painful investigations into whether or not she played a role in Orlando’s death. A Fantastic Woman becomes a story about a trans person overcoming transphobia, which is a daily reality for many trans people, but also one that feels overly prioritized in media about trans lives. Yes, there’s discrimination, but what about the full, complicated lives trans people lead between those instances of abuse? To its credit, A Fantastic Woman shows us so much more of Marina than her abuses: We see, in intimate moments, her relationships with her friends, her dog, her burgeoning singing career, and herself. As A Fantastic Woman goes on, the hyper-realistic film grows slowly and sparingly more fantastical — a wonderfully dreamy dance sequence; an incredible windblown sidewalk scene. And by the film’s end, Marina is far from reduced to a hapless victim without depth or purpose. This is, yes, another queer tragedy (at least at the film’s outset), but it’s about how transphobia can color and complicate another tragedy — grief — and indirectly, it’s about how trans people are so much more than the burdens of intolerance and hatred they’re forced to bear. Find out how to watch it here.
Memento Films
BPM (Beats Per Minute) / (120 battements par minute) Like A Fantastic Woman, BPM is specific in its portrayal of queer struggle and both individual and institutional queerphobia, but not at the expense of queer humanity. The result is a tremendous, specific portrait of a diverse and fully realized ensemble cast, with all their strengths and joys and messy imperfections.
Robin Campillo’s film about AIDS activism in Paris in the early 1990s, based on his own personal history with ACT UP, is part procedural, part grand historical drama, part love story. BPM delves into the nitty-gritty of ACT UP’s activist organizing, complete with warring factions: the more conventional leaders vs. the radicals who want to be louder, angrier, harsher, queerer. One HIV-positive radical, Sean (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), falls into a relationship with the HIV-negative Nathan (Arnaud Valois), a handsomely rugged newcomer to activism and through whose eyes we see most of the film. But it’s Sean who’s our true protagonist. Sean and Nathan’s first sex scene leaves nothing to the imagination, from conversations about and the putting on/taking off of condoms, swapping positions, and breaks to talk about family histories and past lovers. As they’re talking, their bodies transform into their younger selves, and we see, almost seamlessly, the scene turn into both men’s first times with other men. It is the greatest gay sex scene you’ll see this year (or, perhaps, ever?) because of everything it manages to do —drive the plot forward and deepen Sean and Nathan’s new connection — and, quite frankly, it’s incredibly hot. In a later sex scene, when Sean’s gotten sick enough to be hospitalized, we see Nathan reaching into Sean’s pants, touching and kissing him, despite the Kaposi’s sarcoma lesions visible on Sean’s torso, or perhaps even because of them, or some complicated blend of both. It’s sex as caregiving, a loving gesture that raises Sean up as he’s dying but also acknowledges that he’s still very much alive. As my friend John Sherman recently wrote, BPM amounts “to a rich portrait of HIV/AIDS as a disease not of the dying, but of those fighting to survive.” Nathan and Sean are our central lovers, but their comrades include those who are both HIV-positive and -negative, teenagers and their mothers, men and women. And even as we see some of them die, slowly and devastatingly, we also see them dancing. Celebrating. Living. Find out how to watch it here.Close
Women who formerly smoked but quit the habit experience fewer and less severe hot flashes during menopause compared with their counterparts who continue to smoke, findings of a new study suggest.
For the study published in the journal Maturitas on June 22, researchers followed 761 women between 45 and 54 years old for seven years, 347 of whom were experiencing hot flashes at the beginning of the study.
The researchers found that only 39 percent of the participants who never smoked experienced hot flashes. The symptom tends to be more prevalent in women who smoked, with 52 percent of former smokers and 62 percent of those who currently smoke experiencing the symptoms.
Of those who currently smoke, about 47 percent experienced moderate or several hot flashes. They were also most likely to experience the symptoms everyday or weekly. Moderate or severe flashes only affected 36 percent of former smokers.
Among those who never smoked, 22 percent had moderate or severe hot flashes and only a tenth of the women in this group experienced hot flashes everyday or weekly.
Study researcher Rebecca Smith, from the University of Illinois, and colleagues found that women who stopped smoking for at least five years were 45 percent less likely to experience severe or frequent hot flashes compared with those who continue to smoke albeit they were still more likely to experience the symptoms than those who never smoked.
The research revealed that women who quit smoking had 37 percent less odds of having hot flashes and 22 percent reduced likelihood to have severe or frequent symptoms than current smokers hinting of another benefit of quitting the habit.
Current smokers also had four times increased odds of having hot flashes compared with women who had never smoked.
"Subset analysis of the 353 women who had ever smoked found that women who had quit smoking for longer than 5 years had significantly lower odds, severity, and frequency of hot flashes than women who had continued smoking or women who had quit in the previous 5 years," the researchers wrote in their study. "These findings suggest that early smoking cessation programs may improve women's well-being during the menopausal transition."
Although the study does not provide evidence that smoking leads to or aggravates hot flashes, the researchers said that the results support findings of earlier studies. They think that smoking interferes with mechanisms known to be associated with hot flashes.
Photo: Javier Ignacio Acuña Ditzel | Flickr
ⓒ 2018 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.A word of advice to Turner Broadcasting: When you fight with Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen, use a bazooka not a pea shooter. Turner quietly noted on a website today that the satellite company’s 14 million subscribers soon might lose TNT and TBS — a contrast to CBS, which just issued a noisy call-to-arms to its fans who might see network-owned stations go dark on Dish as early as Thursday. Turner says that it also plans spots on TNT and TBS, online ads, a social media campaign, and billboards in Atlanta.
Dish hasn’t aired Turner’s other networks, including CNN, since late October. “Efforts in recent weeks to restore the Turner networks to Dish customers have been rejected at every turn by Dish leadership,” the Time Warner unit says today. “The upcoming expiration on December 5 of our carriage agreement for TNT and TBS means Dish may drop those networks as well. We remain hopeful that we will reach an agreement that restores our networks to the air and eliminates the risk of Dish removing additional Turner networks from its channel lineup.”
Early this month Ergen said he anticipated that TNT and TBS would be in jeopardy. “If you’re Turner and if we’re not going to carry CNN or Cartoon Network, then I’m not really excited when your contract’s up to carry TNT and TBS,” he said in an earnings conference call. “So we have to be prepared that those channels will come down as well.” He acknowledged that the loss of the popular general-entertainment channels “will be more painful,” pointedly calling the absence of the other Turner services almost “a non-event at this point.”
Ergen, who is accustomed to playing hardball with programmers in contract disputes, has been much more timid in his responses to CBS. “We are unsure why CBS decided to involve customers in the contract negotiation process at a point when there is time for the two parties to reach a mutually beneficial deal,” the company said last week when what used to be known as the Tiffany Network warned viewers that its contract is about to expire.AMD's Raja Koduri is kind of a big deal. In ATI's glory days, he was the principle architect of the R300 GPU -- the world's first DirectX 9-capable graphics card -- which put the company on a path to be extremely competitive against Nvidia. Under Steve Jobs as Apple's director of graphics architecture, he was instrumental in bringing their Retina Display to market. More recently at AMD, Koduri has been directly responsible for innovative new products like the Radeon Nano. So when I tell you about AMD's freshly formed Radeon Technologies Group, and the fact that Koduri is being crowned as the group's chief architect reporting directly to AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su, it's news worth paying attention to.
The Radeon Technologies umbrella effectively grants AMD a "dedicated team focusing on growing our business as we create a unique environment for the best and brightest minds in graphics to be part of the team re-defining the industry," according to Koduri. That's a statement with incredible impact. Though I'm not immersed directly in Silicon Valley, I've never met an engineer or anyone in the graphics space that doesn't look up to Koduri as a thought leader and visionary.
This means AMD is getting very serious about putting together a supergroup to pave the way to dominance as we head into a renewed graphics war on multiple battlefields: Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and traditional graphics hardware among others. Koduri will be directly responsible for overseeing all aspects of graphics technologies used in AMD's APUs, discrete Radeon GPUs, semi-custom chips (such as the ones present in the Xbox One and PlayStation 4) and professional GPU compute products.
One interesting sidenote: I can't help but wonder if Sony and Microsoft have already committed to either a revision of their respective console's processor, or secured AMD as the chip supplier of their next-generation consoles. Either way, it's exciting that Koduri will be behind that.
Based on conversations I've had this morning, granting Koduri end-to-end ownership is vitally important to the company's continued innovations, and instrumental in regaining lost market share. Products like the forthcoming Radeon Nano represent what Koduri is capable of under his own direction rather than the direction of a business unit telling him what to work on. From what I've seen of the Nano, it's a groundbreaking product that could usher in new PC form factors and keep the competition on their toes.
Read More: AMD Just Announced Their Own Compact Gaming PC: Meet Project Quantum
AMD also wants to push well beyond just a focus on winning the price/performance curve. They want to create revolutionary products in every Radeon space they already touch, including some that haven't been fully fleshed out yet. And I have it on good authority that AMD will be making bigger investments in the graphics business, though details are incredibly sparse.
"We are entering an age of immersive computing where we will be surrounded by billions of brilliant pixels that enhance our daily lives in ways we have yet to fully comprehend," said Dr. Lisa Su. "AMD is well positioned to lead this transition with graphics IP that powers the best gaming and visual computing experiences today. With the creation of the Radeon Technologies Group we are putting in place a more agile, vertically-integrated graphics organization focused on solidifying our position as the graphics industry leader, recapturing profitable share across traditional graphics markets, and staking leadership positions in new markets such as virtual and augmented reality."
Their current market share may not reflect it, but AMD has been playing a well-calculated game of chess lately. This is clearly one of their moves, and with the possibility of private equity group Silver Lake purchasing 20% of its stake -- giving them a much-needed infusion of cash for R&D -- it should be fascinating to see how it plays out."Justin Bieber has been cleared by police of any wrong doing following an alleged hit and run outside of a Los Angeles club last night, after her appeared to hit a photographer while driving away from a club. According to video footage taken at the scene by Splash Video, the Boyfriend singer can be seen leaving the Laugh Factory on Sunset Boulevard and getting into his white Ferrari with BFF Lil Twist. He then drives away and appears to knock one of the many paparazzi that are swarming around the car. The photographer can be seen falling onto a car as the 19-year-old singer drives off. Emergency services are then shortly seen arriving at the scene where paramedics and fire department officers strap the photographer into a stretcher and remove him from the scene." - EntertainmentWiseAn unflinching portrait of physical work in the 21st century.
In today's technological age - is heavy manual labour disappearing or is it just becoming invisible?
Physical work was once celebrated with hymns of praise. But workers today must be content with encouraging one another that their hard work is better than no work at all.
This series looks at the state of physical work in today's world. Work that is dreary, demanding and at time dangerous.
Lions
We take a glimpse inside the bloody and frenetic activity of the Port Harcourt meat market in Nigeria. Here cows and goats are brought to the slaughter - then cut, roasted and cleaned for sale.
The slaughter yard offers a hellish vision of noise, blood and smoke - viewers may find some scenes distressing.
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Lions can be seen from Monday, November 1, at the following times GMT: Monday: 0230; Tuesday: 0630; Wednesday: 0830, 1930; Thursday: 0330, 1400; Friday: 0730; Saturday: 1900; Sunday: 0030, 2330.
Brothers
We visit the ship-breaking yard of Gadani in Pakistan where derelict vessels are beached and then dismantled for scrap metal - with a bare minimum of mechanical assistance.
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Brothers can be seen from Monday, October 25, at the following times GMT: Monday: 0230, 1230; Tuesday: 0630; Wednesday: 0830; Thursday: 0330; Friday: 0730; Sunday: 0030.
Ghosts
We visit east Java in Indonesia – where men climb steep paths amid pungent vapours carrying a heavy load of sulphur rock from the mouth of a volcano.
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Ghosts can be seen from Monday, October 18, at the following times GMT: Monday: 0230, 1230; Tuesday: 0630; Wednesday: 0830; Thursday: 0330; Friday: 0730; Sunday: 0030.
Heroes
Heroes looks at freelance miners in Ukraine who spend long days crawling through cramped shafts of exhausted coal mines to dig out a living for themselves.
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Working Man's Death: Heroes can be seen from Monday, October 11, at the following times GMT: Monday: 0230, 1230; Tuesday: 0630; Wednesday: 0830, 1930; Thursday: 0330, 1400; Friday: 0730; Saturday: 1900; Sunday: 0030.
Source: Al JazeeraThe Birth of Cthulhu*** Prints available here: www.shop.imaginedinterprises.c… Do you know how sometimes you get strange ideas by looking at your surroundings and by associating things that have seemingly nothing in common? somehow, your creative Muse manages to invent something new with a bric-a-brac of objects, sounds, smells, colors or words.I was trying to imagine how H.P.Lovecraft ever managed to invent such a massive universe and instead of deep and intensive researches in Libraries and Museums, why wouldn't he just put things together at the dinner table? Now imagine a scene where Howard is at home, eating some sea-food spaghetti while reading some encyclopedia on fish, bats and other magazines. Suddenly, a light bulb pops at about 100 watts and he puts it all together:Squidhead + tentacles + batwings + fishbody = CthulhuThe Magazines spell: Miss + Cat +...tonic and he creates Miskatonic University. (He did have a cat called Felis)He looks at the flowers he bought week and invents the sign of the Elders.With Cthulhu in mind, he just had to take a look at that wonderful Greek beer called "Mythos" and there you have it, The Cthulhu Mythos.His glass, for some reason, show the liquid at an angle, which is enough to spawn the "weird angle and extra dimensions" part of the universe.On the bat book, to his right is written the following: (too small here, take my word for it):"Dr. Pickman 555-1970"An idea for a story: "the bats of Ulthar?" (it's written on a bat book, remember?)There's a scribble le about Yog.hurt SothothThen, "Alhaz" and a red stain (Alhazred)And on the book to his left, behind the flowers are written the word DrAGON, with the R almost invisible and we all know that will turn into DAGON one day.In addition, the aficionados might recognize a few things on the wall:On the top left is H.P. as a kid, to the right his wife, Sonia Greene (aka Sonia H. Davis in her memoirs). Below is a famous painting of Goya's "Saturn eating his son" which is perfect for the strangeness and horror aspect. The building to the left is Butler Hospital, where it seems H.P.'s mother spent some time. It is in Providence, RI.Under that is either a painting or a mirror (you decide) that shows the back of H.P. and a reflection of a strange Cthulhu-like character looking at him.On the other side is a personal wink, as it is a small version of my The Giant Cthulhu painting.If you look well on both side, in the drapery, you can see the eyes and scales of a couple of monsters. On the bottom left corner of Sonia Greene's frame, there's also a monster to be seen. The inside of the drapery, the white part, is also turning into tentacles. The piece of paper on the left-hand book (entitled R'lyeh, by the way) and the other piece of paper behind the bottle of beer are both original drawings and sketches from H.P.Lovecraft.The clock has also a role to play: First, the date under the clock is June 18, 1925 or Summer 1925, which seems to be the time H.P. started working on the Cthulhu Mythos.On HPL's tomb, one can read "I am Providence". On the clock, on can read 1 O'clock, or "1 am", and under is "Providence, RI"Now, if you write down "1 am Providence", you get something very close to the line on the tombstone.--For the upcoming issue of Rolling Stone, Brian Hiatt found himself in a suburban Detroit studio with Eminem during the last days of the Marshall Mathers LP 2 mixing process. Slim Shady opened up about the nostalgic feel of the album, getting Rick Rubin on board, and living up to the original.
“Calling it The Marshall Mathers LP 2, obviously I knew that there might be certain expectations,” he says. “I wouldn’t want to call it that just for the sake of calling it that. I had to make sure that I had the right songs – and just when you think you got it, you listen and you’re like, ‘F-ck, man! I feel like it needs this or that,’ to paint the whole picture.”
Eminem describes the album as more of a revisit, than a sequel.
“So there’s not gonna be, like, continuations of every old song on there or anything like that,” he adds. “To me, it’s more about the vibe, and it’s more about the nostalgia.”
More: Rolling StoneAlso very inspired by the painting of Ninjatic ***It was as real as anything he'd ever experienced.Alien constellations fill the night. Brilliant and vivid stars span every corner of the heavens. The last light of the evening revealing a deep blue sky almost black, a shade light enough to silhouette a horizon of enormous mountain peaks. The air is rushing over his body now, faster and faster until it freezes to ice on his face. Its hard to see, the wind stinging his eyes, frost threatening to seal them shut every time he blinks. He can make out black armored gauntlets now, fingers clenched to fists in the icy air. Air he can feel but not hear, at first silent until rising to a crescendo like having your head under a waterfall. His breathing is ragged, a harsh rasp in his ears and another sound... a rhythmic whoooomp that reverberates his whole body.It's a set of wings. Enormous, dark as the night, only the edges of the muscles and membranes visible as they strain to increase this already frantic pace. A small silver creek is visible in the valley below, its rapid passage revealing their startling speed. They're flying faster and faster into the heart of a great valley now, the mountains looming large on either side. Dropping even lower the true valley is revealed for the first time. The creek is not a creek. It's a river. Enormous, wide as a lake but frothing white across it's entire expanse as it rushes headlong down the mountains. The scale of the place seems impossible.The mountains are sheer now, towering so high it's like flying through a trench. Huge waterfalls cascade off their edges turning to mist long before they hit the ground. The valley breaks sharp to the right and they round the corner to find sirens mixing with the roar of the wind. Far in the distance the valley narrows and stops, the top of the mountain revealing a row of dim lights. Thousands of lights. Hundreds of thousands of lights. What looked like a mountain is now a colossal stone wall spanning the entire width of the valley. It rises miles from an unseen depth and stretches dozens more across. Anchoring it on either end are mammoth dark towers, spawning countless spires rising thin and dangerous to the stars.They approach the wall with staggering speed. With one final heave they vault upwards, cresting the top to see the expanse for the first time. It's hundreds of feet wide and every available inch covered in fully armored soldiers. The glow of torches off their armor lighting the top of the wall like a strip of fire. He falls to the ground then, dropping through the air and rolling to his feet between lines of motionless soldiers. Not breaking stride he steps to the edge, stopping at the stone facade, never looking over. From his back he pulls two red swords each nearly 6 feet in length. The blades pulse a murky red, drinking in the light so convincingly the air around him dims.In that moment, the wall explodes. The front edge for miles shattering and into shrapnel and rock smoke. Screams answer screams down its entire length as thousands die and the sound of explosion rings through the valley. For a moment the world seems to hang in silence as the last |
The four-time world champion has endured a frustrating two years since swapping Red Bull for Ferrari and, without a victory in 2016, his season has also been marred by mistakes and collisions.
Vettel has been told he has to "earn" a new Ferrari contract and to focus on driving by Maurizio Arrivabene, with the Scuderia boss telling Italy's Sky F1 that "times have changed" since Michael Schumacher's spectacular spell.
Arrivabene: Vettel must 'earn' new Ferrari deal
And Brundle doubts Vettel, who has only won three races since his last title in 2013 and starts seventh at this weekend's Japanese GP due to a three-place grid penalty, will find his stunning Red Bull form again.
"I'm beginning to think Sebastian Vettel won't be in Formula 1 for the long haul," suggested Brundle. "He came so young, he broke so many records. I just watch him at work and he's lost his mojo."
Vettel's current Ferrari contract expires at the end of next season, with an extension prepared but by no means signed, and Arrivabene hinted Ferrari will not be focusing on any renewal until 2017.
"That was a choreographed interview, for a purpose, and the words were extremely strong there," Brundle said of Arrivabene's comments. "I imagine Vettel will react to that very badly. I think what they are trying to tell him is, you drive the car and we'll sort the team out."
Vettel's latest struggles were summed up by his first-corner crash in Malaysia last week, with the Italian media claiming the 29-year-old was 'in crisis'. Vettel has scored just 57 points since July's Austrian GP, compared to team-mate Kimi Raikkonen's 79.
The Formula 1 Gossip Column
There have also been suggestions that the German is trying too hard to replicate Schumacher's dynamic, when his countryman immersed himself in all things Ferrari both on and off the track and motivated the team.
Vettel claimed he had not seen his team boss's remarks when asked by the media after qualifying in Japan, but insisted "I know that there's nothing between us to sort out. We are trying to achieve the same thing".
He accepted he had not been at his best at times in 2016, but stressed his sole aim was to help Ferrari move forwards.
"We enjoy a very, very straightforward and honest relationship," he said. "As much as the team want to perform, I want to perform. I've had races this year where I didn't do so, I wasn't happy with myself because there was more on the table. It's been an up and down year but in the end I think the results we've had is fair and worthy given the pace that we've shown on different weekends.
"The main focus now is not looking at that too much [a new contract, the main focus as a team is to try and make progress until the end of this year and obviously we carry everything we learnt this year into next year."Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. 2012 May; 15(4): 559–571. doi: 10.1017/S146114571100037X PMCID: PMC3325502 PMID: 21396152 The ethics of elective psychopharmacology 1,2,3 and 1,2,3,4 Ahmed D. Mohamed 1Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, UK 2MRC/Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute (BCNI), Downing Street, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK 3The Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroethics, Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Find articles by Ahmed D. Mohamed Barbara J. Sahakian 1Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, UK 2MRC/Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute (BCNI), Downing Street, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK 3The Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroethics, Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 4Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA Find articles by Barbara J. Sahakian Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer 1Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, UK 2MRC/Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute (BCNI), Downing Street, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK 3The Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroethics, Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 4Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA Address for correspondence: Mr A. D. Mohamed, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK. Tel.: +44 (0)1223 767040 Fax: +44 (0)1223 336968 Email: ku.ca.mac@76mda This article is based on the plenary lecture at the CINP conference in Hong Kong (2010).. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use. Copyright © CINP and Cambridge University Press 2011 The online version of this article is published within an Open Access environment subject to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use. The online version of this article is published within an Open Access environment subject to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence < http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/>. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use.
Abstract Pharmacological cognitive enhancers (PCEs) are used to improve cognitive functions, such as attention, learning, memory and planning in patients with impairments in cognition resulting from traumatic brain injury (TBI) or from neuropsychiatric disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment, schizophrenia, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Moreover, PCEs have been shown to improve cognition in healthy volunteers with no psychiatric disorders. This article describes the rationale behind the need for their use in neuropsychiatric patients and illustrates how PCEs can ameliorate cognitive impairments, improve quality of life and wellbeing, and therefore reduce the economic burden associated with these disorders. We also describe evidence that PCEs are being used as cognitive enhancers by healthy people. Crucially, as the lifestyle use of these drugs becomes very popular in the healthy population, a final aim is to present an overview of the current and future neuroethical considerations of enhancing the healthy brain. As information regarding their actual use, benefits and harms in various healthy populations is currently lacking, we propose research that aims to obtain relevant empirical data, monitor the short- and long-term effectiveness and side-effects, and initiate accurate surveys to determine current patterns and quantity of usage of PCE drugs by healthy people. Furthermore, in order to instigate a dialogue between neuroethics and neuropsychopharmacology, we urge scientists to explore and communicate the social and ethical implications of their research to the public. Finally, we discuss and highlight other means of enhancing cognition in both patients and healthy adults, including education and physical exercise. Keywords: Atomoxetine, methylphenidate, modafinil, neuroethics, pharmacological cognitive enhancers
Pharmacological cognitive enhancers (PCEs) Cognitive impairment is a core deficit of a number of neuropsychiatric disorders (Goldberg & Green, 2002; Weickert et al. 2000) and drugs that improve facets of cognition such as attention, learning, memory and executive functions are known as PCEs (Morein-Zamir et al. 2008; Sahakian & Morein-Zamir, 2010). These drugs alter neurotransmitter modulation of cognition leading to improvements in cognitive deficits in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) (Teitelman, 2001), depression (Vaishnavi et al. 2006), addiction (Shearer & Rodgers, 2009), multiple sclerosis (Kraft & Bowen, 2005; Zifko et al. 2002), Parkinson's disease (Nieves & Lang, 2002), and those suffering from Alzheimer's disease (AD), schizophrenia, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The goal for their use is to ameliorate impaired functional outcomes. There is substantial opportunity for meeting the challenge of improving cognition and mental wellbeing in those with mental health problems and for reducing substantially the factors that contribute to the loss of mental, social and economic capital (Beddington et al. 2008). A good illustration is AD, which is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a decline in cognitive and behavioural functioning. It is the commonest cause of dementia and one of the most disabling and burdensome health conditions worldwide (Ferri et al. 2005). There are currently 820 000 people with dementia in the UK, which costs £23 billion per year (Alzheimer's Society, 2007). Globally, if no effective prevention strategies or neuroprotective medications are developed, 81.1 million people will suffer from dementia by 2040 (Ferri et al. 2005). However, a treatment that would reduce severe cognitive impairment in older people by just 1% a year would cancel out all estimated increases in the long-term care costs due to ageing population (Comas-Herrera et al. 2007). Cognitive enhancers hold significant benefits in ameliorating these cognitive impairments in AD and countering these economic and social burdens (Alzheimer's Research Trust, 2010; Kaduszkiewicz et al. 2005). For example, cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEI), such as donepezil, that inhibit centrally active acetylcholinesterase (AchE) and boost acetylcholine in the brain, compensate for the degeneration of neurons in the neocortex that regulate attention and memory (Stahl, 2009), and are effective in the treatment of mild and moderate AD (Eagger et al. 1991a, b; NICE, 2010). Selective ChEIs release growth factors, interfere with amyloid deposition, or modulate nicotinic receptors (Pepeu & Giovannini, 2009; Stahl, 2009) while future drugs may exert their beneficial effects by activating various neurotransmitters including noradrenaline (NA), dopamine (DA), serotonin (5-HT), GABA and glutamate (Keowkase et al. 2010). Furthermore, drugs that activate synaptic NMDA receptors work synergistically with AMPA receptors to produce long-lasting changes in the synaptic functioning and enable the encoding of new memories. This promotes the phosphorylation of CREB that slows down the pathological changes observed in AD (Snyder et al. 2005). However, these drugs only minimize the neural damage caused by glutamate's neurotoxic effects and evidence is needed of improved episodic memory in AD patients. Importantly, some drugs have significant side-effects. For example, donepezil is contra-indicated for people with liver problems (Mount & Downton, 2006) while others have modest clinical efficacy in early (Lanctot et al. 2003) and advanced stages (Alzheimer's Association, 2005). Furthermore, about 30–40% of patients with AD may not respond to ChEI, and approximately 29% of patients treated with ChEI leave clinical trials because of adverse events (Birks, 2006). Therefore, it is important to develop novel and effective neuroprotective agents that selectively target the underlying neuropathology associated with amnestic mild cognitive impairment and AD. Developing these drugs could be advantageous to the individual and to society, particularly given the significant ageing population in the UK and the USA. It is not within the scope of this review to cover in detail the range and action of all the current and novel PCEs and therefore the reader is referred to Stahl (2009) and The Academy of Medical Sciences (2008). Notwithstanding, PCEs might also improve the quality of life in patients with TBI, which is the most common cause of disability in young people (Colantonio et al. 2010; Norup et al. 2010). For example, survivors of TBI often suffer from chronic cognitive deficits (Salmond et al. 2005, 2006) in areas such as sustained attention and learning which implicate impaired cholinergic function (Polo et al. 2002; Salmond & Sahakian, 2005). Furthermore, voxel-based morphometry studies reveal structurally reduced grey-matter density and changes in hippocampus and neocortex in TBI patients. This is further consistent with the cholinergic dysfunction account that commonly contributes to the development of TBI-induced cognitive impairments (Salmond et al. 2005). Consequently, the use of ChEIs that increase cholinergic function may be of benefit to TBI patients (Tenovuo et al. 2009). However, whether PCEs improve apathy, which is often considerably disabling and detrimental to rehabilitative efforts in TBI patients, needs to be determined in future research (Keenan et al. 2005; Padala et al. 2007). Equally, patients with schizophrenia can also benefit from PCEs through improvements in executive functions (Barnett et al. 2010). Schizophrenia is a complex, lifelong disorder that significantly impairs cognitive and motivational function in approximately 1% of the world's population. Although psychotic symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions, can be managed with antipsychotic treatment (Canuso et al. 2009), patients continue to suffer dysfunctions in cognition, affect and motivation, which account for substantial decrements in social and occupational functioning (Harvey et al. 2007; Matza et al. 2006; Velligan et al. 2006). Specifically, evidence indicates that these patients are substantially impaired in a wide range of neuropsychological task performances (Heinrichs & Zakzanis, 1998; Reichenberg & Harvey, 2007), and these impairments often impede everyday function and quality of life for many patients (Morein-Zamir et al. 2007). PCEs may prove beneficial as an add-on to antipsychotic medication, as it has been suggested that, in patients with schizophrenia, even small improvements in cognitive functions, such as enhancing the ability to adapt efficiently to new situations and to plan effectively, could help them make the transition to independent living (Altamura & Glick, 2010; Davison & Keefe, 1995). Enhancing patients’ cognition will not only improve their quality of life, but will also enable them to access jobs and integrate with society. In consequence, governments are relieved from the cost burden of ongoing care for these patients (Nicholl et al. 2010). In keeping with this, we have shown that PCE drugs improve cognitive performance in patients with schizophrenia (Barnett et al. 2010), and that modafinil (Provigil®), a wake-promoting drug licensed for narcolepsy, can improve cognitive flexibility as measured by extra-dimensional attentional set-shifting in patients with chronic schizophrenia (Turner et al. 2004a). Recently, modafinil has been shown to enhance some aspects of social cognition such as emotional facial recognition in patients with first episode of psychosis (Scoriels et al. 2010). However, many of the studies cited above are acute proof of concept studies and therefore one must be cautious about inferred long-term clinical significance, which still requires confirmation in experimental studies. Nevertheless, children with ADHD can benefit from PCEs. ADHD is a heritable and disabling disorder characterized by core cognitive and behavioural symptoms of impulsivity, hyperactivity, and inattention. It is the most prevalent neuropsychiatric childhood disorder which affects around 3–7% of children worldwide (APA, 2000; Polanczyk et al. 2007). Structural abnormalities in fronto-striato-circuitry (Durston et al. 2003) and dysfunction in catecholamine neurotransmission, specifically in NA and DA pathways in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) have been implicated in ADHD (Yang et al. 2007). This leads to inefficient information processing and hypo-activation in the frontal lobes (Stahl, 2008). As a result, ADHD patients have significant impairments in performing working memory (WM) and executive function tasks (Biederman et al. 2007; Chamberlain et al. 2007; Dowson et al. 2004). However, if these impairments are not treated early, they can lead to significant negative life events such as drop out from education, job dismissal, criminal activities, substance abuse, and driving accidents (Barkley, 2006). PCEs such as methylphenidate (Ritalin®) (Dodds et al. 2008), selective NA reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) atomoxetine (Strattera®) (Chamberlain et al. 2007; Donnelly et al. 2009) and modafinil (Turner et al. 2003), increase DA and NA levels in the PFC (Mehta et al. 2004; Stahl, 2009; Wilens, 2006) and alleviate cognitive impairments in ADHD patients (DeVito et al. 2008; Turner et al. 2004b). Indeed, studies in our laboratory that use double-blind placebo-controlled designs showed that methylphenidate improves WM, cognitive flexibility, attention and response inhibition in both children and adults with ADHD (DeVito et al. 2008; Turner et al. 2004b). For example, DeVito et al. (2008) used the Cambridge Gambling Task, a test of decision making and risk taking, and showed that a single 0.5 mg/kg dose of methylphenidate reduced large bets on this task in ADHD boys, who performed similarly to healthy boys without medication. In consequence, PCEs can effectively improve core symptoms, abnormal behaviours, self-esteem, cognition, social and family function in ADHD patients (Sahakian & Morein-Zamir, 2007). However, methylphenidate is successful in treating only about 60–70% of ADHD children, meaning that 30% of patients with ADHD either do not respond to treatment or the drug causes adverse side-effects, such as headache, stomach pain, loss of appetite, trouble sleeping, dizziness and nausea, which precludes the use of methylphenidate. Atomoxetine may be a more acceptable treatment due to its low abuse liability and minimal adverse side-effects (Heil et al. 2002). Still, unlike methylphenidate which improves spatial WM (SWM), sustained attention, and response time in ADHD patients and healthy volunteers (Elliott et al. 1997; Turner et al. 2004b), atomoxetine only improves response inhibition possibly due to its selective NA modulation (Chamberlain et al. 2006, 2007), and is likely to be less effective in treating the range of cognitive deficits associated with ADHD. Therefore, there is a need for medication with improved efficacy and reduced side-effects for ADHD. Furthermore, studies employing the same methodology show that modafinil also significantly improves short-term memory span, visual memory, spatial planning, and stop-signal motor inhibition in ADHD adults (Turner et al. 2004b). These improvements are consistent with randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trials with modafinil that demonstrate symptom reduction in ADHD children and adolescents (Biederman et al. 2005, 2006; Greenhill et al. 2006; Swanson et al. 2006). Hence, in psychiatry ethics, developing novel PCEs that improve the wellbeing and quality of life for these patients meets the ‘right to receive effective treatment that would offer them a reasonable opportunity to improve their mental condition’ (Bloch & Green, 2008, p. 490).
Pharmacogenomics Another important argument for developing novel PCEs relates to the rise of pharmacogenomics and individualized medicine that aim to combat neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. Pharmacogenomics is the discipline behind how genes influence the body's response to drugs. There is growing evidence that key gene variants can change activity within specific neuronal circuits and, as a result, influence particular cognitive-affective phenomena. For example, the catecholamine-O-methyltrasferase (COMT) gene has been shown to affect responses to COMT inhibitors and to predict WM performance whereas the Val108/158 polymorphism exerts a significant effect on enzyme activity and affects DA-regulated PFC activity during WM tasks, and also modifies the effect of dopaminergic drugs (e.g. the COMT enzyme inhibitor tolcapone) in the PFC (Diaz-Asper et al. 2008; Goldberg et al. 2003). Similarly, the therapeutic response in AD appears to be genotype-specific, with APOE-4/4 carriers being the worst responders to conventional treatments (Cacabelos, 2005). However, although behavioural phenotypes and action of PCEs are generally complex (Diaz-Asper et al. 2006), both reflecting the action of multiple genes and neurotransmitters respectively, it is possible that using pharmacogenomics to develop targeted PCEs for particular subgroups and individual responsiveness will lead to greater efficacy and reduced side-effects.
PCEs improve cognition in healthy individuals PCEs also improve cognition in non-sleep-deprived healthy adults. For example, Turner et al. (2003) showed that a single oral dose of modafinil (100 mg or 200 mg) significantly improved performance on tests of digit span, visual pattern recognition memory, spatial planning, and stop signal reaction time (SSRT) task, or response inhibition, in healthy volunteers. Modafinil also improved the response time in tests of decision making, delayed matching to sample, and spatial planning (Müller et al. 2004). More recently, it improved accuracy in an attention-shifting task, without reaction time trade-off (Marchant et al. 2009), especially when participants’ resources were most challenged. Consistent with this, Müller et al. (2004) demonstrated that modafinil significantly reduced error rates in a long-delay visuo-spatial task and manipulation conditions, without speed-accuracy trade-off. Similarly, an acute dose of atomoxetine can improve response inhibition in healthy adults. Chamberlain et al. (2009) used functional magnetic resonance imaging and examined the brain mechanism by which atomoxetine exerts its cognitive enhancing effects in healthy volunteers. They found that atomoxetine led to increased activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus (RIFG) when participants attempted to inhibit their responses in the SSRT task. The RIFG has previously been shown to be activated during inhibitory motor control (Aron et al. 2003). It is thought that atomoxetine improves response inhibition via noradrenergic mechanisms. In contrast, methylphenidate has been shown to enhance SWM performance in healthy adults (Elliott et al. 1997). In a study employing sophisticated neuropsychological tests and brain-imaging measures (see Supplementary online material), Mehta et al. (2000) showed that methylphenidate improves both performance and efficiency in the SWM neural network, which includes the dorsolateral PFC and posterior parietal cortex in healthy volunteers (Owen et al. 1996). These areas have been significantly associated with WM and executive functions (Robbins et al. 2000). Moreover, studies using positron emission tomography and contrasting [11C]raclopride binding, with the participants either on or off methylphenidate, have further indicated that methylphenidate influences dopaminergic function, particularly in the striatum (Wang et al. 1999). Other DA agonists improve WM and performance of executive tasks in healthy individuals (Mehta & Riedel, 2006; Roesch-Ely et al. 2005). There is evidence for enhancement of other forms of memory by PCEs. For example, evidence from healthy volunteers show that ampakine CX516 and ChEIs also lead to moderate improvements in recall and short-term memory (Wezenberg et al. 2007). In particular, pilots who took donepezil just before learning specific manoeuvres in a flight simulator outperformed a control group on tests of performance conducted 1 month later (Yesavage et al. 2002). However, the mechanism of action for improvement in attention, memory and executive function of PCEs still remains to be determined in many cases. For example, to exert its cognitive enhancing effects, modafinil has been shown to elevate numerous neurotransmitters including NA, DA and glutamate (Minzenberg & Carter, 2008; Volkow et al. 2009).
Neurotransmitter modulation of cognition Evidently, as these improvements relate to neurotransmitter modulation and function (Iversen et al. 2009), the effects of some PCEs might follow the Yerkes–Dodson law, which explains the relationship between arousal and performance. This principle might be translated to several neurotransmitter systems where cognitive function often follows an inverted U-shaped curve, with deviations from the optimal level in either direction producing sub-optimal performance (Robbins & Sahakian, 1979; Robinson & Sahakian, 2009). For instance, low levels of NA release engage α 2 -adrenergic receptors and improve executive function whereas higher levels of NA release engage α 1 -adrenergic receptors which cause significant stress in humans and animals (Arnsten, 2000; Finlay et al. 1995) and impair prefrontal functionality (Ramos & Arnsten, 2007). A similar U-inverted relationship is evidenced between DA and WM function (Vijayraghavan et al. 2007) as both marked increases and decreases of DA in the PFC have been associated with sub-optimal performance (Cools et al. 2003; Iversen, 2001, p. 31). Consistent with this hypothesis, methylphenidate improves cognitive performance in individuals with greater impairment (Konrad et al. 2004; Mehta et al. 2000) while guanfacine (Tenex®), an α 2 -adrenergic receptor agonist, has beneficial effects on WM and attentional functions in patients with ADHD, but does not improve WM or executive functions in healthy male volunteers (Müller et al. 2005). Thus, the effects of pharmacological substances on cognition are complex as cognition is a multifaceted construct encompassing numerous mental functions including both cold cognition (such as attention, planning, problem solving, and response inhibition) and hot cognition (such as risky decision making; Roiser et al. 2006). For instance, PCEs may further modulate important human virtues such as creativity. A recent study by Farah et al. (2009) showed that the mixed amphetamine salts, adderall, licensed for the treatment of ADHD, enhanced performance on convergent tasks of creativity for lower-performing individuals and either impaired or did not change it for higher-performing individuals. These results on improvement and impairment on higher cognitive function with PCEs raises the issue of what we mean by a general term ‘enhancement’. As healthy adults fall into a wide spectrum of normality, some individuals may be improved by a PCE drug while others remain unchanged or are even impaired (Randall et al. 2005; Robbins & Sahakian, 1979). Furthermore, there is as yet no robust empirical research to demonstrate that PCEs have effects on divergent thinking in healthy people.
Lifestyle use of PCEs by healthy individuals The above results demonstrate the potential of PCEs to enhance certain cognitive domains in healthy adults. Therefore, attitudes towards their use by the general population need to be considered. In the next section, we focus our discussion on current and future trends of the use of PCEs by healthy people. In the past few years there has been an unprecedented rise in the use of PCEs among healthy individuals for cognitive enhancement. Cognitive enhancement can be defined as the amplification or extension of core capacities of the mind through improvement or augmentation of internal and external information processing systems (Bostrom & Roache, unpublished data). Healthy university students (Desantis & Hane, 2010) and academics (Sahakian & Morein-Zamir, 2007) have been using PCEs to improve their cognitive function. More specifically, students are taking PCEs to improve academic performance (Rabiner et al. 2009) and are framing their actions as both physically harmless and morally acceptable (Desantis & Hane, 2010). For example, in the USA, 16% of college students (Babcock & Byrne, 2000) and 8% of undergraduates reported having illicitly obtained and used prescription stimulants (Hall et al. 2005; Lord et al. 2009; Teter et al. 2005). Furthermore, a 2005 survey by the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA, 2005) found that 2.5% of 13- to 14-yr-olds, 3.4% of 15- to 16-yr-olds and 5.1% of 17- to 18-yr-olds abused methylphenidate. In 2009, the figures for these groups were 1.8%, 3.6% and 2.1%, respectively (NIDA, 2009). Presumably, these young people are obtaining stimulant drugs from others who have prescriptions or purchasing them via the internet or street dealers. Currently, the global market share of modafinil is more than US$700 million per year (Norman & Berger, 2008). Consistent with Greely's (2006) claim, that healthy physicians on call, students and academics are increasingly using PCEs to enhance cognitive abilities, it is estimated that around 90% of modafinil is predominantly used off-label by healthy, non-sleep-deprived individuals (Baranski et al. 2004; Vastag, 2004). In contrast, beta-blockers that are prescribed to reduce anxiety in clinical patients have been used by musicians to dampen physiological tremors in order to improve their performances on stage (Tindal, 2004). In the UK, a newspaper survey of 1000 students showed that 1 in 10 were taking prescription drugs for cognitive enhancement (Lennard, 2009). In England, prescription rates of stimulants have been rising steadily from 220000 in 1998 to 418300 in 2004 (Niyadurupola, 2008). In 2008, the journal Nature conducted a poll about the use of PCEs by healthy academics, in which 1400 scientists from 60 different countries responded (Maher, 2008). One in five respondents used drugs for cognitive enhancement, with 52% of them obtaining the drug by prescription, while 34% obtained the drug via the internet and 14% through their pharmacy. The most popular drug was methylphenidate, with 62% of users; 44% reported taking modafinil mainly to improve concentration, and 15% reported taking beta-blockers for anxiety. Of all respondents, 96% thought that people with neuropsychiatric disorders should be given cognitive enhancing drugs. In contrast, 86% of respondents thought that healthy children under the age of 16 yr should be restricted from taking PCE drugs. Although some of these data were not rigorously collected, they nonetheless suggest the increased use of PCEs among healthy individuals. Their widespread use is not surprising given that small percentage increments in performance can lead to significant improvements in functional outcome. Indeed, a 10% improvement in memory score could lead to an improvement in an A-level grade or degree class (Academy of Medical Sciences, 2008, p. 150).
Neuroethical issues in cognitive enhancement Nevertheless, the increase in lifestyle use of PCEs by healthy people raises numerous ethical issues that inform the growing field of neuroethics. Neuroethics is the study of the ethical, legal and social questions that arise when scientific findings about the brain are carried into medical practice, legal interpretations and health and social policy (Marcus, 2002). As such, modifying our inherent self, character and individuality through PCE drugs has important implications for society. For these reasons, their lifestyle use has prompted a significant interest both in the media and the public (Coveney et al. 2009; Stix, 2009). There is a concern that PCEs will threaten our notion of personhood and will dampen essential characteristics of what it means to be human (Farah et al. 2004; President's Council on Bioethics, 2003). As a consequence, enhancing the brain and higher cognitive processes demands strong ethical considerations and a practical policy framework. To address this, we have argued elsewhere that before PCE drugs are prescribed to healthy people, their long-term safety, side-effects and their effectiveness must be tested to provide important facts necessary for further decision making about their regulation (Sahakian & Morein-Zamir, 2010). Moreover, we have engaged with the media about the need to establish regulations for the use of PCE drugs by healthy people (Mohamed & Sahakian, 2010). In Nature, we emphasized the need to ensure their safe use by healthy people (Greely et al. 2008) while in Science we advocated that ethical considerations in regard to societal issues associated with the use of PCEs by healthy people should be part of neuroethical training within university neuroscience programmes (Sahakian & Morein-Zamir, 2009). But, what are the advantages and disadvantages of healthy people using PCEs? Since PCEs improve those with low cognitive performance (Robbins & Sahakian, 1979), it might be possible to mitigate the adverse environmental effects, such as poverty, on the brain and cognition through their use. This might contribute to removing disparity in society. It may also be that some ‘healthy’ people actually have undiagnosed attentional or other problems and are actually self-medicating with drugs such as ritalin. Furthermore, even healthy adults, who normally function well, are not always performing optimally due to sleep deprivation, jet lag or other stressors, and some might need to perform at their best possible level on every occasion (e.g. surgeons, air traffic controllers). In addition, PCEs might enable us to perform better in other competitive or life threatening situations. For instance, psychostimulants have been employed to boost cognition in soldiers in combat (Caldwell et al. 2000; Moran et al. 2007; Russo et al. 2008). PCEs have also been demonstrated to improve performance in shift workers (Ballon & Feifel, 2006), pilots (Caldwell, 2001) and school pupils with ADHD (Trout et al. 2007). Recently, the US Defence Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA, 2007) introduced the Augmented Cognition Programme to enhance soldiers’ memory and cognition through technology when under conditions of interrupted sleep and stress. However, if proven to be safe, PCEs may be preferred for cost-effectiveness when compared to other methods of enhancement such as expensive technology. In contrast, the disadvantages of using PCEs include the potential harms and long-term side-effects that they might have in healthy people, particularly in adolescents where the brain is still in development. There are strong safety concerns, especially in the absence of informative data, for healthy individuals as the risk of adverse side-effects might outweigh the beneficial effects of PCE drugs. The abuse liability of some of the PCEs such as methylphenidate is also a concern. A recent study showed that modafinil blocked DA transporters and increased DA in the caudate, putamen and nucleus accumbens in healthy human brain (Volkow et al. 2009), which are areas in a network known to be involved in drug-seeking behaviour and addiction (Volkow & Li, 2004). This indicates the need for awareness about the risks involved in PCE use among healthy people and shows that a full ethical consideration of their use is required. To date, there have been no randomized psychopharmacological trials investigating the long-term effects of PCE drugs on healthy people. There is still a further safety concern about the risks of purchasing substances advertised as PCEs over the internet (Forman et al. 2006a, b). As these drugs are not prescribed by a qualified doctor, they might not be suitable for some people. For instance, contra-indications of atomoxetine and modafinil include heart problems and hepatic impairments (British National Formulary, 2010). Additionally, if one is taking other medication there might be serious drug–drug interactions which could be dangerous in some cases. With regard to personal autonomy, there are ethical concerns about healthy people being coerced or even forced into using a PCE. Society might force people to take psychoactive agents in order to perform better or to be in a particular mental state. For example, authorities in the USA ordered a mentally ill inmate in criminal proceedings to take psychotropic medication to improve his competence to stand trial and be executed (Boire & Ruiz-Sierra, 2003; Randall, 2004). There is also a considerable potential for indirect coercion resulting from a highly demanding 24/7 society where people feel compelled to take PCEs in order to meet social or workplace demands. Healthy people may resort to self-medication for inadequate sleep or over-exertion at work. For example, 33% of respondents in Maher's (2008) poll indicated that they would feel pressure to give PCE drugs to their children if other children at school were taking them. However, the use of PCEs to enhance cognition is one solution to improving the individual and society. Indeed, we have argued elsewhere that there are other methods of boosting cognition, including education and exercise (Sahakian & Morein-Zamir, 2010). For instance, physical exercise can improve learning and memory (Creer et al. 2010; Hillman et al |
skeptics, rationalists, apistevists, etc. (Whom I will attempt to speak for here) and the ‘make-believers’ whom he represents in the context of this post. He suggested that ‘we’ likely assume that all Christians are just simple-minded folk. While that is grotesquely true way too often, (and there is even a growing body of clinical research to support that!) it is not always the case. It usually comes down to a question not of intellect, but of intellectual honesty. Whether you have an emotional ‘need-to-believe’ in some irrationally preconceived notion, and whether that overrides your desire to understand whatever the truth really is, regardless what it might turn out to be.
Now I would say that any honest earnest quest for truth must begin with the abandonment of faith. Are you prepared to lie in order to maintain your self-induced delusion? Or are you bold enough to question your own convictions and even test them to find out if they’re true, and discard them if they are not? That’s the rift. That’s the difference between us.
Now this person was promoting an upcoming conference called ‘Reasonable Faith in an Uncertain World‘. (sigh) Where do I begin just with that?
1. There is nothing reasonable about faith. Those two words mean completely opposite things. Putting them together creates an oxymoron, That’s why William Lyin’ Craig thought it would make a clever book title. Faith is an unreasonable conviction which is assumed without reason and defended against all reason. That’s why faith is the most dishonest position it is possible to have. It really is!
Having reason means that you’re amenable to reason, and that you can be reasoned with, because your position is based on logic and evidence [reasons] instead of faith. With evidence, you neither require nor desire faith, and visa versa. In a reasonable perspective, the truth is what the facts are, and truth becomes paramount. Thus we do not have any a-priori assumed conclusion which we’re predetermined to defend; we are free to follow the evidence in whichever direction makes the most sense. It doesn’t matter what you believe; all that matters is why you believe it, and how accurate you can show your beliefs to be. Can you show there is any truth to it? Guess how I’ll answer that question.
2. From what I understand from willful believers, their perspective is wholly opposite of ours, because however confident they pretend to be matters more than whether they actually know what they’re talking about. That’s why they assert as fact that which is not evidently true, and that’s why attest the strength of their conviction without justification from any defensible data. They see actual factual truth as irrelevant. There need not be any measurable truth in anything they ever claim, and in fact there isn’t. No religion out there can show that their baseless assertions are correct at all, much less whether they are any more so than all the other religions.
Thus everything they say is completely empty to us. Unsupported assertions of impossible absurdities are indistinguishable from the illusions of delusion, and no one should believe anything that requires faith. Because faith requires that we believe without question, without reservation, without reason. That is irrational, foolish; that’s what a fool is. Your Bible got it wrong. Any assertion that requires faith should be rejected for that reason.
We of course have a prerequisite mandate that we cannot honestly state as fact that which is not actually factual. That means we have to be able to prove that it really is true by some sort of objective verification. We have to have multiple lines of evidence independently indicating only one conclusion over any other before we can say that anything is actually true. We can’t even say that something is probably true unless we already have the data indicating that probability. Otherwise we could only say that we believe X to be true, but we can’t say that we know it is. If you can’t show it, you don’t know it. If we can’t verify your claims to any degree at all, by any means whatsoever, then it is a fact that you cannot possibly know what you only think you know.
Having no reason to believe something is a good reason not to believe it. There is no way to be certain of anything if you cannot demonstrate or verify it objectively. If you can’t show that anything you say is certainly true, then it is meaningless. And in the case of Christian claims, it would still be meaningless even if it was true, but that’s a topic of deeper conversation than our subject is ready for.
We have to reject all the logical fallacies on which religious beliefs depend. We have adhere to the rules of science. So we can disprove a positive claim, and the Bible makes many claims that have been conclusively disproved, the flood, the tower of Babel, the Exodus, and so on …and on, and on. But we needn’t bother trying to prove a negative claim -like ‘there is no god’. In science, there is only what is supported by evidence and what is not supported. Whatever is not supported by evidence doesn’t yet warrant serious consideration. Come back when you have something of substance. These are some of the rules of logic to which we must adhere. For example:
“Positive claims require positive evidence;
extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”.
-Carl Sagan
“What can be asserted without evidence
can be dismissed without evidence.”
-Christopher Hitchens
This is an example of the ‘minds’ who speak for science, for reason over faith. The person who’s video I am addressing said he was excited about the ‘minds’ that will be speaking at that upcoming conference; he said they were brilliant. But these showmen make the most extraordinary claims, unsupported by any evidence whatsoever, and consistently shift the burden of proof when they’re called out on that. Such people represent less ability to ‘dazzle with brilliance‘ than they do to ‘baffle with bullshit‘.
The person I’m writing to said these speakers have answers to important questions, specific ones which he listed in his video. I have answered those questions below, just for the sake of consideration / comparison.
Q: Why does God allow evil? A: Because God is evil.
The supposedly sacred fables in the Bible describe God as creating evil intentionally, of consorting with evil, being compelled by evil, and of gambling with the devil -with human suffering as the desired outcome. In fact, God is depicted as being almost entirely evil himself, throughout the entire cluster of repugnant horror stories. The Bible is NOT the ‘word of God’, nor could it be, since it is dead wrong about damned near everything back to front. It is an obviously internally conflicted compilation conceived by ignorant and bigoted savages attempting to justify slavery, genocide, sexism, racism, and other inhuman atrocities. Consequently the book itself is evil in that it endorses everything that evil is.
Q: Is there evidence for the resurrection? A: No.
There is strong inference that Jesus is at least a legendary character -if not entirely mythical, (and plagiarized from previous polytheism), yet he still failed to fulfill any of the Jewish prophesies of the coming Messiah. Then there are the notably epic events of his death, like the official attention from multiple heads of state, hours of global darkness, undead saints in downtown Judea; none of which was remembered or recorded by any historian of that time. Considering all that, and the fact that there was never any evidence that he ever even lived in the first place, then logically there can be no evidence of him having lived …again.
Q: Does God exist? A: No.
(a) God is defined by his miraculous nature, defying the laws of physics. Thus he is physically impossible by definition. (b) God is defined as existing outside our reality rather than within it, thus he does not exist in reality, again by definition. (c) God evidently does not exist, since there is no evidence to indicate any such thing, and (d) there is plenty of evidence to show that the whole idea was contrived out of earlier, equally erroneous theologies, and adapted by superstitious primitives.
Q: Is scripture reliable? A: No.
This is an especially important point, because this answer would still be no, regardless how one answers the preceding question. Even if some -or all- of the legends in that tome were actually true, the Bible still wouldn’t be reliable on its own without outside verification. Human journalism never has been nor will be. But even if God exists, and he wrote the book himself, (in which case it would be completely different) the authority of the author is not enough. It would still require outside verification from independent evidence, and that is just not the case.
Where you were born usually determines whatever religion you embrace. And the more men speculate, the more their religions divide into different sects, denominations, cults and so on, continuously dividing and contradicting each other, because it is the blind leading the blind. But if you give up whatever faith and pursue evidence instead, then it doesn’t matter what religion you came from, you’re going to find yourself zeroing in on the same one-and-only evident reality as everyone else in the global scientific community. That is the truth of nature and the nature of truth.
There, I saved you a trip. Now you don’t have to go to that oxymoronic conference where baffling bullshitters will tell you just what you want to hear, but who will never tell you the truth, nothing that any of them can honestly say they actually know, or that is even possible, much less rational, or otherwise logical, nor anything important to the ‘faith’ which can be proven to be true.Welcome Jochen Renz to the IOTA Foundation
David Sønstebø Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jun 11, 2017
Jochen Renz was born and raised in Stuttgart, Germany, the birthplace of the car and home to world leading automotive players. Growing up, Joe expected to work for a local automotive company as an electronics engineer one day. Instead, he ended up working for an enterprise application startup that was later acquired by Computer Associates (CA Technologies).
As part of an international career that lead him to Geneva, Sydney, Frankfurt, New York, London and Chicago, Joe has held several international positions at Computer Associates (CA Technologies), including COO of European Operations. For the last 3 years Joe has been part of the thriving innovation ecosystem in his new hometown of Chicago. Joe’s passion is the digital transformation of smart mobility and transportation, allowing him to pursue his passion for cars and IT. Joe brings an extensive network across the innovation ecosystem of New Mobility that spans hundreds of startups, corporations across multiple industries, incubators / accelerators, academia and the investor community.
He has served as a mentor at Techstars Mobility Detroit, Microsoft Accelerator, 1871 and many more. He is also an angel investor and advisor to several startups. In a world where technology reshapes mobility and transportation, Joe brings a rich set of experiences and an extensive network to the IOTA Foundation.
On being part of IOTA
I am excited about the opportunities that emerge with the digital transformation of mobility and transportation. Distributed ledger technologies have a bright future in a world of connected and autonomous vehicles, electric and shared mobility as well as smarter cities and intelligent infrastructure. My hometown Chicago and the Midwest combine a highly diverse economy grounded in tangible values with a strong software talent pool. We look forward to shaping the next generation Internet and the opportunities it presents to the New Mobility World TM, the region and the world.
We very happy to have Joe join the IOTA Foundation. He will play a key role in evangelizing distributed ledger technologies and its use cases in smart mobility and transportation globally. Joe’s extensive network will help evangelize distributed ledger technologies and IOTA in Chicago, Illinois and the broader Midwestern United States. Everyone give him a warm welcome!Exclusive: Roberto Orci Talks Ender’s Game Sequels
Roberto Orci, of the Orci and Kurtzman duo, was at the Television Critics Panel for the El Rey Network, Robert Rodriguez’s new TV channel. Orci developed the series “Matador” for El Rey and I scored a one on one interview with him after the session. Of course I brought it around to movie talk as well.
Orci and Kurtzman were producers of Ender’s Game, Gavin Hood’s adaptation of the Orson Scott Card novel. The movie was successful, but even Orci didn’t know if it was successful enough for a sequel. More importantly, would that sequel be Card’s follow-up book Speaker for the Dead?
“They have rights to certain of the books,” Orci said. “I’m not sure which ones, and it’s two companies so I’m not sure who controls it.”
So the sequel could be another book in the Ender series, but in a different order. Card did write Ender in Exile in 2008, long after Speaker, Xenocide and Children of the Mind. A War of Gifts takes place during Ender’s time in Battle School. Orci had another promising option too.
“Or it could be potentially original because in Speaker for the Dead you pick him up when he’s already a man. There might be an in between step if that happens.”
Speaker does jump ahead into Ender’s adulthood, so an original sequel would give them the option of sticking with the cast of Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld and Abigail Breslin.
“That’s why I think the rights that they worked out is it could either be one of the books or it could be original or a mix so that you can do what you need to do for a movie,” Orci said.
I also fished for some Star Trek 3 news, even going so far as to compliment Orci on the balls it took to do The Wrath of Khan as Star Trek Into Darkness. (See my review for that explanation.) If, perhaps, that got classic Trek out of their system, would Orci and his cowriters focus on an original Trek story next time or stay in the classic Trek world?
“Little bit of both,” Orci said. “Part of the fun of the freedom that we bought ourselves is that you can harmonize with canon and you can echo what’s come before, so you can do it in a new way.”
When it came to Venom, Orci dodged the shit out of my questions, spinning it back to his TV experience. I did ask about his approach to building a world like Marvel did with their Paramount/Disney properties.
“To take it back to TV, my first job with Alex ever was TV. That’s where we learned the idea of having a core team of people you trust, of partners that care about the same things and create an interesting universe. That’s what you do in television. That’s what we’re doing here. You’re always writing a show, you’re in preproduction on a show, you’re shooting a show, you’re in post production on a show and you’re airing a show. It’s all got to be consistent. When we broached the subject with the idea of let’s go back to the model of having a group of people who care who can check in with each other who can be great together and then each of them handles their episode, that was a great thing to get a nice response to that.”
We’ll have more on Ender’s Game II: Ender Enderer after we beat the next level of this Mind Game.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and The Shelf Space Awards. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.Biggest Debate Loser=> FOX News… Twitter Rips FOX and Megyn Kelly …Update: Liberal Media Praises FOX for Attacks on GOP
The start of the debate was complete chaos.
It was so unorganized and uncomfortable. It was embarrassing.
Then the FOX hosts ruined it with their gotcha questions and obvious bias.
This was a big fail for FOX News.
Glenn Reynolds agrees:
What a sad display.
Megyn Kelly got pummeled on Twitter:
I'm super disappointed in @megynkelly. You came a Trump with bias. I've always found you more professional than tonight. — Jennifer Hand (@TravelByJenn) August 7, 2015
@megynkelly @FrankLuntz @realDonaldTrump megyn or bias against trump was a disgrace tonight. I hope I never see your face on a debate ever — Jnovs (@jnovs9) August 7, 2015
the training of Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace for the GOP debate was brought to you by Candy Crowley AND by the letter "B" for BIAS — Christine (@BUcrimlaw) August 7, 2015
I think#megynkelly&#FoxDebate R damn bias! Trying 2 get everyone 2 attack @realDonaldTrump.Prepare 4 his response! https://t.co/v855XgXgSm — Tanya Mitchell (@Sisters4everT) August 7, 2015
UPDATE: If there’s any doubt that Megyn Kelly, Bret Baier and FOX News missed the mark – The New York Times praised FOX moderators for relentless attacks on Trump and the GOP candidates.
Shame on you, FOX!ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Diplomatic efforts intensified on Tuesday to solve a crisis in Syria’s opposition which threatens to derail a planned peace conference and rob the Islamist-dominated alliance of international support.
Demonstrators wave Syrian opposition flags during a protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad at the courtyard of Fatih mosque in Istanbul May 24, 2013. REUTERS/Murad Sezer
After six days of talks in Istanbul, the 60-member Syrian National Coalition has failed to agree on the wider involvement of a liberal opposition bloc, to the dismay of Western and some Arab backers keen to reduce the influence of Islamists.
More than two years after the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began, the disarray raises questions about the opposition’s ability to agree any sort of inclusive transitional government and could strengthen Assad’s hand ahead of a U.S. and Russian-backed peace conference planned for the coming weeks.
It also comes as Assad’s forces regain ground inside Syria, with fighting raging around the strategic border town of Qusair and the capital Damascus in recent days, and as Western nations remain divided on supplying arms to the rebels.
Russia and the United States are trying to bring Assad’s representatives and the opposition together at a conference in mid-June in Geneva, the first serious diplomatic effort in nearly a year to end a war which has killed more than 80,000.
Syria’s government has said it will attend, but the fractious opposition has not yet committed, potentially a major embarrassment for Washington and the alliance’s other backers.
Senior representatives from Qatar, a major player behind the opposition, as well as other Western and Arab powers were due in Istanbul later to try to break the deadlock, joining envoys from nations including the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, France and Britain who have been monitoring the talks since last Thursday.
A senior Saudi Arabian official was also expected to attend.
“Effectively, without an opposition overhaul there will not be a Geneva,” one senior regional official said.
In a sign of the disarray, the opposition delegates were forced to decamp from the hotel where they were meeting, originally booked for three days, to another venue even further out on the fringes of Istanbul.
Senior coalition officials are painfully aware that their failure to agree after days of late-night bartering risk undermining their credibility and giving ammunition to Assad at a critical juncture.
“In Geneva, we are going to face a disciplined team that is going to be sent by Assad with experience in negotiating with Israel for decades. We can’t afford but to send our top people if we decide to go,” one senior opposition source said.
HIGH STAKES
The coalition had meant to discuss a new leadership in Istanbul, including the fate of provisional Prime Minister Ghassan Hitto, who has not been able to form a provisional government in exile since being appointed on March 19.
But it is still stuck on whether to admit a liberal bloc headed by opposition campaigner Michel Kilo, a respected Christian writer whose group has been offered only five seats instead of the more than 20 it had been seeking.
Failure to broaden the coalition, in which Qatar and a bloc largely influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood has been playing the driving role, could undermine Saudi Arabian support for the revolt and raise the specter of a rivalry among Gulf powers that could further weaken the opposition.
With Lebanese Shi’ite guerrillas from Iranian-backed Hezbollah now openly fighting alongside government troops in Syria, Saudi Arabia is keen to play a greater role in backing the Sunni-led opposition, opposition sources have said.
Farouk Tayfour, deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood, who fought against Assad’s father in the 1980s, met with Kilo late on Monday in a possible sign of a detente.
“Tayfour addressed the coalition yesterday and told them in a stern tone that this is unacceptable. We are jeopardizing our credibility,” another coalition source said.
George Sabra, the acting head of the coalition, appeared intent to drop the issue and proceed with electing a new leadership. But other senior opposition officials said such a move would only deepen divisions.
“If they go ahead with choosing a new leadership, they are setting the stage for a war between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and nobody wants this,” one of the officials said.Ingredients:
2 or 3 ripe bananas
2 dark chocolate Toblerones
1 tbsp vegetable oil
wax paper or nonstick tinfoil
double boiler or large stock pot and mixing bowl
*not totally necessary, but a silicon spatula is the business here
So nobody hears BOGO and doesn’t think the circus is coming to town. I was in the grocery store a few months ago and took an unusual turn down the frozen aisle where I found quite a spectacular treat: Diana’s Bananas Frozen Chocolate Covered Bananas were one big BOGO, milk or dark chocolate, oh and I went for it. (Also, amusingly, I had misread the box and thought, up until recently, they were called “Dairy Bananas” which honestly is funnier and more fun to say. But I digress). ANYWAY, I had never eaten a frozen chocolate dipped nanner. Despite being American and all, and the number one fan of all circuses, carnivals, and fairs, I had never had one. Once I tried them, my first thought was, “This is magnificent.” Then my second thought was, of course, “but I think I can do this better/cheaper/faster.”
Speaking of BOGO, which is also super fun to say, the store had a Toblerone sale, any flavor, two for one. I always opt for strong, bitter, dark chocolate and was over the moon to see that they finally had a dark chocolate option, as Toblerone has long been a favorite treat but milk chocolate is just too sweet for me. Point is, at the end of the day, I had two candy bars.
I also had two swiftly ripening bananas. Turns out, the day I made these was the exact perfect day. The ripeness of the bananas after frozen resulted in the most velvety freezy ice cream consistency I’ve ever tasted. More ice creamy than ice cream, you could even say. The banana jackets, at time of freezing, looked like this:
So! We have a couple bananas we’re looking to get rid of (but again, I abhor throwing away food), seven ounces of dark chocolate, and a few minutes to burn. It’s late summer. Frozen banana time!
I don’t have a double boiler but it’s important that the chocolate melts evenly so I boiled a couple inches of water in the bottom of a large stock pot and popped in a thin aluminum 3 quart mixing bowl, floated it on top of the water, and stirred often:
I added just shy of a tablespoon of vegetable oil and mixed it in until the chocolate was all shiny and uniformly melted. It’s ready when it glimmers a bit. You’ll know.
I peeled and halved the bananas and put them on some wax paper. I was too excited to make these and didn’t want to take the time or money to slog over to the store to get popsicle sticks, but I’m sure they would be a festive addition. ANYWAY, here are the bananas, once plain and then after I poured over the chocolate mixture:
After the chocolate is melted and poured over, roll the bananas and coat them as uniformly as possible. Just covered will do, if you make it too thick it’ll just be a gloppy mess. I’m not going to post a picture of the chocolate covered pre-frozen banana halves, because, honestly, as you might imagine, they don’t look great. They’re not photogenic.
Put them, uncovered, in the freezer for about 45 minutes to an hour. They’re ready to eat after that, and I’d store them in a tupperware container for no more than a week, but it’s doubtful they’ll last past the day. These things are unbelievable. The dark chocolate is deep and rich and the little pieces of nougat still maintain a bit of their crunch. The ripe, freezy bananas, as I said earlier, are more ice creamy than ice cream. This is a win on all accounts. Easy, amazing, healthy, and cheap. Cheaper than a BOGO. You’ll want to tell all your friends.
AdvertisementsBrooklyn College Reportedly 'Preferring' That NYPD Use Bathrooms Away From Student Areas
LaVar Ball on Trump Tweets: 'If You Helped, You Shouldn't Have to Say Anything'
Greg Gutfeld reacted to Newsweek publishing an article comparing cult leader and murderer Charles Manson to President Trump.
"Newsweek made me a smarter kid," Gutfeld said of reading the magazine in his earlier years. "Now the magazine makes you dumber."
Gutfeld said that the publication's latest piece makes it appear to be a "thinly-pressed carcass of mindvomit."
The article is called "How Murderer Charles Manson and Donald Trump Used Similar Language to Gain Followers."
The article says both men geared their speeches toward people who felt "alienated or marginalized."
Gutfeld said most people "use language to gain followers" - "Isn't that what we all do? Doesn't that make Newsweek like Manson," he remarked.
He said the article possibly come about as the product of young editors trying to find a way to "take a naked Charlie Rose off their minds."
Jesse Watters called the piece "lazy clickbait and a smear" of Trump.
Watch more above.
Steyn Rips Dems' Newfound 'Character': 'They All Knew What Bill Clinton Was Doing'
NJ Senate President: GOP Tax Plan 'Scary As Hell For New Jersey'President Monson Says Missionaries Are “Precious Commodities”
Contributed By Gerry Avant, Church News editor
Article Highlights At the 2014 Seminar for New Mission Presidents June 22, President Monson shared ways new mission presidents can motivate missionaries to be effective in their responsibilities and have experiences that will affect them in a positive way throughout their lives.
PROVO, UTAH
Drawing from the scriptures, teachings from past prophets, letters from missionaries, and his experiences as president of the Canadian Mission, President Thomas S. Monson opened the 2014 Seminar for New Mission Presidents during a special sacrament meeting on Sunday morning June 22.
In a large meeting room in the Missionary Training Center, President Monson gave direct, yet tender, counsel to the 129 couples from 20 countries who will take over their mission assignments on July 1.
“You will be in the Lord’s service twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for the next three years and will be recipients of His direction and His blessings,” President Monson said.
He referred to the young men and young women entrusted to their care as a “precious commodity,” and shared with the leaders some ways to motivate the missionaries so they might be effective in their responsibilities and have the kinds of experiences that will affect them in a positive way throughout their lives.
Of the importance of the first contact with the missionaries who will be sent to their missions, President Monson said, “Nothing takes the place of that warm hand clasp and heartfelt greeting from you as they arrive at the airport or the train station or by whatever means they may arrive.”
President Thomas S. Monson is accompanied by his daughter, Sister Ann M. Dibb, at the Missionary Training center in Provo, Utah, on June 22, 2014. Photo by Matthew Reier.
One of the 129 couples from 20 countries attending the 2014 Seminar for New Mission Presidents at the MTC in Provo, Utah, June 22-23, 2014. Photo by Matthew Reier.
A choir of young missionaries sings during a special sacrament meeting for new mission presidents and their wives on Sunday morning, June 22. Photo by Matthew Reier.
He encouraged the mission leaders to have one-on-one conversations to learn about the missionaries’ backgrounds, families, and ambitions, and, in interviewing missionaries already serving, to take an approach similar to what President Spencer W. Kimball recommend to him. “Said he, ‘When I interview a missionary, I don't say to him, “Are you doing this or that wrong? Do you have this problem or that problem?” Rather, I say, ‘Tell me what you most admire about your companion.’ President Kimball’s suggestion sets a positive tone for the interview.”
President Monson told the mission presidents that they will see the hand of the Lord as they prayerfully seek guidance concerning missionary transfers.
He advised the mission presidents to always select their outstanding missionaries to introduce the new elders and new sisters to the field. He quoted modern scripture: “And if any man among you be strong in the Spirit, let him take with him him that is weak, that he may be edified in all meekness, that he may become strong also’” (D&C 84:106).
President Monson spoke of preparation day. “I think a guide which will aid you in handling the motivation of missionaries on preparation day is to tell them this: Do nothing on preparation day that would rob you of your spirituality. I might point out that we have no preparation evening. Every evening should be a proselyting evening.
“Next I’d like to mention what I call the Monson Rule: An email every week from each missionary to his or her parents. I like to tell missionaries that it isn't significant how much they write but that they be certain to write.”
He spoke of missionary meetings, saying, “Let the meetings be such that they build and lift and inspire and provide opportunities for experiences to be shared which demonstrate success. Nothing succeeds quite like success.“
He instructed mission presidents to involve Church members in their efforts. “There is no substitute for a member-oriented proselyting program,” he said. “I believe it is the key to success. One of the greatest tools you have for increasing the effectiveness of your missionaries and their productivity is to ensure that a proper relationship is maintained with the bishops and stake presidents in the area where they proselyte.
“Next, one of your most effective tools for motivating missionaries will be to build mission spirit. … You can instill within each missionary the conviction that he or she has been called to the greatest mission in all the earth.”
President Monson spoke of the responsibility of mission presidents to make certain each new member of the Church is fellowshipped and made to feel welcome. He told of watching new converts in Italy being greeted, embraced, and included by members at a district conference. “They were no more strangers nor foreigners; they were fellow citizens with the Saints, and of the household of God (see Ephesians 2:19). …. Involve the members in helping to rally around and welcome those who come to the waters of baptism in your mission.
“Now, beyond those who come to membership in the Church, you will find that your missionaries, themselves, will change and grow as they serve to the best of their ability, thus securing blessings for themselves and for future generations.”
President Monson read a portion of the last email a missionary sent to this family before completing his two-year mission in Mongolia. The missionary wrote of some “tangible” changes that had come as a result of his mission: a new language, experience with a foreign culture, increased knowledge of the scriptures, and a greater capacity to express doctrines of the gospel. Less apparent and measurable, but at least as important, wrote the missionary, were changes of fortified faith and purified purpose, of relationships with deity and with his fellow man, and changes that “turned a distracted, disoriented teenager … into a committed disciple of Christ filled more fully with charity and an increased interest in service to others. I am now ready to stand proudly with Paul and to ‘give every man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in me.'”
President Monson said, “This message from a missionary to his family represents the transformation which can take place in each of the young men and young women who will come to you as he or she works diligently and fulfills the responsibilities of a missionary. Yours is the opportunity to assist each one in doing so.”We’ve just gotten wind about a planned trail centre near Peterborough in Northamptonshire, which might be of interest to mountain bikers based in the east of the country. The company behind it, Dirt World, as recently put forward a planning proposal to local council for an outdoor sports activity park that will include mountain bike trails, off-road motorcycle racetrack, 4×4 trail and family friendly cycle paths.
In the submission, there’s also planning for an onsite cafe, log cabins, jet wash bays and first aid, so if the proposal gets approved by council, it will likely be a potential venue for future riding events. As part of the submission process, Dirt World is asking riders, both local and beyond, to show their support for the proposed development.
Here’s the message going out via Dirt World:
“The venue is well known in the area and has been used for a variety of mountain bike, off-road motorcycling and 4×4 days over the years. Please show your support by going to the planning website and adding positive comments HERE! Alternatively, you can click this button and fill out the form to show your support, and don’t forget to like our facebook page for project updates.“More than 300 Publications Now Cite DigiMorph Data! Did you know that more than 300 peer-reviewed publications now cite data from DigiMorph.org? Everything from computer rendering algorithms to sabertooth cat evolution. And according to Google Scholar, these publications have been cited more than 8500 times, with an h-index of 53! Here is a sampling of journal covers that DigiMorph data have graced, and you can click here to see a full list of publications. [more...]
Moroccodiscus smithi, a New Cyclocystoid 2017-10-04 12:00:00 Cyclocystoids are enigmatic extinct echinoderms with a circular, flattened morphology. Most specimens are known from Middle Ordovician to early Carboniferous rocks in Laurentia and Baltica. However, Reich and coauthors recently reported a new species, Moroccodiscus smithi, from the Ordovician of Gondwana. These specimens are preserved as molds within concretions; HRXCT scanning makes it possible to render them as positive digital casts. Learn more about this cyclocystoid by reading the DigiMorph account. [more...]
Three New Species of Thorius 2016-11-15 12:00:00 In 2016, Parra-Olea and coauthors published the results of a decades-long study of tiny salamanders from Oaxaca, Mexico. Thorius was first discovered in the 19th century, but populations have declined dramatically in the last 30-35 years. It may, in fact, be the world's most endangered genus of amphibians. In this study, published in PeerJ, the authors describe three new species and redescribe two species of Thorius -- and all five species can be found here on DigiMorph! [more...]
Spathorhynchus fossorium, Fossil Amphisbaenian 2016-07-29 12:00:00 Amphisbaenians are enigmatic, limbless, fossorial squamates whose phylogenetic relationships are poorly understood. A new paper by Müller and coauthors in the Journal of Anatomy examines in detail the cranial osteology of Spathorhynchus fossorium, the oldest-known well-preserved amphisbaenian, from the Eocene Green River Formation of Wyoming. This study suggests that some 'primitive' characters may in fact be synapomorphies of an extinct Paleogene amphisbaenian clade. [more...]
Nodosaurid Ankylosaur, Pawpawsaurus campbelli 2016-03-23 12:00:00 A new paper by A. Paulina-Carabajal, Y.-N. Lee and L.L. Jacobs explores the endocranial morphology of Pawpawsaurus campbelli from the upper Albian Paw Paw Formation of Tarrant County, Texas. Using high-resolution X-ray CT data, the authors help to fill critical gaps in our knowledge of ankylosaurian cranial neurovascular passages, morphology of the inner ear, and nasal cavities. Learn more about what they found by reading the DigiMorph account. [more...]Rating the performance of Our Apostles
Good in many areas.
Frightening in others.
Good
Membership at 15 million
Frightening
Two thirds have left the church
More are leaving EVERY DAY
Good
We have a vast missionary force
Annual baptisms in the hundreds of thousands.
Frightening
Baptisms per missionary has plummeted
Church growth rate has plummeted
Good
I’m still in the church and active
Frightening
My mother and all 5 siblings are out or very limited in activity
Many cherished friends have left
Disobedience
Here’s my take on why the church is in trouble. We are taught that obedience is the first law of heaven. When we openly disregard a plain and precious truth, given by Jesus in a very clear manner, what would we expect? Choose the wrong and the consequences will follow. And, they won’t be good ones.
Common Consent(CC)
One of the most beautiful parts of the restoration is the structure for the governance of the church. Unlike many other rules and standards, the Law of Common Consent is plainly taught in our scriptures. It is mentioned with clarity and frequency in the D&C. The purpose of this post is not to expound on CC. That will come soon.
This vital and important law establishes a counter-balance to the power, and the temptations of power, that surround the apostles. Today, the high leaders, as well as the general membership have relegated this Law & Commandment into irrelevancy.
The Blunt Edge
Sometimes bluntness is offensive or downright |
MI and Benegas Brothers Expeditions, have canceled their 2016 seasons entirely. A third, Mountain Madness, had been thinking of returning to Everest following a seven-year hiatus but after the earthquake decided to hold off at least another year. “People are in a waiting pattern,” said American guide Adrian Ballinger, the owner of Alpenglow Expeditions, which offers high-end trips on the less frequently climbed Chinese side of Everest. Even though the Chinese route wasn’t struck by avalanches, Ballinger said, “Many of my clients who should be ready to go are sitting on the sidelines and wanting to see a successful year or two.”
Those who make their living on the mountain are not immune to the paranoia. Quietly, a few prominent Sherpa climbers have decided to no longer pass through the Icefall, among them Lakpa Rita, who made the decision following the 2014 avalanche, when five of his staff, four of them men he’d hired from Thame, were killed. “I lost part of my whole person,” he said. He blamed the misfortune on the conflict in 2013. “The fight, it screwed up everything,” he said. “After that, I think the god itself got upset.” (In Sherpa culture, Everest is not just a mountain but a living deity.) He told me he was returning to manage Alpine Ascents’ expedition from Base Camp—he worried that if he didn’t, the outfitter might hire Sherpas from another village, and the people in Thame were in dire need of jobs following the quake. “Everyone wants to work,” he said, “because they need to recover what they lost.”
Hahn told me that he too had thought of quitting. “When I came home, I wasn’t all that psyched about going back,” he said. “But I was always leaving room for feelings to change, and somewhat predictably, they did. Smart people don’t put it in writing.” Still, he doesn’t have an Everest guiding gig for this year, since RMI suspended its expedition. Hahn told me he might go back just to climb on his own, to prove to himself that he still has what it takes.
Morton’s conflict felt different. Everest provided a significant amount of his income, but it never became his identity the way it did Hahn’s. In recent years, he had taken up photography and even applied to law school. Now in his mid-forties, he found himself wanting to spend more time with his family. Following the earthquake, he also couldn’t help but focus on one hard truth about the industry he loved—the fact that, over the past 15 years, nearly half the people who died on Everest were local hired help. According to the Himalayan Database, of the 102 deaths on Everest since the 2000 season, 46 were Nepali. (The next-hardest-hit nation is South Korea with seven dead.)
Since 2012, Morton has served as the executive director of the Juniper Fund. The fund successfully helped lobby to increase accidental-death benefits for high-altitude expedition workers from $5,000 to $15,000. It also supplements that income, promising to assist the families of every Sherpa killed on an expedition, using private donations. Prior to 2015, the Juniper Fund was aiding 20 families; last year’s events increased that number by 12.
“Having the Sherpas dying is just hard to watch over and over,” Morton told me. “I felt like, my time in this world is not that long, and this is starting to get sad.” He said he could understand a climber being willing to die on a well-planned first ascent in some remote place. But, he said, “up there it just feels hollow.” He didn’t think the mountain would become better regulated or safer. “At some point, you’re exacerbating it by participating,” he said. Then, a few minutes later, he doubted himself. “Maybe that’s not the right way to think about it. Maybe the right thing is to stick to it and try to improve it. The locals need the jobs. Part of me is like, Why quit if you love it?”
Morton had no illusions that leaving would be easy. “Things are simpler if you go to Everest,” he said. “If you do this, it’s very hard to have another life.”
Climbing guides are competitive. Numbers matter—of summits, clients, and clients on summits. Morton, on the other hand, wanted to see the world. The son of a Seattle bond trader, he earned degrees in political science and a program called the Comparative History of Ideas at the University of Washington. He ski-bummed in Utah in the winter and, following graduation, traveled in Chile, Bolivia, and Peru, where he shattered a wrist and a few ribs in a paragliding accident. While rehabbing he started working at the gear company Kavu, where he met his future wife, a young woman from California named Kristine Kitayama. In 1995, at a climbing gym, Morton saw Scott Fischer, the freewheeling owner of Mountain Madness, who had just climbed K2, the world’s second-highest peak. Morton was starstruck. He entered Mountain Madness’s guide program and met Fischer in the spring of 1996, just before the climber left for Nepal, where he would die on Everest in the events chronicled by Jon Krakauer.
Morton, who eventually hired on with Alpine Ascents, first went to the Himalayas in 2001 on a guide-training trip. He has returned every year since. Early on, Morton had no desire to climb Everest. He saw the peak the way some musicians might view South by Southwest: overpopulated and overexposed. “I remember thinking it was cool that I’d never been up there,” he said.
Thame changed his mind. In the past half-century, and especially since the advent of commercial guiding in the early 1990s, Everest has become a vehicle of socioeconomic upheaval. Today, Sherpas in the Khumbu Valley are some of the nation’s wealthiest people, and the reason for that is the willingness of foreigners to pay for an assist up their goddess mountain, known locally as Chomolungma. “Everest has bought a lot of houses,” Morton said. Many of those houses were in Thame.
In 2004, Alpine Ascents owner Todd Burleson offered Morton his first job on Everest. Morton went with two other guides, eight clients, and about twenty Sherpas, including Lakpa Rita. They were at Camp II when Morton saw an Argentine guide named Gustavo Lisi in a tent. Lisi had recently left his client, a Bolivian doctor, on the summit ridge where he eventually died. News of the episode—now notorious in Everest lore—had already traveled around the mountain. Morton recalls seeing Lisi in his tent and expressing concern for the client, whereupon the Argentine briefly lamented the incident before offering to show Morton photos of the summit. “It’s so beautiful up there,” Morton recalls Lisi saying. Morton thought, What the fuck?
En route to the summit, Morton never saw Lisi’s client. (It is assumed that he fell off the ridge.) But he did pass Fischer’s corpse, which remains on the mountain, for the first of many times. When the Alpine Ascents team reached the top, Lakpa Rita and the other Sherpas were ecstatic, hugging and taking photos. From the summit, Morton looked down at the world. The height was obscene. It was as though he were not among the Himalayas but rather looking straight onto their crowns.
Death became routine. “I’ve brought a lot of bodies down,” Morton told me, “without remembering what year it was or who.” The first experiences with mortality, though, stick with you. In 2006, Morton was in the Icefall when a call came in on the radio that there had been an avalanche nearby. He and Lakpa Rita left their clients with another guide, ran ahead, and found that three Sherpas from another expedition had perished. With nothing to be done, they returned to their clients and decided to continue climbing. “All we did was just walk right through,” Morton said. Five clients summited.
After the trip, Morton reached out to the wife of one of the Sherpas in the accident, a woman named Nima Lhamu. She was pregnant. Morton and Kristine pledged to support the unborn baby through school, and the families became close.
In 2007, Morton was lead guide with a group of 12 clients. During the summit push, he and Lakpa Rita assisted with the rescue of a Nepali climber who had fallen unconscious. As Lakpa Rita helped the woman down on a sled, he rounded a feature called the Geneva Spur. He looked up at the face of Lhotse, which borders Everest to the southeast, and saw what he thought was a rock falling from the mountain. It wasn’t a rock but rather a revered female Sherpa named Pemba Doma. That night, Morton and Lakpa Rita took off for the Everest summit. Two days later, after guiding nine clients up and down, they hauled Pemba Doma’s body from Camp II to Base Camp on a sled, carefully lowering her corpse through the Icefall with pulleys.
Morton summited again in 2008, leading an expedition of three guides, ten clients, and twenty Sherpas, after which he resolved to stop running huge trips. “There’s no way you can actually have any control over that many people,” he said.
He took up photography and ran boutique trips for solo clients: Everest in the spring, other Seven Summits peaks in the fall and winter. He landed a sponsorship deal with Eddie Bauer, and in 2010 he and mountaineer Melissa Arnot were paid by the company to climb Everest, with Morton also shooting Arnot’s ascent. Kristine was eight and a half months pregnant the day Morton reached the summit. He rushed back to Base Camp and arrived in Seattle in time for Thorne’s birth, on June 11. A month later, he flew to Pakistan to climb K2 but didn’t summit.
That fall, a renowned high-altitude Sherpa named Chhewang Nima died on an expedition with Arnot. Morton started researching accidental-death insurance. “At first I was in shock about what the families go through,” Morton told me. There’s no doubt that high-altitude portering is a swift way to make a living. The average annual household income in Nepal is $730; climbing Sherpas typically make between $2,000 and $6,000 per season. But when they die, their families often go into debt. In Sherpa culture, a person can’t be reincarnated until their family performs an elaborate puja, or blessing. The family gives gifts, burns juniper to purify the air, and hires Buddhist lamas to lead the ceremony. Many families perform a puja, which can cost thousands of dollars, every year for up to seven years. That’s a full burden even before you consider the emotional impact of the loss.
“There’s a superficial experience of all that death when you’re on the mountain,” Morton said. “Every year there’s one or two. For some people who climb, there’s not a lot of understanding about what goes on with the local families. I remember talking to some climbers who saw some of the families after an accident. They had this reaction that was sort of like, ‘Oh, my God, the Sherpa families were so distraught.’ I was like, Duh!”
In 2012, Morton and Arnot launched the Juniper Fund to advocate for increases in expedition policy minimums. They also started raising matching funds, pledging $15,000 to be disbursed over five years to the immediate family of every high-altitude expedition worker who dies on the job in Nepal. By this point, Morton was focusing on sponsored projects, like a 2012 attempt to retrace the route of the first American ascent of Everest, in 1968, up the very difficult West Ridge. (It was unsuccessful.) In 2014, he was hired as a cameraman and safety consultant on Everest. Kristine came to visit Base Camp, and the couple climbed to Camp I, passing through the Icefall.
“I’d never fucking do that now,” Morton said. “I remember a couple of friends seeing us and going, ‘Are you guys on holiday? You just decided to take your wife through the fucking Icefall?’ ”
On April 18, 2014, Morton was listening to music on his headphones in his tent. Ang Dorjee, the sirdar for Adventure Consultants, who was instrumental in rescue efforts during the 1996 disaster, entered with a panicked look. Morton asked what happened, and Ang Dorjee said there was an avalanche off the west shoulder of the Icefall. Morton quickly got up to help. “It wasn’t ho-hum,” he said, “but I was familiar with that scenario.”
Then the radio crackled and someone said 16 people were missing and presumed dead. Soon the shadows of helicopters appeared, long-lining out body after slack body from the Icefall. Morton and Lakpa Rita found one another. Lakpa Rita was sobbing uncontrollably. He hugged Morton and didn’t let go. When Morton called Kristine, he managed to say a few words, and then he, too, started to bawl.
This past November, Morton returned to Nepal to meet with the families that the Juniper Fund supports. He was also looking at apartments, because he was planning to move to Kathmandu in the spring, splitting time between there and Seattle. When we met up, he expressed reticence about sharing his thoughts on Everest. He was a quiet guy, he said, not prone to making big statements. He was also worried about his finances—the Juniper Fund was paying him an honorarium of just $19,500 per year, less than he makes from a single Everest trip. He planned to continue guiding on lesser known peaks, but those trips don’t pay nearly as well as Everest. Should he consider returning?
Later I spoke with one of Morton’s friends who had undergone a similar transition, a former Alpine Ascents guide named Neil McCarthy, who quit guiding in the Himalayas after one trip there. “It’s a very scary thing when that’s what you’ve done for so long,” said McCarthy, who is now a leadership-development consultant. “You think, What’s my value without this? Dave’s in a unique position. I don’t know that there’s anybody else in the world who can answer this call to try to create something that recognizes the humanity of the people who do this crazy job. He has the intellect, the experience, and the relationships to do it. I also don’t think he ever set out to be the operational leader of a nonprofit. If I was in his position, I’d be struggling with it, too.”
One night in Kathmandu, Morton and I went out to dinner with his friend Luanne Freer, the founder and director of the Everest ER clinic. It didn’t take long for the mountain to come up. When Morton said he was having doubts about returning, Freer asked, “So you’re saying it out loud?” Then she exhaled deeply. “I don’t know what it is that shifts,” she said, “but it was instant for me. How much louder does this mountain need to speak to tell us all it’s not OK?”
A tall, 58-year-old emergency-room doctor from Montana, Freer was first drawn to working on Everest after she visited Base Camp in 2002 and saw how limited medical care was for Sherpas. She set up a tent and opened shop in 2003, and returned every spring except for 2014. The work took a toll—she and her husband divorced, and friendships back home suffered. But she got hooked by the mountain’s urgency. This sounded familiar.
Freer wasn’t on Everest in 2015 during the earthquake, but once she heard the news from her colleagues at Base Camp, she returned to Nepal. The devastation followed her back to Montana in the summer. Originally, after the quake, she wanted to publicly push for a pause on Everest expeditions. Recently, though, her feelings had changed. “I took it down a notch,” she said, “from saying, ‘Let’s get the pope and the Dalai Lama to come, bless the mountain, and say no one should go there,’ to saying, ‘Maybe it’s not the place for me now.’ ” She planned to set up the clinic in 2016, then leave it in the hands of other doctors, departing at the beginning of climbing season. “It used to be my favorite place in the world,” she said. “Home. And now it’s a scary place.”
“If I don’t go back to Everest,” Morton said, “it fundamentally changes my ability to support myself. Each time I go back, the more I depend on it the next year. Which is part of the reason I want to stop.”
Freer couldn’t identify with that; she’s a volunteer. She said she’d miss the patients. “There’s nothing quite like helping a Sherpa who’s sick or injured and then watching them bring home the money to their family. Or a Westerner achieving their goal of getting to the summit. It’s about feeling relevant and helpful and needed.”
Morton agreed. “You feel like you’re actually experiencing,” he said. He could find that same rush elsewhere, but the stakes are highest on Everest. “The hardest part is not from the stuff you see,” he said. “It’s when you go home, you see your friends, and you’re not experiencing that closeness.”
The more the two spoke, the more apparent it became that they were mourning the same thing.
Freer said, “Oh, Dave, I don’t know. There are so many ghosts up there.”
Over the next couple of days, Morton went to see a few of the ghosts’ families. He wanted to ensure that they were receiving payments, and he was also planning to make fundraising videos of the widows telling their stories. The Juniper Fund’s operations manager, an upbeat 24-year-old Sherpa woman named Tsering Dolker, carried a folder full of names and navigated as our driver twisted through Kathmandu. Morton was trying to arrange a video shoot with a woman named Menuka whose husband died in the 2014 avalanche on Everest.
“Where did you say Menuka was?” Morton asked. Tsering Dolker responded that Menuka was not picking up her phone. Morton suggested driving by her house. Before we went there, though, Tsering Dolker called a friend of Menuka’s, which proved to be a wise decision, because it turned out Menuka had moved to India.
“Temporarily?” Morton asked.
“Permanently,” Tsering Dolker replied.
We drove around for a while. “What about Kam Phuti, Pasang Karma’s wife?” Morton asked. “Do you know where she is?”
“No,” Tsering Dolker said. Kam Phuti’s phone was off. We turned around a few times while Morton scrolled through his laptop—“There are so many families,” he said—and Tsering Dolker made calls. Morton eventually picked a destination. The road became less paved, and soon we were bottoming out in deep ruts. Then Tsering Dolker said, “Oh, there she is.” The driver stopped on a busy corner, and a woman in a blue coat hopped in: Pasang Lhamu. Her husband died on Annapurna in 2015, on an expedition with an outfitter called Dreamers Destination. We went to her house for tea. Morton asked, “Has Dreamers Destination helped?”
“They haven’t helped at all,” Pasang Lhamu replied. She said she had received an insurance payment, but it wasn’t enough to cover the funeral puja. She was using the Juniper Fund money to send her daughter, Nima Doma, to school, and she hoped eventually to send her abroad. Maybe to Europe.
From there we went to see a young woman in her mid-twenties named Ang Pasi, who had lost her husband in 2014 in the Icefall. Ang Pasi started to breast-feed while her late husband’s brother, Phurba, refilled cups of tea. Ang Pasi said the money helped but that she hoped to send her brother to school, which would require more. Morton informed her that the Juniper Fund could only support the immediate family of a victim. She smiled, and Phurba poured more tea.
We went to see a beautiful 30-year-old woman with a gold tooth named Dawa Diki. Her husband, Lakpa Chhiring, had died six months earlier, at Base Camp during the earthquake. He, too, had been with Dreamers Destination, and the insurance money had yet to arrive. Dawa Diki had borrowed $7,000 for the puja and needed to repay it. She said she was having problems with her mother-in-law, who wanted some of the Juniper Fund money. “Her in-laws are always complaining about her, no matter how much she helps,” Tsering Dolker explained. “Mine, too,” said Morton, and everyone laughed. It was the one moment in our conversation when Dawa Diki wasn’t in tears.
Finally, we went to see a woman named Anita Lama, whose husband had died in the 2014 avalanche as well. She and her daughter lived in a small one-bedroom apartment. She poured us tea and said that she was going to school to earn a degree in social work. Anita Lama said she was having trouble getting citizenship for her daughter, Umi, because the girl had a different surname than her father. Nepal’s constitution makes it difficult for single mothers to confer citizenship to their children. Anita Lama said she’d heard that one of the women supported by the Juniper Fund had remarried.
Would such a woman’s family, she asked Morton, continue to be supported? Morton responded that the children would be.
At the end of the day, Morton looked pretty sad. “I get a huge dopamine rush from being in the mountains,” he said. “Driving around in a cab to see all the families, it’s a lot. Constant sadness. I’m obviously not the one going through it, though.”
I asked if he was running the Juniper Fund out of guilt. He flatly rejected the idea. Mountain portering is good work, he said, especially compared with the most common alternative: traveling to Qatar to work on World Cup stadiums, where more than 150 Nepalis died in 2014. He was simply trying to improve the industry’s one downside. I pointed out that the downside was not insignificant. “That’s why I’m doing this,” he said. I asked if he would ever hire a Sherpa to carry his own stuff up a mountain and was hardly surprised when he said that, on a personal expedition, he wouldn’t think of such a thing. We drank a beer on the roof of a hotel as the sun set over Kathmandu to a soundtrack of birds, monkeys, taxi horns, and braying dogs.
Morton said, “Nothing about Everest is fair, you know. It’s amazing how powerful it is in terms of providing and killing, and then what the aftermath of that is. The haves and have-nots. It’s a microcosm of the world in a lot of ways. And it’s not pretty.” To the widows, he was a friend with financial benefits. He knew he occasionally received versions of the truth that were elusive or convenient. “I get why. As painful as this work can be, it’s also a connection. It’s raw, and it’s real, and it makes you feel closer to people.”
The work was more challenging than climbing Everest. That had never felt so unimportant. “At times,” he said, “I’m like, ‘Jesus Christ. That’s what you’ve been doing for the past ten years?’ But I think it only seems less valuable once you’re ready for something else.” He told the Seattle filmmaker taking veterans up Everest to find another cameraman.
In January, Morton called me from Nepal. The Juniper Fund had recently been able to guarantee support for all 32 of its families for five years and was making inroads into starting a support group and providing occupational training for the widows. He was looking forward to moving for part of the year to Kathmandu, to guiding and climbing lesser known Himalayan peaks, to spending time in the lasting grit of the actual world.
Still, recently he’d found himself once again thinking about Everest. The tragedies were feeling further and further away. He wondered if, given the right opportunity, he might return someday. “There might be an important reason to revisit it,” he said, “just for closure.” He wondered if closure was possible.
The size of something depends on the angle from which you view it. From one vantage point, Everest is the biggest thing on earth. From most others, though, it’s just so small.
Contributing editor Abe Streep (@abestreep) wrote about the Race to Alaska in November.We are all rabid for a new, sixth-generation Ford Bronco. Rumor has it Ford is planning to build one by 2020. The automaker has been trolling Bronco fans for awhile now with teasers and winking hints. And whether you're a fan of the upright 1960s original or the early-'90s version of OJ Simpson fame, you're probably dying to see what a 21st-century Bronco looks like.
Well, we still haven't gotten a glimpse at what, if anything, Ford is planning for the Bronco nameplate. But that hasn't stopped the amazingly talented fans over at Bronco6G.com from taking matters into their own hands, rendering multiple versions of a concept 2020 Ford Bronco that absolutely nail what they, and we, want to see in a two-door 4x4.
"For our Bronco concept, we fused styling elements from previous Bronco generations, the 2004 Bronco concept, and modern Ford trucks and SUVs," Bronco6G.com administrator Tom told R&T in an email. "You can see the classic round headlights and square inset front grille evolved from the 1st gen Bronco, which was also showcased in the retro-futuristic 2004 Bronco concept."
"Our concept features a modern body-on-frame next-generation Bronco that retains a tall, boxy, tough, no-frills design with a strong focus on utility and off-road capabilities. We fitted separate versions with different grilles, wheel fender shapes, varying ride heights, and cargo rack for some different looks," Tom said.
Bronco6G.com intel says that the sixth-generation Bronco (for which the site is named) would most likely be built at Ford's Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, Michigan, and that the automaker is benchmarking the Jeep Wrangler as its closest competitor.
We definitely dig what they've come up with. There's definitely some current Ford truck DNA in there—look at the shape of the windshield, clearly an F-150 piece—but the unadorned, slab-sided proportions and tidy, short-wheelbase layout is 100-percent Bronco.
Take a scroll through the full collection over at Bronco6G.com. Let them know what you think!NASA Reddit: 'Brain farts', life in TRAPPIST-1 and getting humans there
Posted
This is what happened when NASA announced the discovery of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a star, then put NASA scientists and space enthusiasts in the same (virtual) room.
In an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit, one user emerged as the everyday person who corrected a NASA scientist, and experts addressed questions about the possibility of life in the new planetary system, including the obvious one: what happens now?
The next step
NASA's Kepler/K2, their space observatory, is currently monitoring the brightness of TRAPPIST-1 — a Jupiter-sized ultra-cool star located 40 light-years away in the constellation of Aquarius.
They're at the tail-end of a 70-day "observing campaign" which kicked off in December last year.
At its completion on March 4, experts said they will be able to "define the orbital period of the seventh planet" and might be able to "refine the planet mass estimates" and "even find additional transiting planets".
"The stability of the system is still unclear, because it is a complex dynamical system, the planets' masses are not yet precisely determined, we don't know yet the orbital period of the seventh planet, and there could be more planets," Sara Seager, professor of planetary science and physics at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said.
The raw data will then be released to the public by March 6.
Scientist has a 'brain fart'
The unexpected star of the Q&A was a Redditor by the name of "username1012357654".
The user corrected Kepler project scientist Natalie Batalha after she had a "brain fart" while answering a question about determining surface gravity.
Ms Batalha: Determining the surface gravity requires knowledge of both the radius and mass. The uncertainties on the mass measurements are large, but our best guess is that the surface gravity of most of these planets is similar to that on Earth. One exception is Planet F. It has the same radius as Earth but 68 per cent the mass. That means the surface gravity will be 68% lower than Earth.
Reddit user: Wouldn't it be 32 per cent lower than Earth's gravity or 68 per cent of Earth's gravity?
Ms Batalha: Yes! Corrected.
The exchange did not get lost in the congested Reddit feed.
"Thank you for reminding us all that even the most brilliant among us can make brain farts," one user said.
"They will speak of this day to their grandchildren," another said.
What if they find signs of life?
"We do not yet have a protocol. Most likely we will make a tentative discovery, that will take longer to confirm," Professor Seager said.
She said NASA was required to inform the public if signs of life are discovered.
"It's part of our charter that NASA 'provide for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and the results thereof'," Professor Seager said.
What about getting humans there?
Currently there is no technology that would allow NASA to blast humans into the new planetary system. Which is why they use space-based telescopes to investigate and observe from afar.
"Fledgling efforts, however, are underway to consider how to send tiny spacecraft to the nearest star which has one known planet," Professor Seager said.
What makes this discovery special?
NASA put it best:
"It sets new record for greatest number of habitable-zone planets found around a single star outside our solar system," it explained on Reddit.
"All of these seven planets could have liquid water — key to life as we know it — under the right atmospheric conditions, but the chances are highest with the three in the habitable zone."
Ms Batalha said temperate, terrestrial-sized planets were common in the galaxy but not ones that are only 40 light years away.
"The name of the game now is to find those near enough for atmospheric characterisation," she said.
"Of the few dozen habitable zone planets that have been detected to date, most are hundreds of light years away whereas TRAPPIST-1 is just 40 light years away."
What about vegetation, ocean, continents?
At present, NASA does not have the "future" technology required to see the surface of exoplanets.
"We'll need farther future technology that may become available in the coming decades that will allow us to block out the star's light and observe the planets directly," Giada Arney, astrobiologist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre, said.
Topics: internet-culture, science-and-technology, astronomy-space, space-exploration, united-statesThe United States never saw the likes of the Men’s Dress Reform Party on these shores. What we got, instead, was a frolicsome species of campus unrest. On May 9, 1930, the student newspaper at Dartmouth College published an editorial asserting the good sense of wearing shorts and calling upon readers to bare their nether limbs as if waving banners of revolt. The next day, some 600 Dartmouth men took to the streets in shorts — in basketball uniforms and hiking gear and cutoffs and at least one pair of lederhosen — and they made national news. Were the boys staging a protest or pulling a prank? No one was entirely certain. It is often the fate of radical movements to defy immediate comprehension, and quite a few decades passed between the crusade of 1930 and the advent of sophomores slouching into lecture halls half-wrapped in polyester mesh promoting the lacrosse team. In the meantime, campuses continued to serve as incubators of pro-shorts agitation, emerging as some of the first venues to welcome — or at least tolerate — Bermuda shorts.
From the early 20th century, British soldiers and sailors sported their warm-weather uniforms all the world over, and the Bermudian establishment was especially assertive about adapting those knee-length trousers for respectable use in civilian life. American tourists took the style home, and the 1950s witnessed the broad introduction of Bermudas to the newly minted suburbs, where they soon proved essential. But they were, in city life, a tougher sell. You need only glance at a 1953 Life magazine pictorial — ‘‘Men Try Shorts for Town’’ — to see why. Photographed in Manhattan, walking up Fifth Avenue at lunchtime and leaning on the bar at P.J. Clarke’s, these guys were irredeemably goofy in their long, dark socks. To judge by the trail of trend pieces left behind — reports of Bermuda shorts received by sporadic giggles in Spokane and guffaws in Tuscaloosa — these New Yorkers were not alone in desperately treading water in a sea of self-consciousness. The playfulness of the naked knees was at odds with the formality of all else. It was too soon for this to be happening. The vogue could not hold. Shorts receded to casual environments, where they waited for the culture to relax.
In time, much of civil society reorganized itself as casual environment — a triumph of nonchalance, a sprawl of suburbanized manners, an epidemic distrust of stuffiness. Whether this circumstance represents a byproduct of social progress or evidence of gross decadence is immaterial. Either way, here they come on Friday night: young men in truncated jeans, slim with a morsel of quadriceps exposed by a fastidious cuff. Neatness counts when trying to distinguish yourself from the dudes chilling out on Saturday with their hems loitering just below the knee, minor slobbishness somehow bespeaking devil-may-care machismo. And what is this on Sunday morning? Men at church in ‘‘dress shorts,’’ descending to the pew kneelers on pious patellae, God be with them. Then comes Monday, and the reversion to a decorum. Wearing short pants to the office is the preserve of renegades, tech geniuses and the imminently unemployed.
The sight of the lower leg remains an affront to professionalism. Can shorts and seriousness not be reconciled? Designers’ periodic proposals of suits with shorts are answered with muttering refusal in all but the most peacockish quarters, and wearing a blue blazer and pastel shorts to a beachfront wedding has the flavor of a shenanigan best reserved for the smug. Meanwhile, both established fashion houses serving the urbane and casual-wear start-ups catering to frat boys have recently been pushing men’s shorts with briefer inseams. Such designs tend to meet with titters that drown out whatever cheers of approval they provoke. The sober Bermudas, the workmanlike earth-tone cargos — at the moment, these are as far as the man on the street is willing to go, in terms of flamboyance. Shorts festooned with trim sailboats or blaring with bold paisley are the festive exceptions that define the rule. We are, for all our progress, fuddy-duddies.Zane Kirchner: On his way to Leinster
Kirchner, who has won 24 caps for the Springboks, will fill the void left in the Leinster backline by the retirement of Isa Nacewa.
"Zane Kirchner is a quality international player and we believe that he will add genuine value to the Leinster squad over the next few years," said Leinster coach Joe Schimdt.
"He's well balanced, fast and skilful and has featured for the Springboks in their last nine internationals.
"At 28 he is ideally placed to contribute to team performance while also passing on his experience to some of our younger outside backs."
The Bulls admit they were desperate to keep Kirchner and have spent the last five months in negotiations with him but could not compete with Leinster's financial offer.
"We have been in talks with Zane and his agent since November and although it is very disappointing to lose his services, we wish him well with the new phase in his career," Bulls chief Janse van Rensburg said.
"From our side, with coach Frans Ludeke very involved and in regular consultation with Springbok management, we tried our best to keep the player in Pretoria, but could in the end not compete with the exchange rate and the expectations of Zane and his agent."
Kirchner is contracted to the Bulls until the end of October and it is not yet clear when he will join up with Leinster.White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer may have Tweeted too soon about the new monthly jobs report on Friday.
In President Donald J. Trump’s first full month of office, the U.S. economy added 235,000 new jobs, surpassing economists’ estimates of 200,000, according to the BLS report released at 8:30 a.m. ET.
“Not a bad way to start day 50 of this Administration,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer tweeted at 8:57 a.m. ET.
As the New York Times pointed out, he may have violated a little-known federal rule from 1985 that prohibits White House officials from commenting on such reports for at least one hour.
“All employees of the Executive Branch who receive pre release distribution of information and data estimates as authorized above are responsible for assuring that there is no release prior to the official release time. Except for members of the staff of the agency issuing the principal economic indicator who have been designated by the agency head to provide technical explanations of the data, employees of the Executive Branch shall not comment publicly on the data until at least one hour after the official release time,” the rule states (emphasis ours).
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly employment report is one of the most important economic data releases of each month that Wall Street follows.
Jason Furman, the former chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, tweeted that it’s “ |
group is generally young, pseudo-intellectual, and their only reference is while formally educated within the last thirty years (they’re under 50). Most of the oppositional (conservative) punditry falls into this category. [Important to note, this group is also joined by the majority of politicians who are approximately the same age.]
♦ The second group are those who truly know better. They are older and wiser, they know the truth because they saw it unfold. However, they are also financially dependent on retention of a global narrative that sold the change in the past 40 years. These are the willfully blind who have sold-out to the benefit of, and enrichment from, the false economy.
This second group is intent on retaining a historic set of false assumptions by fraud and deception. Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Chris Matthews and Hugh Hewitt fit into this second grouping. Their framework echo-chambered and passed down to the younger group #1.
Exhibit “A” would be conservatives standing at CPAC to applaud Speaker Paul Ryan who passed a $2+ trillion Omnibus spending bill to ensure 8 straight years without a budget. See the disconnect?
The world-view of the first group (younger voices, CPAC seal-clappers) is fundamentally seeded on social issues. They are in no position to speak accurately about economic matters because they don’t have a reference point underpinning their expressed outlook. Their economic arguments are esoteric opinions, and they never experienced the era of industrial giants.
♦ In most of the modern post-war industrial era (1950-1980) banking was a boring job and only slide rule bean-counters and actuarial accountants moved into that sector of the workforce. Most people don’t like math – these were not exciting jobs. Inside the most boring division of a boring banking industry were the bond departments within the larger bank and finance companies.
The excitement was in the actual economy of Main Street business. The giants of industry created businesses, built things, manufactured products, created innovation and originated internal domestic wealth in a fast-paced real economy. Natural peaks and economic valleys, as the GDP expanded and contracted, based on internal economic factors of labor, energy, monetary policy and regulation.
Main Street generated the pool of politicians because the legislative conduct of politicians had more impact on Main Street. The business agents had a vested interest in political determinations. Political candidates courted industrialists, business owners, and capitalist giants to support them. Main Street USA was in control of DC outcomes.
Despite the liberal talking points to the contrary, this relationship was a natural synergy of business interests and political influence. It just made sense that way, and the grown-ups were generally in charge of it.
♦ Commercial banks courted businesses because bankers needed deposits. Without deposits banks could not generate loans; without loans banks could not generate profits…. and so it was. By rule only 10 percent of a commercial bank’s income could stem from securities.
One exception to this 10% rule was that commercial banks could underwrite government-issued bonds. Investment banks (the bond division) were entirely separate entities. The Glass-Steagall banking laws of 1932 kept it that way.
However, mid 1970’s bank regulators began issuing Glass–Steagall interpretations -that were upheld by courts- and permitted banks and their affiliates to engage in an increasing variety and amount of securities activities. After years of continual erosion of the Glass-Steagall firewall, eventually it disappeared.
This became the origin of the slow-motion explosion of investment banking. If you look back historically from today toward 1980 (ish) what you will find is this is also the ultimate fork where economic globalism began overtaking economic nationalism.
Banks could now make money, much more money, from investment divisions issuing paper financial transactions, not necessarily dependent on actual physical assets. The transactions grew exponentially.
The bond market portion ultimately led to the ’07/’08 housing collapse, and derivative trading (collateralized debt obligations or CDO’s) generated trillions of paper dollars. Business schools in 1980 began calling this the second economy (a false economy, or the invisible economy).
The second economy, which ultimately became the global economy, is also the Wall Street investment economy. Two divergent economies: Wall Street (paper), and Main Street (real).
There is no real property, real capital, real tangible assets in the Wall Street economy. The false economy is based on trades and financial transactions, essentially opinions. Paper shifts, and buys and sells based on predictions and bets (derivatives).
Insurance products create an even larger subdivision within the false economy as hedgers wagered on negative outcomes. The money wagered is exponential – some say more than a quadrillion currently floats.
♦ Now you realize, in hindsight, there had to be a point where the value of the second economy (Wall Street) passed up the first economy (Main Street). Investments, and the bets therein, needed to expand outside of the USA. hence, globalist investing.
However, a second more consequential aspect happened simultaneously.
The politicians became more valuable to the Wall Street team than the Main Street team, and Wall Street had deeper pockets because their economy was now larger.
As a consequence Wall Street started funding political candidates and asking for legislation that benefited their interests.
When Main Street was purchasing the legislative influence the outcomes were beneficial to Main Street, and by direct attachment those outcomes also benefited the average American inside the real economy.
When Wall Street began purchasing the legislative influence, the outcomes therein became beneficial to Wall Street. Those benefits are detached from improving the livelihoods of main street Americans because the benefits are “global” needs. Global financial interests, investment interests, are now the primary filter through which the DC legislative outcomes are considered.
There is a natural disconnect.
♦ When Speaker Paul Ryan says: “Donald Trump and I come from two different wings of the party”, he is specifically pointing out this disconnect, yet few draw attention to it.
Trump represents the Main Street wing, Ryan represents the Wall Street wing.
Going back to the opening paragraphs. The news and opinion punditry never take the time to explain the root cause of the disassociation, because: A) Group one doesn’t understand it; and B) Group two is compensated to remain willfully blind, and to ignore it.
Yes, there is a fundamental ideological conflict within this 2016 election:
Wall Street/Globalists -vs- Main Street/Nationalists
AdvertisementsPress release Barons Wroclaw Baseball Club
After 15 years of trying’s final Wroclaw baseball community gets a brand new, fully equipped and full size Big Baseball Field. Everything thanks to over 12 000 votes given to Wroclaw Barons Baseball Club projects in past years in Wroclaw Civil Fund and thanks to the Wroclaw Civil Fund Team (Wroclaw Municipality Body), who together with Wroclaw Youth Sport Center Wroclaw Municipality Body) coordinate and facilitated the project.
Yes, baseball in Poland appears and Wroclaw and thanks to the effort the Wroclaw Baseball and Softball community is more and more visible in the whole Region. Located in South Ð West Poland Wroclaw city has over 700 000 inhabitants and is the capital of Lowe Silesia Region and is represented by the Barons team. In the 2018 year next to big field will be build also a softball field with turf surface in the infield. The big field is planned to be equipped in the nearest future with lighting system.
The results of Wroclaw Participation Fund confirmed the big need of a building the big baseball field and this what wasn’t be able to achieve in the past years finally arise in north part of Wroclaw.
Dreams come true for many baseball passionate in Wroclaw and it is a big moment to celebrate for the whole baseball Wroclaw society a and a sign that they have a significant influence on this what is happening in Wroclaw.
Baseball is a growing sport in Poland but and unfortunately it has still very low popularity. In Wroclaw is working a Baseball Academy that trains the youth from each year category.
Thanks to winning the polish cup in the past season Barons Wroclaw team qualified to CEB Confederation Cup Qualifier in 2018 year.
Thanks to new field to Wroclaw will come back the games of Polish Top League and Final of Polish Cup.
The lack of the field was always our biggest trouble. Now we are in much more comfortable situation then we where in past years, we have now good conditions to train especially the youth. The next step is to exceed the number of players in all age categories and use our big field and game days as an engine of promotion of Baseball in our city. We are now in the moment of searching a person who loves baseball as much as we do and will help us to expand rapidly Baseball society in Wroclaw. Especially we need to find funds to employ professional trainers and enlarge the stuff working with the Youth. This is our priority and our future Ð explains Marek Kozio? Ð the general secretary of Barons Wroclaw
The dimension of the field is: left field Ð 103 meters, center field Ð 110 meters, right field Ð 93 meters. High of Homerun fence Ð 2,5 meters.
The field is equipped with 2 batting cages and 2 bullpens each side and an electronical score board.
The field is fully owned by the Wroclaw City.Rowan Williams says in Easter sermon that after years of attacks on religion there are'signs that the climate is shifting'
The high tide of "new atheism" may have passed, the archbishop of Canterbury has said in his Easter sermon. Rowan Williams said the atheism v religion debate appeared to be moving on from what he called "a pointless stalemate".
"Recent years have seen so many high-profile assaults on the alleged evils of religion that we've almost become used to them; we sigh and pass on, wishing that we could have a bit more of a sensible debate and a bit less hysteria. But there are a few signs that the climate is shifting ever so slightly," he said at Canterbury cathedral.
Williams announced in March that he would be stepping down when he moves to Cambridge next winter.
Contrasting the "hysteria" of "aggressive polemic against religious faith" with an increasing recognition among "serious and liberal-minded commentators", he said faith was no longer seen as "a brainless and oppressive enemy" but recognised as a potential ally against a greedy and individualistic way of life that feels "increasingly insane".
But he said Christians could not be satisfied with this. "Easter raises an extra question, uncomfortable and unavoidable: perhaps'religion' is more useful than the passing generation of gurus thought; but is it true?"
The archbishop concluded that Christianity was true and the resurrection was a fact, not "a beautiful imaginative creation that offers inspiration to all sorts of people" nor merely a way of saying that "the message of Jesus lives on".
He added: "Even if every commentator in the country expressed generous appreciation of the church (and we probably needn't hold our breath …), we'd still be bound to say, 'thank you, but what matters isn't our usefulness or niceness or whatever, it's God, purposive and active, even – especially – when we are at the end of our resources."
He urged Christians to work for peace and reconciliation in the Middle East, and to support beleaguered Christian communities there "to help them stay in a context where they feel more and more unwelcome".
John Sentamu, the archbishop of York, who is viewed as Williams's likely successor, delivered his Easter message through his column in the Sun on Sunday. He urged readers to buy Fairtrade Easter eggs, and the newspapers "to hold before the world the face of Madeleine McCann, who is still missing".
The pope used his Easter message to call for peace in Syria and respect for Christians and other minorities in the Middle East. He also prayed for peace along the troubled Christian/Muslim faultlines of Africa, naming North and South Sudan, Nigeria, and Mali.
He criticised a liberalising movement within the Austrian Catholic church, which has called for the ordination of women. Reminding them that this had been ruled out by his predecessor, John Paul II, he said it was "a desperate push to do something to change the church in accordance with one's own preferences and ideas".This story was updated to provide a link to the report, which is now public.
Veteran White House information technology leaders going back to the Nixon administration on Tuesday are pressing the Obama administration to overhaul federal cybersecurity policy now, without legislation, according to a report reviewed by Nextgov.
The 2000 Office of Management Budget policy, known as Circular A-130, dictates that agencies and federal watchdogs file periodic reports asserting the integrity of IT system protections. But with threats changing by the minute and the notion of “systems” archaic when information resides everywhere, those reports are false assurance, the former OMB IT chiefs wrote in their proposal. And the work exhausts hundreds of millions of dollars a year governmentwide.
“Under the current policy regime, oversight organizations, like the inspectors general and the Government Accountability Office, produce reports on compliance against outdated policies, wasting time and energy and incentivizing exactly the wrong behavior among agencies,” states the report, organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan think tank.
This is not a new idea. Since 2010, the White House has issued annual memos drawing on wiggle room within federal law to discard the paper checks in favor of “continuous monitoring,” or near-real time diagnostic tracking of networks for abnormal activity.
Co-author Karen Evans, who supervised e-government starting at the dawn of the dot-gov age, told Nextgov that A-130 is the fundamental document and needs to be updated to ensure the abandonment of check-the-box security compliance. She served during the George W. Bush administration between 2003 and 2009.
Bipartisan proposals to update the legislation, the 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act, have languished in both chambers for years. Administrations have discretion to change requirements for implementing FISMA as long as they abide the intent of the law. “Changing FISMA requirements from a compliance approach that focuses on process rather than outcomes to one of continuous monitoring is the single most important action OMB can take for cybersecurity,” the report stresses.
Congress and the executive branch agree that a new law is needed to explicitly mandate automatic testing for threats and end compliance with fixed standards. But infighting over legislation to protect private sector networks has blocked all cyber-related measures.
“Whether or not [Congress’] efforts succeed, substantial improvement can be achieved by updating policies and guidance within the current statutory framework,” the report states. The Obama administration plans to hand down an executive order implementing new cybersecurity policies for both federal agencies and industry computers running critical infrastructure but the timing is unclear.
Continuous Risk Monitoring
In the report, the term “continuous monitoring” refers to running software programs that observe network behavior to generate data that enables agencies to measure risks, and then take rapid action to resolve problems.
“We recommend that continuous monitoring and mitigation strategies form the basis for the guidance for cybersecurity provided by A-130,” the authors state. Other former OMB officials who contributed to the report include Dan Chenok, OMB branch chief for information policy and technology from 1990 to 2003, and Frank Reeder, who served the agency for 20 years, starting in 1970. CSIS senior fellow James A. Lewis, who advises the president and Congress on cyber threats, also co-wrote the report.
Agencies currently are calculating IT budgets for fiscal 2013. The recommendations are silent on dollar figures for continuous monitoring, but the authors concede “there will be some costs involved in this migration for which agencies need to plan,” noting that “A-130 should recognize that reality.” They add that continuous monitoring, once activated should decrease spending because “it eliminates the financial waste associated with thick audit reports that are out of date long before they are published.”
Co-contributor Alan Paller, research director of the SANS Institute, a computer security research center, said he classifies A-130 as the document that “causes all the waste in spending and causes the weak security in most agencies.”
The advent of DHS
A-130 has other flaws impeding security, the study states. The policy was written at a time when the Homeland Security Department did not exist, high-level protections for “national security systems” did not extend to sensitive civilian agency systems, and Web service providers did not touch federal data. Tuesday’s report suggests adding several provisions to update these anachronisms.
In a 2010 memo, OMB assigned DHS to oversee federal cybersecurity operations, but that strategy “can only work if the department can build on its recent successes and if A-130 reinforces this by laying out explicitly the DHS role in implementing FISMA,” the former officials write.
The circular should give Homeland Security the responsibility to prioritize security controls in a way that helps agencies institute continuous monitoring; analyze common risks; provide inspectors general with lists of baseline controls and priorities; and establish procedures for collaborating with the Pentagon’s National Security Agency and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop cohesive guidance on deploying continuous monitoring and response.
To fix the “national security system” loophole, the report recommends that protections be based “on level of risk rather than agency source” -- in other words, based on the sensitivity of the information in the system. Right now, national security systems only include machines supporting intelligence and cryptologic operations, military command and control, weapons, and other efforts essential to the Pentagon and three-letter agencies.
In addition, the former officials said A-130 should focus on securing data, rather than just securing systems. The policy should move “from a technology-based (system, major application) to an information-based regime,” but not discount the need to still vet hardware, they write. “Agencies are ultimately accountable for protecting the information and processes for which they are stewards, whether they are on agency-operated infrastructure or in the cloud, and the policies need to reflect that.”
(Image via dencg/Shutterstock.com)A Lakeview man who teaches grade school punched his dog to death because it refused to get into a bathtub after it “ate every piece of paper” in the house and soiled itself, police said.
Derek Fierro, 25, was charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, a felony, police said. He is a teacher at Eugene Field Elementary School in the 7000 block of North Ashland Avenue, according to police and Chicago Public Schools records.
Fierro, who lives in the 500 block of West Roscoe Street, called 911 about 3 a.m. and asked police to meet him at Roscoe and North Broadway, Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Laura Kubiak said.
When officers arrived, he told them the dog was in trunk of his car and gave police the keys, Kubiak said. Officers checked it and found the male yellow dog. Fierro was crying when police arrived and said he was sorry about killing his dog, Kubiak said.
Fierro adopted the dog from the Chicago Canine Rescue Foundation last October, according to Lisa Klotnia, the foundation's founder. The dog -- a yellow lab chow mix -- was several months old when adopted and had been named Doc because he was part of a litter of seven puppies. The dog was renamed "Queso" according to the foundation's records.
"We reviewed his application, he came to meet Doc and we even did a home visit with him," Klotnia said. "He seemed like a nice and normal guy.
"We try to be part of the dog's life," she said through tears. "If we're ever needed, we let people know were here. That's why it's so devastating. We would have gladly taken this dog back if he was having any problems."
She described Doc as a "real mutt," part Labrador retriever, chow and maybe Alaskan huskie, Klotnia said. "Our hope is to give them a new home and we failed. He was a wonderful little pup."
She said the foundation is reaching out to police to retrieve the dog's remains and have them cremated.
CPS Inspector General James Sullivan said his office will investigate the incident, which could lead to disciplinary action against the teacher. Sullivan said his office always investigates cases where a district employee is arrested and charged with a “serious crime.”
Tribune reporter Joel Hood contributed to this story.
pnickeas@tribune.com
Twitter: @peternickeasSlacktivist vegetarians and vegans have been writing strongly worded tweets after the Bank of England confirmed that there are animal fats in the new polymer £5 notes.
The plastic fivers were introduced earlier this year to replace the UK’s battered and disintegrating stocks of paper £5 notes.
While at the time the bank was keen to talk about how robust and harder-to-forge the new placcy notes would be, various scamps have since put them through washing machines, shrunk them in intense heat and even used them as car windscreen de-icers.
Now, however, the Bank of England has fallen foul of veggie-eaters and their fellow travellers after admitting that rendered beef fat is used in production of the new notes.
@SteffiRox there is a trace of tallow in the polymer pellets used in the base substrate of the polymer £5 notes — Bank of England (@bankofengland) November 28, 2016
The Twitter admission that the polymer used in the new fivers contains traces of tallow, rendered beef or mutton fat, caused instant uproar among those who deprive themselves of meat and meat-based treats.
An inevitable change.org petition has been set up and signed by around 5,000 superior individuals at the time of writing.
One petitioner wrote: “It may only be a trace amount, but it's still an unnecessary waste of life. It's also forcing the responsibility of death of the animals used to manufacture these notes upon every individual that uses them, ie [sic] most of the population of England.”
The usual outrage promptly erupted on Twitter and this was one of the saner remarks:
@bankofengland @SteffiRox Gives a whole new meaning to the term "blood money" Horrified to discover this - absolutely appalling! 😧 — Atina🌱 (@AtinaTweets) November 28, 2016
Back in 2001, McDonalds faced a £70m lawsuit after it was discovered to have been using beef fat for pre-frying its chips prior to sending them to its fast food outlets. A mob in India smashed up a restaurant as a result, according to the Daily Telegraph. ®DAVID MCNEW via Getty Images An Ehang 184 autonomous personal helicopter is displayed during the 2017 Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jan. 6, 2017.
Flying taxis and other futuristic passenger vehicles are about to take a giant leap out of science fiction and into reality.
It’s not exactly the vision of the “Back To The Future” film trilogy, which predicted that by 2015 we’d fill the skies with flying cars and get around on personal anti-gravity hoverboards.
But it turns out the movies may have just been a few years off. Singapore plans to have airborne cabs taking flight by 2030, according to the island city-state’s Business Times daily newspaper.
Singapore’s Ministry of Transport Permanent Secretary Pang Kin Keong said he’s in talks with tech companies to begin trials to create drones to carry passengers.
Three companies on tap to manufacture the drones include a Russian-made Hoversurf Scorpion, the German Volocopter VC and China’s autonomous aerial device Ehang 184, pictured at the top of this story and in the video below.
The electric-powered Ehang 184, with its four arms with eight mounted propellers and weighing 440 pounds, can transport a person for about 23 minutes ― covering a distance of 10 miles at a maximum height of just over 11,000 feet. The passenger would merely punch in a location on a control pad and Ehang 184 does the rest.
Single-person taxi drones aren’t the only ultra modern transportation mode on Singapore’s drawing board. They’re also looking to create driverless buses that carry multiple passengers.
Pang revealed both of these concepts at the Business Times Leaders’ Forum this week.
“There is going to be a significant shift in the public mindset from one of ownership of transport assets ― which is the mindset today ― to one of procurement of transport services as and when you need them,” Pang told the 400 forum attendees.
But you won’t have to wait until 2030 for Singapore’s launch of the Ehang 184. Dubai is preparing to roll out that high tech drone this summer, according to Fortune.com.
Dabitk/Technology News / YouTube After many test flights of the Ehang 184 driverless drone taxi, it is scheduled to be introduced in Dubai this July.
“Ehang 184 has enough room for a small suitcase and will be controlled through 4G mobile Internet,” Fortune reports. “It is able to carry a single passenger who weighs less than 220 pounds over short distances at 62 miles per hour with a fully-charged battery.”31 Aug 2017
As both VR and Minecraft are both being talked about alot right now I thought I might write this tutorial. Circumstances came together in just the right way such that I found myself being paid to put together a Minecraft project. The server is not really the focus of this post as much as how I put together the media for it’s website, including a simulated virtual reality embed. The project is currently still up (though it’s future is in question).
First and foremost you’re going to need Minecraft installed with a single player version (essentially a local copy) of the world you want to take the panorama from. If you’re trying to do this with a multi-player world you’re going to have to basically get a copy of the world files and paste them into your game directory (it should show up in the single player option). Once you have a local world with a scene you want to render a panorama from you’ll need to download Chunky to do most of the heavy lifting. (Chunky requires JAVA and is cross-platform. Definitely note the installation and getting started guides on the Chunky home page.) If the Chunky launcher doesn’t automatically detect your Minecraft directory you’ll have to select it manually.
The guide doesn’t go too in-depth about how to use the Chunky interface. On the left is the scene selection map, where you select an area to render (via a set of red grid-based indicators) on a low-res top-down representation of your Minecraft world. You’ll almost always need a larger area than you expect.
Chunky Scene Selection window
To step into the scene and configure it you’ll want to go to “3D Render” then “New Scene”. A few things will happen, a set of Render Controls/Render Preview windows will open and the scene selection map will have an indicator showing the current “camera” and it’s field of vision.
Chunky Render Controls window
At this point you’ll probably have to edit your selection in the scene selection map and re-render it via hitting “Load selected chunks”. Any white vaguely static-like area is an empty unrendered area within the camera’s field of view. In the Render Controls window the “Camera” tab will let you fine-tune the camera’s position via the “Position & Orientation” drop-down. Note that if you’re trying to simulate a character’s viewpoint in the world you’ll have to tweak the position (Chunky will render the viewpoint you see in the preview). You can right-click in the Scene selection window to move the camera or select all visible chunks. Additionally you may or may want to play with the settings under the “Lighting” tab. Specifically enabling “emitters” to allow anything that casts light, like lamps etc. You’ll probably be rendering a scene multiple times trying to get it right.
Finally, before you start the render and produce the scene there are some required settings. Under the “General” tab the “Canvas size” will need to be powers of 2 at a 2:1 aspect ratio. That will likely mean something like 2048x1024 (probably use this one) or even 4096x2048 (don’t use spaces in the “canvas size” drop-down). Under the Camera tab, the “Projection mode” needs to be “Panoramic (equirectangular)” and the “Field of view (zoom)” setting needs to be at 180. Under Position & Orientation the middle value should be -90. (The Render Preview window will change to reflect your settings.) At the bottom of any/all tabs is the “Target SPP” setting, which is essentially how much work should be done to render the scene. The higher the number the more work done and the more detailed (and likely better looking) the render. I tend to arbitrarily set mine at 5000, which takes my work laptop (MacBook Pro, 2.5 GHz i7) a little more than 3 hours depending on light sources. The play button will start the render, and you’ll see it happen in real-time in the Render Preview window.
Chunky Render Preview window
Final scene render
Once you’ve rendered the image you’ll find it in the scene directory, the “General” tab has a “Open scene directory” shortcut.
There are a series of libraries we might use to usefully simulate a VR environment in a webpage, but my preferred method is via Google’s VR View as it works well on mobile devices and Google’s own virtual reality hardware. Google’s tutorial is mostly straight forward, but I’ll briefly reiterate the steps here.
While Google does provide the VR View JavaScript library to link to directly you’ll likely want to download and build the library yourself (which you’ll need Node.js to do) to link to locally, as some browsers have trouble with content from mixed origins. After unzipping the archive inside the folder you’ll want to run npm install and, assuming that everything installs correctly, then npm run build. The build command should assemble the files needed for the JavaScript library to construct the iframe that powers the VR View. For that reason I’d recommend you save yourself the headache and just copy the whole unzipped folder over to your hosting space (you can rename it to whatever you’d like). At this point you’ll want to include build/vrview.js in your footer, followed by a script to initialize the VR View. It should look something like:
window.addEventListener('load', onVrViewLoad) function onVrViewLoad() { var vrView = new VRView.Player('#vrview', { image:'relative/path/to/image' }); }Pop Culture is huge in Appalachia too - hear more about Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, Celebrity Apprentice and more!
It's Thanksgiving week! Let's take a break from politics and talk pop culture.
In "Game of Thrones," siblings Cersei and Jamie Lannister enjoy a loving and suportive relationship. But Front Porch host Laurie Lin can't get past the "ick" factor.
Host Rick Wilson is rooting for the zombies in "The Walking Dead" - why?
And, what is the perfect coal Haiku?
Find out these answers, and what "Hillbilly Nerd Talk" is! In this Front Porch podcast.
Welcome to “The Front Porch,” where we tackle the tough issues facing Appalachia the same way you talk with your friends on the porch. Subscribe via iTunes
Hosts include WVPB Executive Director and recovering reporter Scott Finn; conservative lawyer, columnist and rabid "Sherlock" fan Laurie Lin; and liberal columnist and avid goat herder Rick Wilson, who works for the American Friends Service Committee.
An edited version of “The Front Porch” airs Fridays at 4:50 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s radio network, and the full version is available at wvpublic.org and as a podcast as well.
Share your opinions with us about these issues, and let us know what you'd like us to discuss in the future. Send a tweet to @radiofinn or @wvpublicnews, or e-mail Scott at sfinn @ wvpublic.org
The Front Porch is underwritten by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Gazette-Mail. Find the latest news, traffic and weather on its CGM App. Download it in your app store, and check out its website: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/via NFL.com
There has been a lot of speculation that there will be at least one NFL team, perhaps the St. Louis Rams, moving to Los Angeles at some point in the next few years. Knowing that, the NFL may already be preparing for a move to happen.
A reader over at Field of Schemes was apparently doing some investigative work and stumbled across something interesting on the NFL's website. There is already a page set up for an "LA" team:
via NFL.com
Note: The page was removed by 5:40 p.m. ET on May 4, just a few hours after this article was published.
Some of you may wonder if that page is more for historical purposes, considering that "Anaheim Stadium" is listed as the team's stadium. The old Los Angeles Rams played in Los Angeles for nearly 50 years and played at Anaheim Stadium from 1980 to 1994 (or before the Internet ever took off).
However, if you click on the link for the team's ticketing page, it takes you to a page that allows you to purchase tickets to each of the Rams' 2015 home games:
via NFL.com
The plot thickens.
The Rams have been the team most linked to Los Angeles, so it might make St. Louis fans concerned to see an L.A. page already in place. Who knows when the page was set up, but it will only add fuel to the fire of the talk that the Rams are leaving St. Louis.
[NFL.com, h/t Shutdown Corner]*Correction appended
Deep in the heart of rural, southeast Texas, a family living in public housing meant for low-income families has a total household income of $285,971 a year.
In Olney, Texas — near Wichita Falls — a family receiving taxpayer subsidies to pay rent makes $227,709, while another family residing in public housing in Pineland on the eastern edge of the state makes $184,499.
Those are the most extreme examples of Texas families living in public housing even though their incomes far exceed the caps to qualify for discounted rent. The pattern is prevalent across Texas, which is the state with the second-highest number of “over-income” families living in public housing, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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A recent audit of HUD’s public housing program for 2014 and 2015 found more than 25,000 families living in public housing nationwide that made more than the income limit to qualify for rent subsidies. Of those, 1,056 live in Texas.
Many of those families make just a few hundred dollars more than the income limit, which is set by HUD depending on an area's median income. But about 41 percent of over-income families in Texas make $10,000 or more above the income limit, while almost one in five over-income families make $20,000 or more above the caps, according to a state-specific breakdown of audit data obtained by The Texas Tribune.
The over-income families in Texas make up a small portion of the 44,700 families in public housing. But the scrutiny of the program comes at a time when waiting lists are growing longer as the state faces a shortage of public housing.
Over-income families are allowed to stay in public housing because they must only meet the income limit at the time they apply for assistance. And HUD policy does not limit how long families may remain once their income exceeds this limit.
In light of the audit’s finding, HUD spokesman Jereon Brown said in a statement, the department is working to encourage housing authorities to establish policies that would reduce the number of over-income families.
“We are directly engaged in conversations with the housing authorities identified within the audit as having residents who were over the income limit,” Brown said. “We anticipate issuing additional guidance on the topic this fall and working with local housing authorities to provide greater opportunity for more families.”
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In Texas, the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso has the highest number of over-income families with 82 households. The El Paso family with the largest disparity between their income limit — based on the number of people in a household — made $79,716 a year, $43,566 over the income limit.
The Houston Housing Authority came in second with 46 over-income families. The highest over-income family in Houston made $94,923 a year — $52,273 over the income limit.
In early September, HUD officials sent letters to local housing authorities reiterating the discretion they have over housing policies, but encouraging them to adopt policies that would limit “the most egregious over-income cases from continuing to reside in public housing.”
Officials with the El Paso housing authority did not respond to a request for comment.
In Houston, Brian Gage, a senior policy advisor for the housing authority, described the audit as a “disappointing misunderstanding” of the city's program. As families’ incomes grow, they pay more rent and the housing authority requires less federal subsidies to operate the program, Gage said.
“As long as you’re admitted into the program, we weren’t going to forcibly evict families from their home because they increased their income incrementally over time,” Gage said, adding that the federal government has allowed housing authorities to push for mixed-income integration in public housing and not penalize families “for being successful.”
The HUD audit found that most over-income families earned more than the income limit for more than a year and occupied units “while many families were waiting for public housing assistance.”
Low-income housing advocates say the value of keeping over-income families in public housing is more complex than the numbers suggest.
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Many times a family will temporarily take in an additional member whose earnings boost the household income, they said. Some housing authorities allow police officers to live within a public housing development as a crime deterrent, said John Henneberger, co-director of the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service, which helps poor Texans obtain low-income housing.
Housing advocates generally favor having mixed-income families in public housing if possible.
“Public housing and any form of housing assistance is not like food stamps. You don’t get it because you qualify for it. You only get it if you qualify for it and there’s an available unit,” Henneberger said. “We favor the notion of economic integration of public housing, but they also have to provide in another location affordable housing for the poor and not to lose the few units that are still out there.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story used figures for the income of families in Olney, Texas, and Pineland, Texas, that reflected how much they made above the income cap to qualify for public housing instead of their total |
's famously out-there storytelling just wasn't hooking the more fringe anime fans. I've long had a theory that if an anime franchise isn't introduced to Western fans within 15 years of its release, it's probably never going to find a huge audience. This is especially true of pre-digital TV anime, which simply look and feel nothing like anything produced today.
And with that, the heat of the Gundam brand slowly dissipated. The remaining shows in the franchise were of widely varying quality and age, and many prominently featured complicated politics between warring interplanetary nations that don't make for accessible viewing. Fringe fans in the US tend towards character-driven stories, whereas most Universal Century Gundam focuses on politics and war in general pushing the story along, while the characters race to adjust to the new circumstances they find themselves in. It seems like a minor difference, but when characters aren't running the show, things tend to get pretty grim and depressing, in a way that's frustrating and desperate for many viewers. There's a striking difference in how audiences react.
Anime fans back in the mid 90s and earlier may have cut their teeth on mecha shows, but from the 2000s onward, mecha series have been something of a hard sell to American fans. We had a handful that really rose above ( Eureka Seven, Code Geass and Gurren Lagann, among others) but many quality shows that were initially thought to be big deals ended up as either middling ( Gasaraki, Yukikaze ) or outright bombing in the US ( Patlabor, Gravion, Gaogaigar ). It appears that when mecha are front-and-center, only a small subsection of otaku are interested. To get the mainstream fans to show up, the show has to be about the characters. Mecha can be in the background, but can't be too prominent.
I have some small amount of hope for Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE:0096, the TV recut of the highly successful and very high budget OVA series from a few years back. That series looks amazing, is compelling and easy to follow, and also has a good dub (assuming it can be easily retooled for the new edit). Other easy jumping-on points like Gundam Build Fighters could work too, if it gets on television.
But getting fringe fans to pay attention to a show, no matter how good it is, is really really rough. Getting on Toonami or another broadcaster only does so much -- if it doesn't catch fire, there's not a whole lot you can do but try again when another series comes around. Ultimately you can only try so many times before the brand itself is soiled: the name makes people go "oh, that. I don't like that." I hope we aren't at that point with Gundam.
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HOWEVER... CHECK THE ARCHIVES FIRST. I've answered a lot of questions already! Here are some common ones...Barcroft Media via Getty Images Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen from the far-right group Britain First, a pseudo-political activist party that calls itself a "patriotic resistance" that opposes Islam, political correctness and the EU.
The killing of lawmaker Jo Cox this week raises concerns about the far-right fringes of a national debate on immigration and sovereignty in the lead-up to Britain's referendum on the European Union.
The 41-year-old member of Parliament was fatally shot and stabbed on Thursday on the streets of Birstall, northern England. The former aid worker and rising political star was a passionate advocate for immigration. She backed Britain remaining in the EU as the June 23 vote loomed on whether the country should exit Europe's politico-economic union, a move commonly known as a "Brexit."
Thomas Mair, the 52-year-old man charged with her murder, gave his name as “death to traitors, freedom for Britain” when he appeared in a London court on Saturday.
Prosecutors said Mair told police he is a "political activist" and that officers found far-right materials in his house. Mair reportedly had contacts with far-right groups in South Africa and the U.S. in the past. His family said he has a history of mental illness.
Witnesses heard Cox's killer yelling, “Britain first, Keep Britain independent, Britain always comes first,” during the attack. 'Britain first' is a popular slogan among English nationalists and also the name of an active anti-EU, anti-Islam political organization.
Britain First leader Paul Golding denied the group had any connection to Cox's murder in a video statement posted to its Facebook page and website soon after the attack. "We hope that this person who carried it out is strung up by the neck on the nearest lamppost," Golding said in the video.
While it is not yet clear whether Mair had any involvement in the group or other far-right organizations in the U.K., Cox's killing has drawn attention to political extremism in Britain, amid increasingly heated rhetoric in the lead-up to Thursday's EU referendum.
Neil Hall / Reuters British lawmaker Jo Cox was killed on the streets of northern England on Thursday. The man charged with her murder gave his name in court as “Death to traitors, freedom for Britain.”
What is Britain First?
Britain First was founded in 2011 and emerged out of similar far-right British nationalist groups, including the English Defence League and the British National Party. The pseudo-political activist party calls itself a "patriotic resistance" that opposes Islam, political correctness and the EU.
Although Britain First is on the very fringe of U.K. politics, the organization has grown a significant social media following through far-right memes and viral anti-immigration propaganda videos on the refugee crisis. One video shows leader Paul Golding mockingly questioning refugees and migrants in Calais on where they got their mobile phones, trying to portray them as wealthy and not in need of asylum.
In an attempt to gain more publicity, Golding ran for Mayor of London this year and received just over 1 percent of the vote. When London elected Sadiq Khan as its first Muslim mayor in May, Golding turned his back to the podium during the victory speech.
Britain First also tried to exploit the memory of British soldier Lee Rigby in promotional materials during its campaign. Rigby was killed in 2013, after Islamic extremists attacked him near a military barracks in Woolwich, southeast London. The soldier's family condemned the group, stating that "Britain First's views are not what Lee believed in and they have absolutely no support from his family."
The far-right group had become something of a punchline for U.K. news organizations, due to its gaffes and bizarre media output. On a trip to Northern Ireland, members of Britain First mistook a town hall for a mosque and posed in front of it as part of their propaganda. The U.K. Independence Party, a more mainstream anti-EU and anti-immigration political organization, has also shunned advances from Britain First. UKIP says the extremist group is trying to associate itself with the party to gain support.
Beyond the bluster and rhetoric of Britain First, members have also been involved in militant anti-Muslim activism. They've invaded mosques to harass imams and conducted "Christian patrols" in Muslim-majority neighborhoods to incite clashes as part of this strategy.
Carl Court/Getty Images Britain First mayoral candidate, Paul Golding, turns his back as Sadiq Khan, Labour's newly elected London mayor, gives his victory speech. Golding finished eighth out of 12 candidates.
Nationalists Stir Fears Of Immigration
While Golding and Britain First were quick to distance themselves from Cox's murder, her killing has come at a time when anti-EU, anti-immigrant sentiment and political tensions have come to the fore in Britain. As the referendum over a potential British exit from the EU gets closer, far-right political parties have made controversial and divisive appeals to leave the union -- many playing to ethno-nationalist sentiment.
Nationalist parties such as UKIP have stirred up fears about immigration by casting refugees from Africa and the Middle East as potential terrorists or economic chancers, and conflating the refugees journeying through Europe, most of whom will never reach Britain, with EU citizens' migration.
The latest immigration figures show net migration in the U.K. was 330,000 last year, of which 184,000 were EU nationals. Some 41,500 people applied for asylum in Britain in the year leading up to March 2016, most of them from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Eritrea.
Stefan Wermuth / Reuters Hours before Cox was killed, United Kingdom Independence Party leader Nigel Farage Farage unveiled a poster showing a long line of refugees under the banner "Breaking Point."
'Breaking Point'
On Thursday morning, hours before Cox was killed, UKIP leader Nigel Farage unveiled a poster showing a long line of refugees under the banner "Breaking Point." Its captions blamed the EU for migration to the U.K. "As you will see from today's advert, the EU has failed us all," Farage wrote in a British newspaper on Thursday, calling it the largest advertising campaign in the party's history.
The image in the UKIP poster, which Getty Images photographer Jeff Mitchell took in Slovenia in October 2015, does show a crisis for the EU, but a very different one to that which Farage portrays. Hungary's nationalist government shut its border with Croatia that month, pushing thousands of migrants and refugees to journey through Slovenia, hoping to continue north to wealthier and more welcoming nations like Germany and Sweden.
Mitchell's photo captures Slovenian police escorting them to a refugee camp, as the country grappled with the consequences of the Hungarian backlash to the European refugee crisis. It highlights the fall-out of countries shutting borders and acting alone, not the opposite -- as Farage suggests.
"It is always uncomfortable when an objective news photograph is used to deliver any political message or subjective agenda, however the image in question has been licensed legitimately," Getty Images said in a statement to the WorldPost.
Critics of UKIP also pointed out that their newest campaign bears a strong resemblance to Nazi propaganda.
Your new poster resembles outright Nazi propaganda, @Nigel_Farage. Thanks to @brendanjharkin for pointing it out. pic.twitter.com/Rd89XZSvfD — Connor Beaton (@zcbeaton) June 16, 2016
UKIP's Farage also suggested last month that there could be violence if immigration isn't controlled and citizens feel they don't have a political voice. He also claimed that the Labour Party backed immigration to "rub our noses in diversity."
Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Spreads
Other parties have also played on fears of foreigners and immigration, including the far-right British National Party, which circulated inaccurate statements that more than 80 million Turkish people will "pour" into Europe as a result of Merkel's EU policies.
Even mainstream British politicians have been accused of anti-immigration scaremongering. The Vote Leave campaign, led by British justice secretary and Conservative MP Michael Gove, in March published a list of murders and rapes it said EU citizens had committed in Britain.
In his video defending Britain First against any connection to Cox's attacker, Golding inadvertently summed up the kind of rhetoric that has become common during the Brexit campaign.
"It's the name of our party, yes, but I've heard UKIP people, I've heard Nigel Farage, everyone say it's time we put Britain first. It's the kind of language that's been utilized during this referendum campaign."
British politicians have warned of the dangers of such escalating rhetoric in the wake of Cox's death.
“Unless we strive for a culture of respect to replace a culture which does too little to challenge prejudice, we will be learning nothing from what happened to Jo,” former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wrote in the Guardian after Cox was killed.
Charlotte Alfred contributed reporting.Now that second Boston bombing suspect has been apprehended, there are still lots of unanswered questions swirling. One of them is whether or not he has been read his Miranda rights, which are designed to protect a suspect's Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights under the US Constitution. The answer as of this writing that the bombing suspect is not being read his rights. "There is a public safety exemption in cases of national security and potential charges involving acts of terrorism," said US Attorney Carmen Ortiz at a press conference tonight, "And so the government has that opportunity right now, though I believe that the suspect has been taken to a hospital."
So far, Dzokhar Tsarnaev has not been read his rights
Talking Points Memo confirmed with an official at the Department of Justice that so far Dzokhar Tsarnaev has not been read his rights, so that the DOJ could "question the suspect extensively about other potential explosive devices or accomplices and to gain critical intelligence."
The public safety exception has existed since 1984, when the Supreme Court ruled that in very limited cases, law enforcement could question a suspect about imminent threats before reading Miranda rights. Those rules became established law, and in February 2011, the FBI itself published an extensive review of the public safety exception. In it, the FBI said that "questions designed solely to elicit incriminating statements" fell outside the public safety exception and that Miranda applied to them.
"Such interrogation might include, for example, questions about possible impending or coordinated terrorist attacks."
However, the Obama administration has long pushed for an expanded interpretation of the public safety exception. In March of 2011, a memo from the FBI leaked to the New York Times which "encouraged agents to use a broad interpretation of public safety-related questions." It generally instructs agents to limit their questioning to issues of "immediate concern for the safety of the public or the arresting agents," but does grant that there are "exceptional cases" in which "continued unwarned interrogation is necessary to collect valuable and timely intelligence not related to any immediate threat." In those cases, agents are told to seek higher approval whenever possible.
The determination whether particular unwarned questions are justified on public safety grounds must always be made on a case-by-case basis based on all the facts and circumstances. In light of the magnitude and complexity of the threat often posed by terrorist organizations, particularly international terrorist organizations, and the nature of their attacks, the circumstances surrounding an arrest of an operational terrorist may warrant significantly more extensive public safety interrogation without Miranda warnings than would be permissible in an ordinary criminal case. Depending on the facts, such interrogation might include, for example, questions about possible impending or coordinated terrorist attacks; the location, nature, and threat posed by weapons that might post an imminent danger to the public; and the identities, locations, and activities or intentions of accomplices who may be plotting additional imminent attacks.
At this time, with Tsarnaev in the hospital, it's not clear what questions law enforcement has put to him. We also don't yet have answers about whether the government intends to limit their pre-Miranda questions solely to issue of immediate threats to the public or whether it believes this is one of those "exceptional cases" that merits questioning that goes beyond imminent threats.
There's also the later question of how exactly Tsarnaev will be tried. The going presumption is that it will be in a criminal court, but earlier today Senator Lindsey Graham began agitating for a military trial. In a joint statement with Senator John McCain, Graham expanded on his call for what he calls the "enemy combatant option."
Under the Law of War we can hold this suspect as a potential enemy combatant not entitled to Miranda warnings or the appointment of counsel. Our goal at this critical juncture should be to gather intelligence and protect our nation from further attacks. We remain under threat from radical Islam and we hope the Obama Administration will seriously consider the enemy combatant option.
However, Tsarnaev is a US citizen and is most likely going to be tried as such — and the public safety exception to Miranda theoretically gives law enforcement some latitude to address terrorism concerns within that system. Hopefully, more details on what exactly the judicial process is going to look like will come out soon, and presumably it will include reading Tsarnaev his Miranda rights at some point.Spread the love
Jersey City, NJ – An NYPD officer executing a search in the hunt for a robbery suspect accidentally shot a U.S. marshal in the foot when he fired at a dog that he said was attacking the federal agent, according to police sources.
The officer that shot the federal agent is believed to be a member of the U.S. Marshals Service’s New York/New Jersey Fugitive Task Force, according to the New York Post.
The incident occurred as the task force was searching for a 25-year-old robbery suspect who they believed was hiding out in a residence.
The dog is alleged to have charged the officers on the scene, biting a U.S. marshal. However, as TFTP has reported on countless occasions, officers often claim dogs charge them when the reality is quite to the contrary.
It’s at this point that the NYPD officer opened fire, striking and killing the dog, and in the process shot the agent in the foot.
The U.S. marshal was taken to an area hospital for treatment.
The robbery suspect, who was wanted for a robbery in New York City, was apprehended successfully.
Police are currently investigating the shooting.
As The Free Thought Project has reported, the phenomenon of police opening fire on dogs in neighborhoods where residents are susceptible to being shot is nothing new.
Many of these incidents are caught on Body Cam, such as when an Ohio officer called out to a dog to come to him and then shot and killed him in July, or when a Texas officer entered a family’s backyard and shot and killed their dog in front of them in August.
Ironically, the U.S. marshal is also fortunate to only have been shot in the foot as the NYPD officer opened fire on the dog, especially when compared to others in similar situations.
Take for example the tragic case of Autumn Steele.
Court records indicate that Steele was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of domestic abuse. After being released from jail, she was informed that she could not return to her residence to gather her belongings without a police escort.
After returning to her home with a required police escort, her husband, Gabriel Steele was loading their 4-year-old son into a vehicle. Autumn Steele left the residence, followed by the family dog, and got into an altercation with her husband.
Upon seeing the disturbance, the police escort attempted to intervene.
Witnesses claim the family dog was being playful—but the officer apparently felt threatened, which prompted him to pull his firearm and begin shooting at the dog.
One of those shots struck Steele in the chest.
“The dog startled the officer. The officer began shooting at the dog. The officer was still shooting when he fell down in the snow,” one witness told The Hawk Eye Newspaper.
“It appeared he was shooting at the dog when (the officer) fell to the ground. It’s my belief the woman was shot accidentally,” said another witness.
Subsequently, Steele was taken to an area hospital where she died of her gunshot wound.
While the U.S. marshal was fortunate to only have been shot in the foot, both cases highlight gross police incompetence. When officers aren’t properly trained to deal with situations such as these, tragedy is often the outcome.
While tasked with the authority to carry a deadly weapon in all situations, this heavy responsibility is often disregarded, with innocent civilians — as well as other officers — becoming victims in the process.Russian President offered his best Christmas wishes to all Orthodox Christians; Orthodox Christmas is celebrated on January 7 in accordance with the Julian calendar.
VORONEZH, January 7 (Sputnik) — Russian President Vladimir Putin wished all Orthodox Christians a merry Christmas; the holiday is celebrated on January 7 by most Russians, in accordance with the Julian calendar.
© Sputnik / Alexei Druzhinin Putin Addresses the Nation With Annual New Year's Speech
The president celebrated this year's Christmas in the village of Otradnoye near the southern Russian city of Voronezh, where he attended a service at the local Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin.
Putin personally thanked the church's rector, Archpriest Gennady Zaridze, for his efforts in restoring the church and the church-run orphanage.
The president also visited the local parish house, which has housed some 980 refugees from Ukraine's Donbas since an armed conflict broke out in the region in April.
The Otradnoye church was built more than a century ago but closed in 1930 and was used as a grain storage facility until 1991, when it was transferred back to the diocese and restoration began.An international team of physicists conceded in a study published yesterday that they’re baffled by the strange elastic behavior of wrestling ring ropes.
“It appears that ring ropes possess some heretofore unknown type of elasticity, given the unprecedented rebound forces they exhibit,” explained Prof. Edmond Fung of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a co-author of the paper.
More from Kayfabe News
“We simply do not understand why an Irish whip to the ropes causes a wrestler to rebound with equal, and often greater, force than can be predicted mathematically.”
Fung explained that ring ropes — taut steel cable wrapped in colored tape — should absorb much of a wrestler’s momentum, thereby causing relatively little “bounceback.”
“But what we’re seeing is the opposite,” Fung says. “When thrown to the ropes, wrestlers seem to gain momentum — as if they’re powerless to resist the forces propelling them. It’s almost cartoon-like. I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it with my own eyes.”
The “bounceback effect” is just one of many puzzling attributes of ring ropes to have vexed the physics community.
“We don’t yet understand why Andre the Giant got his arms tied-up in the ropes so frequently, or why he had such difficulty freeing himself,” said Fung.
Fung continued: “Nor do we comprehend how bouncing off the ropes somehow increases the effectiveness of the People’s Elbow, the Five-Knuckle Shuffle or other such moves. What advantage does the Undertaker gain from walking along the top rope like a highwire act, as opposed to simply leaping from the turnbuckle? We just don’t know.”
The research team plans to continue working on the question of ring rope elasticity, and even tackle the most perplexing phenomenon: the “criss-cross” move, in which two wrestlers run in perpendicular directions across the breadth of the ring, bouncing off the ropes several times each for no apparent reason.
“It just makes no sense,” said Fung. “The math does not add up.”Cloudchaser has been sold almost immediately after I posted her, so she is not available anymore but please remember that you can always commission one for yourself (lying down or standing, I love her design and despite her troublesome hair I'll be really happy to make her again!with Flitter would be even more awesome, I have never made her! ). Other characters in dreamy pose are also welcome!At this moment my commissions are closed but most likely I will start working with constantly open commission list soon, when I finish Queen Chrysalis and Rara commissions so follow my journal if you are interested!__________________________________________________________She is approx. 24" long and 12" tall ( I may measure her if requested).She is made out of lavender, snow white and baby blue Shannon minkys. Her eyes and cutie marks are machine embroidered (white parts of eyes and small stars of her cutie mark glow in the dark!). Eyes are designed by me.She and Sunset Shimmer were created while I was working on prototype of lifesize Fluttershy. I thought that making this dreamy pose instead of regular lying down pose would be a cool idea and I am super happywith results! And why Cloudchaser? Because I love her pattern so much and it's been soooooo long since I made my last Cloudchaser plushie! I hope you'll like her!If you'd like to see more pictures of her, I posted lots of them (including GID effect) on my facebook fanpage:× Immigration and Customs Enforcement surprise inspection at Urban Outfitters
GAP, Pa. – Heavily armed Homeland Security officers make a surprise inspection at Urban Outfitters huge fulfillment center in Gap, Lancaster County Wednesday afternoon. A relative of an employee said that her daughter and other employees were to told to go to the break/lunch room and then were allowed to leave.
Wednesday evening a company spokesperson released an email concerning the incident:
“URBAN distribution facilities located in Gap, Pa, were recently designated as a foreign trade zone. As a condition of receiving foreign trade zone status, such facilities are subject to inspections without prior notice by Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICE). The Gap Fulfillment Center was the subject of a routine, unscheduled inspection today. The inspection revealed that all was in order and no citiations were issued.”
The URBAN operation in Gap has both Retail Distribution and Online Fulfillment Centers. Opened in 1996 as one 100,000 square foot building, the operation has grown into a complex with two centers – a 300,000 square foot facility servicing the retail stores, and across the street a state-of-the-art one million square foot building servicing online customers. Nearly 700 people are employed.Looking for news you can trust?
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Dick Cheney hasn’t made much time for television appearances lately. But in the weeks since the Deepwater Horizon unleashed a torrent of oil on the Gulf of Mexico, his name has been creeping back into the press. “The truth is that right now we have precisely the regulatory system that the Bush-Cheney administration wanted: full of loopholes, full of cronies and lobbyists filling the very agencies that are supposed to be overseeing the industry,” liberal commentator Arianna Huffington said on ABC’s This Week last Sunday. Cheney’s daughter, Liz, was on hand to defend her father. “Arianna, I don’t know what planet you live on,” she shot back. “What you are saying has no relationship to the truth, no relationship to the facts.”
The reality is a lot more complicated than that. Many of the policy and regulatory failures that laid the groundwork for the BP catastrophe can be traced back to the Bush-Cheney era. But so far, this question has received relatively little attention—mostly because the task force that developed the former administration’s energy policy operated in extreme secrecy. Did the task force’s decisions play a role in the BP spill? And could the Gulf disaster finally provoke new scrutiny of the task force’s clandestine workings?
The energy task force was created days after onetime oilman George W. Bush took office in 2001, and was headed by Cheney, a former CEO at Halliburton, one of the world’s largest providers of oilfield products and services. For months, the task force solicited input on US energy policy. On May 16, 2001, the group issued its final report, which was submitted to Congress in June. But the participants and details of the discussions were kept tightly under wraps.
The open-government group Judicial Watch tried to pry details of the task force’s deliberations from the administration in June, arguing that the sessions qualified as public information under the Federal Advisory Committee Act and the open-meetings law. The US General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, also sought information on which industry executives and lobbyists had attended the gatherings.
But in the first of many clashes over presidential secrecy, the White House rejected those requests, arguing that it was entitled to conduct the meetings behind closed doors thanks to executive privilege. Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club sued, but the Supreme Court ultimately sided with the administration. Though some information has trickled out in the years since, the vast majority of the task force’s deliberations remain hidden from the public eye.
Here’s what we know about the task force and offshore drilling. The Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, was able to obtain 13,500 pages of heavily redacted documents that gave a glimpse into the role industry leaders played in shaping the administration’s policies (NRDC also got a list of the documents (PDF) that the administration refused to turn over). In July 2007, the Washington Post got a list of the roughly 300 groups and individuals who met with task force staffers and, in some cases, Cheney himself.
BP officials were among those who “gave detailed energy policy recommendations” to the administration, though when that fact came to light, the company refused to comment on those meetings. We still don’t know what specific policy areas BP execs weighed in on. Perhaps it’s little surprise that BP recently hired Cheney’s former press secretary, a public defender of the secret task force, to help the company with crisis communication after the spill.
But we do have a few more details about other oil industry players in the talks. Chevron’s CEO contributed a detailed list(PDF) of ways in which the government could “eliminate federal barriers to increased energy supplies”—many of which were incorporated in the task force’s final report. This included recommendations to ease federal permitting rules for energy development and a request that the administration support opening up new areas of the eastern Gulf of Mexico for offshore oil and gas development. Doing so, wrote Chevron CEO David O’Reilly, would “demonstrate a commitment to reject unjustified opposition to new energy leasing and development.”
The American Petroleum Institute offered its own long list of suggestions for energy policy. A March 20, 2001, email from API to an official at the Energy Department included a draft executive order calling for all federal agencies to issue a detailed statement on any regulatory action that “adversely affects energy supply, distribution or use.” It was nearly identical to the order Bush issued just two months later.
Many of the recommendations from the task force report were adopted in the 2005 Energy Policy Act. That legislation provided $6 billion in subsidies for oil and gas development. Royalty payments for oil and gas development were waived in several regions of the US. Some companies were allowed to pay royalties with oil, rather than money—a less transparent system that was more vulnerable to abuse. The bill also provided $1.5 billion in direct payments to companies to incentivize drilling in deepwater wells, and curtailed the power of states to oversee oil and gas exploration off their coasts under the Coastal Zone Management Act.
In addition, the bill weakened environmental protections for offshore drilling, making it easier to exclude a broad range of exploration and drilling activities from analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act. This has been cited as the reason that the Deepwater Horizon site was not subjected to a thorough environmental analysis.
The task force’s final report also presented a rosy picture of the offshore drilling industry. Newer oil and gas drilling methods, it said, “practically eliminate spills from offshore platforms” and “enhance worker safety, lower risk of blowouts, and provide better protection of groundwater resources.” The report advocated lifting the moratorium on portions of the outer continental shelf, noting that “concerns over the potential impacts of oil spills have been a major factor behind imposition of the OCS moratoria.” Bush lifted the executive moratorium in 2008, and the Democratic-controlled Congress allowed its own moratorium to expire.
But there’s a lot we still don’t know. The task force recommendations included scaling back regulations and oversight of offshore drilling while expanding incentive programs and access to resources, many of which would come to pass in future legislation. But how much the task force may have guided decisions at federal agencies—in particular the notoriously lax Minerals Management Service (MMS)—is unclear. The administration’s directives across the agencies actively discouraged any regulations or oversight that might hinder development of resources.
Among the many questions is what role the task force may have played in a 2003 decision by the MMS not to require offshore rigs to install an acoustic shut-off switch, a remote-controlled backup system that seals off an underwater well even if the rig above is destroyed. Countries like Norway and Brazil require this precaution, and MMS considered doing the same. But oil companies complained that the $500,000 devices were too expensive and, they argued, ineffective. Ultimately, MMS made the switches optional. The Deepwater Horizon was not outfitted with such a device, which could have prevented the spill. Other concerns include a failure to implement new cementing policies or act on known concerns about key components on drilling rigs.
The Department of Justice has launched criminal and civil investigations into the disaster, while a presidential commission is looking into both the spill and offshore drilling policy in general. That commission currently lacks subpoena power, though there’s an effort underway in Congress to grant the commission that power. Numerous congressional committees have also launched probes of the spill. A congressional aide working for one of those committees indicated that there has been some discussion of revisiting the task force in those investigations, though no concrete steps to do so have been taken.
Open government advocates say this might be the appropriate time to push for more information about his task force. Mandy Smithberger, an investigator at the Project on Government Oversight, says that it’s “definitely a ripe time” to find out more about what went on in the meetings. “I don’t think you can understand how we got to where we are without looking back,” she says.
“When you have a disaster of this magnitude, it raises the question, if in this whole secretive process, what was discussed, how much did the Bush administration ignore, how much did they allow the oil and gas industry to basically do what they wanted,” says AnneWeismann, chief counsel at Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington. “Secrecy is so pernicious that it can continue to damage even when the administration is not in power.”The Seahawks overcame 13 penalties, including three that brought back Percy Harvin touchdowns (yes, three Harvin touchdowns were reversed by questionable-at-best penalties), and won an ugly game on the road, 27-17 over Washington. Seattle improves to 3-1.
Russell Wilson and the Seahawks' offense struggled in the third quarter but Wilson finished the game 18-of-27 for 201 yards and two touchdowns, and rushed 122 yards and another touchdown on the ground. Wilson finished with a 127 rating and as our own Thomas Beekers pointed out, is now on pace for 7.7 YPA, 70% comp, 3408 yards, 32 TDs, 4 INTs, 836 yards rushing, 4 TDs on the year. That pace likely won't hold of course, but shows you the level he's playing right now.
Wilson's biggest play came on Seattle's final drive, on a key third down, when he evaded the pass rush, spun to his left, then dropped a pass off to Marshawn Lynch to seal the win.
Lynch was on point most of the game as well, but battled lower back issues that kept him out at key points. Lynch finished with 72 yards on 17 carries and added 5 receptions for 45 yards and a key touchdown in the fourth quarter that put the Seahawks up 24-10. Lynch caught a pass from Wilson out of the backfield and broke a tackle before getting into the endzone.
Seattle's defense was stout as well, giving up only 32 rushing yards on 17 attempts, but surrendered 283 passing yards and two touchdowns to Kirk Cousins. Both touchdown passes were breakdowns defensively, one down the sideline to DeSean Jackson where he snuck behind Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman, and another late in the game where Andre Roberts got behind Marcus Burley in zone coverage. Seattle will go back to the drawing board to eliminate those mistakes, but overall, nothing terribly concerning on the defensive side of the ball. Cousins played well enough to keep his team in the game until very late, but Seattle's defense and special teams continually gave Seattle's offense excellent starting field position, an advantage Wilson and his group didn't take advantage of enough.
Bottom line -- a road victory is never a bad thing, and Seattle has to feel good about getting out of Washington without any major injuries to report. Despite discipline issues along the offensive line (repeated false-starts and holding calls) and a few bad luck calls, the Hawks gutted out a win. They'll take it.And yet it is our world, because there's another, parallel tendency in Dylan’s songs: the direct place-name reference. Once the amateur Dylanologist tries to think of some, they flood the brain. “I’ll look for you in old Honolulu/ San Francisco, Ashtabula.” “Born in Red Hook, Brooklyn/ In the year of who knows when.” “Oxford town, Oxford town/ Everybody’s got their head bowed down.” From the personal—“that little Minnesota town”—to the political—“Ever since the British burned the White House down/ There’s a bleeding wound in the heart of town”—Dylan uses place-names to maintain rhythm or rhyme, to reference other works of art, or to evoke certain thoughts and emotions. (We never do learn what it’s like “to be stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again,” though we feel like we do.) It’s only natural, after all, that a man who left tiny Hibbing, Minn. for New York City at age 19, quickly became world-famous, and has spent the last 25 years on a “never-ending” worldwide tour, might have a curious perspective on the concept of place.“I want to give a picture of Dublin so complete that if the city suddenly disappeared from the earth it could be reconstructed out of my book.” – James Joyce on Ulysses
What does this site do? A very good question.
Dublin.ie was designed to celebrate the very essence of Dublin; the people, places and things that make Dublin truly unique as a place to live, work and learn in. It’s all about building a vivid picture of a progressive, diverse and multicultural modern European city and region teeming with character, and characters. Made by the city, for the city.
Here, you’ll witness Dublin from the ground up, from mountains to sea, with a particular focus upon its most valuable asset – its citizens. In a place where everybody has a story to tell, we’re lucky enough to share some of those stories.
Content-wise, you’ll find the information you need as to how Dublin lives, works and learns.
We’re also offering a choice daily mix of curated material, harvested from a variety of different sources – think news, blogs, social media and video – and anchored by specially created material focusing on numerous different aspects of daily Dublin life.
Is this site comprehensive? That’s nigh-upon-impossible in a town that changes daily. It’s hard to keep up. But we’ll try, slowly but steadily, to build a picture of Dublin in all its glory, for your delectation.
But who exactly is it all for?
Ideally, this site can be equally enjoyed by visitors and residents alike, offering something of interest for both, from snapshots of everyday Dublin life to hidden treasures of the capital to event listings to essential information. If we capture but a fraction of the colour and humour and spirit and energy that drives this town, then we’ve succeeded. Feel free to let us know how we’re doing.
If you already live here |
Aisha [Tyler] and Judy Greer – they’re kind of familiar with this type of stardom, y’know, with this type of celebrity, and Amber and Lucky are just like, “what is going on?” Their lives have just been completely changed by Archer and by their characters, and they deserve it. They’re both great people, but mostly those two are the only ones we’ve had the opportunity to work with. Everybody else is in LA and New York and kinda working from a far distance. Hopefully on the fourth we’ll all be together and it’s going to be one-big-happy-family-reunion-type thing.
DL: Do you have any advice for people who are trying to make their way in the music industry today?
JL: HAH! Tell me how to do it when you figure it out, that’s the advice I’ve got. This has been an absolute blessing but there was no secret to it. Y’know, this might lead to something and it might not. The music industry right now is so screwed up and the only thing you can do is stick with it because you love it. If you can figure out how to make some sort of money out of it or you can figure out how to get some sort of fame, all the power to you, but it is just not what it used to be. You can’t be doin’ it because you wanna make the big record and be the next Taylor Swift. You just can’t, because there is no secret method and even if you had all the money in the world to put behind it you could put the best record out there nobody would ever want it. It’s crazy. I just have to say you gotta do it because you love it.
Hopefully this will be some sort of break for me, but I’m just a regular musician with an acoustic guitar, man. I play five gigs a week around Disney and Universal Studios, and I’m doin’ it because I love it. I’m hoping that this will give me some recognition, and I’m starting to pack up my house hear in Orlando and I’m gonna move to Nashville. I’ve got some people up there to make another record with, thanks to the Archer people and the popularity that this show is giving me a little bit of a push – but I still only have like 1300 people on my Facebook page and this is still “Judy Greer” singing this record. There’s just no right way to do the music industry.
So, that’s my advice. Good luck. (Laughs)
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Check out Jessy’s work at her official website. Like her Facebook page, follow her Twitter feed (@JessyLMartens), and subscribe to her Instagram (jessylynnmartens). Cherlene can be purchased on iTunes or Amazon. It is unknown if Cherlene will be released as a tangible record. Jessy is hoping for a vinyl release, and hopes enough fan support and demand might make it happen. Finding Flowers can be purchased on iTunes, Amazon, or CDBaby.Sci-Fi and Fantasy television shows have always offered gay viewers some very attractive futures, supernatural universes, and alternative galaxies, chock-full of tolerant peoples and adorable lesbiwitches. Outside of the limitations imposed by our current political climate, writers and producers can create a context-free world where special things tend to happen, like Willow and Tara: Babylon 5 featured gay marriage; Farscape had a bald, blue plant lady who uncontrollably orgasmed in the sunlight; Stargate‘s second season will feature lesbian IOA officer Camile Wray; and Caprica’s got a gay Tauron assassin and heaps of subtle queerness throughout.
Much of what we now consider standard fare for sci-fi television, like its left-leaning-to-libertarian politics, began with the grandfather of the genre, Star Trek, which celebrates its 44th anniversary this week. You know that Buffy/Spashley/Tibette fan-fic you swap on message boards? Trekkers invented that — mostly as a way to write homosexual Spock/Kirk romps — and, unlike the overall composition of fandom itself, most slash authors were women.
So, in an age of inter-species-polygamous-holosex, one would think that a little fingerblasting would be no big deal. But despite addressing a multitude of social issues like sexism, racism, disability, evolving into squiggly lizards and having squiggly lizard babies – and being the origin of all slash fanfic in the world ever – Star Trek has yet to acknowledge the existence of LGBT people and, in my opinion, has slowly died because of it. What gives?
I know I’m not the first Star Trek fan who’s ever wondered: where are all the gays?
The Original Series (TOS) was pretty groundbreaking for its time: while the American Civil Rights movement was still facing significant struggles and setbacks on the ground, “Lieutenant Uhura,” played by African-American actress Nichelle Nichols, was not only on the bridge of the Enterprise, but even finding time to cop off with Kirk in the first interracial kiss on mainstream US TV.
Nichols’ presence on the show inspired a generation of actors, including Whoopi Goldberg, who appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation. So if the show wasn’t afraid to address racism and representation – which was a pretty bold thing to do at that time – why shy away from homophobia? Is this another case of accepting a show’s liberalism at face value but never asking them to prove it past an initial display of interracial affection? And what does it say about how complacently we’ve been programmed to accept homo-free television even from our most inclusive franchises?
According to gay rights activist George Takei (“Ensign Sulu” from TOS), series creator Gene Roddenberry was totally up for putting a gay character in the original show, but feared the wrath of the studio:
“I asked him, ‘How do you feel about that [gay rights]?’ He said, “This is an important issue and we want to deal with it… [but] our ratings are low and I need to keep the show on the air. All I need is another firestorm and this show will be cancelled. The times will change as we move along, but at this point, I can’t.”
Roddenberry may have had a point there because despite his pussyfooting, the show was cancelled anyway.
Almost a decade after the original went off the air, the franchise returned with Star Trek: The Next Generation and Roddenberry’s assurance that there would be some gay characters.
Sadly, however, Roddenberry passed away during season five, leaving producer Rick Berman at the helm (see what I did there?). Berman was afraid that parents would freak out about their kids watching gays on afternoon reruns and so, under his direction, TNG began what would be a long and illustrious tradition of awkwardly bumbling around gay issues but NEVER DIRECTLY MENTIONING GAY PEOPLE AT ANY COST.
Not shockingly, Star Trek‘s LGBT fans (who adorably call themselves the “Gaylaxians”) don’t feel that gay people have been properly acknowledged in the show’s universe: other than a manipulative evil lesbian kiss here and a smattering of body-swapping romance there, the Gaylaxians have been completely ignored. Star Trek is supposed to be about the future, and instead the lack of LGBT representation on the show betrays it as outdated and narrow-minded.
I present, for your reading pleasure:
My Top Three Gay-But-Not-Really-Gay Moments
in Star Trek: The Next Generation:
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1. Dr. Crusher and the Trill
“The Host” was written as a response to a letter-writing campaign from Gay Star Trek fans to address sexuality issues. In the episode, Dr. Beverly Crusher falls for “Odan,” a symbiotic slug-dude that lives in host bodies. When Odan’s male host unexpectedly kicks the bucket, he’s transferred into Riker’s body, which takes Beverly about 20 minutes to get used to, but Riker’s just a temp. Ultimately, Odan is transplanted into a leggy blonde woman. Awkwardness ensues.
Odan: Yes I am still Odan and I still love you. I cannot imagine that ever changing.
Crusher: I’m glad that you’re alright.
Odan: Is there to be nothing more?
Crusher: Perhaps it is a human failure but we are not accustomed to these kinds of changes. I can’t keep up. How long will you have this host? What will the next one be? I can’t live with that kind of uncertainty. Perhaps someday our ability to love won’t be so limited.
Odan: I understand.
Crusher: Odan, I do love you. Please remember that.
Then Odan kisses Crusher’s wrist. Yup. Smack on the wrist.
So basically, a potential same-sex lover showed up on the Enterprise only to be instantly rejected by her prospective paramour. NICE!
Not only did the producers fail to include a gay storyline as promised, but the offensively almost-gay plot detracted from the episode’s meaning to begin with. Franklin Hummel, director of Boston’s Gaylactic Network, told The Advocate: “In a way, I found [the female host] weakened the point of the story. Was the problem that the rapid changes were too much for her, or was it the fact that it was a same-sex relationship?” Double fail, Star Trek.
2. Whoopi’s Giant Hat of Love
In “The Offspring,” Data builds an unintentionally creepy android daughter named “Lal” and, as any loving parent would, foists her onto somebody else at the first opportunity. Lal is left in the care of Guinan, a 600-year-old bartender who teaches her, along with how to dispense pithy pearls of wisdom and sport magnificent hats, all about the birds and the bees.
In 2001, Richard Arnold, Research Consultant for The Next Generation, explained that during the taping of “The Offspring” Whoopi Goldberg refused to refer to love as a strictly heterosexual concept:
“According to the script, Guinan was supposed to start telling Lal, ‘When a man and a woman are in love …’ and in the background, there would be men and women sitting at tables, holding hands[…] But Whoopi refused to say that. She said, ‘This show is beyond that. It should be ‘When two people are in love.'”
Goldberg also lobbied for a same-sex couple to be put in the background of the scene but a last-minute call to the producer put a stop to that outrageous shit.
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3. Riker and the J’naii
After Roddenberry had promised to put a gay character in the show, Rick Berman got a lot of heat from fans demanding that he follow through with it, and he responded with “The Outcast.” But because there couldn’t actually be a gay character – because people might see and write letters and WILL SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN – fans got a ham-fisted homosexual/trans metaphor in the “J’naii,” a race of androgynous beings who treat gender as an icky perversion. One of the J’naii, “Soren,” wants to identify as a woman and get her freak on with Riker. Cue impassioned speech:
“I am female. I was born that way. I have had those feelings, those longings, all of my life. It is not unnatural…What makes you think you can dictate how people love each other?”
Jonathan Frakes (Riker) tried to persuade Berman to have a man to play Soren, but that would have led to TWO MALE ACTORS KISSING, so no dice. Frakes complained that the episode wasn’t “gutsy” enough and that “Soren should have been more evidently male.”
I understood the episode to be an awkward metaphor for homosexual tolerance in the 20th century, but apparently many viewers thought the J’naii (who were all played by women) were supposed to be a race of man-hating bra-burning lesbians with a vendetta against hetero men.
Stardate: Present Day
Five incarnations and 600 episodes later, we are still led to believe that 300 years from now the galaxy is populated by heterosexual nuclear families. It’s no wonder that the franchise fizzled out when, sixteen years after Britain elected a female Prime Minister, the producers of Star Trek: Voyager congratulated themselves for putting a woman in command of a starship, and they nearly chickened out of that. Out of touch much?
“They don’t need money in Star Trek and they don’t need religion,” author Cecilia Tan told Salon.com in 2005. “There are no Christians in Star Trek. Everyone’s a sort of secular humanist. Everyone is accepted and happily employed. So everyone wants to see themselves in that world. It’s like, if everyone’s all happy and well-adjusted, where are the happy, well-adjusted gay people?”
Despite a massive cult following and a seemingly endless syndication, Star Trek has never had high ratings and the producers have always been terrified of offending their limited number of faithful viewers. They may have tried to satisfy us by including a handful of evasive homosexual metaphors in their version of the future, but that type of representation only reinforces the notion that being gay in the 21st century is soooo controversial that it can’t even be talked about – not even three centuries later. Now we can get our gay fix elsewhere — like an upcoming Big Bang Theory episode in which George Takei and Outer Space Shane Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) will play the dueling voices of Wolowitz’s conscience.
I couldn’t help but feel cheated that in a supposedly utopian 24th century, Star Trek never managed to accomplish the things we’re achieving in the 21st. All Star Trek ever managed was “implied nudity,”making the once-great franchise guilty of the worst crime of all – being boring.The phrase “scanning documents” used to mean spending a silly amount of time in front of a bulky machine, waiting for it to take a physical piece of paper and make it digital. But this is the mobile age, where nearly anything can be done with a phone. And scanning text-searchable documents is stupid easy with little more than your phone’s camera.
To start scanning everything from receipts to recipes, you probably already have everything you need: an Android phone and the Google Drive app. That’s it. Note that we’re talking about the full Google Drive app, not the standalone Sheets, Docs, or Slides apps.
Now that you’re all sorted, let’s do this thing.
First, fire up the Drive app and navigate to the folder where you’d like your scan to be saved. In the interest of simplicity (and logic?), I usually just scan stuff to a folder called “Scans.” Super creative, I know.
In the bottom-right corner, there’s a floating action button with a plus sign—tap that bad boy.
This will open the “New” dialog, and the third option in the top row is “Scan.” Give ‘er a tap!
The camera will open, and you’re ready to scan away. Here are a few tips to be aware of before you start hitting that shutter button, however:
Use a contrasting background: If you’re scanning a white document, put it on a dark background. This will help the camera find the edges.
If you’re scanning a white document, put it on a dark background. This will help the camera find the edges. Try to get a straight-over shot: If you need to place the paper on the floor to get a perfect overhead shot, do that. It’ll result in a much cleaner scan.
If you need to place the paper on the floor to get a perfect overhead shot, do that. It’ll result in a much cleaner scan. Be patient, it may take more than one shot: Sometimes the scan feature clips the edges off of a document, cutting part of it off. It may take a few tries to get it just right.
Now that you’ve got the know-how, go ahead and snap the picture. It’ll take a few seconds to load, and you can confirm it got the entire document in the picture. When the preview loads, there are a few options at the top:
Crop: If the image is too big, you can cut off the excess.
If the image is too big, you can cut off the excess. Color palate: Black and White is the default option, but you can also scan in color. There are a few options here (None, Black & White, Color, Color Drawing), so just select the one that best applies to what you’re scanning.
Black and White is the default option, but you can also scan in color. There are a few options here (None, Black & White, Color, Color Drawing), so just select the one that best applies to what you’re scanning. Overflow button: The overflow menu houses all the other stuff—Delete, Rename, Rotate, and Settings. While the first three are self explanatory, the Settings menu has some options to help you get the most of your scan. Things like automatic image enhancement, paper size, orientation, and image quality are all found here.
There are also three buttons at the bottom: a plus sign, “retake” button, and a check mark. The plus is to add another page to the same PDF (I love this feature so much!), the center is to re-scan the document if it didn’t turn out right, and the check confirms that the scan is good and you want to save it.
Once everything is good and you’re ready to save the document, just tap the check. Drive will automatically open the folder where you told it to save and upload it. Once it’s finished syncing, you’ll be able to grab the scanned document from any other device with Drive installed.
Best of all: the contents of the saved PDF are also searchable in Drive. So, let’s say you saved a recipe for Gourmet Chocolate Oatmeal Balls and you’re ready to make them seventeen months later. Just fire up Drive, search for some keywords—like “chocolate oatmeal”—and Drive will kick back all the applicable results. This PDF will definitely be among those, so you can start cooking. Also, hit me up and I’ll come over so I can have some of those Oatmeal Balls. Those sound pretty good.
While Google Drive isn’t the only “scan with camera” option on Google Play—there are a slew of others, in fact—it’s easily the most useful. Since it automatically uploads to Drive, you essentially have an instant backup, the file can immediately be emailed or shared, and the text is searchable. Most of the other offerings out there only offer one or two of those features (at most), so Drive is definitely the way to go. Now, get to scanning all those receipts you’ve been saving for the last twelve years.Is it any wonder that fewer people these days are willing to trust the US federal government or their American leader President Obama? The citizen furor over the highly controversial Jade Helm 15 military operation scheduled for two months this summer (July 15-September 15) in all four US Border States with Mexico plus Utah and Nevada is well grounded. Despite mainstream media and war mongers like Senator John McCain mocking and ridiculing those behind the ongoing uproar as mere paranoid conspiracy nutcases, a closer look at the nonstop lies flowing out of Washington provides every justifiable reason for Americans’ suspicion that the feds are up to no good in the Southwest. Many US citizens have come to recognize that their civil liberties and constitutional rights since 9/11 have completely vanished under the ever-darkening cloud of tyranny usurped by the insidiously false pretense of national security.
The so called war on terror is eerily similar to America’s war on drugs. Both are a complete bust. Meanwhile, the US government continues making billions in profit from the illegal international drug trade and cabal banks continue regularly engaging in illegal money laundering, and crime families like the Bushes and Clintons get high as well as richer. The war on drugs’ thinly veiled design is actually a war against people of color, promoting institutionalized welfare state dependency, while the privatized prison industrial complex incarcerates a million Americans on non-violent drug charges and over two billion citizens behind bars, over half the country’s inmate population being non-white, caging near three times more than any other nation on earth as the world’s worst human rights offender. Finally, with less than 5% of the total world population, the United States of incarceration houses 25% of the world’s total prison population.
Meanwhile 9/11 and the US war of terror in reality are nothing less than a deplorable scapegoat war against Islam religion. Duped into doing the evil bidding of fellow crime syndicate partners Israel and Saudi Arabia, under the WMD mantra of yet more lies to push false justification of committing crimes against humanity in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US has lost two costly wars each lasting a decade plus and still raging, killed millions of Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa squandering up to six trillion taxpayer dollars, and leaving only completely decimated failed states in its death wake, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Somalia and Ukraine. Initiating another arms race and cold war against Russia and China heating up with catastrophic nuclear world war III, endgame potential, the US Empire’s war on terror has only created with financing, training and arming savage US proxy mercenary allies posing as fake enemies on steroids that have gained more control over the region as time drags on.
Meanwhile, the globally expanding, morally reprehensible US killer drone policy ensures a forever supply for its forever war of anti-American terrorists as fresh new recruits. And the most demonic fact is that all this destabilizing planetary plunder, devastation and murderous destruction is all by intentional oligarch design to facilitate the New World Order. Psychopathic criminals operating as globalists seek their one world government using their errand boy and girl Western leaders to do their dirty bidding.
And now as a result, a growing number of Americans strongly believe that 9/11 itself was an inside job committed jointly by the treasonous Bush-Cheney regime in full cooperation if not direction from the Israeli and Saudi governments. An inordinate number of the key co-conspirators are neocon US-Israeli dual citizens whose actions demonstrate full loyalty to Israel versus complete betrayal of America. An increasing segment of the American population has realized that these diabolical rogue elements within the US government have long been in control operating as the US traitors responsible for assassinating President John F. Kennedy and maintaining the cover-up ever since – despite the vast majority in America accepting it too was an early inside job.
Just months prior to Kennedy’s murder, he warned America of its subversive shadow forces. He pissed off power players in both the armed forces and the CIA for refusing to involve US military in the Bay of Pigs failed operation to overthrow Cuba’s Fidel Castro in 1961. He enraged the Chiefs of Staff generals when he nixed their plan to kill US citizens in Miami and Washington DC in false flag terrorism they’d plotted with Operation Northwoods. Despite the October 1962 Missile Crisis when Kennedy stood up to Russia’s Khrushchev over placement of Soviet missiles in Cuba, JFK’s willingness to negotiate with the volatile Communist leader in the face of Soviet Bloc expansion in East Germany resulted in a rash of harsh criticism that JFK was “soft on communism,” generating yet additional wrath from the same key cold war promoters within the CIA, top military brass and the all-powerful Council on Foreign Relations. And the young and only Roman Catholic US president further sealed his fate when he made it clear he was returning all US military advisors stationed in Vietnam home to ensure that no Vietnam War could break out on his watch. In August 1964 just nine months after his plotted murder, Kennedy’s successor Lyndon Johnson who’s been implicated as a Kennedy co-conspirator lied to America in yet another false flag claiming North Vietnamese gunboats had fired on a US Navy ship in the Gulf of Tonkin, thus making sure that America was committed to war in Southeast Asia lasting the next decade.
In fact every assassinated US President from Lincoln to Garfield to JFK prior to their deaths had outraged the controlling oligarchs of the central banking cabal, moving to drastically reduce their power. More recently so did onetime US allies-dictators Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi after each went public in removing the US dollar/petrodollar as their standard international currency. Threatening the absolute power and control over the debt-based Ponzi scam of the private centralized banking cabal represented in the US by the misnomered Federal Reserve Board has in fact been the fastest, surefire way to death and destruction for any leader or nation both here in America and abroad.
Strong evidence has emerged that JFK’s brother Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 murders were also perpetrated by government insiders operating within this same shadowy crime syndicate posing as the federal government. The US intelligence community of the CIA and FBI have been repeatedly implicated in all these heinous crimes of the century that have radically altered the course of modern world history. And if the lives of America’s greatest leaders have proven expendable to the criminal self-interests of Washington’s elite still retaining power today, the value of America’s ordinary citizens means even less, rendering us all expendable to the ruling totalitarian oppressors.
And with that brief historical overview providing relevant background context, let’s now examine why so many Americans have very sound reasons for fearing the worst with this upcoming military operation. The virtually nonstop lies coming from America’s government and military leaders and its financial institutions in the twenty-first century alone have driven the American people’s trust toward them ever plummeting with each passing year to new unprecedented, all-time lows. For instance, during the course of the Bush-Obama regime, referred to as one and the same contiguous entity, trust toward the office of the US presidency has fallen from 58% early in Bush’s first term in 2002 to 35% for Obama in 2012. And so far in his lame duck presidency Obama is only continuing to flounder with hislowest approval rating in six years recorded in January. A Fox News poll a year ago showed that 61% of Americans believe Obama lies “some” or “most of the time” as the growing majority simply don’t trust the man.
After all, this is the candidate who lied when he promised to be the most open and transparent president in history and has only proven to be the most secretive and vindictive in history. His dishonesty as a severe character flaw has become his trademark and legacy. He lied when he promised repeatedly to close the Guantanamo Bay Prison that’s unlawfully held and tortured innocent victims for more than a decade. Refusing to “look back” and hold neocon criminals accountable, Obama lied claiming torture ceased on his presidential watch while heroic CIA whistleblowerJohn Kiriakou maintains it more than likely just submerged deeper underground:
Many of us believed that the torture policy was solely a Bush-era perversion. But many of these perversions, or at least efforts to cover them up or justify them, have continued under President Obama.
Bragging that he taught constitutional law over ten years, Obama lied when he took a sworn oath vowing to protect, defend and uphold the US Constitution, consistently violating law 5 U.S.C. 7311, a federal criminal offense carrying a punishment subject to removal from office, jail time and fine, grounds for kicking virtually all government members in all three branches out of office. Candidate Obama’s promise in his own empty words:
I was a constitutional law professor, which means unlike the current president I actually respect the Constitution.
Obama has run roughshod over Second Amendment rights with 23 executive orders on gun control. He also lied when he repeatedly assured Americans that neither the NSA nor the federal government records phone conversationsadding that a judge’s warrant is necessary to authorize surveillance of private phone and computer records.
Just out this week comes another indictment against the commander-in-chief written by renowned investigative journalist Seymour Hersh once again calling Obama out as a fullblown liar over the alleged Osama bin Laden murder. Recall back in 2013 it was Hersh who called Obama a flat out liar then after Obama was getting ready to launch air strikes on Syria, falsely accusing Assad forces of using chemical weapons when in fact it was Obama’s backed al Qaeda rebels that were guilty. Grandstanding for the credit he exploited, Obama lied insisting that bin Laden was armed and fired shots at the Navy Seal team along with a number of his alleged armed guards. Hersh maintains it was a total lie, that the feeble and dying elderly Osama was unarmed and without protection from others. In fact for the last five years he had been held hostage by Pakistani Intelligence who Obama betrayed in his public announcement. The White House painted the false picture that Osama was still actively calling all the al Qaeda shots when he was an isolated, weakened prisoner still being covertly supported financially by the Saudis. In his eagerness to take a bow in stride with his upcoming reelection, Obama’s rush to show and tell outed an angry Navy team and betrayed the Pakistani generals in charge of military intelligence without whom the operation would have failed.
Aside from pathologically lying presidents, the NSA, the DEA and the IRS all routinely lie when they incessantly violate laws and then matter-of-factly deny spying on Americans. Similar to other Constitution oath takers who also routinely violate 5 U.S.C. 7311, law enforcement personnel across the nation also take oaths promising to “protect and serve” the public, and then in a state sanctioned militarized police state turn around and murder countless defenseless and unarmed citizens with alarming frequency (70 times the rate of other First World nations) and virtually always with complete impunity.
Turning now to the legislative branch of government liars and betrayers, the US Congressional approval ratings show even more distrust and contempt. Per Gallup polls during the same 10-year period from 2002 to 2012, Americans’ trust toward US Congress spiraled even lower from just 29% to only 12%. The latest figures released April 29th from the Harvard Institute of Politics polling registered Democrats and Republicans from the millennial generation indicate that 83% do not trust Congress. Had independents or even the larger segment of non-voters amongst millennials been included, the percentage of young people trusting their government would undoubtedly be close to zero!
While US taxpayers were burdened on two separate occasions with imposed massive bailouts for “too big to fail” corporations and then banks, simultaneous to the biggest transfer of wealth in US history with the 2008 housing loan bubble burst while not even one criminal banksters was indicted or sent to prison. Meanwhile during 2007-2011 when over five million American homes were lost due to foreclosure, public trust in the economy and banks in particular plunged even more than trust toward members of the federal government, dropping 24 percentage points in the same 2002-2012 decade from 47 to 23%. With the cruel choice of the nation’s powerbrokers to make war profiteers richer at the expense of the decimated, shrinking middle class, Americans have been lied to, fleeced and horrifically victimized at every turn to such an extreme that freefall towards total collapse appears preeminent.
This overwhelming decline in Americans’ willingness to trust their government leaders and institutions in recent years(13%) has run a parallel course with their disbelief in trusting mainstream media outlets as well, recognizing that NBC, CNN and Fox News as well as the nation’s major newspapers (i.e., the New York Times, Washington Post, and LA Times) also fail miserably in delivering the honest truth. The US populace has come to reluctantly accept that the six oligarch owned corporations controlling over 90% of the flow of all information and news spew out the same mimicked, distorted lies and propaganda that the federal government tells them to spin. Gov.corp has these giant media corporations notorious for willfully withholding the truth by refusing to ask the hard, critical questions necessary to ascertain and expose the true reality that the feds in turn habitually, willfully, deceitfully conceal. As the mere propaganda department for the US government, mainstream media has become nothing but the feds’ lapdog whore in the exact same way that politicians service their globalist puppet masters only. A year ago a Princeton-Northwestern study officially declared the US an oligarchy.
With full awareness of how members of mainstream media and government lie every single day for a living, their unabashed zeal that has them currently frothing at the mouth to denigrate and humiliate Americans, especially Texansunderstandably worried that the Jade Helm operation will go live midway or towards the end in September to begin locking people up are more than justified. Texas Governor Abbott is calling out his State Guard to oversee the Special Ops drills in the Lone Star State as precaution to relieve the worry of his citizens. But he and alarmed Americans continue to be unfairly lampooned by McCain, MSM and even Jon Stewart.
In actuality numerous conspiracy theories have proven to become accurate depictions of reality in the past. Just a few examples: already covered MSM lies and propaganda, the militarized police state and secret “black hole” prisons, invasive spying on every aspect of our private lives, the rigged, thoroughly corrupt stock market, the vaccine inquisition and the geoengineering metal toxins, and finally the potential WMD Ebola virus can be contracted by airborne passage.
So prior to scoffing at Americans whose distrust over Jade is very real, the rest of us should ponder and think twice about smugly judging and dismissing this potential NWO ambush. Absolute tyranny comes in incremental steps. The US-UK-Canadian joint military exercise Maple Resolve across Canada this month combined with the sudden closure of all 133 north-of-the-border Target Stores gives one pause for ponder. Two years ago few would foresee the total lockdown of America’s first taste of martial law in a major metropolitan city, yet the Boston Marathon bombing hoax induced just that.
The feared prototypical scenario is the military training drill will suddenly go live with a strategically timed response to some induced false flag crises involving civil unrest giving Obama the convenient excuse to declare martial law under the pretense of a national emergency, then begin extraction of anti-government activists and initiate the infamous FEMA prison camp round-up of dissidents. It could easily go into effect either regionally or nationally. Rest assure the feds will be ready. Just like they were recently ready in Baltimore when police attempted to provoke high school kids to react and the mayor purposely waited till chaos grew out of control before intervening. Meanwhile, five state National Guards were simultaneously undergoing “civil unrest” training exercises and ready to go live. This recurring pattern is no coincidence.
Historically every totalitarian and genocidal regime first goes after its designated opposition leaders classified red on its watch list of dissenters deemed enemies of the state for simply opposing Washington’s ruthless tyranny. And it would not be the first time in US history that a group of innocent American victims were targeted as the designated homegrown enemy. Over 127,000 Japanese Americans were systematically rounded up, involuntarily relocated and unlawfully placed in prison camps during World War II. The Red Scare harassed and ruined hundreds of lives in the early 50’s. Then throughout the 1960’s and early 70’s J. Edgar’s FBI unlawfully compiled growing watch lists of antiwar student protestors, African American and Native American leaders and harassed and assassinated Malcolm X, MLK and targeted killings of members of both the Black Panther Party and American Indian Movement.
With the manufactured “war on terror,” political activists, combat veterans, constitutionalists, libertarians, progressives, anarchists, gun owners, right wing paramilitary militia group members, Tea Partiers, home school-ers and even fundamentalist Christians are but the latest victims monitored and singled out as today’s potential domestic terrorists. Thus, with Jade Helm the fear of persecution is certainly not in the least unfounded. Yet the liars and propagandists in the media and government every day are taking cheap shots at concerned patriots. Meanwhile in recent years Homeland Security documents and US Army manuals (FM 3-39.40 called Internment and Resettlement Operations) along with dozens of presidential executive orders and oppressive draconian laws (Patriot Act, 2012 NDAA) are all on the books specifying in detailed living proof how the federal government’s not-so-hidden agenda will be to force hundreds of thousands of US citizens to relocate into prison resettlement camps complete with fenced in barb wire walls, armed guard towers, tribunal and even mortuary sections. Psychological officers are designated to reprogram citizens deemed salvageable while the hardcore dissidents will simply be violently exterminated. These shocking details illustrating the feds’ sinister plan are all a matter of public record.
Or contemplate why have all the federal agencies totally unrelated to either the military or law enforcement like the Social Security Administration, the Fish & Wildlife Department, the IRS, the FDA, EPA, and even the US Postal Service been busily buying up all the hollow point bullets, guns and ammo in America? Clearly it is not paranoia at all to fear what could rapidly unfold this summer – the potentially diabolical hidden agenda for the largest US military operation ever conducted on expansive US soil during its entire 239-year history! Especially based on the recent egregious track record of utter deception and rampantly mounting oppression increasingly perpetrated by the US federal government, the more rational and prudent question then becomes why wouldn’t any self-aware, mindful resident of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Southern California, Nevada and Utah or for that matter any US citizen not be extremely concerned about their government’s long proven, secretive, deceitful true intentions. From here on out, regardless of the skeptics, let vigilance be the operative word.
Joachim Hagopian is a West Point graduate and former US Army officer. He has written a manuscript based on his unique military experience entitled “Don’t Let The Bastards Getcha Down.” It examines and focuses on US international relations, leadership and national security issues. After the military, Joachim earned a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and worked as a licensed therapist in the mental health field for more than a quarter century. He now concentrates on his writing and has a blog site at http://empireexposed. blogspot. com/. He is also a regular contributor to Global Research and a syndicated columnist at Veterans Today.Typosquatters are targeting Apple computer users with malware in a recent campaign that snares clumsy web surfers who mistakenly type.om instead of.com when surfing the web.
According to Endgame security researchers, the top level domain for Middle Eastern country Oman (.om) is being exploited by typosquatters who have registered more than 300 domain names with the.om suffix for U.S. companies and services such as Citibank, Dell, Macys and Gmail. Endgame made the discovery last week and reports that several groups are behind the typosquatter campaigns.
Mac OS X users are being singled out in this typosquatting campaign with malware. According to Endgame, when a Mac user stumbles on one of the typosquatters’ webpages a fake Adobe Flash update pops up and attempts to trick users to install the advertising component called Genieo.
Genieo, according to Endgame, is a, “common OS X malware / adware variant” that “typically infiltrates the user’s system by posing |
ed military battery on Bedloe's Island, in upper New York Harbor, the site which Bartholdi preferred, was the location chosen. When Bartholdi announced, in July 1881, that the Statue would be completed in 1883, however, relatively little money had been raised for the pedestal. Among the factors that discouraged contributions were artistic and religious criticisms, dissatisfaction with the proposed location, a tendency in other parts of the Nation to view the project as a New York City affair, anti-Statue editorials in some leading newspapers (including several in The New York Times), and dissatisfaction with the thought of the United States paying for the pedestal.
Plans for the pedestal, by architect Richard Morris Hunt, were available in late 1881. They indicated that 9 months would be required to erect it and that the cost would far exceed original estimates. The Committee continued its efforts with modest success and decided to begin work with the funds on hand. Ground was broken for the foundation in April 1883, and it was completed in May 1884. Adding to the financial burdens of the Committee were unexpected difficulties in excavating for the foundation within the walls of old Fort Wood, within which the Statue was to be erected, and design changes in the pedestal. Early in 1885, only preparatory work had been done on the pedestal itself. The Committee was $100,000 short of its goal, and had to halt construction. The Committee renewed its appeals, soliciting the public, the New York legislature, and the U.S. Congress, all to little immediate avail. The situation was embarrassing because the completed Statue had already been presented to the American Minister in Paris, and was being readied for shipment to New York.
The individual who galvanized the public into raising the money required to complete the pedestal was Joseph Pulitzer, owner-editor of The (New York) World. In March 1885, Pulitzer renewed the newspaper crusade he had begun on behalf of the "pedestal fund" in 1883. He re-emphasized the national and egalitarian nature of the project, railed at the wealthy of New York for their lack of generosity, and appealed to the "working masses" to make up the deficiency in the fund.5 The participation of the French public was also held up as an example.
A factor that may have spurred the success of Pulitzer's special fund was the offers made by other American cities (Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Baltimore) to provide a home for the Statue. Pulitzer's fund, however, was a phenomenal success in any case. Between March and early August 1885, more than 120,000 people donated in excess of $100,000 to the fund. (The largest individual contributions were two in the sum of $1,000 by Pulitzer himself and Pierre Lorillard, a prominent tobacco merchant of French descent; small donations came from thousands of schoolchildren and many people of modest means. The World printed the names of all contributers.)
Pulitzer's success had, meantime, in mid-May, permitted the Committee to resume work on the pedestal. At that point, only 8 of its projected 46 courses of masonry were in place. In June the Statue arrived, and provided an additional impetus to the fundraising drive. Pedestal construction proceeded quickly thereafter, and was completed in April 1886. The complicated task of reassembling the Statue consumed the summer and early fall of 1886.
The Statue of Liberty was at last dedicated on October 28, 1886. President Grover Cleveland formally accepted the gift from the French. Bartholdi himself unveiled the face. Although an enormous crowd, including a number of French dignitaries, witnessed the ceremony, Edouard de Laboulaye was not present, for he had died in 1883, before the Statue had been fully erected in Paris. His successor as president of the Franco-American Committee, Ferdinand de Lesseps, the "builder" of the Suez Canal, made the presentation speech. De Lesseps, who had early been recruited to the cause by Laboulaye, was an unusually appropriate alternate for his predecessor.
The Statue of Liberty's First Century
The Statue of Liberty has evolved, both physically and in terms of her symbolic meaning, since her placement on the pedestal in 1886. One conspicuous change is an alteration in physical appearance caused by the action of the elements on her formerly bright copper exterior, which soon acquired a light-green patina.
Some physical alterations have been made deliberately. For example, a number of attempts have been made to improve her lighting. Bartholdi was not satisfied with the original system of electrical illumination (a science then in its infancy), which did not light her as brightly as he had envisioned, certainly not well enough to be of significant use to navigators. In fact, Bartholdi, for that reason, suggested gilding to improve her lighting.
For symbolic, as well as practical, reasons, then, the original electrical system has been successively replaced by more modern generations of equipment, in 1916 (including the first reasonably effective floodlighting), and in 1931, and enhanced in 1945 and 1976. The 1916 changes were financed by a popular subscription conducted by Pulitzer's heirs at The World. The torch of the Statue was revamped in connection with the changes in 1916. Tinted cathedral glass was installed, by Gutzon Borglum, to provide more dramatic lighting effects.
Although Liberty's "lamp" has been briefly extinguished altogether on several occasions since 1886, her lights have been conspicuously "turned off" for only one prolonged period, during World War II. This was done partly as a civil defense measure, but its symbolic significance did not go unnoticed.
Although an elevator shaft was provided when the pedestal was constructed, none was installed until 1908-9. The existing elevator dates from about 1950. (Other replacements, repairs, and changes to the Statue are summarized under Section 4c, History of Preservation/Conservation.)
Under varying forms of administration, the Statue has remained a popular object of visitation. Although she did not serve effectively as a lighthouse in practice, she remained under the administration of the Lighthouse Board of the U.S. Treasury Department until 1901. From 1901 until 1933, she was under War Department jurisdiction, although in 1924, she (and her immediate site) were declared a National Monument, by order of President Calvin Coolidge. Along with a number of other historic properties, the Statue of Liberty National Monument was added to the National Park System in 1933. The Army, however, retained control over the remainder of the Island until 1937.
The Statue's symbolic character has evolved and expanded in the past century. She has become one of the premier symbols of the United States, as well as remaining an enduring expression of the friendship between France and the United States.
1 The basic outlines of this historical treatment of the Statue are adapted and condensed from Benjamin Levine and Isabelle F. Story, Statue of Liberty (Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 1952, 1957). Other material, especially that found in Oscar Handlin, Statue of Liberty (New York: Newsweek, 1971), has also been useful.
2 J. Fred Roush, "Edouard Laboulaye, The Father of the Statue of Liberty,' (National Park Service, no date). This letter to George Bancroft (in facsimile and translation) appears in an unpaginated section of the report.
3 Cited in Marvin Trachtenberg, The Statue of Liberty (New York: Penguin Books, 1977), p. 31.
4. Notice sur L'Union Franco-Ameriyaine Inauguration De L'Exposition Des Lots de La Loterie Franco-Ameriqaine, Discours De MM. Bozerian et Henri Martin, senateurs, cited by Regina Maria Hughes, "The French People Give the Statue of Liberty to the Americans, pp. 10-13, in Ray J. Kelley et al., "History of the Statue of Liberty" (New York: National Park Service, 1934).
5 Text in both French and English. The (New York) World, June 20, 1885, p. 4.Imagine you had a blank sheet of paper to design an ideal constitutional solution for running Scotland. Would you design the system we have right now? Would you draw up a system that looks anything like the status quo?
Well, watching the BBC independence debate from Kelso last week I was stunned by the No Campaign’s Jenny Marra who said:
“If I was given a blank sheet of paper to draw up arrangements for our country, I think I might draw them up the way they are now”.
Here is the 25 second clip
To be honest I am not 100% sure what was meant by that. She went on to claim that this meant a devolved Scottish Parliament in the context of the Westminster system. However, that doesn’t clarify anything either.
Is that as good as it gets for Scotland and business?
Does she mean that Scottish Parliament’s current powers are an ideal situation? Does she mean that Scotland voting for a UK Labour government and getting a Conservative-led one is ideal? Or whilst generating more tax per head than the UK every year for 32 years and 9.9% of the UK tax take with only 8.4% of the population, Scotland should receive only 9.3% of the UK public sector budget to spend, including a higher cost for services like defence and foreign affairs?
Decision making
Does she mean that the unelected House of Lords with no representation from the majority government of Scotland should have the power to remove powers from the Scottish parliament without so much as a by your leave?
They did exactly that when they voted as quietly as possible to remove Renewables Obligation Certification powers from the Scottish Parliament late last year.
International policy
Maybe she means it is an ideal scenario to have the UK’s only nuclear weapons arsenal (that the people of Scotland do not want) based just 30 miles from our most populous city. Or Scottish soldiers being ordered into an illegal war that the people of Scotland and our Parliament opposed?
North Sea revenue investment
Is it ideal that our oil revenues are handed over to the UK Government and spent outside Scotland, or that the UK is one of the only two oil rich nations not to have set up a sovereign oil fund? (the other was Iraq) Or that the UK Ministry of Defence won’t allow oil companies to extract oil from the west coast of Scotland because it gets in the way of nuclear submarine operations?
Regulation and growth
Can it be ideal that a lack of regulation of financial markets by Alastair Darling MP of the No Campaign has resulted in an austerity budget that will be imposed from Westminster for a generation, cutting growth and threatening vital public services?
Housing and property
Is it so wonderful being connected to an overheated property market that causes housing benefit payments to soar in London? The result is a bedroom tax that is not needed in Scotland, but must be imposed there as we have no say over the welfare system.
Infrastructure and investment
Is it ideal when the distant and dysfunctional Westminster Parliament invests billions of Scottish money in projects such as a high speed train (HS2) which politicians claim will end the North-South divide, despite the fact that it only goes as far as Manchester and Leeds and will actually damage Scotland’s economy? Is it ideal that Scottish airports claim Air Passenger Duty (APD) is stopping them from attracting direct flights and boosting Scotland’s economy, but nevertheless the Westminster Chancellor in his Autumn Statement raised APD in response to demand for direct flights to London airports?
Currency
More recently, is it ideal that after 300 years of contributing to building the reputation of the Sterling currency, apparently we have been using ‘English money’ all along and have no further right to it if we decide to be democratically self-governing?
There is an almost endless number of examples.
Scotland can do better than ‘OK’
The No Campaign’s slogan is ‘UKOK’. Well, ‘OK’ seems to be the extent of its ambition for Scotland too. This referendum is becoming a choice between those who have a plan to build a better Scotland and those who have no ideas, vision or plan. It’s a choice between two futures.
I could argue that the UK isn’t OK: that there are too many food-banks opening up, too much inequality, too much child poverty and so forth.
But let’s not focus entirely on the negative. I think we can agree that the status quo is not as ideal as Jenny Marra suggests. After all, even her Lib-Dem allies argue that the status quo has failed.
Comment: how would you change Scotland for the better?
Imagine you had a blank sheet of paper to design an ideal Scotland. What is the one key thing you would change about our country? Leave a comment and share the most important element of your positive vision for Scotland.
Now Join Business for Scotland – Read MoreOne of the first lessons we learned in my first film criticism class was that animated films are rarely for children; they are simply too long and, quite frankly, they are usually too advanced. How many kids, for example, really know what their parents do at work all day? The kids hardly understand "going to work" any better than the animated pets in the film, so animated films are usually geared more towards adults, but it's easier to take the kids to those kinds of "adult films" rather than more violent or sexual themed films (the kids know and engage with certain parts of the film, but a two-hour narrative is just too complex for most kids to be able to completely take in, they just haven't developed sufficiently to be able to take in that much information). So, what makes an animated film about pets so grown-up? To begin with, identifying the animated pets behavior with behavior you have actually witnessed in your own life. For example, when Max and Duke are hungry and go "begging" for a handout, they put on their most pitiful faces; we have certainly all encountered the dog looking longingly at our hamburger or even corn flakes because, if we have it, they want it, too. This makes the film funny. We "meet the animators" in this moment because they have identified pet behavior they have seen in their own animals and presented it for us so that we can see it in our animals, too, so, we have "bonded" with the film makers through a shared experience of our pets' behaviors. Because we can see our own dogs sitting in front of the door waiting for us to return from work (as Max does in the image above) the animators have won our trust that they understand pets, so when we later see Max intentionally tearing up Katie's apartment to "frame Duke" so Katie won't want him anymore, we can go over the bridge of disbelief because the film makers have all ready constructed enough trust between them and ourselves that we are willing to believe Max would "frame" Duke even though we know that isn't possible in reality (this scene in the film might possibly be a reference to the Disney film The Ugly Dachshund). (N.B.: The text below is having a web problem, the format isn't being corrected properly and refuses to be edited; I apologize for the poor formatting, the html isn't cooperating).
ON A VERY IMPORTANT POLITICAL NOTE, IF YOU THINK MY REVIEWS ARE POLITICAL, PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT and read this asinine interpretation that intentionally skews facts about the film to arrive at a liberal reading that in no way exists. For example, Dr. Johnson completely misses--intentionally--that the rabbit is named Snowball as a reference to George Orwell's anti-socialist novel Animal Farm; he also doesn't get the name of Gidget correct, instead calling her Gigi. He also intentionally fails to mention the character Frank, a black man who "flushed" Duke after Duke ran away and didn't come to retrieve him from the pound. If he can't even get the basic facts of the film correct, he has no right spreading information about it. Why would he offer such a slanderous reading? To keep white people from going to see a film that is anti-Obama and anti-socialist (not anti-black or anti-black-power, that is his own shallow and erroneous reading). The "basis" of Dr. Johnson's "interpretation" of the film comes from comedian Kevin Hart (who does the voice for Snowball) and Hannibal Buress (who does the voice for Buddy) being black. That's the reason Dr. Johnson is upset, Hart and Buress are black. If you will recall, blacks were upset at the "White Out Oscars" because THERE WEREN'T ANY BLACK PEOPLE, now Johnson is upset because there are black people in this cast (don't forget, he completely ignores Duke's owner Frank being black!). It doesn't matter what is or isn't done, they are determined to be upset, and the less realistic their complaints are, the more their fellow "thugs" are going to rally to protect them from reality and the consequences of what they are arguing.
Technically, the first of the film isn't even The Secret Life of Pets, but Mower Minions, from the team who created both films. We can be confident that, far from being a time-suck to fill up the two-hours, the minions actually contribute to The Secret Life Of Pets because, at the end, Mel is dressed as a minion, reminding us of what we saw two hours earlier. So, what is the connection? Capitalism. It's quite simple: the minions see a blender they want, so what do they do? They don't cash in their welfare check, or hustle their food stamps, they go out and work for what they want. How revolutionary. While the senior citizens at Fuzzy Memories center get a good laugh at the minions, it brings to mind the elders in Independence Day when Julius promotes his book, How I Saved the World, and the seniors don't react to him, suggesting that they would be better off dead because they have ceased contributing to society because they aren't interested in Julius (please see A Controlled Dive: Independence Day for more). In Mower Minions, there is an even exchange that takes place: the minions get their $19.95 and the seniors get fabulous entertainment. On a different level, we the audience are like the seniors at Fuzzy Memories, because we, too, are paying for the entertainment we hope to see. Like trying to understand the senior who doesn't have his teeth in, we might not catch everything that is being said (like Snowball's comment about the raccoon not being the president) and like the woman without her hearing aide, we might not hear everything the film is saying, but at this blog, searching for those clues and details is what we do best, and we'll find as many as we can: case in point, how many people even picked up that the seniors in the scene were agents of "artistic noise and silence?" When the minions have their smoothie machine and have become bloated on the smoothies they have enjoyed, a new machine has come out for $142! They roll out to go earn money to buy that one; why? Because capitalism is a self-perpetuating system. If we had all been happy with VCRs, we wouldn't have continued working; we would watch one or two movies over and over and over and over,... but then, the DVD player came out, and so we worked for that, because it was better! We can mock ourselves at this point but trust me, I don't want to go back to watching VHS tapes, I am happy living in a society with a free and evolving market that produces top-notch electronics. The minions are compelled to go out and work for what they want, so the free market--the new smoothie machine that "does all the work for you"--compels them to contribute to society so they can have what they want. This is an act of free will: no one is forcing the minions to go out and work for the new smoothie machine, this is them making the decision for themselves.
Technically, Max is the hero of the story because it's his life and "adventure" in the film which we experience, however, the real hero of the film--by traditional standards--would be Gidget, the Pomeranian because she exhibits genuinely heroic traits and values (more on her below). Max experiences conversion in realizing his life is going to be better with Duke, but there is a fine line being walked here, and that line is one every pet owner knows. When a person decides to get a pet, they make an EXCHANGE: "I'm going to exchange my clean floors for floors that always have fur blowing around on them because I want someone happy to see me at the end of my work day," or, "I'm going to exchange my evenings of not having to do anything to walking the dog each night so s/he will have the joy of exercise we both need instead of just sitting in front of the TV." It would be easy to interpret the thesis of the film as advocating wealth re-distribution and socialism because Duke is homeless and wants to move in with Max and Katie,... that's not what is going on. Duke has something to offer Max, and it's only with the "adventure" that Max and Duke discover what Duke can offer Max: love. Love, without a doubt, is the thesis of the film because it's for love that we will do and can do anything. Later, when Max and Duke are at the sausage factory, and the song, We Go Together plays, it's clearly a utopia setting; why? Because that utopia wouldn't be possible without the factory, the sausage factory. At the end of The Legend Of Tarzan, Tarzan, and Jane appear to be naked with their newborn child, as if Africa is their "new" Eden without God (now that all the capitalists have been thrown out). The Secret Life Of Pets, however, makes the point that, if life had been so good with us being in nature, then we would not have invented ways of making life "better," life would have all ready been at its best and we would have been satisfied to let things stay as they were, like with the Mower Minions sitting on the couch until they want that smoothie machine. So the point of the sausage scene is, if liberals want a utopia, the industrialized world is likely going to have to be a part of it.
Gidget. Her name combines "girl" and "midget" because of her stature and invokes the novels, films and TV series of Gidget, which starred both Sally Fields and Sandra Dee (I could spend time elaborating on the capitalist connections here, but I won't). She is as tiny as tiny can be; she looks as feminine as feminine can be, but she is, undoubtedly, the heroine of this tale, because she does what feminists basically bet against her doing: she leads an army to save Max. Gidget, in other words, doesn't have to be politically empowered by a group of feminist thugs because she has all the "girl power" she needs all ready within her, even if she hasn't found it until she needs it (more on this below with Tiberius). Another slam against feminism which Gidget provides us is her motivation: she doesn't become this incredibly empowered leader simply to experience power and leadership: she does it for love (of Max). That is perhaps as anti- feminist as you can get, and I am 100% in favor of it! Why is Gidget watching the Spanish soap opera when she learns that Max has disappeared? Because love transcends language, it applies to every people and every culture. Watching soap operas also goes against feminism and what feminists believe women should be doing with their days (out competing with men for promotions and higher pay raises rather than being at home watching TV).
When Snowball first appears as he jumps out of the sewer to stop the Animal Control truck, Snowball beats up the minority man (minorities think they are in charge with socialism, but they are abused even worse under socialism) and, since Snowball is clearly a symbol of the socialist movement in the US, the minority dog catcher getting so beat up provides an excellent metaphor for a country such as Venezuela which is languishing under the socialist rule they thought was going to save them. The minority dog catcher yelling to the white guy in the truck, "Save yourself!" is like the people in Venezuela calling out to white men in America, "Save yourself from the socialist threat! Don't let them beat you up the way they have beaten us!" When Snowball gets inside the van, he uses a carrot, which is food, and turns the carrot from food into a key that releases the prisoners; why? Socialists want to release prisoners into society because it destabilizes society and creates more voters for the socialists. Socialism, in its very nature, is violent, so the more violence they can release to attack and destroy the "power base" (humans, in the case of The Secret Life Of Pets) the easier the revolution will be to achieve a total socialist take-over. Who is Snowball there to release? Ripper, who is so dangerous, he has to wear a screen over his face, and Snowball is going to release him back into society, just like Obama releasing thousands of dangerous federal prisoners back into society. Remember, Max and Duke convince Snowball to release them because they tell Snowball they killed their owners (and Max and Duke bragging that they "burned their collars" is akin to women burning their bras in the 1960s). When Snowball releases Max and Duke, he tells them that they work for him now, so he's having Max and Duke switch their owner Katie to Snowball being their owner. That's an aspect of socialism that people don't think about: sure, you might hate your boss, but you can always go find another job or you can hope that you'll get a new boss who is better; there's hope. In socialism, the government is your boss. And the person they put in charge over you, cannot be fired (just as you can't "be fired") so there is no hope (not to mention, a socialist government doesn't care about how you feel, they just want to make sure you fulfill your quota). And because there is no democracy in socialism, you can't vote to change the government, so short of another bloody and violent revolution to go back to democracy and capitalism, you're stuck in socialism, which is why the film makers wanted to name the lead villain Snowball, so viewers would be reminded of all the ills inherent in socialist systems.
It would be easy to interpret The Secret Life Of Pets to be about immigrants or wealth re-distribution, since Max now has to share everything with Duke who had nothing before and is now living with Katie and Max. Those are the rosie terms in which liberals paint the ugly reality of "wealth re-distribution." However, when Max and Duke are enduring their adventure together, Max realizes that it's not "sharing" or that Duke isn't "taking over," even though it seemed that way at the beginning: this is an "exchange." This is a lesson for liberals, that people shouldn't just be given things (welfare, food stamps, healthcare, citizenship) there is an exchange that takes place, and only then is it a positive situation, rather than robbing and stealing.
is
We could say that Gidget is really dumb for trusting Tiberius when it's obvious he wants to make a meal out of her, but the exact opposite happens: Gidget has a brilliant power-move when she offers an exchange with Tiberius: if he will help her find Max, Gidget will be his best friend. Tiberius tells Gidget that he was "born with killer instincts. I'm a selfish predator," but when he imagines how much fun he and Gidget could have if she's his best friend, then his stronger instinct for companionship over-rides his innate killer instincts (the same happens with Tiberius and the hamster). In other words, Tiberius needs companionship more than he needs food. It's important to establish that Tiberius is still a predator, a killer, he's not becoming a vegetarian; rather, Tiberius--like Katie in adopting Max and later Duke--makes a willing exchange, a sacrifice for some greater good he will gain from the exchange. This is a cornerstone of the film because it reflects the social contract in which individuals agree to sacrifice some freedom in exchange for the protection of other freedoms. For example, I sacrifice the innate wrath I get in reading liberals and my natural instinct to kill them because I prefer living in a society where I can walk around in freedom and the consequences are, to me, greater in committing murder of a liberal than the benefit; therefore, I sacrifice (what in nature would be a "right" or instinct) and respect the law that forbids murder. The problem is, liberals themselves refuse to adhere to the social contract. For example, homosexuality has been outlawed because the majority of heterosexuals didn't want to be exposed to the perversion that homosexuality is; homosexuals, however, demand "equal rights" and refuse to make sacrifices in exchange for living in society, demanding that every one else suffer so they can do whatever they want to do; the same applies with transgender bathroom "regulations," there is a clear majority that doesn't want these regulations (which are being illegally forced, not having gone through the proper channels of Congress first) and yet liberals insist on oppressing the majority for the sake of less than 1% o.f the population Liberals, then, have greatly damaged the social exchange, which we see in Snowball and his army. On a slightly different note, when Gidget goes to the top of the apartment building to look for Max, Gidget ascends, she accesses within herself a higher level of consciousness (this is different from Max and Duke trying to tap into their un-evolved wolf natures that they never really had, this is Gidget utilizing skills she has, but never had reason to utilized before). Gidget becomes overwhelmed looking at the vast skyline, and it's then that she hears the voice in the creepy old, dark shed; that shed symbolizes an inner-part of Gidget she's never needed to open before, her leadership skills. Dogs obviously don't have any bird skills--so Gidget can't her "inner hawk" to help her find Max--but Tiberius symbolizes Gidget's courage, organizing and fighting abilities, hence, the name after the Roman emperor and legendary general. So, the situation of Max disappearing brings out the very best in Gidget, but what about Max? Snowball isn't Max's worst side, even though Max descends into the sewers with Snowball, Snowball isn't a symbol of what is all ready in Max, but Snowball is a consequence of what is inside Max if Max continues allowing his "lower appetites and instincts" to guide him rather than his more noble instincts, in other words, because Max is being selfish in not wanting to adopt Duke, a figure like Snowball appears to fight on behalf of all "flushed pets," and that is Snowball. The perfect illustration of this is when Duke has gotten caught again by the pound (and tells Max to save himself) and Max has to walk across the cracked windshield of the vehicle to get to Duke; the windshield symbolizes "reflection" of the vehicle, and the "vehicle" of the film is the conflict between Max and Duke because Max didn't want another dog; so when we see Max walking across the cracked windshield, we are seeing the internal process Max endures of realizing that they are in that position because of how Max treated Duke. Snowball having to jump in and provide Max with the keys symbolizes that Max's conversion is now complete because he doesn't want to save Duke out of guilt, or fear of consequences from other flushed pets (an army uprising) rather because he genuinely cares for Duke and wants Duke to be a part of his life, and this is why the scene takes place in water. Even though animals don't have souls and cannot receive the redeeming Grace of Baptism, water symbolizes Grace, repentance and conversion, so both Max and Duke realize their lives will be better with the other, hence, Duke and Max are both saved in that scene.
The "whiteness" of both Snowball and Gidget has prompted Dr. Johnson to accredit them with "white privilege." Regrettably, Dr. Johnson doesn't know anything about art, or politics at that, and he ignores an important fact of the film: before Snowball jumps into the river to help Max and Duke, he kisses Gidget; why? Let's talk about their leadership styles first. Snowball is angry at Max, Gidget is in love with Max; Snowball lives in the sewers gathering others who want to kill people, Gidget goes to the rooftop and gathers a group that wants to save Max. Snowball releases a dangerous animal from animal control (Ripper) while Gidget releases the other animals from their fear of being outside the apartment building without their leashes. Now, when the animals are on the bridge, Max and Duke are sinking, Snowball kisses Gidget and yells, "Remember me!" Why does this happen? A kiss symbolizes the "breath of life," when we kiss someone, we are giving them our very life force, and when we receive a kiss from someone, we are receiving their life force (which is why a new husband and wife kiss at their wedding to seal their marriage agreement, they are entering into a new life with each other). Snowball needs the "life force" of leadership which Gidget has exhibited that Snowball doesn't have within himself in order to (possibly) die saving Max and Duke. Once Snowball makes this act of love, however, he's converted and can now be adopted by a new owner.
The top image is from The Legend Of Tarzan, and illustrates for us the dichotomy between Tarzan's animal nature and human nature (more on this in the upcoming post on Tarzan). The Secret Life Of Pets, however, flips this, and makes the reverse argument: our "animal instincts" aren't to return to the wild (remember that Max and Duke try to get in touch with their wolf instinct that just doesn't exist anymore, and the film makers are saying that same for us humans); the "creature comforts" which we enjoy in our (mostly) middle-class lives are because of the hardships we experienced when we lived in nature, e.g., not having heat or cool air in the changing seasons, having to expend as many calories to obtain food as the food we were working to obtain, being able to rest in safety, communicating with others, etc. In other words, everything which capitalism has done has been in response to our animal natures and our time in nature (like inventing clothing, food preservation methods, and guns to protect ourselves and make getting food easier, etc.). "Digressing" back to a state of living like savages, which is what The Legend Of Tarzan argues for, is impossible, because we would just keep inventing thins to make life easier, like what we've all ready done.
One of the traditional arguments of those in favor of socialism argue that, in capitalism "You're on your own," and there is no one there to help you if you get into trouble. In the image above, we see the friends of Max who have rallied to come to his help; why? As Chloe, the fat, gray cat argued, Max was always there for them, and helped save them in all of their distress, so they were going to help Max (Gidget, of course, was always going to help her roguishly handsome Max). On the other hand, when the hairless cat in the bottom image threatens to fight Duke, a host of rabid-looking alley cats come to help the hairless cat; why? This is the kind of "help" socialists get, thugs. These alley cats are like those in Black Lives Matter, or feminists who "circle the wagon" and defend any outrageous claim one of them has made (and they make these claims because they know their fellow thugs will "protect them" from the consequences of their idiocy). The film makers are also wanting to make a grander statement with this comparison: please note how there is "diversity" in the image on top (cat, birds, rodent, dogs) whereas the bottom image is only cats, so when socialists argue about capitalists not having diversity, the thugs we see "circling the wagon" are all going to be the same as the idiot making all the noise, they will either be all black, all women, all gay, or all rich-white-corrupt politicians who don't want to go to jail themselves.
The opening shot of a film is always, ALWAYS the most important; unless, of course, the closing scene of a film is more important, and then that's what's most important,... The opening scene is most important because it presents you the first impression, the beat is set and the rhythm guides you through the rest of the narrative; on the other hand, the last scene can be the most important because it's the last thing you are apt to take with you from the film, the last morsel that reminds you of everything you have just enjoyed and experienced and the concluding note the film makers can sound out, insuring you engaged with all the right notes throughout the story. The first few seconds ofis the most important scene, except for the last scene, that makes sure we picked up on everything we needed to pick up on, so, we are going to start with the last scene, then move to the first scene of this perfectly lovable and politically explosive film.At the end of the film, Buddy and Mel go to Leonard's apartment (the Poodle who doesn't say anything but head bangs to loud rock) and Buddy looks at Mel and says, "I thought you said this was a costume party?"isimportant, because ANY TIME there is a mask (even if no one is wearing it, it's just decor or a prop) it means that SOME CHARACTER(S) IS WEARING A MASK and we have to take the mask off of them in order to understand what the film wants to communicate so.SO, when Buddy asks Mel about it being a "costume party," that means, in reality, that" and everyone has to be unmasked. So, at the party, who is the character who doesn't say anything? The white standard poodle Leonard who has everyone over to party. Who is Leonard? His owner is obviously white collar/upper-class, and Leonard let's everyone come over and party at the owner's expense, so who is doing that? We can say Millennials because they are willing to sell-out their parents' wealth for everyone else but we can also say politicians because, like the film Project X, Leonard is having a party when the adult (his owner) isn't present; "Have you been a good boy, Leonard?" and the pig falling out of the ceiling indicates that no, Leonard (which means "lion strength" he isn't exhibiting) wasn't good, he was busy doing exactly what he had been trusted not to do: party and invite |
injured he was replaced by Diego Milito, yet by the semi-final Tevez was again a starter. He might not even have made the 2011 Copa América, but for a public outcry and the intervention of the governor of Buenos Aires, Daniel Scioli. Batista has since said he wouldn't have selected Tevez but for "political pressure".
Part of the problem, though, was that he joined a squad that had little sympathy for him, and was committed to dancing to Messi's tune. Scioli has been at it again this week, describing Tevez as "a great motivator, with great garra", but Sabella is unlikely to be swayed as Batista was. And, besides, there is the issue of Messi.
There has been no bust-up, no specific reason for ill feeling, but Messi is known to be no great fan of Tevez and, politically, as his performances for Argentina have begun to hit the levels he achieves for Barcelona, he is increasingly influential. Sabella began the qualifying series with a 4-4-1-1, with Messi playing behind Gonzalo Higuaín, but by the end, apparently on Messi's request, the shape had switched to 4-3-3, with Messi on the right and Sergio Agüero on the left.
Tevez's other problem, of course, is Argentina's wealth of talent in forward areas. As well as Messi, Higuaín and Agüero, there are Ezequiel Lavezzi, Rodrigo Palacio, Angel di María, Javier Pastore, Erik Lamela and Ricky Álvarez contending for places at the front end of the team. Argentina's is a squad that can comfortably afford to be without a talent who doesn't conform.
On the day of the World Cup draw, Osvaldo Ardiles was still insisting that Tevez would find a way back into the side – and on ability and form it's hard to deny he deserves a place in the squad at least. Perhaps he will make it, but the people have fallen out of love with the jugador del pueblo and the Messi-Sabella axis is stronger than Batista ever was. The pressure is nowhere near as strong as it was three years ago and the probability is that, at 30, Tevez has already played his last World Cup game.BY: Follow @BillGertz
A Chinese attack submarine conducted a simulated cruise missile attack on the aircraft carrier USS Reagan during a close encounter several weeks ago, according to American defense officials.
The targeting incident near the Sea of Japan in October violated China’s 2014 commitment to the multinational Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea, known as CUES, designed to reduce the risk of a shooting incident between naval vessels, said officials familiar with details of the encounter they described as "serious."
A section of the non-binding 2014 agreement states that commanders at sea should avoid actions that could lead to accidents or mishaps. Among the actions to be avoided are "simulation of attacks by aiming guns, missiles, fire control radar, torpedo tubes or other weapons in the direction of vessels or aircraft encountered."
Navy officials recently briefed congressional staff on the incident that took place during the weekend of Oct. 24—days before the Navy warship USS Lassens sailed within 12 miles of disputed Chinese islands in the South China Sea, triggering vocal criticism from Beijing.
The Obama administration has kept details of the submarine targeting incident secret to avoid upsetting military relations between the Pentagon and the People’s Liberation Army.
Asked directly about the incident, Adm. Harry Harris, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, did not deny that the encounter occurred. "I have nothing for you," Harris stated in an email.
Pacific Command spokesman Capt. Darryn James earlier directed questions about the targeting to the Chinese navy. James also stated that Navy ships in the region are capable of defending themselves.
"I cannot discuss submarine operations, reports of submarine operations, or rumors of submarine operations," James said. "I can tell you that we are completely confident in the effectiveness and capabilities of the ships and aircraft of the forward-deployed naval force."
Additional details about the submarine-carrier encounter emerged after the Free Beacon first reported the incident Nov. 3.
The nuclear-powered Reagan is currently the Navy’s sole forward-deployed aircraft carrier strike group. It arrived at its base in Yokosuka, Japan on Oct. 1 and replaced the USS Washington strike group there.
Aircraft carrier strike groups are equipped with anti-submarine warfare capabilities, including ships armed with sensors and submarine-killing torpedoes.
Disclosure of the aircraft carrier targeting comes as two Chinese navy warships arrived in Pearl Harbor on Sunday.
China’s official news agency said the ships’ visit to Hawaii will last five days. "During the fleet's stay here, the U.S. navy and the Chinese fleet will hold receptions for each other," Xinhua said. "Friendly sports activities, such as basketball and soccer games, will be held between the two sides."
The Pentagon has made developing closer ties with the Chinese military a top priority, despite concerns that the exchanges are boosting Chinese war-fighting capabilities.
Members of Congress have called for curbing the exchanges in the face of Chinese cyber attacks and destabilizing activities in the South China Sea.
On Capitol Hill, Rep. Randy Forbes (R., Va.), chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on sea power, said he is concerned by reports of China’s simulated ship attack.
"If true, this would be yet another case of China trying to show us that they can hold our forces in the region at risk," said Forbes.
"Coming on the heels of anti-satellite tests and other demonstrations, this latest incident should be a reminder of the destabilizing course that China is on and the challenges we face in maintaining a stable military balance in the Asia-Pacific region," Forbes added.
Naval warfare analysts said the incident highlights Chinese efforts to counter U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups, the United States’ major power projection capability in the Pacific.
Retired Navy Capt. Jim Fanell, a former Pacific Fleet intelligence chief, said the submarine incident, if confirmed, would be another clear case of the Chinese navy targeting the carrier strike groups, known as CVNs.
"The PLAN submarine force is on the leading edge of the PLAN for targeting U.S. CVNs in the East Asia arena, all for the expressed purpose of being able to attack and disable them in a contingency operation" he said. PLAN stands for People’s Liberation Army Navy.
Rick Fisher, a China military specialist at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, said the Chinese navy operates several types of submarines capable of firing anti-ship cruise missiles.
The Song-class and Yuan-class attack submarines can fire two types of torpedo tube-launched anti-ship cruise missiles, including the YJ-82 with a range of up to 22 miles.
Eight of China’s 12 Russian-made Kilo-class submarines are armed with Club anti-ship missiles with a range of up to 137 miles. Newer Shang-class submarine can also fire cruise missiles.
"That the U.S. side would be able to determine that the submarine was conducting a cruise missile strike would indicate that the Chinese submarine was under close surveillance," Fisher said.
"That also raises the potential that the U.S. side could determine the Chinese submarine had hostile intent, potentially leading to the launching of defensive weapons."
Fisher said the incident was serious because a U.S.-China shootout would likely result in the destruction of the Chinese submarine and the loss of its crew. "Even though China would have been at fault for the incident, the Chinese government would likely then use it as an excuse for initiating a series of attacks or incidents against U.S. naval forces," he said.
Additionally, the targeting "certainly runs counter to a 2014 U.S.-China agreement to avoid such incidents at sea, which could indicate that China may have little intention to honor such this or other military confidence building agreements," Fisher said.
The Navy’s main close-in anti-submarine warfare weapon is the RUM-139C rocket-launched anti-submarine torpedo, with a range of about 17 miles.
Ben Ho Wan Beng, a military analyst at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said the Chinese military is focused on using of cruise missiles against carriers. "China seems to stress the centrality of this weapon in attacking ships," he wrote last week in the Diplomat.
Recent improvements in Navy defenses against submarines include a new electronic combat system, a towed sensor array, and the P-8 maritime submarine patrol aircraft.
"Whether or not these and similar measures would enable the U.S. to retain a distinctive edge in the undersea combat realm vis-à-vis China remains to be seen," Ho said.
Lyle J. Goldstein, a U.S. Naval War College expert on the Chinese military, wrote on Sunday that a Chinese defense journal recently discussed ways to sink U.S. aircraft carriers.
A Chinese military analyst recently revealed that China is closely studying a report from earlier this year revealing that a small nuclear-powered French submarine successfully conducted a simulated attack on the aircraft carrier USS Roosevelt, sinking the ship and several support ships in the simulation.
"The article illustrates how Chinese military analysts are diligently probing for cracks in the U.S. Navy’s armor," Goldstein wrote in the National Interest.
The October showdown between the Chinese submarine and the Reagan took place as the carrier sailed around the southern end of Japan on the way exercises in the Sea of Japan along with four other strike group warships.
Days after the incident, two Russian strategic bombers flew within a mile of the carrier at a height of 500 feet, prompting F-18s from the ship to scramble and intercept them.
The October incident was not the first time a Chinese submarine threatened a U.S. carrier strike group.
In 2006, a Song-class attack submarine surfaced undetected within torpedo range of the USS Kitty Hawk.
The state-controlled China Daily praised the implementation of the CUES maritime code agreement last year as a major step in U.S.-China military relations.
Wen Bing, a researcher at the Chinese army’s Academy of Military Sciences, told the newspaper that the code of conduct and U.S.-China warship exercise at the time "demonstrate the resolve of both countries to deepen military ties and avoid a maritime conflict escalating due to a lack of communication."
In December 2013, a Chinese amphibious warship sailed in front of the guided missile cruiser USS Cowpens and stopped, causing a near collision in the South China Sea.
A Chinese Embassy spokesman did not respond to an email request for comment.ASSOCIATED PRESS Watched by Prashant Bhushan, left, and Manish Sisodia, right, Indian anti-corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal, addresses a press conference in New Delhi, India, Friday, Nov. 9, 2012. Kejriwal alleged that the government had details of 700 Swiss bank account holders in the HSBC Bank in Geneva but declined to take action against several top Indian corporate honchos whose names figured in the list. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
New Delhi — Ousted Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Prashant Bhushan has indicated he will form a new political party after he and Yogendra Yadav were expelled from the national executive. According to reports, all the volunteers will meet on April 14 to take a concrete decision over the matter.
The meeting is expected to be attended by several members of the party's national executive and national council.
On Saturday, Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav were ousted from the party's national executive. Out of the 311 national executive members present in yesterday's national council meeting, an overwhelming 247 members voted against Bhushan and Yadav while just 8 votes were cast in their favour.
The party also removed Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha from the national executive.
Also read: Prashant Bhushan And Yogendra Yadav Ousted From AAP National Executive
"My opinion is that the spirit of the AAP movement has to be kept alive. We must march forward. We must not allow these incidents and negativity to affect us. We should move forward. The way to move forward would be to generate energy in the country,” Yadav told PTI.
The party's internal rift had widened after Yadav and Bhushan were accused of working for party's defeat during the Delhi Assembly polls last month.
Meanwhile, RPI (A) chief Ramdas Athawale has invited the duo to join his party.
Also read: Aam Aadmi Party Issues Damning Statement Against Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav
"Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav had a key role to play in the magnificent victory of Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi Assembly polls. Removing them from the party's national executive is an injustice to them. I invite them to come and be a part of the RPI," Athawale told reporters. The RPI is founded on the principles of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, and thus, is party of the common man, the Rajya Sabha MP said.
Amid chaos and high drama, a resolution to remove the two dissident leaders along with their supporters Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha from the powerful panel was passed during AAP's national council meeting.
Later, veteran social activist Medha Patkar had resigned from AAP yesterday stating that the party had reduced itself to a "tamasha."
But Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has reassured voters that the Aam Admi Party was "doing alright".
In his first interaction with media after the charged National Council meeting, Kejriwal responded to a question on the upheaval in the party saying, "party theek thaak hai (the party is doing alright)."
The party also discontinued services of its internal Lokpal Admiral Ramdas after he was critical of the leadership. He has been replaced by a three-member Lokpal panel comprising two former IPS officers and one educationist.“Have you seen Buffalo lately?” That was the oft-repeated response I gave to people who asked me why I went to Buffalo in July to speak at the Buffalo Urban Futures Forum, hosted by CannonDesign in partnership with Next City.
Tree-lined streets, solid housing stock, a renewed interest in pedestrian and bicycle transportation, investments in people and buildings, and an enthusiasm for the future make “The City of Good Neighbors” a city to watch. Although a shrinking city — Buffalo reminds us that legacy cities are too valuable to pass by.
Bringing together local leaders who are key to Buffalo’s recent resurgence, the forum explored what comes next regarding urban development, infrastructure investment, sustainability and innovation for the city. These leaders from Buffalo’s strongest businesses, institutions and nonprofits thought boldly about how the city can capitalize on its recent resurgence for an even brighter future. More importantly, the forum set the stage for a larger effort where public, private, nonprofit and academic institutions will work collaboratively to present the new Buffalo.
“Our vision was established: to revitalize the waterfront and restore economic development. For us, it was all about public access,” says Tom Dee, president of the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation. Through public and private investment, Buffalo’s Inner Harbor has been transformed into Canalside — a mixed-use urban entertainment destination. In 2014, ECHDC acquired approximately 350 acres of property owned by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, creating Buffalo Harbor State Park. The following year, the Queen City Bike Ferry connected pedestrians and bicyclists from Canalside to the Outer Harbor, with over 50,000 riders in its first year of operation. “Over the next decade, I’d love to see our waterfront become known as one of the best in the world,” says Dee.
I know what you’re thinking: What about the legendary winters Buffalo is known for? I’m happy to report Buffalo has a response, engaging the owners of the football and hockey teams in redevelopment that Buffalonians can enjoy. “We’re having a lot of fun with our new projects and we like it even more because we’re partnering with our neighbors,” said Frank Cravotta, executive VP of creative services for Pegula Sports & Entertainment Group.
Their proposed makeover of 79 Perry Street and 55 Illinois Street, a five-story building in the Cobblestone Historic District, will be anchored by Labatt USA’s office and a ground floor restaurant/brew pub. Pegula Sports and Entertainment will relocate its offices there, and apartments will be created on the fifth floor, all within walking distance of the Sabres arena. With several vacant parking lots and buildings nearby, this district is ripe for redevelopment.
Fortunately, Kelly Hayes McAlonie, director of capital planning at SUNY Buffalo, is thinking about planning and design. “I spend a lot of time studying Buffalo between 1880 to 1910,” she says, “and in that time, Buffalo brought in the very best architects in the world: Daniel Burnham, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright and I’m just going to ask you — what top tier architects are we bringing in now? We want and expect to be a top-tier city and I think we once again should be audacious. We should celebrate design the way we did 120 years ago.”
But Buffalo is more than its downtown and its new zoning code — which promotes density and made Buffalo the first city in the U.S. to eliminate parking minimums — will only be successful if the city employs inclusive implementation strategies. Rahwa Ghirmatzion, director of programs for People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH Buffalo) kept the focus on neighborhoods and people. “What we really need to look at as we’re having these conversations is how do we strategically and intentionally invest in (all our) communities and in (all our) youth, and in those sorts of older, disadvantaged workers to make sure we’re upscaling them and training them in productive ways that will pay them family sustaining wages,” she says.
PUSH Buffalo is a local membership-based community organization fighting to make affordable housing a reality on Buffalo’s West Side. On a tour, I saw first-hand the power of community organizations as well as investments that spur additional public and private investment. “We need to do more of that. It needs to be serious and intentional and it needs to be now,” said Ghirmatzion
Talent is another commodity in ample supply in Buffalo. Eileen Morgan, chief human resources officer for Delaware North, one of the world’s largest privately held companies, noted, “Buffalo is a great place to recruit from. Telling the Buffalo story is less and less of a challenge every week and every day. The resurgence has just been amazing — it’s really about building awareness about all the city has to offer. Because, when we recruit people into our roles, they bring their families. They’re living here, they’re working here — it’s not just about the job opportunity. It’s about schools, entertainment, sports — it’s critical we recognize we’re all invested in the city’s future together.”
Building on that talent, Buffalo has a $5 million prize competition offering free incubator space, tax breaks, and some fierce ping-pong, according to Bill Maggio, partner at Lorraine Capital and Chairman of 43North. Founded in 2014, 43North was made possible by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion initiative.
“The evolution of everything that’s happening in Buffalo is making it easy for 43North to bring companies here. Having people come to Buffalo is the least of their concerns. Their concerns revolve around raising money, advancing their discoveries, mentorship … What we need is mentorship and so what 43North is doing is going outside Western New York and we’re convincing people who had a connection to Buffalo to come back and mentor these young companies. Mentorship is critically important for us to achieve transformation.”
On its website, 43North boasts, “Winners are helping to fuel a remarkable story that’s well underway — the renaissance of a great American city. Buffalo, New York, is poised to show the world what a 21st-century city looks like, and that it’s a fertile ground for visionaries, pioneers, dreamers and doers.”
All of this serves to answer the question Next City raised in 2009: Has Buffalo hit bottom? Or is it rising again? Prior to the forum, I toured Buffalo with CannonDesign’s Christopher Whitcomb. With a heavy downpour of rain, we witnessed hearty Buffalonians walking and bike riding. Definitely not “America’s emptiest neighborhood.” Definitely rising again.
This Publisher’s Post was underwritten by CannonDesign.Bill O’Brien had his customary post-practice press conference today, and strangely enough he dropped a previously-unknown nugget for once – Kareem Jackson is playing in the slot.
On the slot cornerback position:
A slot corner has to have quickness, has to have strength, has to have awareness, has to - relative to the strength - be able to tackle because they could be a force player against certain formations in nickel runs that they see. They have to be able to tackle so it’s a position that is very tough to play. When you have a guy like Kareem who is doing that for us right now, who can play outside and inside, he’s a guy who is playing inside for us too. Elbert Mack, these are guys that are very competitive guys. I think even Bouye could go in there maybe and do some things for us in there. So we have some guys who can do it and have progressed in doing it every single day here this spring.
I had never previously envisioned Jackson playing inside considering his massive improvements on the outside in the last three seasons (random phony pass interference penalties aside), but O’Brien’s justification of Kareem’s tackling ability is not an angle I had considered before. If Jackson is playing in the slot, that means that the defense would likely be in a nickel "pass rush" mode against three receiver sets with some combination of Whitney Mercilus, J.J. Watt, [insert nose tackle here], Jared Crick, Tim Jamison, Trevardo Williams, or Jadeveon Clowney getting after the quarterback. By mentioning that Kareem Jackson would be used as a "force" player on nickel runs, and not the outside linebackers, that may have tipped off the Texans' philosophy for their outside backers this season – bring hell off the edge on every snap. If Kareem Jackson, D.J. Swearinger, and Chris Clemons/Kendrick Lewis are relied upon to make sure runs do not get outside, that frees up Mercilus and Clowney to do virtually whatever they want without fear of blowing an assignment. Wade Phillips utilized his outside linebackers more as "pocket containers" while Watt and Smith did their damage inside. Romeo Crennel, however, seems to be doing everything in his power to take the chains off the Texans’ dormant edge rush. I love that.
Here are some other little tidbits that O’Brien dropped in today’s presser.
On the current four-way battle at the quarterback position:
The quarterbacks have worked very hard. All of them have put a lot of time into studying and knowing what their assignments are. Each guy has gone in there had some good moments, and each guy has had some moments that weren’t so good, but it looks to me that that position is being coached very well and is progressing right along like we expected it to.
On if Ryan Fitzpatrick is picking the offense up quicker than the younger QBs:
No I don’t think so. It’s new for everybody, so they’re all progressing at the same rate as far as their knowledge of the system.
On what attracted the Texans to Fitzpatrick during free agency:
We really liked his intelligence. We liked the fact that he had played a bunch of football. We liked the fact that he had played football in a similar system relative to Chan Gailey’s system in Buffalo. We liked the fact that we thought he was a guy that we thought would be a good system fit, meaning that he was an intelligent guy, a good leader, a guy that was an accurate passer, and like with every position here we felt like what was best for the Houston Texans was to find a good fit at quarterback for our system and he was the guy who we thought fit that.
On rookie quarterback Tom Savage:
In Savage, we put a lot of time in with him – meeting him, studying him, and talking to him – and he was a guy that came across to us as a hard working guy and an intelligent guy, and that seems to be the case to this point here in the spring.
On Duane Brown being disappointed in his own performance last season and bulking back up:
You would have to ask him about how he played last year. That’s his opinion. I believe that he’s a leader. He’s a guy who has been here just about every day since I’ve been hired here. He’s put in a lot of time. I think he’s a really good football player. Like I said, he’s one of the leaders of this football team, and he’s worked extremely hard every day this spring. It’s a guy like a lot of these guys here who you really look forward to seeing every day when you come to work, and he’s going to play well in 2014. He’ll play good.
As soon as the O’Brien press conference is put on the mothership, we will edit this post with a link so you can watch for yourself.Voice-activated speakers saw an 843% uptick in unit shipments during the second quarter, with Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), the undisputed leader in the field, controlling more than 90% of the market.
That’s according to consulting firm Futuresource, which found that across the globe, 4.2 million smart speakers were shipped during the three months ended in June. It expects record shipments for the current third quarter as well. The U.S. and the U.K. were the dominant markets for these voice-activated speakers, which can do everything from read the news and weather to control the lighting and heating in a home. While the devices are finding their way into other countries, including Germany, China and South Korea, the U.S. and the U.K. are seeing the quickest rates of adoption with penetration at 6% in the U.S. and 3% in the U.K. Each home that owns a smart speaker has two, on average, noted Futuresource in a blog post. “The market continues to witness strong growth and its performance remains particularly impressive when considered within the wider market it is most closely associated with—home audio; 38% of home audio devices were voice-enabled in the first half of 2017 in the US,” the consultancy firm wrote.
New Market Entrants
Thanks to the Amazon Echo speaker, powered by Alexa, the e-commerce giant has been able to maintain its lead in the burgeoning market, but that may not last as its rivals circle. Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOG) Google has its Google Home assistant, while Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) teamed up with Harmon Kardon to launch a speaker powered by its Cortana virtual assistant and Apple Inc.'s (APPL) is slated to roll out its Siri-powered HomePod in November. (See also: Google to Launch New Home Hardware Products.)
Futuresource said it expects more audio hardware companies to launch voice-activated speakers, likely with the help of Amazon, Apple, Google or Microsoft. While there is some novelty attached to speakers that can read your email, Futuresource noted that satisfaction and usage rates with the devices are high with 46% of U.S. consumers reporting they use them daily. Much of the use is centered on controlling access to media via voice commands.
Futuresource isn't the only firm that thinks this market is set to take off. Earlier this month, Barclay’s said the connected home market represents “one of the most significant investment opportunities over the next several years.” As consumers become increasingly attracted by voice controls and appreciate the savings generated from smart gadgets, the connected home industry could be worth several hundred billion dollars by 2020, Barclay’s predicted in a recent research note to clients. Barclays foresees the hardware segment of the market contributing $130 billion by 2020, while software and advertising are expected to reach $170 billion over the same period.The Real Estate Council of B.C. says it's appointing an independent advisory group to investigate allegations of shadow flipping in Vancouver's hot housing market.
"We realize that this is an urgent matter and expect to announce the members of the multi-stakeholder advisory group within the coming two weeks," council spokeswoman Marilee Peters said in a written statement.
Earlier on Monday the B.C. NDP's housing critic called for an inquiry into Metro Vancouver's real estate market over the technique known as shadow flipping, under which sales contracts are reassigned, in some instances multiple times, before the sale of a home is closed.
Details of the practice were revealed in a Globe and Mail investigation published on Saturday.
Peters said the practice of reassigning real estate contracts is legal in B.C., and in the rest of Canada, but agents must disclose their business intentions with clients when selling and buying properties.
"The council has become aware that some licensees may be engaging in business practices that are contrary to their clients' best interests," she said.
"We are deeply concerned by these matters and we invite members of the public who have been directly affected by any improper business practices of licensees to contact us."
The advisory group will be expected to report to the council in 60 days, she added.
B.C. cabinet minister Peter Fassbender said the council is doing what it should to address the issue, and the province will wait to make any potential regulatory changes until after the advisory group's recommendations are put forward.
"The real estate council is there to do exactly what they're about to do now," Fassbender said.
"The less regulation we have and the more self-policing we have, as in the case of the real estate industry, the better."
Loophole raising home prices
Vancouver real estate agent and former park board commissioner Aaron Jasper said the assignment clause can be useful if a client's circumstances change after they put an offer on a property.
For example, he said, one of his clients used the arrangement when he got engaged after having purchased a bachelor apartment. However, he added, he has heard of other realtors using the loophole for less benign purposes.
"It's almost like the wild, wild West in terms of what people are doing. They're trying to make a quick buck, but they have no intention of taking possession of that home," he said.
He said the practice is almost certainly causing house prices to rise across the region.
"Whether you're a doctor on the west side or an average Joe on the east side, it really is putting housing out of reach for everybody across the city," he said.
Jasper said there needs to be serious consequences for those who bend the rules for their own profit, especially considering that buying and selling a home is usually one of the biggest financial decisions of a lifetime.
"I would love to see some of these shady individuals taken out of the business, never to come back," he said. "This paints us all with a bad brush."We also have a spoiler-filled version of this review, which you can read by clicking right here.
Inevitably, the arrival of a new series of Doctor Who, not least one with a new Doctor at the controls of the TARDIS, comes coated with a generous dose of goodwill. Certainly at the Cardiff-based world premiere of series 8, there was no shortage of that on show. Streets were lined, autographs were signed, and the moment Peter Capaldi entered the room, it might just have made One Direction turn around and remark "that was a bit loud." The reaction was always more likely to be upbeat than not.
That notwithstanding, few are going to feel shortchanged by "Deep Breath." There's a sense that the show has changed a little certainly, yet perhaps the biggest surprise is how relatively quiet much of the feature-length opener is. It might be that it's that extra running time ("Deep Breath" runs to nearly 80 minutes), but it feels like there's space and room afforded to talk, to put the brakes on more, and to more evenly space out action sequences. Even more importantly, it feels - and that wasn't always the case, particularly last series - that it's the right length for the right story.
Again, you don't need us to tell you that the main attraction is the new Doctor himself, so let's start there. We're strictly spoiler-free here, so we'll go light on the specific details. However, it's fair to say that much of "Deep Breath" is about a new Doctor finding his feet, his identity and his mind. Thus, whilst David Tennant sat in his pyjamas playing with satsumas, and Matt Smith tried some unusual recipes (and Syvlester McCoy got, well, lumbered with "Time And The Rani"), Capaldi comes across as quietly broken, and really quite mysterious. He is also, and no bones about this, very Scottish. He's also every bit as good and as interesting as you'd hope.
Granted, off the back of one episode, it's hard to pin down just what his Doctor's going to be. Yet thus far, he doesn't run much, he rarely shouts, and he has amazing eyebrow dexterity. He carries himself more like the Doctors of old, and he's seemingly more interesting doing some proper detective work, rather than pegging it from place to place. "Deep Breath" does walk a tight line, as it deliberately holds back too much warmth until it needs it. But the slower (and that's slower, not slow) pace, and Capaldi's rich performance are both very big positives.
Arguably, though, this is as much, if not more, Jenna Coleman's episode. Clara has been a different companion for the Doctor, in that she's more than once proven to be one step ahead of him. Here, though, she's just as broken as the Doctor, and Steven Moffat's script calls for some hard acting work from Jenna Coleman to put that across, crucially giving her the screen time to do so. She delivers, not in a bombastic way, but quietly and gradually, building up her performance and the mix of sadness and confusion in her character. It would be fair to say her faith has been rattled, and Coleman - and this is very much a good thing too - is a wonderfully uneven match for Capaldi.
Romance, as has been widely flagged beforehand, is not on the table, either. At least not between those two.
Moffat's script also has a theme of age running through it, and the judgement of it. It's still got some quality laughs - including more than one excellent physical comedy moment involving a certain Sontaran - and it's still very much Doctor Who, with a family audience in mind. There are tips of the hat to episodes and lines of old, and some welcome quality time with the Paternoster gang, particularly Jenny and Vastra.
But then there's the injection of unease from director Ben Wheatley. Known for films he wouldn't be allowed to let his children see, Wheatley proves a strong match for the material, lending Deep Breath a cinematic identity without showing off to do it. Unusual camera angles, holding his shots, and with a sharp eye for character (and, yep, eyebrows), Wheatley brings something extra here. It'll be interesting to see if he holds the same tone for his second episode.
"Deep Breath" may be a slightly quieter introduction for Peter Capaldi in some senses than people are expecting. Yet it's hard to avoid an underlying confidence that all concerned know they're onto something here. And with some flat out brilliant moments in the last third, there's an old fashioned ethos of putting in the foundations, doing the ground work, and building on substance. As such, the big moments really hit.
You're unlikely to remember too much about the on-the-surface foes of "Deep Breath," as fun as they are. But you are likely to take away a good, promising start for a new series, that leaves ceiling room, takes a bit of time getting out of the traps, yet also leaves you yearning to jump in a time machine yourself to spend some more time with the Doctor and Clara.
And to everyone involved in the casting of Peter Capaldi? We think we might just owe you a drink or two.
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that's your thing!‘Murder by a Midwife at Manchester’
For every crime, and every offender traced to the streets of sprawling Victorian cities, we capture a few moments of life unfolding before us on the page. In these instances we are offered a snapshot of a time, a place, and an individual.
Writing histories like these can be a complicated and difficult process. There are days of immense reward when a problem is solved or when a disparate trail of evidence comes together, like pieces of a jigsaw, allowing us to form a pleasing narrative for a long-pondered story. Then there are times when a sea of documents, names, dates, and events make us realise that even the best investigations can barely scratch the surface of the intricate web of ideas and experiences that shaped life in the past.
Recently the discovery of a long forgotten crime, by a long forgotten offender, was a stark reminder of just how fleeting our interactions with those in the past can be.
Ann Cartledge was the kind of woman who rarely takes centre stage in history. She wouldn’t be out of place in a Gustave Doré painting, although she would never be the subject. Many of us have probably read dozens of descriptions of her, and those like her, in the work of Dickens or Mayhew. Ann was old and poor, and to her social ‘betters’ (not to mention her observers in the 21st century), she was unremarkable.
Born in Stockport, in the 1820s, she married Thomas Cartledge, an engine fitter, and together the pair had four surviving children. Ann worked as a midwife. Unlike the modern profession, this occupation was not subject to formal training and practiced by local women for a network of their friends and neighbours. Knowledge of the services she offered was built up over time, and word of mouth was how she secured work. Like many other midwives, her duties could range from helping women give birth, to caring for women and helping around their homes after the birth of children, to the tending of sick children.
Other than census entries Ann would be virtually absent in the historical record, tending silently to poor women in the inner-city slums of Manchester, except for a seemingly out of place conviction cluttering her narrative – a murder.
In 1877, for a period of three weeks, Ann had been attending a thirty-four year old widow named Elizabeth Coleman. Whilst Elizabeth had been acting as a housekeeper for a man named Crompton the two formed a relationship and Elizabeth became pregnant. Ann was called to perform one of her little advertised but clearly well practiced trades – procuring abortion. Witnesses testified that Ann gave Elizabeth a ‘potion’ to bring on a miscarriage and then went upstairs with her to procure a miscarriage by ‘other means’. In this case that involved the use of a feather quill and a long piece of wire. Soon after, Elizabeth miscarried her child. Although little evidence remains for historians of such |
a few weeks, teachers will be heading back to school to get their classrooms ready for students.
With the Oklahoma Department of Education taking hits amid the ongoing budget crisis in the state, many teachers are being forced to pay for supplies out of their own pockets.
Now, one Oklahoma educator is going to great lengths to provide for her students.
Teresa Danks is a third grade teacher for Tulsa Public Schools.
As a result of budget cuts over the past few years, Danks told FOX 23 that she now spends between $2,000 to $3,000 of her own money to purchase supplies for her students.
“It all adds up week after week, and month after month,” she said. “So it’s a huge need.”
For years, teachers have been asking lawmakers for a raise.
When legislators failed to pass a bill that would approve a salary increase for Oklahoma educators, Danks says she decided to ask the public for help.
Danks turned to panhandling to raise money to purchase school supplies for her classroom.
She stood on a street corner near 193rd East Ave. and I-44 with a sign that read, “Teacher needs school supplies! Anything helps. Thank you.”
In six minutes, Danks says she made $55, more than double what she makes per hour in the classroom.
She says she turned to panhandling to raise money and also bring awareness to how the budget crisis is affecting Oklahoma teachers.The Los Angeles Kings’ long-term defensive project has passed beta testing and is ready to hit the open market.
Derek Forbort, who has appeared in preseason games and was called up midway through last season but never was penciled into Darryl Sutter’s lineup card, appears to be on the verge of making his NHL debut with Matt Greene’s availability in doubt due to injury. Darryl Sutter said that the 23-year-old Minnesotan will be in the lineup when his home-state Wild visit Staples Center for the first of their two Los Angeles trips this season.
“It’s probably the very same as playing your first game of the year or your first playoff game, things like that where you’re always trying to do something good and you get a hit or make a good play or get the puck out, get it in, sort of simplify it early,” Sutter said.
Forbort was selected 15th overall when Staples Center hosted the draft in 2010, and, upon his debut, will become the final member of that year’s first round class to appear in an NHL game. Though he’s yet to dress for an NHL game, he has considerable experience with USA Hockey, having split time with the US National Team Development Program’s U-17 and U-18 teams in 2008-09 and 2009-10. He also has U-18 World Championship and two bouts of World Junior Championship experience sandwiched inside his three-year career at the University of North Dakota, where he totaled 45 points (6-39=45) in 115 games and earned all-academic NCAA honors in 2012.
“It’s definitely been a lot of hard work to get to where I am, and I owe a lot of that to the development staff here – Mike O’Connell, and obviously the guys at North Dakota for developing me into the player I am now,” Forbort said.
Los Angeles had planned to recall Forbort in February to replace Robyn Regehr, who was weakened by a bout of food poisoning prior to a road game against the Columbus Blue Jackets, but Forbort’s plane out of Boston was canceled because of heavy snow, and Regehr ultimately gutted out nearly 24 minutes of play in a 4-3 win.
“It helps knowing that if you stay patient, your time will come, and if you put the work in down there, you’ll get your chances here,” Forbort said.
Acclaimed for his skating, his long reach and ability to break up plays, Forbort is someone whose contributions will be tilted more to the defensive end. But he’s a modern NHL defenseman, and someone capable of dishing a crisp outlet pass up the ice and using his skating to jump into plays offensively. In the preseason finale against Colorado, he skated with Drew Doughty and was among the top defenders on the ice, earning an assist on Dustin Brown’s goal and issuing a clean hit on Jarome Iginla that sent the Western Conference legend heavily to the ice. He played assertive and was noticeable in a very good way.
When discussing the versatile nature of modern defending, he referenced Drew Doughty’s all-zone ability.
“He’s one of the better offensive players in the league, and he’s also very responsible defensively,” Forbort said. “I think everyone’s taken on that role, to play a two-way game, and I’ve taken a lot of pride in that.”
When asked to name an NHL player whose skill set could ideally be similar to his own, he thought for several moments before providing an answer.
“Maybe like a Brayden Coburn, like a taller, good skater,” Forbort said. “He uses his stick well to defend and isn’t overly physical in the open ice, but down low is hard to play against.”
Derek Forbort, on whether it feels like a long time since he was drafted:
Yeah. I mean, it’s been a while since I was drafted at Staples Center, but I just tried to stay the course, and hopefully my time will come.
Forbort, on interviewing with the Kings before getting drafted:
We had good talks at the combine. That was a long time ago. I don’t really remember it, exactly. We obviously had a good relationship going into it, and then they took me, so obviously it went pretty well.
Forbort, on having his name called at Staples Center:
It was awesome. I was able to have a lot of family out here, and to experience that with them was pretty special.
Forbort, on whether he ever wondered if his time in the NHL would come:
I think I always knew if I stayed the course and kept working hard and kept working on my game and developing that it would eventually come.
Forbort, on whether the Kings told him what they’re looking out of him:
Just play my game. Defense first, be tough to play against and good outlet passes.
Forbort, on the feel he got in preseason games:
Obviously it’s probably a step up from the American League, but you’re also playing with a lot better players, so I think that kind of makes it a lot easier to adjust. [Reporter: How does that step from college to pro compare to the step from the AHL to the NHL in your estimation?] I don’t know. I feel like for me, college to the American League was almost a little easier. The games just had more flow. It was just a lot easier of a game for me to play than at the college level. But I guess we’ll see from the American League to the NHL.
Forbort, on the biggest difference in his game since being drafted:
Obviously I’m a lot stronger now. I’m probably about 15 or 20 pounds heavier than when I got drafted. My goal back then was to be harder to play against and become stronger and fill up my body, and I think I’ve done that.
Forbort, on whether he’s surprised by the Kings’ slow start:
Yeah, I think everyone’s a little surprised how the season’s started. There are a lot of hardworking guys and a lot of good leaders in this room, so I’m confident that we’ll be able to turn it around.HNNNNNGGGHHHHH
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FAQ
Hello Twelvians, it is my hope that you will join me as I play a dating sim where the aim is to make sweet tender love to a crippled schoolgirl. There will be a lot of pictures, random posts and stuff I'm feeling as I play (mostly baaaad feelings), so if your replies are swamped by my doodles and screencaps - just deal with it jerks.This is not the first time I played this game with a running commentary. I played the demo in 2009, and 3 years later - the game is now finally complete and finished.Check out the old thread here!: OH GOD MY NUTBLADDER I will make silly drawings, misbehave, laugh at little girls that have disabilities and hopefully sleep with one of them. I welcome comments, remarks about how wrong all of this is, and also praises to the glorious island of Japan for fulfilling every niche fetish there is to fulfill.Just so we are clear, my target is the(Hanako-chan). Good god I want to lick those burn scars so bad.FAQ offIn the days before online video, a long-bearded man dancing with his pet raccoon to Aretha Franklin on his porch in rural Tennessee would have gone unnoticed, just one weird blissful moment in a world full of them. But Mark “Coonrippy” Brown’s clip (above) of him dancing with his four-legged companion Gunshow has gone viral viral since he posted it in July 2012, racking up more than 1 million views on YouTube and attracting so much attention it was featured on The Tonight Show and Good Morning America, which are like YouTube for old people.
It got some not-so-welcome attention, however—according to Coonrippy, the video became so popular that the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) decided to step in and confiscate his raccoon, Rebekah, in late July. (By this time, Gunshow had gone on to that great hollow tree in the sky, but Coonrippy had a new raccoon pet.) Rebakah was taken to a wildlife rehabilitation center, even though arguably all she needed to be “rehabilitated” from was having a decent life as part of a family. She even got to take showers:
Coonrippy, a former animal control officer who lives in Gallatin, isn’t taking this lying down. He’s launched something of a media offense, telling his raccoon-loving fans on Facebook and YouTube to call upon Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam to free Rebekah and return her to him. He’s given interviews to all sorts of radio and TV stations, and his story of one man fighting the unfeeling law that stole his furry loved one has captured the imagination of the nearly 5,000 people who signed a petition at Change.org. (That petition wasn’t even started by Coonrippy, but by a stranger in California who heard about his cause.) It remains to be seen whether Haslam will pardon Rebekah, but this seems to be a clear-cut case of the government abusing its power and taking what it has no right to take. I recently spoke with Coonrippy on the phone while he was driving to an undisclosed location to take a much-needed break from the media.
VICE: What law did the TWRA accuse you of breaking, exactly? Is it illegal to keep raccoons as pets?
Mark “Coonrippy” Brown: You cannot keep any wildlife in captivity. But my argument with them was that if this is the case, then every elementary school and biology class in high school and college is in violation if they've got tadpoles in an aquarium or a garter snake, or even if a child brings a box turtle to show-and-tell.
They didn't care for that line of argument, it seems.
Well, they did say something along the lines of schools are in violation, but they're not going to do a walkaround in every school in Tennessee. But when you have a raccoon on your shoulder in the shower and you make a viral video, if you've already had one viral video under your belt, it kind of draws a little attention to yourself.
Do you have any other animals besides Rebekah?
We've got a couple of rabbits that we raise. They're out there in the yard somewhere. But I can't distinguish those from the other nine hanging around. We have a possum; his name is Henry. We throw food outside for him around eight or nine, and he'll show up and eat it.
We had another raccoon while I was an animal control officer. I got a phone call from the police department that said there was a rabid raccoon. When I got there, the raccoon was disoriented so I put him in a cage. I brought him home and got to looking at him, thought I'd give him something to drink, and put a bowl of water in his cage. I saw him drinking water, so I knew he could swallow—I knew he wasn't rabid. And then I put some scraps of food out there, and he ate them. After about 15 minutes later, we opened the door and let him out. He meandered off about a foot, then turned around, went right back into the cage, and continued eating. We named him John Boat. He's still out there somewhere; we used to see him quite often. I haven't seen him in a while, but I'm sure he's still out there.
So you have a special sort of feeling towards racoons?
Yeah, I've been called the raccoon whisperer. [laughs]
Has this been the case your whole life?
Well, I've had wild pets ever since I was able to go catch one. I had a skunk named Pepé Le Pew. I had a deer one time named Trophy—that was not a good name to give a buck deer... I had a hog one time with a broken leg, his name was Aesop, as in the fables. The list goes on and on. I had two squirrels named Heckle and Jeckle. I had an owl, a little screech owl named Mr. Bird—I come to find out he was Mrs. Bird. She flew off and had lots of babies. She used to come around all the time, but I haven't seen her lately. My place was pretty much a haven for wildlife. It still is.
But the whole story about Rebekah is a high school agriculture teacher had a chicken house project somewhere and there was a raccoon in there killing chickens. So she ordered two of his students to kill the raccoon. After they killed this raccoon they found out she had two babies. They called me because they knew I had a history of [looking after] orphaned animals.
The officials told me that if Rebekah is too domesticated, she'll more than likely be used as an educational tool at TWRA-hosted events. But she’ll be in captivity. And the other side is, if she is released back into the wild, then a $28 hunting license is all you need to go legally shoot her out of the top of a tree. You can have your coon dogs chase her through the woods. I protected her from both captivity and from being killed. But that's what weird: You can't get a permit to keep one, yet you can get a permit to kill one.
Was she like a pet when she was with you? Or did she come and go?
She could come and go as she pleased. But when she was there and we weren’t, we treated her no different than you would treat your house cat or your house dog. I had a mansion of a cage inside the house that she stayed in. It’s just like your dog—you keep them penned up so they don't chew your furniture up and crap all over the house while you're gone. Then when I come home we let her out and she did what she did. But she did use the litter box too, by the way.
Did you train her to do that?
Well yes and no. If you sense she needs to do her business and you set her in the litter box once or twice, she’ll always go back to the same place. With raccoons, once you get them using the bathroom in one place, they'll always go back to it.
Do you think people should not be allowed to keep raccoons generally?
Well yes and no. You know, we’ve got so many laws out there right now that it's actually pathetic. And this is the way it's always been. When there are not enough criminals, our government actually creates them. But I'm not saying everybody who wants a raccoon should go out and have one. I wouldn't recommend anyone having a raccoon, unless they know a little bit about the behavior of that animal. And I wouldn’t go out and try to domesticate a raccoon that was taken from its mother, or a month old, or two months old. You've got to imprint them. When they open their eyes [for the first time] and you're what they see, then that's where the imprint starts. But it's real hard to domesticate something that already knows what it is.
Hopefully no one who doesn’t have your expertise will go out and get a raccoon.
Yeah, you've got to have some experience. You've got to know what you're doing. You can't just raise it if you haven't a clue what to do. And I happen to know. It's just one of my areas of expertise. Some people are experts in electricity. Some people are experts at working on automobiles. Some people are experts at heart surgery. I happen to be an expert at whispering to 'coons, I guess.
Follow Harry Cheadle on @Twitter.
More on how people and animals live together in harmony:
The Man Who Eats Roadkill
Have Animals Declared War on Us?
The British Badger War BeginsBROWNSVILLE — Weems Street at Kopernik Shores, also known as Boca Chica Village, could have a new resident soon.
Two building permit applications filed this month with Cameron County show that renovations are planned for a vacant house owned by Elon Musk’s Dogleg Park LLC.
The applications say the house’s roof and air conditioning system will be replaced.
“Residential use” is listed in both applications.
Kopernik Shores, a small residential community, is adjacent to three parcels of land proposed for Space Exploration Technology’s control center area, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The area is about two miles west of the vertical launch area and north of Boca Chica Boulevard.
SpaceX proposes to develop the world’s first commercial private launch site at Boca Chica Beach.
The FAA is supporting the issuance of licenses to Musk’s enterprise, which would enable the space exploration firm to launch the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy orbital vertical rockets, which also could carry the Dragon capsule and a variety of smaller, reusable suborbital launch vehicles.Mr. Lankford saw Townsend’s goal as “racial peace in troubled Birmingham,” and believed that it was being served by the surveillance he conducted in frequent concert with the police. Indeed their mission was aided by a previously undisclosed communitywide network.
The phone company gave Mr. Lankford and his law-enforcement cohorts spiked pole climbers and instructions on “running” various junction boxes, and lent them an old truck still bearing the Southern Bell logo.
A local rabbi — one of the eight clergymen to whom King addressed his “Letter From Birmingham Jail” — purchased spy equipment for the police, intending for it to be used on racist groups under investigation for placing dynamite at a local temple in 1958.
But the electronics also ended up being used on white community leaders and, naturally, the civil rights movement. Mr. Lankford says he and a police detective even eavesdropped on union officials representing Newhouse’s broadcast employees during contract negotiations. One popular wiretap target was a local pastor, A. D. King, who was overheard arranging a rendezvous for him and his visiting older brother, Martin Luther King, with women who were not their wives. The police organized a sting, with Mr. Lankford along to take pictures. We may never know if the intelligence on the brothers was correct, because the detectives lost the car carrying the elder King that night in a traffic jam.
But the most surprising detail about this incident is that it happened in October 1963, months after Connor was forced from office. That means that the new, supposedly enlightened city government was carrying on his battle to destroy the movement that had just irrevocably put Birmingham on the map, next to Gettysburg: those “events of Birmingham” had moved John F. Kennedy to introduce what became the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
As its yearlong commemoration of those events now begins, white Birmingham will be tempted to fall back on its favorite “Bull Connor as bad apple” defense. Even for those who lived through segregation, it’s hard to accept the civic truth of Shuttlesworth’s time: that “racial peace” was an objective supported by murder.
“Everyone behaves badly — given the chance,” Hemingway wrote in “The Sun Also Rises.” What sets white Southerners apart is that they had so many ways to go wrong, confronting a moral dilemma each time they drank from a white water fountain. Painting all segregationists as cartoon racists encourages the rest of us to take cover under a blanket illusion of blamelessness — give or take an Abu Ghraib or a Penn State football program. Or the F.B.I.’s own obscene wiretap campaign to discredit Martin Luther King.
If I were to indulge in the annual “If King were alive...” game, I would guess he’d be morally embarrassing the insidious new “normal” — assassination by drone, for example, and the repressed torture “debate” that has returned on such a timely holiday. Do we really want to be a country that argues about whether torture “works”? So did segregation.Three viruses have been found in Alberta leafcutter bee populations, but it isn’t known whether they are harmful.
Shelley Hoover, a bee researcher with Alberta Agriculture in Leth-bridge, sampled adult leafcutter bees in southern Alberta fields this year.
“We’ve identified three different viruses on these leafcutter bees.”
She said they are still working to identify two of the viruses they found in all the samples collected. Hoover said they are closely related to viruses found on honeybees and have been detected in leafcutter bees before.
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But the third, found in slightly less than half of the samples, is sac brood virus. She thinks it may be the first time it has been found on leafcutters. It is more typically found in honeybees, where it infects and kills larva.
“We don’t know what effect it has on the (leafcutter) bees, and I only sampled adult bees, so we don’t even know if it’s replicating on the bees or if they’ve just picked it up.”
Hoover said little research has been done on viruses in leafcutter bees. Most prevailing knowledge about bee viruses pertains to honeybees.
“Just because it’s in honeybees doesn’t mean that it can’t infect other bees, either naturally or because of proximity to honeybees,” he said.
“It may be that some of these viruses are either naturally present in the other bees or can jump hosts to these other bees from the honeybees, and vice versa.”
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Hoover said there are few solutions if the viruses prove harmful to leafcutters. Controlling the vector is the main preventive measure, which includes controlling mites that can carry the viruses.
Hoover was a guest speaker at the Dec. 3 Farming Smarter conference, where she emphasized the importance of bees to food production.
Leafcutter bees are among a host of important crop pollinators, including honeybees, bumblebees, butterflies and birds.
“(However), leafcutter bees are to honeybees as a giraffe is to a goat,” said Hoover.
They have many similarities but also marked differences.
There are 7,000 honeybee keepers in Canada. Alberta has 40 percent of the nation’s honeybees.
Hoover attributed bee losses to winter kill, inadequate nutrition, poor genetics, parasites, diseases, pesticides and fungicides. Varroa mites are public enemy number one.The new primary logo, to be used on the road uniform, includes a panther inside a shield with "Florida" set in a tab across the top. The same logo design will be on the front of the home uniform with "Panthers" in the tab. The primary colors are Panthers Red, Panthers Blue and Panthers Flat Gold.
SUNRISE, Fla. -- The Florida Panthers unveiled a new logo and uniforms at BB&T Center on Thursday, and they reflected the influence of the military on the organization.
The logo is inspired by the patch for the Army's 101st Airborne Division. Vinnie Viola, who became owner of the Panthers prior to the 2013-14 season, served in the division.
"I think the logo harkens to the vanguard of courage, the idea that you put a shield on the hockey uniform," Viola said. "It's something to protect, but you also protect it. We wanted something that began a new tradition of winning and demonstrated courage and selfless dedication to a team pursuit of victory."
Tweet from @FlaPanthers: A fresh look for the Cats. ��https://t.co/9qTXezGMwb pic.twitter.com/EqANB8VJ9s
The new alternate logo, which includes the Florida state flag with a sleek prowling panther above it, will appear on the shoulder of the jerseys. There also is a separate tab for the Panthers captain and alternates.
With the exception of tweaks, the Panthers have had the same logo, featuring a leaping panther, and red and blue jerseys since they began play in 1993-94.
To celebrate the unveiling, the Panthers held a party for fans at their arena with players Aaron Ekblad, Vincent Trocheck, Shawn Thornton and Steven Kampfer, and alumni Ed Jovanovski, Radek Dvorak, Bill Lindsay and Olli Jokinen.
"I'm real excited," Trocheck said. "I don't even see why anybody would complain about it. It's a great logo. It's a fresh start for us. We've been on the up for the last two years. The organization has never won a [Stanley] Cup with the old logo, so it's a time to start new, start fresh, have a new logo, have a new look. We're a pretty fresh team. We're pretty young. We have a lot of new guys. It's the perfect time to change the logo if you're going to do it. It's nice. It's classy. It's serious. Kind of says we mean business. Hopefully we can do big things with it."
The Panthers' third logo, displaying the evolution of the original leaping panther, was tweaked and will be used as a helmet decal.
"We wanted very much to say that this was a new and mature and stable franchise," said John Viola, the owner's son who worked closely with Reebok on the new uniforms. "Frankly, we felt that as much as we loved the leaping cat, an expansion team has got to show you its claws and show you its teeth and be sort of up front with their strength.
"And a team like us, 22 years in that's only getting better, we can be the guy in the back who you know he's tough and you know you don't want to mess with him and his performance. But we wanted to have that leaping panther there. It is our mark, it is our history and it means [something] to the franchise. So we wanted a new cat in the same sort of mold, and I think that we got that."
Tweet from @FlaPanthers: He likes his new digs, huh? https://t.co/vVwkLdajgY
Vinnie Viola announced Thursday that the Panthers will play a preseason game Oct. 8 against the New Jersey Devils at the U.S. Military Academy's Tate Rink in West Point, N.Y., the home of Army hockey. John Viola said proceeds will go to Wounded Warriors.
Panthers president/CEO Matt Caldwell and assistant general manager Eric Joyce also are Army veterans.
After the logo was unveiled, it was shown atop the scoreboard with a scroll flashing the words fight, pride, respect, dedication, courage, honor, effort, community.
Videos shown on the scoreboard included highlights from this season, when Florida won the Atlantic Division with a Panthers-record 103 points before losing an Eastern Conference First Round series to the New York Islanders in six games, and a message from two soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq.
"It's important for this organization because I think it's safe to say, for our family, the United States military has given us not only a big part of our value system but also the opportunity for us to even be here," John Viola said. "The idea that you belong to something greater than yourself is often lost in a world where it's really easy to just be by yourself.
"And we wanted to make sure that those values that are so important to who we are as a people, as a family, were part of this franchise. And the best way to do that is visually because people follow your brand and they follow what you look like. It's essential to who we are as a family, as shepherds of all of our organizations, and it'll be essential to who we are as the Florida Panthers."While Congress continues its negotiations to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Trump administration is taking steps that some say are an effort to weaken the law's impact.
"There's a clear pattern of the administration trying to undermine and sabotage the Affordable Care Act," Elizabeth Hagan, associate director of coverage initiatives for the liberal advocacy group Families USA, told the Associated Press. "It's not letting the law fail, it's making the law fail."
This month, the Trump administration ended contracts with two companies that helped people sign up for health insurance on the Obamacare marketplaces. The companies hired "navigators" in 18 cities to spread the word in the community -- at churches, libraries and sporting events -- and guide people through the often-complicated enrollment process.
“It takes multiple touches to get someone enrolled, and that requires human power,” says Linda Blumberg, a senior fellow of health policy at the Urban Institute.
The two companies with terminated contracts only signed up 14,500 people for the individual market -- a fraction of a percent of the 9.2 million who enrolled overall -- but they reportedly sought out younger, healthier people. Health policy experts say getting more young people to sign up is key to bringing premiums down and stabilizing the market.
“When you take away funding for training and provisions for assistance, you’re more likely to lose healthier people, and so you’re working against the soundness of the markets," says Blumberg. "These are the people who won’t move heaven and earth to get enrolled on their own."
The ACA is credited with helping the U.S. achieve a record low uninsured rate. In the first nine months of 2016, just 8.8 percent of Americans lacked health coverage. But over the past couple of years, many parts of the country have seen drastic premium increases and an exodus of insurers from the marketplace. Their main reason: They can't afford to insure a population that largely consists of the oldest, sickest Americans.
In the last open enrollment period, 36 percent of enrollees were under the age of 35. The loss of more young people on the marketplaces, therefore, may exacerbate the existing problems.
A representative from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services told the Associated Press that the contracts were never meant to be long-term. The federal government still funds navigator grants in 34 states, but all of them are scheduled to end in 2018.
The 18 cities that will no longer have federal money for enrollment assistance are: Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Cleveland; Dallas; Houston; El Paso, Texas; Indianapolis; Miami; McAllen, Texas; New Orleans; Orlando, Fla.; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Tampa, Fla.; and San Antonio.
The move is sure to strike a nerve among the leaders of the impacted cities.
“Access to affordable health care should not be a political game of volleyball,” wrote Tampa, Fla.’s mayor, Bob Buckhorn, in an email. “It was America's mayors who led the effort to enroll millions of Americans in the Affordable health-care plan, and Tampa will continue to work with local and state partners to promote and provide information on ways to enroll.”
Blumberg encourages other cities and states to fund their own navigator programs.
“It’s a relatively cheap, but important, piece to stabilize the markets,” she says.
The 2018 open enrollment season begins on Nov. 1 and ends Dec.15 -- half the time of previous years. Add in the uncertainty on Capitol Hill, and having people to help citizens navigate health care may be needed this year more than ever.A visibly despairing (and exhausted) Marco Rubio admitted to reporters Saturday morning that he's struggling with the idea of supporting presidential rival Donald Trump if Trump becomes the Republican nominee.
"I don't know," Rubio said before a rally in Largo. "It's getting harder every day."
He equivocated the day after Trump canceled a Chicago rally, spurring clashes among protesters and supporters, and several arrests. Thursday night, Trump's rivals were given the chance in a debate to condemn previous violence at the front-runner's rallies, but they were careful with what they said -- and then unleashed much stronger criticism Friday night and Saturday morning.
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Trump took to Twitter on Saturday to blame "thugs" for protesting the candidate's presence.
The organized group of people, many of them thugs, who shut down our First Amendment rights in Chicago, have totally energized America! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 12, 2016
A CBS News reporter was also detained, which the network's president denounced.
.@SopanDeb was handcuffed, later charged with resisting arrest; on tape you see he did not resist, identified himself as working press — David Rhodes (@davidgrayrhodes) March 12, 2016
Trump will be in Boca on Sunday and Doral on Monday. Last time he was in Doral, in October, a protester was roughed up by crowd members as he was being escorted out of the hall.Two years after the first of Israel’s new top-of-the-line trainer jets rolled onto the tarmac, the last batch of planes — acquired in a multi-billion dollar deal with Italy — landed in Israel Wednesday morning.
The three Aermacchi M-346s, known in the Israeli Air Force as the Lavi, complete a 30-plane, $1-billion deal inked in 2012 with the Italian government. Rome, in exchange, purchased an equivalent value of Israeli aerospace technology, including satellites and surveillance planes.
The Defense Ministry touted the deal’s contribution of millions to Israel’s defense industry, a tightening of ties with Italy, and the acquisition of a premier aircraft that will train the air force’s next generation of pilots.
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The Lavi’s arrival in 2014 began the phase-out of the Skyhawk, the 1960s fighters acquired from the United States that operated as trainers for four decades.
The Italian jets made a star appearance in a video produced by the air force last month to welcome former Google CEO Eric Schmidt that took flak for its improper use of troops.
https://youtu.be/gdZOx66qreo
The Defense Ministry’s head of procurement, Shmuel Tzuker, said Israel chose wisely in 2012 to ink the deal for the M-346s with Italy instead of buying South Korea’s T-50 Golden Eagle.
After a lengthy testing and vetting process, which included comparing costs, specifications, maintenance, safety and quality of training, and despite South Korea’s threat to cancel contracts, the Defense Ministry opted to go with the Italian deal instead.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “the Italian plane was better than the Korean one.” He said that rarely did military contracts of such a magnitude go through with so few delays and so much satisfaction.
Tal, an air force lieutenant colonel in charge of Lavi operations, told The Times of Israel that the trainers have provided manifold advantages and “take [pilot] training much more forward.”
The jets, he said, are capable of training novice pilots in handling fourth-generation aircraft, like the F-16, and fifth generation planes, like the soon-to-arrive F-35. With its onboard simulators, pilots and navigators can now train to a more advanced level faster, and at lower cost to the air force, he said.
“It has met all our expectations and more,” he said.
The IAF was one of the first air forces to take on the M-346 (only Singapore currently operates it, but Italy and Poland have ordered aircraft), and with it came some concerns about its performance, but those have since been put to rest, Tal said.
“The aspects of the flight performance, its specifications, the capabilities it has, the savings in jet fuel, the safety from it being dual-engine, it has redundancy in almost every system on the plane,” the lieutenant colonel said. “We are very, very, very satisfied.”
Although the M-346 was also designed for use as a multirole combat aircraft, capable of carrying three tons of weapons, he wouldn’t comment on whether the IAF envisions such a role for the Lavi in the future.If you are here for the Doctor’s Office Survival Kit, just scroll down! Last week on Grey’s Anatomy (no spoiler) former Scrubs star Sarah Chalke guest-stars in a plotline about a mother who has to strongly advocate with her doctors because she believes that her son is sick and they don’t. This was more than an acting job, it was taken from Chalke’s real life – and lots of other people’s as well.
These days doctors have very limited time with patients and when you’re fat many doctors simply diagnose you as fat and prescribe weight loss, no matter what you came in for. I’ve been prescribed weight loss for a broken toe, separated shoulder, and strep throat. People close to me have had sudden onset back pain, and an acute knee injury blamed on weight. Getting access to appropriate, evidence-based, affordable healthcare can seem almost impossible.
I started getting much better care when I decided that my healthcare was going to be a dialog between my healthcare providers and me, rather than thinking that I had no right to ask questions, challenge advice, or request that I be treated based on my values. To be clear, we shouldn’t have to do this, |
pushed a winter shelter to the outskirts of the city, making it harder for homeless residents to get to, but reducing “complaints from residents and retailers.”
In 1986, NIMBYs passed Proposition U to keep LA sprawly, cutting down the density allowed in commercial areas by half. (Prop U is still doing its job, and some of its backers were still around 30 years later to campaign for Measure S.) Around the same time, NIMBYism banned funding for a subway under Wilshire Boulevard; the very same congressman both proposed that ban and repealed it 20 years later, when public sentiment changed. The Purple Line is finally under construction.
Across the region, NIMBYs fight halfway houses, throwing insults at the hypothetical tenants, and they call the cops and call their councilmembers to get rid of neighbors who can’t afford to sleep anywhere but on the street. They demand private parking on public streets while the city has made it illegal for people who can’t afford a home to sleep in their cars on those same streets. The idea is that homeowners’ money has bought the force to keep certain people off their property, but also off all the land nearby.
Even when NIMBYs don’t get their way, NIMBY agitation often leads to a settlement with developers in the form of mitigations like infrastructure improvements, or sometimes just a lump of cash paid to a homeowners’ association or other resident group, as Curbed reported in 2013 and Hillel Aron expanded on in a recent story in LA Weekly. “It’s very common. And it’s getting more common,” one land use consultant told Aron.
NIMBYism is an ideology of exclusion, entitlement, segregation, hatred for the poor. And its adherents are zealots for their causes.
One of the scariest places I’ve ever been was a glass-walled meeting room next to the Greek Theatre in Griffith Park, a few canyons over from Hollywoodland, where a group of neighbors from a very nice neighborhood had gotten together with a representative from their city councilmember’s office, a representative from the city attorney’s office, and a representative from the LAPD to complain about their poorest neighbors. They said people without homes in their neighborhood scared them. They were afraid to walk down the street.
When one of the people they’d been talking about walked in, these residents jeered and the city council staffer pointed at him and screamed like he was a child who had misbehaved. A young white man in a zip-up sweater, there with his wife, was nearly in tears as he stalked up to the man, hissed that this was his fault, and huffed out the glass door. There was a general consensus in the room that there should be more surveillance cameras to watch their neighborhood, and more poor people should be arrested, and overall the city wasn’t paying enough attention to their needs. The city council staffer kept calling the poor neighbors “the transients”; an outsider asked if she could use more respectful language and was shouted down.
We can begin to create justice in Los Angeles by taking a neighborhood from a rich community and opening it up to everyone.
Did they know about the neighborhoods in South LA that have been fighting for years to shut down, or enclose, or even study outdoor oil drilling operations that sit among homes and spray cars with petroleum and sicken kids with the smell? NIMBYism defines “backyard” both broadly—far beyond the limits of a literal backyard—and narrowly enough that it doesn’t have to account for any parts of the city it doesn’t want to.
The people in that glass room kept saying “quality of life,” but they never said whose life. One neighbor held up a photo of tents clustered in one spot in the neighborhood, then a Photoshop showing the spot as parking spaces in front of an ivy-covered wall. “And we get more parking?” said the young man in the sweater, back after just a few minutes, and everybody laughed.
We can begin to create justice in Los Angeles by taking a neighborhood from a rich community and opening it up to everyone.
First we’ll have to abolish the Hollywood Sign Trust and truly give the sign itself to the people of Los Angeles. We can set something up to charge corporations if they want to use its image, but otherwise it’d be free for everyone. We can save money by getting rid of most of the cameras and sensors, and we can just let the sign be hijacked once in a while, because we love when that happens.
If we want to do the land seizure by the eminent domain book (even if a tide of pitchforks and torches rolling up Beachwood Canyon would make a striking image), a judge will have to decide whether the benefit to the surrounding communities will outweigh the costs to the people forced to sell their houses. Will the people in lower Beachwood Canyon, below the gates, and the people in the surrounding canyons that open up into Griffith Park, and all of Los Angeles benefit if Hollywoodland becomes public land? A free and open Beachwood would take some of the burden off the other canyons, and there’d be no more permit parking problems cascading down to lower Beachwood. Los Angeles would finally get its hiking trails and its monument, unobstructed. But California law says the city will have to offer the highest possible appraisal price to the homeowners, and they could (would, probably) choose to drag things out in court.
It would be hard, it would be expensive, it would take a hell of a fight from the 54 percent, a real zealotry for the cause of taking public space back for the public in Los Angeles. But it’s possible.
There’s a poetry to it, too, severing the last connection between the sign and Hollywoodland, the sign and Hollywood, the sign and “Hollywood.” When it stands finally unencumbered by commerce, the sign can become a symbol for the idea that it’s good and right to demand better things, more space for ourselves—a lesson we can learn from the NIMBYs. That it’s good to call the visions and desires of the past incompatible with our dreams for a freer future. Good to say we don't want to live like this, and to build the kind of place where we do want to live. Here on a hill, pulling all our gazes heavenward, is this beautiful piece of authorless art, heavy with the meaning crammed into it by millions of people around the world and through the decades, but floating easily along the ridge. It’s already all of ours. Now let’s take it.
Editor: Sara PolskyYou’ll visit for the sun and stay for the beer, all over again: SD’s next-gen brew scene is brand-new and as good as you remember.
By Candice Woo
San Diego’s been called the “Napa Valley of craft beer” and named one of the top beer towns in the country too many times to list; 30th Street, which runs through the city’s North Park neighborhood, could go toe-to-toe with any of the best beer streets in America. There seems no stopping the beer boom in America’s Finest City, and for now, its thirsty residents and beer tourists are doing their part to support the 80-plus brewhouses in operation, which include many nano-sized start-ups; more than 20 breweries of all capacities opened in 2013 and more are planned for 2014. Even the industry’s more established brewhouses are finding fresh ways to grow; Green Flash announced plans for a future restaurant and barrel room, The Lost Abbey may add another brewery space, and Ballast Point is readying a new production brewery and a second restaurant. Though IPAs still reign supreme, Belgian, German and English styles are all being executed admirably, and the rise of session beers just makes good sense given San Diego’s sun. Here’s a guide to the latest and greatest beer-centric spots that have expanded the area’s already-stellar craft beer landscape in the last year.
Waypoint Public
Filling the spot left by departed craft beer landmark The Linkery, this restaurant has a partner who owns a popular bottle shop and a kitchen helmed by a Top Chef alum. It’s making its own name with a deep and varied bottle list, 30 taps that rotate on the regular and dishes that include fried oyster tacos and homemade charcuterie.
Coin-Op Game Room
This is an out-of-the-box hit thanks to more than two dozen vintage arcade games playable with just a handful of quarters and serious buzz (no pun intended) fueled by 20 craft taps and a good cocktail list. Watch for the bar’s weekend pig roasts, paired with pints from local breweries.
Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station
The San Diego forerunner has opened its second, sprawling 50-tap beer wonderland to much fanfare; an on-site 10-barrel system ensures there’s always something house-brewed on draft. Stone’s reach continues to grow, as tasting room annexes pop up in neighborhoods throughout the region.
Karl Strauss Brewing
The senior statesman of the local brewing scene, with satellite brewpubs sprinkled all over the county, finally opened its Pacific Beach production brewery to the public, debuting a 20-tap tasting room and beer garden with exclusive beers, frequent food truck visits and bike parking for cyclists heading in from the Rose Canyon trail.
Hess Brewing
Opening a second brewery in an old North Park church bookstore took Hess from nano to jumbo. Now, a raised walkway, suspended above the new 30-barrel brewhouse, delivers you to a spacious tasting room where 16 taps await your drinking pleasure. Among their six flagship beers is Claritas, a crisp and balanced Kölsch-style sipper.
Polite Provisions
A hipster cocktail den with style to spare, this award-winning spot is also notable for its 15 craft taps and made-to-order beer cocktails from some of the town’s most skilled bartenders. Next door, sister eatery Soda & Swine sends over gourmet meatballs and drink-friendly snacks.
Coronado Brewing
A new mainland brewery tasting room pouring Islander and Idiot (both standout IPAs) is just the start of the brewery’s expansion plan. In addition to another eatery, the brewery anticipates establishing an even larger production facility; rumor has it it’s also entering the craft distilling game.
Modern Times Beer
Yes, a 20-foot-tall, Post-it Note mosaic of Michael Jackson and his pet monkey looms over the tasting room, but the real stars of this much-talked-about show are beers like Blazing World, a hoppy amber that’s just one of Modern Times’ core lineup, all packaged in easy-to-transport cans.
Fathom Bistro
Sunny San Diego days are meant for sitting on Fathom’s pier-side perch while savoring the views, the housemade sausages and a beer list that mixes locals with resident taps from Russian River Brewing (Fathom’s owner is brewer Vinnie Cilurzo’s former roommate). This pint-sized treasure, decked out like an oceanographer’s clubhouse, still functions as a bait-and-tackle shop for the fishermen of San Diego Bay.
Barrel Republic
Imagine 44 craft beer taps ready to pour at your command. This high-tech, self-service bar issues sensors that interface with iPads posted at each tap; when you’re thirsty, simply grab a glass and fill it; you’re charged by the ounce.
Rip Current Brewing
Joining the surge of North County breweries is San Marcos’ Rip Current, founded by a former National Homebrewing Conference champ who’s equally skilled at crafting smooth milk stouts, sessionable IPAs and everything in between.
Pizza Port Bressi Ranch
The largest (and newest) jewel in Pizza Port’s crown houses a massive production brewery viewable from two floors of beer playground, each with its own 20-tap bar. It’s a one-stop drinking spot for the GABF medal-winners from its brewpub network, plus guest beers from all over the world.
WHERE TO BEER-SHOP: Bine & Vine boasts a well-curated and cared-for bottle lineup from San Diego and beyond; conveniently, it’s just a short stroll from one of the city’s best beer destinations, Blind Lady Ale House. Best Damn Beer Shop is really a natural foods store, though its impeccable bottle collection takes up most of the floor space. There’s a homebrew shop inside, too. The North Park branch of Bottlecraft Beer Shop is smack-dab in the heart of the 30th Street craft beer thoroughfare, and boasts JU/KE, the in-store, farm-to-table eatery.ROME (Reuters) - A 55-year-old Italian nurse has been arrested on suspicion of murdering 13 elderly patients in the intensive care ward where she had worked for decades, police said on Thursday.
The “hospital ward killer”, as police have called her, administered lethal doses of a blood-thinning drug into her victims’ intravenous drips. Twelve died of internal bleeding and one of cardiac arrest, police said.
They did not identify the suspect, who worked at a hospital in Piombino, a city on the Tuscan coast. The alleged murders all took place in 2014 and 2015, although she had worked there for many years prior to that.
Some of the victims, men and women aged between 61 and 88, were found to have 10 times the normal dose of the drug Heparin in their bloodstream even though they had not been prescribed it.
The suspect was the only member of hospital staff working when all 13 of the suspicious deaths occurred, Carabinieri police commander Gennero Riccardi told reporters.
When she became a suspect and was transferred out of intensive care in October of last year, the mortality rate of the ward fell from 20 percent to 12 percent, he said.
“We do not yet know of a specific motive,” Riccardi said. “But the suspect suffers from depression.” She had been receiving psychological treatment for many years, he added.
Police detained the woman late on Wednesday when she returned from a holiday with her husband. The families of the victims have not yet been informed that their relatives may have been murdered, police said.
Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin called the case “chilling, hideous,” in a statement in which she said: “It isn’t the first time that nurses have been found to be serial killers.”
Earlier this month, a nurse in the city of Ravenna was given a life sentence for murdering a patient with a lethal injection of potassium. She is under investigation for some 10 more suspicious deaths and is appealing her conviction.This Saturday, the 98th edition of the Tour de France starts in Vendée, kicking off three weeks of bicycle racing. Twenty-one teams of nine riders each will have to endure 3,400 kilometers of racing and 23 mountain passes to reach the finish line on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. It's an event full of incredible human achievement and endurance. But it's also full of geeky goodness. I decided to update my article from 2009 encouraging you to enjoy the race.
Here are my top ten reasons why geeks should love the Tour de France:
10. Aerodynamics. During the three weeks of the Tour, the teams and their riders battle one another. But they also battle against air resistance. In a group of cyclists riding closely together, the rider in front is expending as much as 30% more energy than those behind him or her. That means that a rider doesn't want to be out in front for long. Bicycling tactics call for a rider to let someone else lead for most of the race, then launch from behind to grab the win. The peloton forms as a way for the riders to share the work of cutting through the wind. A single cyclist out in front riding ahead of the peleton stands little chance of victory, faced with battling the wind alone. This is why breakaways rarely survive.
9. Doping. I don't think you can ignore the doping problems in professional cycling. Unfortunately, accusations of doping have been part of the Tour since its inception. Early cyclists used alcohol and other substances to dull the pain. Now, the drug use is more scientific and aimed squarely at enhancing performance. The drug testers have also gotten better.
Doping is not something to be taken lightly. British cyclist Tom Simpson died during the 1967 Tour de France on the legendary climb of Mont Ventoux. The post-mortem found that he had taken amphetamines and alcohol.
Several past winners have been accused of doping and returned positive results. Maybe they're getting caught because the checks are getting better. Maybe more are doping.
8. The Team. A Grand Tour is not just about individual achievement. The best cyclist is unlikely to win the Tour De France if he does not have a strong team. Sure the team leader gets the fame and glory, but it requires team work for victory. The domestiques help keep the leader safe, lead him in the wind so he can conserve his energy, ferry water bottles from the team car, and even sacrifice their bikes. Each team also has a large group of mechanics who keep everything moving smoothly, including quick wheel changes for flat tires and bike changes after a crash.
The team time trial returns to the 2011 edition of the race after its absence last year. The team time trial is the ultimate combination of teamwork, aerodynamics, and outfits. The team suits up in aero helmets, skinsuits, and special time trial bikes to minimize wind resistance. (Remember, its all about aerodynamics.) In true team fashion, it is not the time of the first cyclist across, but the time of the fifth man across the finish line that applies to all members of the team.
7. The Fans. There are plenty of fans lining the race course, especially as the race cuts through cities and towns. Since the race cuts the town in half, its hard to do much except watch the race. For years it was just fans from each country supporting their countrymen and waiving their flags along the course. Then fans started lining the mountain courses, where the riders have to slow down to deal with the steep inclines. With increased television coverage, fans realized that a crazy costume might get you on worldwide coverage for a few seconds. Didi Senft, who dresses up in a red devil costume, was one of the first costumed spectators. You will see him often. The "Schlugs” line the race course, camping for days in prime locations. There are also the "Schmenges," Belgian or Dutch cycling fans who end up rather intoxicated at the top of mountain passes.
Bently Mulsanne is unvieled on top of the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco.
6. Wind Tunnels. Since aerodynamics play a key role in the Tour, many professional cyclists spend time in a wind tunnel to hone their position for maximum efficiency. The wind is as much the opponent as the other cyclists. Positioning is extremely important for a cyclist to be able to maintain a low drag while still producing sufficient power. Since bicycle aerodynamics are very specific to each different rider’s body size and type, a position that works well for one may not work well for another. Its not just the rider and bicycle frame. They test the water bottles, wheels, helmets, handlebars, and clothing. They even designed a special pocket on the back of the jersey to hold the racing number instead of clipping it on. Watch Lance Armstrong in the Wind Tunnel.
Bently Mulsanne is unvieled on top of the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco.
5. Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen. These two Brits have been the voice of professional cycling for years. Expect each day to be full of wonderful quips like "He's really having to dig deeply into the suitcase of courage," "Carnage is the only way to describe this ascent," "The devil has joined in and that's never a good sign", and "He's dancing on his pedals." The Liggett-isms do tend to carry over from year to year. You might want to play Phil and Paul Bingo to help follow along with commentary. Kidding aside, I think they are the best announcing team in all of professional sports. They offer an encyclopedic knowledge of the race, the riders and the course.
4. The Clothing. Anyone who has seen an amateur cyclist cruising down the street knows that cyclists wear special clothes. During a race, there are special jerseys which denote a rider's status. The leader in the time competition wears the yellow jersey, the leader in the sprint competition wears a green jersey, the king of the mountains wears a polka dot jersey, and the best young rider gets a white jersey. There are also special purpose outfits, such as the time trial kit. In the time trial, racers compete against the clock (either as an individual as a team) and clothe themselves in the most aerodynamic way they can, with special helmets to cut through the wind. (Remember, its all about aerodynamics.)
Bently Mulsanne is unvieled on top of the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco.
3. The Countryside. Over its three weeks, the race winds its way across the French countryside and into neighboring countries. Race coverage is full of helicopter shots, highlighting the racers, farms, castles, rivers and panoramas. Many of the race days are visually stunning. The mountains often loom above, some still speckled with snow. Even in the heat of the summer, French farmers build elaborate monuments to the race as it passes by their farms. Some displays are simple collections of hay bales. Others are elaborate moving displays of bicycle action. There will also be plenty of helicopter shots of medieval castles, cathedrals, and Roman ruins. Part of the Tour's magic lies in the changing backdrops to the action, with villages competing to devise the most elaborate welcome signs.
Bently Mulsanne is unvieled on top of the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco.
2. The Equipment. The Tour de France bicycles are some of the most high-tech equipment used in any human powered sport. Titanium, carbon fiber, and high tensile steel alloys are routinely used for bicycle parts and frames. Lance Armstrong proclaimed in the title of one his books that It's Not About the Bike. The bikes are still very cool, being the product of intensive development. Many bicycles are wind tunnel tested to maximize aerodynamics. (Remember that it's all about aerodynamics.) The bikes for the time trial days of the race, where the cyclists rides against the clock (either alone or with their teams), are especially odd looking. This bike bears little resemblance to the geeklets' boulevard cruisers.
1. Radio Shack. What could be a geekier team than one sponsored by Radio Shack?News that the divine ponytail, Roberto Baggio, was to be awarded the Peace Summit Award for his post-career charitable work by Nobel Peace Prize laureates in Hiroshima today was lauded widely throughout the world and, while the man himself accepted his award graciously, earlier in the week he also admitted that his omission from Italy's 2002 World Cup side still rankled, saying they should have taken him even if he was "in a wheelchair".
The New York Times coverage took the lead, choosing to highlight the difference between Baggio's post-playing career and that of Paul Gascoigne. As Gazza missed his sentencing for drink-driving on Thursday, the Times noted that Baggio, now the president of the technical sector of the Italian Football Federation, was goodwill ambassador for the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, helps to fund hospitals, raised money in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, contributed to the fight against bird flu and was involved in the Burmese pro-democracy movement in support of opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,who was released from prison yesterday.
More poignantly, he also quietly supports a former team-mate, raising funds toward the treatment for Stefano Borgonovo. His partner in Fiorentina's attack when they were younger, Borgonovo is now stricken with a motor neuron disease for which there is no known cure.
Baggio, was moved by the honour: "This is better than the Golden Ball award," he told Italian news agency Ansa. "Compared with this, other personal and professional achievements pale into insignificance." Achievements he had returned to days before in Italy's Vanity Fair. 2002, had been particularly hard he said: "It would've been my fourth World Cup and I should have been there. It was right. It was sacrosanct.
"Considering the career I'd had, I had that right. They should've taken me along and given me that chance, even if I was in a wheelchair." The penalty shoot-outs clearly still played on his mind as well. "It really burns me to have lost the 1994 final to Brazil on penalties... Losing on spot-kicks is really painful," admitted the ponytail, before his saintly Nobel-winning demeanour gave way in his own uniquely endearing fashion: "I have lost three World Cups, all on penalties... If you'll allow me this, it really gets on my nerves."
There'll be some comfort for Roberto in that, for the briefest of periods in Thailand, he was the winner of the actual Nobel Peace Prize, newspaper The Nation reporting as such on its website, despite the award having already been given to jailed Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo this year. It was corrected, but not before being widely disseminated across the web.
It's not the first time The Nation has struggled with details. A recent paternity case between an actor and actress with DNA testing and claims and denials involving who was the alleged father of the child involved, caused comparisons with the Michael Jackson song of the same subject Billie Jean. Unfortunately The Nation dubbed it the "Billie Jean King" scandal.
USA: Spit but no polish
Anger and not a little confusion caused considerable embarrassment for the Miami Dolphins last week, when linebacker Channing Crowder managed to offend a variety of people when he lost his temper after a 26-10 defeat by the Baltimore Ravens.
Accusing Ravens fullback Le'Ron McClain of spitting in his face during the game, Crowder let rip in the locker room, reports ESPN. "Le'Ron McClain spit in my face. He spit in my face. That's some real ho shit. So if you talk to him, go tell him. And if he ever comes to Miami, he's got to see me."
Crowder has previous form in this area. In 2007, with the Dolphins due to play at Wembley, he famously confessed to not being aware that English was spoken in London, which turned out to be the tip of the iceberg. "I couldn't find London on a map if they didn't have the names of the countries," he said. "I swear to God. I don't know what nothing is. I know Italy looks like a boot. I learned that. I know [Washington Redskins linebacker] London Fletcher. We did a football camp together. So I know him. That's the closest thing I know to London. He's black, so I'm sure he's not from London. I'm sure that's a coincidental name." Then, only last month, Crowder reacted to the NFL's attempt to curtail helmet-on-helmet collisions by saying: "If they're going to keep making us go more and more like a feminine sport, we're going to wear pink every game, not just on the breast cancer months."
Back in the locker room, Dolphins left tackle Jake Long, no doubt aware of Crowder's tendency to speak despite not knowing what nothing is, urged a spokesman to stop him from continuing. It didn't work. In full flow, he turned on the officials, who having said they had not observed the incident, caused him to question their ability to see. "Who the fuck cares? A guy just spit in my face... Like they didn't see [Dolphins quarterback] Chad Henne get hit twice when he slid. Yeah, a little Stevie Wonder and Anne Frank."
Asked about the reference to Anne Frank, a confused Crowder backtracked and blamed the slip on his poor temper: "Who was that? Is that the blind girl? Helen Keller... I don't know who the fuck Anne Frank is. I'm mad right now. Fuck it. I'm not as swift as I usually am."
USA: Dallas, we have a problem
Woe too for the Dallas Cowboys, who suffered a humiliating 45-7 defeat by the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night. It leaves them with only one win from eight games and last week they fired head coach Wade Phillips, replacing him with offensive coordinator Jason Garrett as a stand-in. But these body blows for "America's Team", one of the most successful and famous gridiron franchises in the world, were compounded by some bad news from the media and a fairly elementary mistake in the new media world.
First up it was revealed that the viewing figures for the Packers game had reached a new low, with the Dallas News reporting that the match had earned the team its worst local Sunday night football television rating since their debut on NBC in 2006. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, viewer numbers had fallen 42% from their season-opening loss to the Redskins – with 300,000 fewer homes tuning in.
Then, the News also noted that on the night of their defeat the club's website had disappeared. Dallascowboys.com is the second-most-popular NFL website, according to research firm ComScore, behind only the main NFL.com site, said the paper, but the club apparently "forgot to renew its registration" on the domain name. Consequently, fans visiting eager for news about the failure in Green Bay and the status of Phillips were greeted with a stock image of two kids playing football.
The team did renew its registration, but since it takes up to 48 hours for internet servers to recognise renewal, it was down for most of the crucial period as the Cowboy's management took action against Phillips.
Unhappy fans, already incensed at their team's performance this season, pointed out the farcical nature of the error and blew off steam in the News's comment section: "That's ridiculous! My web domains automatically renew and my credit card automatically gets billed – forever," said one, and "Who's running this dog & pony show????? hello? HELLO??" questioned another frustrated soul.
INDIA: Seven feet of hope
Yet to have a professional player drafted or play in the NBA, India may be about to finally break their duck in the form of Satnam Singh Bhamara, a 14-year-old who is already seven feet tall, reports basketball blog Ball Don't Lie.
"Satnam could one day do the same thing for India that Yao Ming did in China – put the spotlight on basketball through an entire country,'' said Troy Justice, the NBA director of basketball operations in India, who has watched him play many times. "It really could be something.'' He is currently playing on the IMG Academy basketball team, and is working on learning the physical and speedier side of the game.
Will he make it? Bhamara is optimistic: "My father wanted to play basketball, but my grandfather insisted he could not. They were a family of farmers. He had fields to tend,'' Satnam said. "He never got the chance that I am getting now. He is very proud of me and I want to play this game as well as I can play. That is my task now. Where it will take me, I don't know. The NBA? One day.'' While Ball Don't Lie concurs with one of basketball's truisms: "If you're a seven-footer and you can walk and chew gum, you have a shot at the NBA.US military aircraft have started delivering aid to Taiwan
International aid, including US military helicopters, has started to arrive in Taiwan, more than a week after Typhoon Morakot hit the island.
Rescuers are still trying to reach hundreds of survivors trapped in remote areas cut off by landslides.
More than 500 people are believed to have been killed in the deadliest typhoon to hit Taiwan in 50 years.
The government has been criticised for being slow in responding to the typhoon and in asking for assistance.
Officials have confirmed that 126 people were killed in the storm, but President Ma Ying-jeou has said the figure could exceed 500.
Hundreds of the victims are believed to be buried in one village, Hsiaolin, which was almost completely covered in a mudslide triggered by several days of extremely heavy rainfall.
About 40,000 Taiwanese troops are now searching for survivors in remote areas in the south of Taiwan.
On Sunday, Transport Minister Mao Chih-kuo said more than 1,600 people needed to be airlifted from 44 badly-damaged villages.
Heavy US helicopters and transport planes have arrived to help deliver aid and to lift digging equipment into cut-off villages to start clearing roads.
A team from the European Union has also arrived to assess how the EU can help.
On Tuesday, two US Black Hawk helicopters will arrive to search for survivors in the forested mountains who may not yet have been found.
China has also offered military aircraft, but Taiwan has declined the offer. The two neighbours separated at the end of a civil war in 1949 and no peace treaty has been signed.
Allowing Chinese military planes to enter Taiwan would be a highly sensitive matter, says the BBC's Cindy Sui in the island's capital, Taipei.
The next task is to ensure that people who do not need to be evacuated and people who need to move back in can survive in areas with damaged houses, washed-out roads, no running water or electricity and sanitation problems due to dead bodies and animal carcasses, our correspondent says.
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CommentsGETTY A refugee centre worker has revealed incidents of death threats and harassment by migrants
In a searing indictment of the behaviour of some refugees, the woman said her idealism has been eroded and virtually destroyed. At first she said was enthusiastic in her role of helping process tens of thousands of migrants arriving in Germany on a weekly basis. Now, she says she is disillusioned, disheartened and on the verge of quitting due to demands and sexual harrassment. She told Welt am sonntag newspaper she took on the role at the refugee centre in Hamburg last Autumn and was "overjoyed" at the thought of "helping the refugees".
GETTY Many refugees demand luxury apartments and high paid jobs
Many refugees are extremely demanding Refugee centre worker
But after a few days, she said, her enthusiasm was drained away. The woman, whose identity has been protected, said: "Of course you may not assess all refugees the same: there are many who are very friendly, happy to be here, very grateful, very willing to be integrated. "But if I am honest, working with 90 per cent of them is rather awkward and unfortunately not as I previously thought. "First of all, many of them are extremely demanding. They come to me and ask to get an apartment and a fancy car and, best of all, even a really good job for them. "If I try to explain to them that's not possible, they are often noisy or even really aggressive. "An Afghan only recently threatened to kill himself. And a few Syrians and a group of Afghans have declared they would go on hunger strike unless I would help them to move to another place.
GETTY According to the woman some of the refugees have no respect for women at all
"Some from an Arab region recently yelled at a colleague of mine: 'We decapitate you!'. "Because of these and other things, the police were called to us several times a week." She said she has also been horrified by refugees attitudes towards women. She said: "It is well known that it is mainly single men who come here - about 65 per cent, many less than 25-years-old. "And some of them do not respect women at all. They accept that we're there but they don't take us seriously at all. "If I tell them or give them a statement, as a woman they barely listen to me, dismiss it as irrelevant and just contact one of our male colleagues.
Cologne: Sex Attacks and Robberies Tue, January 12, 2016 Thirty-one suspects, including 18 asylum seekers, are under investigation over offences including sexual assault and theft in Cologne on New Year's Eve. Far right protestors in Lepzig have rallied against refugees and German chancellor Angela Merkel. Play slideshow Reuters•Getty 1 of 22 Protestors in Lepzig rally after over 100 women were sexually assualted on New Year's Eve
"For us women they have often only scornful looks - or just intrusive. They whistle loudly, say something to one another in a foreign language, laugh. "It's really very unpleasant. It even happened that they have photographed us with their Smartphone. "They do it without asking even if one has protested. I once walked up some steep stairs and some of the men walked behind me and they were laughing the whole time and, I guess, talking about me. They shouted something at me. "Colleagues have told me similar things have happened to them. But they said that there's nothing you can do. "If they whistled at me or said something to me I said nothing to encourage them - to make them feel they can hurt me or influence me. "But that has not helped; It is even worse - honestly: especially in the last few weeks, as more and more men from North Africa, from Morocco, Tunisia or Libya are arriving here. "They were more aggressive. I could ignore them no longer - and reacted."
GETTY The worker likes working with the refugee children but can no longer put up with harassment
She said she has gone from wearing close-fitting clothes to "wide-cut trousers" and tops with high necklines. She also wears little make-up. She added she has also made mental changes, adding: "I avoid, for example, going to those places at our site where I know single men gather. "And if I do have some business there I try to get through it very quickly and smile. "But mostly I spend all day if possible in my little office. And I no longer go by train to work or back - because the other day a colleague of mine was pursued by some of the young men and harassed, even in the railway carriage. "I spare myself that and come to work in the car. "I think it's horrible that I do this and I consider it necessary. But what should I do, what would be the alternative?" The upset worker went on to claim information given by the refugees is often unreliable. She said their papers and their story regularly do not match up.
GETTY The woman, not |
out Monday in an interview with a radio talk show.
"I am gay... those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long," Ashburn, a Republican, told KERN radio in Bakersfield, California.
The revelation from the 55-year-old father of four came after he was arrested last week, accused of driving a state-owned vehicle under the influence of alcohol. He had left a gay bar in Sacramento.
"I've always believed that I could keep my personal life personal and my public life public, but through my own actions, I have made my personal life public, and I owe an explanation to my own constituents," he said.
Ashburn has largely opposed gay rights legislation, according to votesmart.org., a nonpartisan, nonprofit political research library.
Last year, he voted against a bill to recognize out-of-state, same-sex marriages and against a bill proclaiming May 22 as "Harvey Milk Day," named after the first openly gay man elected to public office in California.
Equality California, a group that works for gay rights, said on its Web site that Ashburn "has consistently received a zero percent" on its legislative scorecards since 2004, with the exception of 2007, when he scored 10 percent.
But Ashburn's votes did not surprise Wayne Besen, founder of truthwinsout.org, which he described as a nonprofit organization that defends the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community against anti-gay misinformation, counters the "ex-gay" industry and educates America about the lives of LGBT people.
"It's a perfect mask for someone who's trying to stay in the closet," said Besen in a telephone interview. "They hope that people will think that they're heterosexual. It's quite common; we've seen it over and over again.... They're already living a lie and this takes it to a new level."
He added, "They're willing to harm themselves to protect an image of who they're not. It shows how extreme and harmful that homophobia is. The closet will force people to make decisions that will harm their own lives."
But Ashburn said he had no plans to change his votes on such matters. "My votes reflect the wishes of the people in my district, and I have always felt that my faith and allegiance was to the people there in the district, my constituents," he reasoned.
Besen was unimpressed by Ashburn's argument.
"We live in a republic, and we elect people to vote based on their conscience and what they know to be true. We could just simply have a machine do the voting instead if we relied on what the constituents wanted.
"He shouldn't be representing constituencies that are at odds with his life. He should be convincing them and arguing about what's wrong with their life."
Ashburn has announced he is not running for any public office when his term ends at the end of the year.
But one of his colleagues expressed hope that Ashburn's candor would lead him to a different view on any gay rights legislation that may yet arise.
"It's an opportunity for him to lead his caucus, to bring a new perspective to his caucus, to help them open their eyes a little bit," openly gay state Sen. Mark Leno, a Democrat, told CNN affiliate KCRA-TV.Donaldson murder: Police say Provos not to blame - 'Genuine surprise' at BBC allegations BelfastTelegraph.co.uk Gardai and have ruled out any involvement by mainstream republicans in the murder of British spy Denis Donaldson, it has been learned. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/donaldson-murder-police-say-provos-not-to-blame-genuine-surprise-at-bbc-allegations-35072008.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/article35068934.ece/3503e/AUTOCROP/h342/Gerry%20Adams
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Gardai and have ruled out any involvement by mainstream republicans in the murder of British spy Denis Donaldson, it has been learned.
Detectives on both sides of the border knew within hours the murder had been set up and run by a Real IRA leader in Londonderry, supported by sympathisers in Donegal.
Intelligence gathered by the PSNI also ruled out any involvement by the Provisional IRA.
This information was passed to gardai investigating the case who have always focused their attention on dissidents.
The repetition of this position yesterday by security sources raised questions about the claims of the former IRA man and British agent who told the BBC the IRA killed Donaldson. One garda source described it as "a pile of c***".
A reliable security source in Northern Ireland also said there was genuine surprise the BBC Spotlight programme made the allegation.
"No one, and I mean no one, on either side of the border believes this claim has an ounce of truth in it," he added. "The guards say it's nonsense and the PSNI believe the same. The so-called Real IRA did this."
Belfast TelegraphCLEVELAND, Ohio -- A long-discussed and oft-delayed apartment project in Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood got the green light last week, as money finally fell into place to transform a vacant cluster of buildings on West 25th Street.
Developers Rick Foran and Chris Smythe closed Wednesday on financing for a $27.4 million project that will turn the old Exhibit Builders property into 83 residences and commercial space. Construction, starting with interior preparations, is scheduled to start this week. The apartments could open in September 2016.
Located on the south side of Church Avenue, between West 25th and West 28th streets, the rambling complex includes the former Baehr Brewing Co. building, an old Odd Fellows Hall and four industrial buildings most recently used as offices. Smythe and Foran have been trying for years - through a recession, commercial-tenant departures, historic tax-credit challenges and other fits and starts - to make a redevelopment deal work.
Apartments at the West 25th Street Lofts will range from studios to three-bedroom units, at rents starting near $1,100 a month and topping out at $1,840.
At an average of $1.37 per square foot, that's comparable to what landlords are charging downtown, according to the most recent quarterly survey by the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, which represents property owners.
The funding for the Ohio City project includes a Federal Housing Administration-insured loan, made through the Love Funding division of Midland States Bank of Illinois; federal and state tax credits aimed at historic preservation; tax abatement, which the city of Cleveland routinely grants for new residential projects; money from a city loan program focused on vacant properties and a city storefront-renovation program; a short-term loan, known as bridge financing, from Citizens Bank; and equity from Smythe Property Advisors, Foran Group Development and the Spies family.
Nationwide Insurance and East West Bank invested in the historic tax credits.IN THE LAST six months of last year, approximately €10.7 million worth of jewellry and cash was burgled from homes.
Gardaí advised householders today – Anti-Burglary Day – that valuables are out of sight.
Jewellery and cash accounted for 75 per cent of the property stolen in burglaries in the last six months of 2013, accordning to the gardaí.
Keys
There were also over a hundred cases of keys being “fished” through letterboxes by burglars.
The gardaí says “fishing” where burglars place implements such as adapted fishing rods through letterboxes to “fish” car and house keys from hall tables, can result in houses being easily entered or cars being stolen from outside the house.
Over half of burglars don’t sneak around the back of your house – over half come through your front door, said the gardaí, stating that people need to be more vigilant.
The latest report by the Garda Síochána Analysis Service shows that the main entry points by burglars to houses are through a rear window – 28 per cent, the front door – 27 per cent and rear door – 25 per cent.
Burglaries
The time of the year can also influence how and when burglars seek to enter homes. In winter, up to 20 per cent of burglaries occur during twilight hours when homes can look unoccupied. While in summer months, burglaries are more likely to take place through unsecured doors and windows.
Over 30 per cent of burglaries take place between 5pm and 8pm, while 15 per cent occurred overnight during the past six months.The accused, identified as Hariram Bishnoi of Mumbai's Kalachowkie area, was near Churchgate station on Friday afternoon just before the alleged crime took place.
The victim had come to the station to drop a relative. She was waiting with another family member on the footpath outside the station's entrance.
The accused then came up to victim from behind, opened his pant zip and started masturbating. He then brushed past her as he left the area.
The woman was initially unaware about what was happening. It was only some time later that she felt something wet and sticky on her clothes.
At just about the same time, a bystander approached the woman saying he had recorded the whole incident on his mobile phone.
The bystander and the woman then called the Mumbai Police control room, which dispatched officers to the spot.
Police personnel then reached the location and managed to nab the accused, who was just a little ahead.Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen Rodney Procter FrelinghuysenTop House GOP appropriations staffer moves to lobbying shop Individuals with significant disabilities need hope and action Exiting lawmakers jockey for K Street perch MORE (R-N.J.) is facing an ethics complaint after targeting a local liberal activist through a fundraising letter to her employer.
The Campaign for Accountability filed a complaint to the Office of Congressional Ethics on Tuesday asking for a review of whether Frelinghuysen violated House rules.
The government watchdog group noted that that the House Ethics Committee has warned lawmakers that communicating with private businesses could be construed as “pressure to take action in order to please the Member.”
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“If, as it appears, Rep. Frelinghuysen used his position as one of the most powerful members of the House of Representatives to coerce a New Jersey bank into constructively terminating an employee because she exercised her First Amendment rights to oppose him politically, his conduct does not reflect creditably on the House,” the Campaign for Accountability wrote to the Office of Congressional Ethics.
As first reported by WNYC, Frelinghuysen recently sent a fundraising letter to a board member of the activist’s employer, a local bank.
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“But let’s be clear that there are organized forces — both national and local — who are already hard at work to put a stop to an agenda of limited government, economic growth, stronger national security,” the letter says.
A hand-written asterisk is marked above the word “local,” with a note on the bottom reading: “P.S. One of the ringleaders works in your bank!”
Saily Avelenda served as a senior vice president and assistant general counsel at Lakeland Bank before resigning. She cited the pressure over her involvement with NJ 11th for Change, which formed in response to President Trump’s election and has been calling on Frelinghuysen to hold an in-person town hall in his district.
Frelinghuysen has been holding telephone town halls but has not hosted one in person in four years.
He became chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee in January. But for the first time in years, his district is expected to be competitive in next year’s midterm elections after Trump only won it narrowly.
A news article quoting Avelenda was attached to the letter. She told WNYC that her boss came to her with the letter and news article and asked for an explanation.
“I thought my Congressman put them in a situation, and put me in a really bad situation as the constituent, and used his name, used his position and used his stationery to try to punish me,” Avelenda told WNYC.
Frelinghuysen's office didn't immediately return a request for comment.FOREWORD
This statement was prepared by the Right Reverend Howard H. Clark, Bishop of Edmonton, Chairman of the Central Revision Sub-Committee, a sub-committee of the Committee on Prayer Book Revision appointed by the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada. It was presented to the House of Bishops, and also to certain members of the Revision Committee, and then was revised by the Bishop of Edmonton in the light of their criticisms and suggestions. Although this statement was designed originally to provide information for one of the committees of the Lambeth Conference of 1958, the Canadian House of Bishops felt that it should be made available for distribution in Canada, and therefore directed its publication.
Prayer Book Revision in Canada
The Prayer Book authorized for use in the Anglican Church of Canada is that which was approved by the General Synod of 1918, and confirmed in 1921. It follows the Prayer Book of 1662 fairly closely, and there are only minor changes in language. The chief difference between the two” books is that in the Canadian Book a number of services for special occasions are added. Besides this, in the rubrics, “may” frequently replaces the “shall” of 1662.
It is difficult to estimate how closely to rubrical direction, and indeed to strict wording, the Prayer Book is used in Canada. There is certainly no liturgical chaos. Taking it by and large there is a deep loyalty to the Book of Common Prayer, but many of the clergy have felt free to turn to other Anglican prayer books for special prayers and even occasionally for a whole service. For instance, the Office for Holy Baptism in the English Book of 1928 was used by some of the clergy. There has been a tendency for variations, permitted in the Prayer Book for certain occasions, to become the prevailing practice. In churches where the Psalms are sung, a selection of Psalms chosen from the provisions in other prayer books, or even on the whim of rector or organist, often replaces the Psalms for the day. At the Eucharist, our Lord’s Summary of the Law is an alternative to the Ten Commandments, with the careful provision that the Ten Commandments shall be said at least once on Sunday and on the great festivals. But in some churches the Ten Commandments are hardly ever heard. On the whole at the Holy Communion the Prayer Book is otherwise faithfully followed.
But it has been understood for some time that the Prayer Book of 1918 was only a first step towards revision, and accordingly at the General Synod of 1943 it was decided that the work should be taken up again. Under the leadership of the late Bishop Hallam (at that time Bishop of Saskatoon) the committee began its work, and in 1955 was able to present a Draft Prayer Book to General Synod. This was given general approval, but as there was not time to consider it in detail, it was referred back to the Revision Committee for “correction and revision”.
Since that time there has been some experimental use of the book (when the Ordinary permits it) and much discussion of it. The committee has reviewed its work in the [3/4] light of many criticisms and suggestions, so that the final draft which will be considered by the General Synod in 1959 will be somewhat different from the published Draft Prayer Book. If it is accepted, it must still wait for confirmation at the General Synod three years later, although it is likely that there would be some permission to use the book in the meanwhile.
Anyone studying the Canadian Draft Prayer Book of 1955 should keep two facts in mind:
1. The work of revision was not complete when the Draft was published. The Table of Lessons, the Ordinal and some of the occasional services, had not been considered and were printed with little change from the Prayer Book of 1918.
2. A great deal of work has been done since the publication of the Draft, and some of the more distinctive innovations have been modified.
II
PROBLEMS OF REVISION
1. Doctrinal Implications.
When the Canadian Church began the work of revision in 1911, the General Synod, in accord with the express direction of Lambeth and the historical traditions of the Anglican Communion, clearly ordained that there must be no change in text or rubric which would involve or imply a change of doctrine or principle of the Church of England (1918 Preface).
In the present Revision the Revisers have also honoured this limitation, not indeed because of any newly expressed order of General Synod, but by their own understanding of their task. However, it seems clear that they have worked without the hesitation that their predecessors felt in dealing with liturgical material which has doctrinal implications.
Of course the real question, which puzzles the outsider and sometimes embarrasses those within the Church is this: What is the “doctrine of the Church of England”? To take but two examples, what is its doctrine about sacrifice or about prayers for the faithful departed? Some of the criticisms of the Canadian Draft seem to imply that in our [4/5] public worship, even as in our teaching of what is necessary for salvation, we are limited to that which can be plainly proved from Holy Scripture. This is, however, a limitation which it would be difficult to justify from the aims of the English Reformers, as expressed in the early Prefaces to the Book of Common Prayer.
The Canadian Draft has not escaped the charge that it involves a change of doctrine. This charge has been made specifically in regard to the proposed Prayer of Consecration and also in regard to the optional intercessions for the dead. Now as far as Eucharistic doctrine is concerned, the revisers have been forced to recognize that it is still impossible to find full agreement in our Church, despite the liturgical emphasis now found in the theology of evangelicals and the new insights about sacrifice which are modifying even the Roman Catholic view.
The Eucharist cannot be made a grab-bag in which all the different theological viewpoints find expression. But the revisers did seek, especially in the Prayer of Consecration, to find a form which all reasonable Anglicans can use with honesty and conviction, even if there be some differences in their interpretation of the words used. That is the reason why the 1662 Prayer of Oblation has not been incorporated in full in the Prayer of Consecration. We find that the eucharistic beliefs of many in the Church makes them value the offering of themselves, their souls and bodies, after the Communion. Also, because a number of theologians have expressed the fear that the wording of the Prayer of Consecration in the 1955 Draft opens the door to unscriptural theories concerning the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the revisers have modified one clause. The words that caused difficulty were these: “We present unto thy divine majesty this holy Bread of eternal life and this Cup of everlasting salvation.” Yet while it appears that this actual wording will not be acceptable (because open to misinterpretation) the Revisers would endeavour to conserve the values which in the first instance they had intended through the inclusion of this phrase.
As for what are popularly known as “prayers for the dead”, it is clear that there has been thankful remembrance of the faithful departed in every prayer book since 1549. But intercessions for the departed disappeared in 1552, and were not provided again until the modern revisions. There was general agreement among the Canadian Revisers that [5/6] such intercessions should not be made an integral part of any service; but it was decided that some might be proposed as optional prayers. This, surely, in view of the fact that such intercessions are found in every recent revision except the Irish, may be considered not so much a change in the doctrine of the Church as a development in its practice. The fact is that neither in the Church of England nor in the Anglican Communion as a whole, has there been an official declaration for or against such intercessions.
Strangely enough, two other services in the Canadian Draft which, as revised, might seem open to the charge that they represent a change in doctrine, have provoked little comment. These are the Solemnization of Matrimony and the Ministry to the Sick.
All this, however, illustrates the difficulty of doing any revising if there is too rigid an interpretation of the undoubtedly valid principle that we should not change the doctrine of the Church by the means of alterations in, its public worship.
But something more needs to be said. One of the remarkable features of our work of revision has been the harmony which the revisers experienced as they worked together. It is difficult to remember any single vote on which the division was on “party lines.”
This, no doubt, has been the experience in the other Churches of our Communion, but it is a fact which needs to be known and understood. Whatever theological tensions may be found in our Communion, they are not great enough to prevent us meeting together in harmonious determination to produce forms of worship which can be used by churchmen of all viewpoints.
2. Theological Motives of the Revisers
After reading the published debates on Cranmer’s theological intentions in his two Prayer Books, it is revealing experience to read the comments on the theology of a revision on which one has personally worked. One writer accused the Canadian revisers of a “fear of the Old Testament”.
The Church Times found in the Canadian Draft Book a “questionable, unscriptural and emasculated theology which removes all reference to the pitiable state of mankind, and makes no attempt to translate traditional terms describing the judgment of God”.
This sharp criticism, provoked by the Canadian Draft [6/7] Prayer Book’s omission of certain phrases found in Cranmer’s Litany and in his Confession in the Eucharist, was a complete misunderstanding. The Revisers shortened the General Confession, not because they found it intolerable that we should declare the burden of our sins to “be intolerable, but because they were influenced by the example of older confessions which simply and briefly say all that corporate Christian penitence can be expected to say.
The Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, in a letter to the Church Times, pointed this out. He noted that the Confession in the Eucharist has for its chief source Archbishop Hermann’s Consultation but that the words omitted in the Canadian Draft are not found in Hermann, who “was content with milder phrases”. He also referred to the old words used by the Mediaeval Church. The Bishop ended by asking if it was wise to attack the Canadian Prayer Book “on ground on which it appears to stand where the Catholic Church has stood for centuries.”
We, however, would wish to urge a somewhat different point. The theological intention of the revisers is, on the whole, irrelevant, unless they have publicly announced an intention that is not in harmony with the mind of the Church. It is often difficult for a committee made up of men of many viewpoints to know clearly its intention on any one change. What matters is the finished product.
A proposed revision should be examined carefully in the light of theology. We do not hold to the opinion that the chief purpose of public prayer is to enunciate doctrine (at times Gregory Dix seemed to come close to this notion), but the worship to which it gives expression should certainly be inspired by a true theology. Briefly, then, the question to consider about such a change as the shortened confession is not the intention of the revisers but the adequacy of the new Confession, as compared to the old, as an expression of corporate Christian Penitence.
3. The Expert and the Pastor
A revision committee needs to turn continually to the liturgical scholar for guidance and counsel. Yet it cannot take his word as final. If its work is to result in a new Prayer Book, it must win the approval, not of the expert, but of the bishops, priests and laymen who are members (in the case of Canada) of General Synod and, in the long run, of our Church people generally. The arguments for [7/8] liturgical, correctness must be weighed against pastoral considerations.
For the revision of a liturgy must be a joint enterprise; the liturgical expert, the scholar with his mind trained and informed, the parish priest who knows and loves his people, all have their contribution to make, and, indeed, we must not neglect the contribution of the devout layman.
In every modern revision there will be features that will make the liturgist raise his eyebrows. But need this cause undue concern? No doubt the amateur in liturgy can commit fatal blunders. No doubt also reference to the scholar might protect us from such blunders. But the archaeological spirit can also cause blunders.
These considerations are relevant to the most important task in prayer book revision— the revising of the Service of Holy Communion. Anglicans must recognize that modern liturgical research does not result in a vindication of the 1662 rite. Some of its distinctive features are developments of the popular devotions of the late Middle Ages or the Reformation period, with the result that the great eucharistic moments of the early liturgies seem to the student to be obscured or given meagre expression in our rite. For instance the Exhortation, Confession, Absolution and Comfortable Words break into the movement from Offertory to Consecration to Communion.
Yet the “deficiencies” of the 1662 rite are easily overstated. Liturgies is not an exact science, and we need to beware of the fashion of the moment. The 1662 rite has its own logic, and when it is accepted and understood many of the criticisms of the scholar do not seem so important. Its “shape” may not be that of the primitive liturgies, but it is a shape that is, when understood, congruent with the primitive meaning of the Eucharist. After all, the Roman rite also seems wanting and dislocated to the exact student of liturgies, yet it is a rite that seems to have a fatal fascination for some of the most vocal critics of the English liturgy.
The Canadian revisers, at any rate, were not led to propose any fundamental change in the 1662 order, which of course is also that of our present Canadian rite. The governing reason for them was practical and pastoral. A drastic revision of the Eucharist would almost certainly fail to win the approval of General Synod; nor would it appeal to the majority of worshippers, who are not eager [8/9] for change. The wiser course seemed to be to accept the 1662 order as a starting point and make such changes (e.g. the increased emphasis on the Offertory and the more fully developed Prayer of Consecration) as could be made within that limitation.
There is a number of places in the Prayer Book of 1662 in which the translation of ancient collects or other material may be questioned. This is no recent discovery: Bishop Dowden, for example, had suggestions for a better English version of the Te Deum. From the point of view of strict scholarship the Te Deum, the Nicene Creed, the Sanctus, the Gloria in Excelsis, and the whole of the Psalter all need revision. Yet in each case the result would be a change in those parts of our services which belong to the people, are familiar to them, and are loved in their present form.
The Canadian revisers endeavoured to give these questions careful and balanced consideration. The result is that they propose changes in the Nicene Creed, the Gloria in Excelsis, and the Psalter.
4. Discipline and Rubrics
The Revisers from the first realized that they could not discipline, by means of Rubric, the clergy who disobey the Prayer Book. Yet, at the beginning of their labours they were undoubtedly under the influence of that idea of rigid uniformity which caused the rubrics to be interpreted as if they were legal documents.
This caused some discomfort as the logic of our work forced us to frequent “mays” in the rubrics and also to some alternatives. But slowly we have come to that view which finds expression in Bishop Frere’s “Correspondence on Liturgical Revision and Construction”: “A return to the old conception of rubrics: some directive, reminders of positive ecclesiastical laws concerning the services; others suggestive and elastic, giving hints to recall the approved customs of the Church.” (p. 24)
Sometimes, in examining modern revision, a critic will amuse himself by counting the number of possible combinations of the permitted variations in some service. By this method, a dismaying total could be reached after a study of Morning and Evening Prayer in our Draft Prayer Book. But actually, in the use of the services the basic pattern will probably not be seriously disturbed by these variations. Besides this, as the work of the Revisers continues, they [9/10] tend to reduce the number of these suggested variations. There is a further comment that needs to be made regarding the relation of rubric to discipline. In every revision there is pressure to allow some change because some of the clergy have already adopted it as their practice. But just as rubrics should not be used to enforce discipline, neither should they serve to legalize lawlessness. However, prevailing practice may reveal some needs in worship which the present liturgy does not meet.
5. The Problem of Language
The English Reformers quoted the authority of St. Paul in urging that the language spoken to the people in the Church should be such as they might understand and have profit by hearing the same. There are some who think that this principle, if taken seriously, would mean a revision of the Prayer Book so drastic that little of the Reformers’ graceful and rhythmic prose would remain. There are others who consider that this is an extreme view and that the people in the church can understand sufficiently the language of the Prayer Book and can also profit by its historic idiom.
It is difficult for the parish priest—and even for the experienced layman—to estimate the difficulty that people experience in understanding our Prayer Book worship. Yet it may be that the real difficulty is not so much the language as the ideas expressed by the language. The average churchman does not know his Bible as well as his fathers did, and the great Bible words and images are strange to him. To change the language in such cases would only result in impoverishing our worship.
But there are other ideas to which the Prayer Book language gives expression which are merely the reflection of the social and economic conditions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Perhaps this happens most obviously in the State Prayers. There are few people who could not understand every word of such passages as this: “O Lord our heavenly Father, high and mighty, King of kings, Lord of lords, the only Ruler of princes...” But will such words, in this democratic age, give them a clear and true idea of God? It is perhaps along these lines that careful revision is needed, as well as in those cases where a word has changed its meaning—“indifferent,” “prevent,” “wealth,” etc. But in attempting to remove the imagery that may seem to reflect the conditions of Tudor times, we need to [10/11] be careful that we do not rob our prayer book language of all its colour.
The Canadian revisers were anxious to keep as much of the rhythm and language of the English Prayer Book as they could. We met continually the difficulty of inserting a modern word or phrase in a passage of Tudor English. It is not easy to be consistent in such a task, for each case had to be decided on its merits. For example, the word “prevent” has been retained in the Collect for Trinity XVII because no reasonable alternative seems to be available; but it has been omitted from the Collect of Easter Day, where it is not essential. We know something of the cursus rhythms of which Cranmer was such a master. Yet merely to make sure that any change preserved these rhythms would not guarantee worthiness of language. The change might still be undistinguished and unreal when judged as the language of worship.
Moreover, we have found that critics are often unfair in their judgment of the rhythm of some proposed change because the old words are fixed in their memory, and make them stumble as they read the new wording.
The real need is that any prayer show reality and the deep passion of worship in its language. This can best be achieved by seeking for honesty rather than for style. Many modern prayers are conventional in language because the thought behind them is unreal or at least woolly.
Moreover, we have to realize what is happening to the English language. Some words in current use have been used so much that they are like pebbles worn smooth; the pictures these words once conveyed have been rubbed off. This is the explanation for many of those mistakes in English which are repeated until they become accepted. No one could say “under the circumstances” if he saw the picture in the word “circumstance”. Yet it looks as if that phrase may become accepted English, at least in North America.
What success has met the Canadian revisers in this task of finding language intelligible yet worthy of worship they will have to leave to the judgment of the Church. They were not ignorant of the problem facing them, and they tried to solve it. On the whole, if they have to make the choice, they would prefer the intelligible phrase to the graceful but difficult one.
6. Effect of Independent Provincial Action
There can be no doubt that, as each national Church in the Anglican Communion continues its work of revision, there is danger that the unity in worship which has been one of the bonds of our Communion will be somewhat lessened. Yet the Canadian revisers have felt that this danger at the present time, cannot be avoided. It is conceivable that in the future an interprovincial Liturgical Commission might produce a Prayer Book which, with minor adaptation, would be acceptable to all the Churches, but such a project does not seem feasible at present.
Failing that, each Church has a choice between producing its own Prayer Book or of accepting and adapting the Prayer Book of some other Church in our Communion. This last course is the one that the Canadian Church followed in 1918, for our present Prayer Book is basically that of 1662.
But the Prayer Book of 1662 can no longer meet the needs of the Church. What other Prayer Book then could Canada adopt? No Prayer Book that departed seriously from 1662 at the Holy Communion would prove acceptable to our people. Yet the Prayer Book they are most likely to meet in their travels is that of the American Church, with its Eucharist derived from the Scottish Liturgy.
The Canadian committee has felt that its only course has been to go ahead with its own revision, while seeking never to depart seriously from Anglican precedent.
We live in a period of liturgical change (and there have been several of these in the history of the Church) and we must accept the inconveniences of such a time as well as the gains. Perhaps none of the recent revisions in the Anglican Communion will have a long life. Yet if they help the Church to maintain that standard of worship we have received from the English Reformers—a worship that is simple, intelligent and truly corporate,—they will, before they are replaced, have served their purpose.
III
AN OUTLINE OF THE CHANGES IN THE PROPOSED REVISION
Rubrics. The Rubrics have been rewritten throughout the book in simple, direct language. The Revisers have felt that the argument for “modern” language is more compelling in regard, to the Rubrics than it is in considering the rites themselves.
Calendar. Some 48 names have been added, many of them from the history of the Anglican Communion, with the note that “such commemorations are not intended to enrol such persons as saints of the Church.” It seemed fitting that Canadian names should be included: Charles Inglis, the first of our bishops; John Horden of Moosonee; John West, the first Church of England missionary in the West; Edmund Peck of the Arctic.
A reviewer in the Manchester Guardian said this: “This Calendar strikes me as the most human I have ever seen, and therefore the most Catholic. It covers virtually the whole world in nearly every generation of its Christian history.”
Mattins and Evensong. The alternative Canticles have been placed in an appendix, “At Morning and Evening Prayer.” They include Cantate Domino from Isaiah 42 and Surge Illuminare from Isaiah 60; these Canticles were found in the Service for Missions in 1918. Invitatories for use before the Venite are also in this section. The Jubilate, which is at present frequently used instead of the Benedictus, is not printed either at Mattins or in the Appendix, but a rubric refers to it in its place in the Psalter.
The Litany. The chief change is in the omission, in all the intercessions except the first, of the words “That it may please thee”, and, in the Response of, “to hear us.”
A sample may be given:
“To be her defender and keeper, giving her the victory over all her enemies,
We beseech thee, good Lord.”
The second part of the Litany, from “O Lord, arise etc.” is recognized as a separate Supplication.
Occasional Prayers and Thanskgivings. This section is more comprehensive than in 1918, and in the selection of prayers the Revisers are not a little indebted to Dr. Milner White, the Dean of York.
[14] The Holy Communion. The title page reads “The Holy Communion or Holy Eucharist with the Collects, Epistles and Gospels.” The service itself makes no serious departure from the 1662 shape. In the Draft an attempt was made to bring out the Christian meaning of the Ten Commandments by the addition of our Lord’s “New Commandment”—but this suggestion has not proved generally acceptable. The Prayer for the Queen before the Collect of the Day is now optional. In the Nicene Creed there are some changes in the interests of exact translation: “God, of God; Light, of Light; Very God, of Very God.” “Through whom all things were made.” “The Holy Ghost, the Lord, the Giver of Life.” “One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.”
The due emphasis on the Offertory has been restored and the provision is to be noted that “the Churchwardens, or other representatives of the people, may bring to the Priest the Bread and Wine for the Communion.” Then may be said or sung a brief passage from 1 Chronicles 29.
At the Prayer for the Church Militant four alternative Biddings are provided. The Prayer itself has been developed somewhat with the addition, for example, of a missionary petition: “Prosper we pray thee, all those who proclaim the Gospel of thy Kingdom to the nations,” and also of a fuller commemoration of the faithful departed. In the Exhortation before the Confession there is a small change which has provoked comment: “... and intend to lead the new life.” Three Proper Pref |
at how people cope with their ambivalent ties, there’s not a lot of direct coping like that – often we lie to them, ignore them or simply avoid them.” He’s also looking into the possibility that meditation could be a good coping mechanism. A few studies have found that regularly meditating on your acquaintances’ – even your frenemies’ – good points can improve psychological well-being and health. But Uchino points out the trials have mostly been small and poorly controlled, so he would like to build more robust studies.
When it comes to my own friendships, one of Uchino’s comments sticks in my mind. “We’re all busy and don’t pick up on cues that people need support, which may lead to positive and negative feelings,” he says. It’s not something I’m proud to admit, but I’m guilty as charged. By setting myself on a pedestal, I may be my own worst frenemy.
If you would like to comment on this article, or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook or Google+ page, or message us on Twitter.There is a passage by James Baldwin in his essay “Journey to Atlanta” that I believe explains some of the apprehension about Sanders’s grand plans in a way that I could never equal, and although it is long, I’m going to quote it here in full.
Of all Americans, Negroes distrust politicians most, or, more accurately, they have been best trained to expect nothing from them; more than other Americans, they are always aware of the enormous gap between election promises and their daily lives. It is true that the promises excite them, but this is not because they are taken as proof of good intentions. They are the proof of something more concrete than intentions: that the Negro situation is not static, that changes have occurred, and are occurring and will occur — this, in spite of the daily, dead-end monotony. It is this daily, dead-end monotony, though, as well as the wise desire not to be betrayed by too much hoping, which causes them to look on politicians with such an extraordinarily disenchanted eye. This fatalistic indifference is something that drives the optimistic American liberal quite mad; he is prone, in his more exasperated moments, to refer to Negroes as political children, an appellation not entirely just. Negro liberals, being consulted, assure us that this is something that will disappear with “education,” a vast, all-purpose term, conjuring up visions of sunlit housing projects, stacks of copybooks and a race of well-soaped, dark-skinned people who never slur their R’s. Actually, this is not so much political irresponsibility as the product of experience, experience which no amount of education can quite efface.
Baldwin continues:
“Our people” have functioned in this country for nearly a century as political weapons, the trump card up the enemies’ sleeve; anything promised Negroes at election time is also a threat leveled at the opposition; in the struggle for mastery the Negro is the pawn.
Even black folks who don’t explicitly articulate this intuitively understand it.
History and experience have burned into the black American psyche a sort of functional pragmatism that will be hard to erase. It is a coping mechanism, a survival mechanism, and its existence doesn’t depend on others’ understanding or approval.
However, that pragmatism could work against the idealism of a candidate like Sanders.
Black folks don’t want to be “betrayed by too much hoping,” and Sanders’s proposals, as good as they sound, can also sound too good to be true. There is a whiff of fancifulness.
For instance, Sanders says that his agenda will require a Congress-flipping political revolution of like-minded voters, but so far, that revolution has yet to materialize. Just as in Iowa, in New Hampshire there were more voters — or caucusgoers — making choices in the Republican contest than in the Democratic one. That, so far, sounds more like a Republican revolution. If that trend holds for the rest of the primary season and into the general election, not only would Democrats not be likely to pick up congressional seats, they could lose more of them.
That’s a stubborn fact emerging — a reality — and it is one that all voters, including black ones, shouldn’t be simply told to discount.
This is not to say that Clinton or Sanders is the better choice for Democrats this season, but simply that the way some of Sanders’s supporters have talked down to black voters does him a disservice, and makes clear their insensitivity to the cultural and experiential political knowledge that has accrued to the black electorate.Coventry are facing the threat of administration after the owners of the Ricoh Arena went to the High Court claiming they are owed £1.3m in rent by the League One club.
Arena Coventry Limited (ACL) wants the court in London to issue an administration order against the club.
Hopefully this action will ultimately put CCFC on a stable financial footing for the future Nicholas Carter Arena Coventry chairman
The Sisu consortium, which has owned the Sky Blues since December 2007, disputes the terms of the lease.
The date for the High Court hearing has been set as 22 March.
ACL chairman Nicholas Carter said: "It is highly unfortunate that we have had to take this course of legal action. Had we not taken this action, then the alternative might have been catastrophic for CCFC.
"We are owed a considerable amount of money in rent arrears. While it is imperative that ACL takes action to recover these arrears and to stop the arrears growing, it is important for us to find a solution that can provide for the survival of the Sky Blues.
"Hopefully this action will ultimately put CCFC on a stable financial footing for the future."
In response, Coventry chief executive Tim Fisher said that following the breakdown in talks with ACL, a High Court hearing "was one eventuality [they] have had to prepare for."
He added: "We are consulting with our professional advisers in order to find the best way forward to try to minimise the damage to the club and we will be keeping supporters informed of any developments.
"In terms of the day to day affairs, it is business as usual as we have to make sure we are all fully focused on Saturday's important game against Hartlepool United."
Fisher has previously admitted that insolvency was a serious possibility.
On the field, Coventry are currently ninth in the table, having appointed Steven Pressley as manager on 8 March following the departure of Mark Robins to Huddersfield.Yesterday, more than 100 NFL players chose to take a knee during the national anthem in response to President Donald Trump’s remarks about athletes disrespecting the flag. Now, I believe that the First Amendment gives all Americans the right to protest, but I also believe that people should be thoughtful in how and where they choose to make their voices heard. I think NFL players should leave their political views on the sidelines, because I don’t watch football to see politics—I watch it in hopes of seeing a hawk steal the ball.
In a nation that’s become more and more fiercely divided in recent years, I’ve come to rely on sports as a respite from all the hostility. Particularly when I’m watching football, I know that I’ve got a good few hours every Sunday when I can tune out all the ugliness of the world and dedicate all my focus to scrutinizing NFL broadcasts for signs of a hawk or another large bird of prey patrolling the gameplay from the sky, waiting for the perfect opportunity to swoop in and steal the ball, perhaps mistaking it for one of its eggs.
It’s hard to sympathize with these players’ struggles if they’re unwilling to sympathize with mine.
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Sadly, this is a fantasy that’s now nearly impossible to get lost in. With so many different players protesting on the field, every single down of play suddenly now feels politically charged, and I’m too distracted by it all to even bother with pausing my DVR on aerial shots to look for avian life lurking vigilantly among the stadium lights. The simple joys of watching NFL football, like seeing a perfect spiral rocket through the crisp autumn air and wishing for a red-tailed hawk to seize it mid-flight with its powerful talons, are now tainted by the same political tension and anxiety that seem to plague every other facet of life these days.
And I doubt that the hundred-plus players who protested this week were thinking about guys like me who, after a long week of working hard, thankless jobs, want nothing more than to unwind with some cold beers and the tantalizing prospect of a Hail Mary being snapped up by a majestic hawk at the last second, or at the very least seeing a hawk get totally beaned by a laser from Cam Newton or Aaron Rodgers. It’s hard to sympathize with these players’ struggles if they’re unwilling to sympathize with mine.
These NFL players have enough fame and enough of a platform to spread their messages in forums other than the football field, and if they want to truly make their voices heard by the American people, then they should leave game day out of it. Because game day is about crossing your fingers that a large bird swoops in and grabs the ball clean out of the ref’s hands, not about protesting systemic racism in America. And it shouldn’t take the superior vision of a hawk to see that.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama took an opening shot at conservative justices on the Supreme Court on Monday, warning that a rejection of his sweeping healthcare law would be an act of “judicial activism” that Republicans say they abhor.
Obama, a Democrat, had not commented publicly on the Supreme Court’s deliberations since it heard arguments for and against the healthcare law last week.
Known as the “Affordable Care Act” or “Obamacare,” the measure to expand health insurance for millions of Americans is considered Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement.
A rejection by the court would be a big blow to Obama going into the November 6 presidential election.
Republican presidential candidates, who are vying to take on Obama in November elections, have promised to repeal the law if one of them wins the White House.
Obama’s advisers say they have not prepared contingency plans if the measure fails. But the president — who expressed confidence that the court would uphold the law — made clear how he would address it on the campaign trail if the court strikes it down.
“Ultimately, I am confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress,” Obama said at a news conference with the leaders of Canada and Mexico.
Conservative leaders say the law, which once fully implemented will require Americans to have health insurance or pay a penalty, was an overreach by Obama and the Congress that passed it.
The president sought to turn that argument around, calling a potential rejection by the court an overreach of its own.
“And I’d just remind conservative commentators that, for years, what we have heard is, the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism, or a lack of judicial restraint, that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law,” Obama said.
“Well, this is a good example, and I’m pretty confident that this court will recognize that and not take that step,” he said.
POLITICAL DEBATE
The Supreme Court justices are expected to issue decisions in the dispute by late June, a time when the presidential campaign season is likely to be in full swing.
“It’s not that common for presidents to get into direct verbal confrontations with the Supreme Court,” said Georgetown University law professor Louis Michael Seidman. “But it’s also not that common for the Supreme Court to threaten to override one of the president’s central legislative accomplishments.”
A spokeswoman for the court declined to comment on Obama’s remarks.
A spokeswoman for Mitt Romney, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, took issue with Obama’s preemptive strike and his use of the word “unprecedented.”
“What was ‘unprecedented’ was the partisan process President Obama used to shove this unconstitutional bill through despite the overwhelming objections from Americans across the country,” said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul.
“Even if the law is upheld, Governor Romney will begin the process of repealing it on Day One in office.”
Romney shepherded healthcare reform through the state of Massachusetts when he was governor there. Democrats note that Romney’s law was an inspiration for Obama’s.
The president, who once taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago, said the “individual mandate” that requires most people to buy insurance was critical to the success of the healthcare overhaul.
U.S. President Barack Obama addresses a joint news conference with Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexico's President Felipe Calderon in the White House Rose Garden in Washington, April 2, 2012. REUTERS/Larry Downing
The Supreme Court is looking at whether Congress exceeded its power to regulate commerce in U.S. states with that mandate.
“I think the justices should understand that in the absence of an individual mandate, you cannot have a mechanism to ensure that people with preexisting conditions can actually get health care,” Obama said.
“So there’s not only a economic element to this, and a legal element to this, but there’s a human element to this. And I hope that’s not forgotten in this political debate.”Stephen A. Smith is the LeBron James of getting NBA Finals predictions wrong.
NBA Reddit user _Papasmurf_ pointed out a stunning streak for ESPN’s First Take star, who sees himself as an NBA expert: He’s been wrong about the NBA Finals for six consecutive years.
And this year, as Mashable points out, he picked the Cleveland Cavaliers to beat the Golden State Warriors early and has stuck with them all season.
The weird part is the streak matches with LeBron’s run of making the Finals. So perhaps his block directly ties to the greatest player of this generation. (We have to assume he got his 2007 NBA Finals prediction correct because then-three-time champ Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs were everyone‘s pick against 22-year-old James’ Cleveland Cavaliers Cavaliers.)
Still, it’s easy to imagine — note: He may have made different arguments — the narrative logic Smith used in his Finals picks:
• In 2011, he picked the Miami Heat over the Dallas Mavericks because the Big 3 seemed unbeatable.
• In 2012, he picked the Oklahoma City Thunder over the Heat because he’d watched LeBron struggle on the biggest stage the year before.
• In 2013, he picked the San Antonio Spurs over the Heat because they’re the Spurs and had a 4-0 record in Finals entering this series. (This is probably the hardest prediction to wrap our heads around.)
• In 2014, he picked the Heat over the Spurs because that’s what happened the previous year.
• In 2015, he picked the Cavaliers because the Warriors hadn’t been there.
• In 2016, he picked the Warriors because they won the previous year and only got better.
• In 2017, he’s picking the Cavaliers because they won the previous year and only got better.
If you try to make NBA Finals predictions based on the previous NBA Finals, you’re going to be wrong a lot. That’s not to say the Cavs won’t beat the Warriors. But the Warriors’ changes this season were specifically geared to address their failures last year, so holding last year’s collapse against them seems specious.
Not that anyone can tell Stephen A. Smith what to do.Ricardo Nunez was trimming a tree outside his Echo Park home on a Sunday morning last month when a white truck pulled up and a person inside opened fire, killing the 35-year-old father.
Ray Martinez, the LAPD detective investigating the case, is seeing fewer such fatal drive-by shootings. When Martinez goes behind the yellow tape, he's more commonly working on cases where a gunman has walked straight up to the victim — a walk-up shooting.
As gang culture has become less overt, the killings have become more targeted — and at the same time more chilling.
"They get to see the whole reaction," Martinez said. "It seems more daring."
Jorja Leap, a UCLA anthropologist who studies gang culture, agreed. "In a walk-up, you see who you're killing," Leap said. "You're going to listen to what they say as you shoot them."
Fatal drive-by shooting statistics were not publicly available from the LAPD, and there are no recent national statistics. But Leap sees a shift in how gangs operate.
Once known for street intimidation, gang colors and the violence made famous in the movie "Boyz n the Hood," over the years black and Latino gangs have had truces to stop drive-by shootings. In 1993, the Mexican Mafia prison gang — known by police as "La Eme" — ordered thousands of Latino gang members to halt them.
In the 21st century, Leap said, gangs have become more strategic and focus more on criminal business enterprise — where the most money can be made.
"Drive-bys just don't work as well," she said. "When you do a drive-by, that's where you have the greatest sense of inaccuracy.
"Gangs want to survive," she added, "and gangs want to put their work in."
A high-profile shooting can taint their business dealings.
"Nobody is going to buy dope from them; everybody is going to stay away from them when the police are all over them," Martinez said.
He pointed to a 2007 shooting in which a 23-day-old boy was struck and killed after gang members targeted a street vendor who refused to pay a $50 "rent" near MacArthur Park. Luis Garcia was in his stroller when he was shot. The last of seven gang members convicted in the crime was sentenced in 2013 to life in prison without parole.
Eight years later, the area around where Luis Garcia was killed remains dominated by Latino gangs — the largest being 18th Street and Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS-13.
But gang activities have shifted away from violent wars over turf and drugs, said Sgt. Frank Banuelos, a gang supervisor with the Rampart Division, where Nunez was killed. Now they sell fake government documents, conduct robberies or collect taxes on drugs or on goods sold by street vendors.
MS-13 operates what police call "casitas" — after-hours parties where men go to buy drugs and have sex with prostitutes. Still, violence is not completely avoidable: Two people were killed outside a casita in 2013.
Leap, the anthropologist, says gang members want to avoid long prison sentences, so they target each other.
"It's ultimately a statement about the value of all of their lives," she said. "Outside lives have more value."
Still, the days of drive-bys are not over. Last week, two men in a gold sedan opened fire on South Rampart Boulevard, hitting a 57-year-old woman who was shopping for groceries. A gang member was the intended target. The woman, who was shot in the leg, is expected to survive.
-- Nicole Santa Cruz
Photos: (Top) In 2007, a 6-year-old Joey Pacheco places a candle at a memorial while a TV news reporter films a segment in Westlake, where an infant died in a drive-by shooting. Credit: Richard Hartog / Los Angeles Times. (Bottom) Pallbearers wait with the casket of 23-day-old Luis Angel Garcia in 2007. He was killed when gang members targeted a street vendor. Credit: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles TimesMan sues King County after bicycle accident on park path along the Green River left him a quadriplegic.
TACOMA (AP) — A 67-year-old man has filed a lawsuit against King County following a bicycle crash that left him a quadriplegic.
The News Tribune reports that Carl Schwartz filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Pierce County Superior Court.
Schwartz contends that a short metal post in the middle of the path at Cecil Moses Memorial Park in Tukwila, on the Green River Trail, was improperly marked. He suffered a catastrophic cervical spinal injury when he struck the pole — designed to deter cars from entering the trail — on March 13, according to his family and news stories.
King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks spokesman Logan Harris says officials are investigating.
Harris says Schwartz was cycling alone on a straight stretch of trail near one of the posts in an area with no reported accident history.
The lawsuit contends the wet and overcast weather along with poor lighting made the single post in the trail hard to see.
Schwartz is seeking unspecified damages.Recent neuroimaging studies have identified a set of brain regions that are metabolically active during wakeful rest and consistently deactivate in a variety the performance of demanding tasks. This “default network” has been functionally linked to the stream of thoughts occurring automatically in the absence of goal-directed activity and which constitutes an aspect of mental behavior specifically addressed by many meditative practices. Zen meditation, in particular, is traditionally associated with a mental state of full awareness but reduced conceptual content, to be attained via a disciplined regulation of attention and bodily posture. Using fMRI and a simplified meditative condition interspersed with a lexical decision task, we investigated the neural correlates of conceptual processing during meditation in regular Zen practitioners and matched control subjects. While behavioral performance did not differ between groups, Zen practitioners displayed a reduced duration of the neural response linked to conceptual processing in regions of the default network, suggesting that meditative training may foster the ability to control the automatic cascade of semantic associations triggered by a stimulus and, by extension, to voluntarily regulate the flow of spontaneous mentation.
In the current study, we tested the hypothesis that the habitual practice of being heedful to distraction from spontaneous thoughts during meditation renders regular meditators, as compared to control subjects, more able to voluntarily contain the automatic cascade of conceptual associations triggered by semantic stimuli. To this purpose, we adapted a simple lexical decision task [11] that required the subjects to decide whether the visually presented stimuli were real English words or strings of letters with plausible readings but no semantic content (“nonwords”) by pressing a button on an MRI-compatible response device. The stimuli were delivered on a temporally sparse schedule within an ongoing meditative condition: subjects were instructed to attend to their breathing throughout the scan, perform the lexical decision task when a stimulus appeared on the screen, and promptly re-focus their attention to their breathing. We hypothesized that the default network in meditators would display a response associated with semantic processing characterized by a reduced duration compared to control subjects, for whom the cascade of conceptual associations triggered by semantic stimuli would be less effectively terminated by the experimental prescription of redirecting attention to the breathing.
The study of spontaneous cognitive processes in the resting state has recently acquired some momentum due to the neuroimaging finding of a consistent set of brain regions displaying higher activity during wakeful rest than during a variety of demanding tasks. Such a “default mode of brain function” [8], [9] has in fact been implicated in the spontaneous stream of thoughts, episodic memories, and conceptual processing that normally occurs in the absence of goal-directed activity [10], [11], [12], [13], and which appears to be integral to our sense of self [14], [15], [16], [17]. The default network includes regions in the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, angular gyrus, and the left superior and middle frontal gyri [8], [9], [18], [19], while typical subcortical components are the hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus [14], [20], [21].
In cognitive terms, the attempt at mental regulation through meditation involves developing a progressive familiarity with the interplay of voluntary attention (often directed to the breath and/or the posture) and the spontaneous conceptual processing that appears in its fractures, a process facilitated by the adoption of a stable seated posture and a quiet environment. It should also be noted that while particular meditative practices attempt to promote absorption and sensory withdrawal from the environment (see [5], [6], for a classification of meditative techniques), Zen meditation, quite to the contrary, prescribes a vigilant attitude that is pragmatically implemented by the adoption of a seated posture with a certain degree of active tension and by keeping the eyes open; mental withdrawal from the environment is considered as promoting a state of dreaminess and lack of clarity counterproductive to the meditative pursuit and is therefore vigorously discouraged [7].
There has been a resurgence of scientific interest in the neurophysiological bases of meditation in recent years [1], [2], owing in part to the wide availability and increasing sophistication of in vivo brain imaging techniques. An important aspect of these practices that has not been directly investigated, and the subject of the present work, is the relationship between meditation and conceptual processing. The Buddhist meditative exercise has its roots in the metaphysical tenet of “emptiness,” particularly emphasized by the Zen schools [3]. According to this view, reality is originally devoid of ontological properties and it is only via an incessant and largely unconscious habit of emotional self-reference and categorization that a conceptual structure is created and ultimately reified; a process necessary for daily life, but that also tends to condition the individual into predefined patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Meditation is believed to counteract this tendency in favor of a condition of equanimity where the provisional nature of one's own conceptual structure is realized, bringing about a greater freedom of thought and action as well as a decreased sense of self-attachment.
Notably, the contrast words-nonwords, when the hemodynamic response was modeled as a simple Gamma function, was not significantly different between controls and meditators in any ROI (all t-tests, p>0.2). It is important to recognize, however, that this corresponds to a real lack of difference in the response properties of meditators and control only insofar as the Gamma function models the full extent of the hemodynamic time course satisfactorily. In particular, since we were interested in the residual semantic processing occurring after the subjects responded to the stimulus, we examined the ROIs' activation profile in more detail by modeling the hemodynamic time course with a more general basis set of spline functions. The estimated event-related time courses for the stimulus response component associated with conceptual processing (see Methods ), obtained by subtracting the estimated waveform for nonword stimuli from the estimated waveform for word stimuli, showed a clear difference between meditators and controls in the peri-stimulus interval following the peak of the Gamma model ( Figure 3 ). The event-related time course of this difference is plotted explicitly in Figure 4. A repeated-measure ANOVA on the cumulative measure of the BOLD activity associated with semantic processing in the 6–14 s post-stimulus period, with group as a between-subject factor and ROI as a within-subject factor (see Methods ), showed significant main effects of group (CTRL>MEDT, F(1,22) = 12.3, p = 0.002) and ROI (F(7,154) = 3.5, p = 0.001), and no interaction (F(7,154) = 1.3, p = 0.2). Post-hoc tests of group differences within each ROI revealed that this effect was common across all ROIs, with the exception of the middle and posterior cingulate areas ( Table 3 ).
An aspect of the results portrayed in Figure 2 that may appear puzzling at first is that the observed response to the stimuli was generally a deactivation compared to baseline, for both words and nonwords. This is perhaps unexpected, given the amount of existing data implicating regions of the default mode network in semantic processing, especially on the left side [10], [11], [13], [22], [23], [24]. It can be explained, however, by considering that (1) some activity related to spontaneous thoughts is likely to be present during the meditative baseline condition, and (2) the response to the stimuli in our task always included the interruption of an ongoing state of introspectively oriented attention to require visual processing and a motor response (see Methods ). While this task-switching component is likely to be responsible for the general deactivation induced by both words and nonwords [25], it was important to verify that the observed differential activity induced by words and nonwords in regions of the default mode network was not due to a simple difference in processing difficulty [26], as suggested by slower reaction times for nonwords compared to words ( Table 1 ), rather than to semantic processing. We therefore performed a Pearson correlation analysis across subjects between the values of the words-nonwords contrast in each ROI and the average difference in response times between word and nonword stimuli. All correlations were non-significant, even when omitting the correction for multiple testing, with very low values for the correlation coefficient (all p>0.05, uncorrected; median r = 0.04).
Discussion
In this study, we employed a simple lexical decision paradigm to investigate whether the regular practice of meditation can affect the dynamics of implicit conceptual processing and, more specifically, to test whether experienced meditators would display the ability to abbreviate the duration of neural processing triggered by semantic stimuli during meditation. To this end, we first identified the brain regions associated with conceptual processing across the two groups of subjects, and then estimated the temporal course of the stimulus-evoked response in these regions. The results support the hypothesis that the regular practice of Zen meditation enhances the capacity for voluntary regulation of spontaneous mental activity. In regions of the default network, meditators displayed a BOLD response related to semantic processing that was characterized by a reduced post-stimulus tail compared to control subjects. A possible explanation for this finding is that meditators, given their practice history, had an advantage over control subjects in the experimental meditative task of re-focusing attention on the breath after having processed and responded to the presented stimuli. It is interesting to note that in a few ROIs and especially in the L.angular.g.1 (Figure 3), a key region in conceptual elaboration [27], [28], [29], the BOLD signal related to semantic processing drops to a level below baseline in the post-stimulus period in meditators. This finding may indicate that the active process of regulating the stimulus-triggered conceptual processing by re-focusing on the breath, is in meditators so effective as to bring the level of semantic processing temporarily below the level of the normal baseline. During the baseline periods, i.e. the intervals where no stimuli are presented, a certain amount of spontaneous thinking is likely to occur in both groups of subjects (although perhaps less so in meditators), but in the period immediately following a stimulus response, the strong engagement of the executive function involved in re-focusing attention on the breath may cause the level of conceptual processing to drop below the normal baseline level; this is usually the case for deactivations in the default mode network, which increase in amplitude as executive demands increase [26].
Notably, the conceptual processing evoked by the word stimuli in the lexical decision task was completely implicit, in the sense that no explicit conceptual elaboration of the stimuli was required in order to perform the task correctly. The task relied on the assumption that the visual presentation of a lexical stimulus with semantic content, insofar as it was recognized as a “real English word”, would automatically activate a cluster of semantic associations whose neural correlates could be identified by the contrast words-nonwords. The choice of implicit rather than explicit conceptual processing was motivated by the desire to mimic, to a certain extent, the properties of spontaneous, task-unrelated thoughts. In this sense, the snippets of semantic content delivered at random times within the baseline meditative condition were employed as “seeds” for triggering from the outside, and in an experimentally controlled fashion, the automatic activation of at least a subset of the conceptual cluster linked to the presented word.
We did not observe any difference in reaction times or errors between controls and meditators. It could have been expected that meditators would exhibit a prompter response to the stimuli, by virtue of their training in being less distracted by spontaneous thoughts. We note, however, that subjects in our study were instructed to concentrate on their breathing and that, therefore, responding to the stimulus required a switching from an internally to an externally oriented attentional modality, a process with a significant cost in terms of reaction times that may have masked such an effect. In the actual practice of zazen, on the other hand, a great importance is placed on a regulated sitting posture and a mental attitude of openness to the arising of perceptions without allowing one's attention to be sequestered by them. While both of these components are thought to promote a state of mental readiness that may decrease reaction times to an external stimulus, they were not included in our protocol for pragmatic reasons, i.e., that the simplified meditative technique of breath concentration could be easily adopted by the non-meditators, as well as the impossibility of assuming a seated posture in the scanner. These factors may explain the observed lack of differences in the behavioral results between meditators and controls.
The pattern of activation identified by the contrast words-nonwords included the typical nodes of the default mode network, replicating the results obtained by Binder and colleagues [11] in a study employing the same stimuli in a fast event-related design. This is also consistent with several reports implicating regions of the default mode network in semantic processes of either task-related [10], [24], [30], [31] or task-unrelated nature [13], [23], with a complex interaction of the two with respect to memory formation [32], [33], [34]. The activated clusters were restricted to the left hemisphere, which is to be expected given the lexical nature of the task and well-known left-hemisphere dominance in language function. Notably, meditators and controls exhibited no difference for the words-nonwords contrast in these regions when the hemodynamic response was modeled by a simple Gamma function. A whole-brain analysis directly comparing meditators and controls for the same contrast (words-nonwords) also revealed no significant group differences at the statistical threshold of α<0.05, corrected (single-voxel p<0.001, cluster size k>27 voxels). It is important to note that the response model based on the convolution of the stimulus presentation sequence with a simple Gamma function was generally able to detect the initial transient rise in the signal, but could only partially fit a response that was more extended than the canonical hemodynamic response to a brief simple stimulus. Since the duration of the processing triggered by the presentation of the stimuli was a quantity of interest in our study and unknown a priori, we estimated the actual time course of the response in the selected set of ROIs by modeling the stimulus response with a basis set of cubic splines. Using this method, we were able to detect a decreased duration of the BOLD response related to conceptual processing in most regions identified by the initial analysis in meditators versus controls (Table 3, Figure 4). This effect was particularly prominent in the left angular gyrus and the left superior frontal gyrus, regions whose level of activity has been reported to be strongly correlated with the amount of task-independent thoughts in a recent study [23]. The only ROIs that did not display a significant group effect were the middle cingulate cortex, which is not commonly considered part of the default network, and the posterior cingulate cortex, which also displayed a lesser correlation with task-independent thoughts compared to the other regions in the above mentioned study [23]. The medial parietal cortex (including posterior cingulate, retrosplenial cortex, and precuneus) has been hypothesized to occupy a rather early stage in processing semantic information [35], which could explain why we did not detect a significant group difference in this region for the post-stimulus semantic activity. From this perspective, an effect of sustained semantic processing is more likely to be observed in areas that occupy later processing stages, in particular higher-order associative areas such as the angular gyrus and regions of the prefrontal cortex, which are optimally suited to maintain an organized pattern of activity for extended durations [36], [37]. There is in fact considerable evidence indicating that the region around the angular gyrus, corresponding roughly to Brodmann areas 39/40 and originally described by Norman Geschwind [38], is a key structure in semantic processing [28], [29] and may have had an evolutionary role in the development of language [39]. The angular gyrus has also been hypothesized to play a specific role in the default network by integrating semantic information into an ongoing context, and has recently been shown to display later-stage responses to semantic material similar to those observed here [40].
The present work contributes novel data to the burgeoning field of meditation studies in the context of modern neuroscience (see [5], [41] for reviews), as well as to the research on mind-wandering and stimulus-independent thoughts [42]. While most of the recent literature has focused on the effect of meditative practices on attentional processes [43], [44], [45], [46], [47], [48], and a substantial effort has been devoted to investigate the processes underlying mind-wandering under non-meditative conditions [13], [49], [50], [51], [52], [53], there has not yet been, to our knowledge, any previous attempt to characterize the neural correlates of conceptual processing during meditation. Importantly, this is an area of research with potential clinical relevance for psychiatric conditions characterized by excessive rumination [54], such as obsessive-compulsive disorder [55], anxiety disorder [56], and major depression [57], [58], [59].
In closing, we would like to indicate some limitations of the present study that should be explored by further work. First, the employed cross-sectional experimental design cannot rule out the possibility of a selection bias where the observed effect is not due to the difference in meditative experience between the two groups but to some pre-existing hidden variable; a longitudinal design, with random assignment of subjects to a meditation training group and a group with a control intervention, would be able to detect differences due to training with greater confidence, albeit at the likely price of investigating effects limited to short-term training. Secondly, the study was not designed to assess behavioral correlates of the fMRI finding of a faster post-stimulus renormalization, in meditators compared to controls, of the BOLD signal related to semantic processing; future work should explore the use of behavioral probes that can directly assess the level of conceptual processing in the post-stimulus period without critically interfering with the main paradigm. Thirdly, while the study was sufficiently powered to detect the reported effects, it could clearly benefit from a larger sample size. Finally, for the sake of ecological validity and in view of potential clinical applications, the adopted experimental paradigm could be expanded to include stimuli with strong emotional content [58] and organized in full sentences with richer semantic structure [60].The self-killing web site requested by a customer
I've seen a lot of web sites implemented in less-than-ideal ways. One of them belonged to a customer which had a relentless torrent of incoming click data from all of their installations. They had six web servers sitting behind a load balancer, all writing to a database. The trouble is that while 5 or 6 machines could keep |
to pull off tracks here like Still Sane and A World Alone excellently; by that, I mean she sounds very believable throughout tracks like those. I feel like I can relate to Ella as well through Pure Heroine. I believe this was a very personal project for her to put together. It sounds like all the subject matter she deals with throughout the album’s 16 tracks were deeply personal subjects for her, and it definitely shows in her performance.
The Verdict
Hands down, one of the greatest debut albums of all time. This is the kind of album veterans and vanguards of the genre release 15 years into their career, not to kickstart it. I don’t think modern pop music will be graced with such a carefully crafted debut such as this for a long time. Everything here from Ella’s stunning, unique vocal presence, to the deeply intimate lyrics and expertly crafted beats, every element present on the album comes together to make an excellently atmospheric experience. Pure Heroine is one of the greatest debut albums music has practically ever seen. A must own for any fan of pop music.In 1978, a 20-year-old Sid Vicious made a list in numerical order naming all of his American girlfriend Nancy Spungen’s “great” qualities. A few months after this list was penned, Spungen, a diagnosed schizophrenic dubbed “Nauseating Nancy” by the British music press, was found stabbed to death in the Chelsea Hotel on October 12. Sid Vicious was the main person of interest in her death, but died himself of a heroin overdose on February 2, 1979.
What Makes Nancy So Great By Sidney
1 Beautiful
2 Sexy
3 Beautiful figure
4 Great sense of humour
5 Makes extremely interesting conversation
6 Witty
7 Has beautiful eyes
8 Has fab taste in clothes
9 Has the most beautiful wet pussy in the world
10 Even has sexy feet
11 Is extremely smart
12 A great HustlerSANTA ANA – An Aliso Viejo man and a partner from Long Beach were sentenced to prison terms Tuesday for their roles in a mortgage-modification scheme that targeted 1,500-plus struggling homeowners and defrauded more than $9 million.
Charles Wayne Farris, 65, of Aliso Viejo was ordered to serve 47 months in prison, while Ronald Rodis, 52, of Long Beach was sentenced to 41 months, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.
Both men previously pleaded guilty to felony counts of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Along with their time behind bars, Rodis was ordered to pay about $3.8 million in restitution, and Farris is supposed to pay $3.5 million.
The scheme, which took place from October 2008 to June 2009, was masterminded by Bryan D’Antonio, a Brea man who had already been convicted of a previous medical-billing scam.
D’Antonio was the owner and operator of the Rodis Law Group, which later changed its name to America’s Law Group. Farris was a managing director, the indictment says, and Rodis was a senior partner.
Through radio advertisements, the company claimed to employ an experienced team of attorneys who could help homeowners negotiate lower interest rates or even lower principal balances.
Those attorneys didn’t exist, prosecutors said, with the business instead acting as little more than a boiler room where banks of telemarketers fielded calls from desperate, financially strapped homeowners.
Rodis, a licensed attorney at the time of the scheme, allowed his name to be used for the company to add legitimacy to the business, prosecutors said. He has since surrendered his law license.
Farris supervised the telemarketers who made up the workforce.
Both men hid the involvement of D’Antonio, who due to his earlier conviction, was barred from being involved in any telemarketing, prosecutors added.
“These defendants played key roles in a scheme that victimized homeowners facing foreclosure during the mortgage crisis,” said Chad A. Readler, an acting assistant attorney general, in a statement. “The defendants promised homeowners assistance saving their homes and modifying their mortgages, yet took their money knowing the promised benefits would never be realized.”
Earlier this year, D’Antonio was sentenced to 97 months in prison after agreeing to a plea deal acknowledging that he defrauded more than 1,500 people out of $9 million.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who sentenced all three defendants, has noted that the actual monetary impact of the fraud was likely much higher, because many victims lost homes with equity.A Florida teenager died Sunday after shooting himself in the head during a game of Russian roulette.
Thorin Montgomery was the first of his friends to take a turn at the deadly game when the.38-caliber revolver discharged Friday evening, according to Bay 9 News.
The 17-year-old was rushed to St. Petersburg’s Bayfront Medical Center where he died two days later.
Montgomery was reportedly playing with three friends, ages 19, 18 and 16, on the back porch of his home.
An unidentified neighbor who was outside Montgomery’s home when paramedics arrived said that the scene was “crazy.”
10 News WTSP
“I'm shocked to find out they're stupid enough to play that game," the neighbor told 10 News. "Kids nowadays, with them playing with guns the way they do, there's no reason for that."
Russian roulette is a dangerous game of chance in which players put a single bullet in a revolver, spin the cyclinder, hold the muzzle up to their heads and pull the trigger.
It is unclear how many people die from Russian Roulette each year.
A 2011 study by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Louisville, Kentucky suggests that most victims of the deadly game are males below the age of 30 who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Authorities are investigating how Montgomery and his friend came to be in possession of the gun.
No charges have been filed so far in the case.
croberts@nydailynews.com
Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing!Natural breast augmentation is a method which uses stem cells and fat transferred from one area of the body into the breasts, to enlarge and augment them naturally. There are no silicone breast implants or other foreign materials which can leak, rupture, or cause medical problems. This plastic surgery takes fat from the thigh or the stomach of the patient in most cases using liposuction. Half of the fat tissue that is removed is processed, so that the stem cells can be removed without damaging them. These cells are then added back to the other half of the fat tissue, and this is then injected into the breast of the patient. Natural breast augmentation does not require traditional surgery, because there are no large incisions made or excessive amounts of tissue damaged during the procedure, and the breast augmentation scars are minimal and often cannot be seen at all.
Some of the most common breast augmentation problems and complications come from the materials used for implants, as well as the surgical incisions required to place these implants deep in the breast tissue. Natural breast augmentation eliminates these risks, because the only thing which is added to your breasts are your own fat and stem cells. A breast lift and augmentation can include many uncomfortable side effects, and may be much more painful during the recovery period. With natural breast augmentation you do not have as much discomfort, there is little or no bruising, and you will be up and back to your usual activities in no time. Fat has been used in the past for this purpose, but there were always problems with the look or feel of the finished breast. Stem cells have brought back this idea. Your own tissue is the best choice for augmentation, because there is almost no risk of your body rejecting these tissues, so the results are much more successful.GETTY Reece Oxford has been linked with a move away from West Ham
The 17-year-old burst on to the scene when manager Slaven Bilic gave him his first start against Arsenal on the opening day of the last season. Oxford played a starring role in the heart of midfield as the Hammers ran out 2-0 winners at the Emirates. His talent has not gone unnoticed with a number of top Premier League clubs monitoring his situation with Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City being credited with interest in the defensive midfielder.
West Ham United summer transfer targets Sun, June 26, 2016 Express Sport takes a look at some of the stars who could be arriving at West Ham United during the summer Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 7 Gokhan Tore (Besiktas): Manager Slaven Bilic has confirmed that he is targeting the 24-year-old Turkish winger, having tried to sign him last yearStarting with the snarling, slow machine-funk of "Dael," Tri Repetae fully confirms Autechre's evolution into electronic noise kings. If not as immediately experimental as the fractured work by the likes of Merzbow, Tri Repetae expertly harnesses the need for a beat to perfectly balance out the resolutely fierce, crunching samples and busy arrangements, turning from being inspired by Aphex Twin to being equally inspiring in itself. "Rotar" does a particularly fine job on this front, with high-pitched sounds against low, distorted bass blasts -- and this only forms part of the percussion arrangement. The basic combination of soft melody and harsh beats are here as well, coming fully to the fore and resulting in such fine songs as the synth-string/organ wheeze laden "Leterel" and the quirky, sweet "Gnit." Nearly every track has a particular edge or element to it, making it eminently listenable and distinct. "Stud," for all of its macho connotations, actually takes a gentler path than most of the album's tunes, with a flowing synth wash at the center of a stripped-down but sharp digital-drum punch; by the end of the song, the synth loops float freely in an uneasy, ambient wave. With the drowsy pulse of "Overand" and the echoing beats of "Radio" (perhaps not so ironically, the most straightforward of the album's songs) to close things out, Tri Repetae stands as a varied, accomplished album, clear evidence of Autechre's unique genius around sound. American releases included a bonus disc compiling the Anvil Vapre and Garbage EPs.Signal jamming in Parliament and the additional security measures employed during the State of the Nation Address (Sona) were back in the spotlight in the National Assembly on Wednesday, with Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa refusing to answer questions on the matter, citing the sub judice rule.
Indicating that he would be willing to answer the questions once the issues were resolved in court, Ramaphosa said it would not be appropriate to dwell on them now.
The deputy president was responding to a written question, posed by Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane, asking on what date was he made aware of the intended use of signal jammers in the house, and other additional security measures, during President Jacob Zuma’s Sona address.
“The issues are the subject of two legal cases at the moment. I have been reliably informed that hearings into these matters will be happening in our courts in next few days and for that reason I feel constrained to answer the question. I’ve been advised that it is best to let the legal process work and thereafter one can put forward views.
“I’d like to state as a matter of principle that in Parliament, the incident that occurred here should not happen again.
I’d be willing to answer the specific issues raised [by Maimane] once the legal case has been concluded,” Ramaphosa said.
Raising points of orders and supplementary questions, DA, Economic Freedom Fighters and the United Democratic Movement MP’s asked the deputy president to answer broadly about the matters, with DA chief whip John Steenhuisen saying they were not asking about the merits of the case.
Maimane said it would be a point of interest to find out when the deputy president was informed [about the jammers]. “And I’d like to know, with regard to the removal of the entire caucus, not just members who were asked to leave, should similar conditions prevail in the same conditions, will the deputy president be willing to give a guarantee that the use of the same security measures in fact will not be allowed in this house.”
Deliberate jamming
EFF MP Sipho Mbatha asked if the deputy president would agree that the signals were jammed deliberately “to hide the ill intentions you had of assaulting and dragging out of the members of the EFF out of the chamber”.
The deputy president again reiterated that he would not be able to answer as the matter was in court. Trying to close the line of question, Speaker Baleka Mbethe said they could not “put deputy president on the floor and extract the answer from him.
“And that’s as far as we can go.”
Steenhuisen, pointing out that questions were sent to the Deputy President nine days prior to the sitting, said he should have indicated when the questions were tabled that he would not be able to answer.
“If the deputy president was going to come here today, and hide behind the sub judice rule, I think it would have been far more honest of him to have indicated that when the questions were tabled at his office, rather than wait for the day to come here and refuse to answer the questions from the house,” he said to cheers from his MP’s and heckling from African National Congress MP’s.
Accept responsibility
The sub judice rule came up again later over a written question posed by DA MP David Maynier to State Security Minister David Mahlobo. Maynier asked if Mahlobo would be prepared to “accept political responsibility for the operational error involving the use of a signal jamming device” during Sona.
After saying the question should stand over, house chairperson Thoko Didiza, after consulting with legal services and the minister, gave Mahlobo an opportunity to answer.
“The issues are in front of the court, and we will respect our oath and rules and not deal with them. We have indicated that in terms of operational efficiency, an error occurred. We regretted the error. And on that basis, we indicated there was no intentional disruption of the signal, but I can’t get to details because they are in front of the court.”It was about 5:00pm I’d guess. My dad and I always liked to get to our seats a little early to catch the end of warmups and enjoy the pre-game steps of the Pride of the Southland Marching Band in its entirety before watching the Vols storm the field. The strange thing about this night, however, was that it was 30 minutes before kickoff and the stands were already full. Neyland Stadium had a reputation for late-arrivals and early departures – especially for out-of-conference games – but tonight the crowd was early, and there was a unique buzz in the air.
It had been a crazy offseason. The Vols went 5-6 the year before and Phillip Fulmer was forced to make a lot of staff changes, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. Out was Randy Sanders, and in was a familiar face at offensive coordinator in David Cutcliffe. I can’t be sure, but I think it was that familiarity that gave fans the hope that the 2006 Vols were going to be much better than they had been just a year ago.
Cal was good. Really good. They were a preseason top-10 team that many pundits had selected as a dark-horse national championship contender. Yes, they had a first-year starter at quarterback, but their offense was littered with future NFL stars…DeSean Jackson, Marshawn Lynch, Justin Forsett, Alex Mack…the list goes on. Cal’s offense was going to put up points by the truckload and Tennessee’s defense stood no chance. But on this night, it wasn’t Tennessee’s defense that was overwhelmed, it was Cal’s offense. And it wasn’t just the Vol defense that gave Cal fits, it was also the sellout crowd that made their presence felt early and often.
For four quarters Cal’s high-powered offense, loaded will future Pro-Bowlers at multiple positions, couldn’t do anything right. They couldn’t pass, they couldn’t catch, they couldn’t block, they couldn’t run, they couldn’t audible…they couldn’t win. Tennessee’s fans smelled blood in the water early, and the intensity level inside Neyland Stadium continued to rise well into the third quarter.
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Tennessee’s defense feasted on the chaos.
Cal quarterback Nate Longshore couldn’t hear his coaches, and Longshore’s teammates couldn’t hear him. Communication for the Bear offense diminished to hand signals and full-throat screaming into the earholes of helmets…But none of that worked either.
On that night, as good as Tennessee’s football team was, the crowd assembled inside Neyland Stadium was elite. 106,009 people – nearly all of whom were clad in orange and white – made Shields-Watkins Field a living hell for Jeff Tedford’s squad from Berkely. Cal was rattled from start to finish, and the Vols would cruise to a 35-18 win – a final score that made the game appear closer than it really was.
“We’ve never seen anything like that. That’s a pretty impressive atmosphere, there’s no doubt about it,” Cal coach Jeff Tedford said after the game. “The environment they create gives Tennessee a real home field advantage.”
Longshore echoed his coach’s comments, “It’s static noise. You can’t hear anything. You go up and down the line, your wide receivers, your running backs, your tight ends, nobody can hear. Nobody.”
But that was 2006. And, frankly, the atmosphere inside Neyland Stadium hasn’t had that type of impact on a visiting team since. It’s been a strange nine years for Tennessee since that game, in fairness. Four different coaches, lots of turnover, lots of losses, and lots of disappointment. Since that 2006 season, Tennessee football has a combined record of 50-51 – and plenty of those losses have come at home. Tennessee’s national perception and the perception of its stadium as one of college football’s toughest places to play has, rightfully, taken a hit.
This weekend, however, Tennessee has a chance to change the perception of their program and their venue, and the fans have a chance to impact the game in a very large way – much like they did against Cal in 2006.
Oklahoma comes to town this weekend at 1-0 and ranked 19th in the country after a 41-3 win over Akron. And while this weekend’s road trip to Knoxville is sure to feature the largest road crowd in Sooner history – by about 14,000 or so – head coach Bob Stoops and starting quarterback Baker Mayfield don’t seem to be too worried about the environment.
Mayfield offered this following his team’s win over Akron when asked about the trip to Knoxville:
"We're still playing football. Big crowd…doesn't matter. We just need to play our game." – Mayfield on heading to Knoxville next. — Oklahoma Football (@OU_Football) September 6, 2015
And here’s what Stoops had to say about the upcoming environment during his Monday press conference:
“Come on, we’ve had Notre Dame and Florida State prior to that. We’ve been on this stage before. We’ll have the music blaring in the stadium this week for every road game this season,” Stoops said. “It shouldn’t be any different. It’s exciting but exciting things happen in any stadium across the country,” Stoops said. “In the end, we’ll be on the field like every other game ready to go.
“All of those guys have played in big games on the road,” Stoops said. “We go on the road all the time. I have a hard time understanding all the questions about a stadium. When we go somewhere, it’s usually not half full.”
Stoops seems rather dismissive of what will certainly be one of the most hostile environments, not only of his career, but in the history of Oklahoma football. The largest crowd to ever see the Sooners play football is 96,009 – three times – in the annual Red River Rivalry between OU and Texas. That game is a neutral site game, however, with tickets split evenly between the Sooners and Longhorns. The largest true road crowd Oklahoma has ever faced? 88,119 in matchup against Ohio State…The year was 1977.
But Bob Stoops isn’t worried, however. The Sooners will have a first-year starter at quarterback, but NFL talent all over their roster on Saturday night…stop me if you’ve heard this before.
Tennessee fans didn’t need any extra motivation for this weekend as it was. It’s the home-opener, it’s an evening game, the Vols are 1-0, the Vols are ranked, and #CheckerNeyland will be in full effect. And even if Bob Stoops and Baker Mayfield had not mentioned the environment, or lack thereof, it would have still been impressive.
We don't take the back seat to nobody…. ou is going to get it this week! I can't wait to be in Neyland this Saturday.#CheckerNeyland — Inky Johnson (@InkyJohnson) September 7, 2015
No lie.. I remember when we played a home game in 96' and it felt like the stadium was moving.. We need that on Sat..#102,455 — Leonard Little (@DBL_L_01) September 7, 2015
Seeing tons on quotes from people underestimating Neyland stadium. I hope y'all seeing this. Marshawn Lynch did the same in 2006 at Cal — Jayson Swain (@SwainEvent) September 7, 2015
But poking the bear? On game week, no less? Well, Stoops just guaranteed that Saturday night will be an all-time great Neyland atmosphere. A game that has been sold out for months now has even more fuel added to the fire.
Tennessee fans are a unique group, and one way to rile them up is to say they are no different than anyone else. Right or wrong, Bob Stoops has done just that…and the results should be spectacular. Regardless of the outcome on Saturday night, the atmosphere to start the game will undoubtedly be one of the best ever seen inside Neyland Stadium. And if the Sooners stumble early, then the party may last all night.GoAnimate is a new online service the allows anybody to create indepth animated videos.
Online animation services aren’t new, but most offer basic feature sets that emphasize quick creation over options. GoAnimate on the other hand is a full suite of animation tools, covering just about every possible thing you could think to create. Users can define everything from characters, layouts, speech and music, and on top of an extensive library of options, you can also upload your own elements or import scenes from services such as Flickr.
GoAnimate also acts as a host for created animations, complete with embedding options, and support is built in to promote clips on social voting and networking sites.
The site bills itself as a service to people who don’t know how to use Flash, or can’t draw. It’s a fair way of defining the service, but at the same time creating an animation isn’t a quick process either. Depth takes time, and there is also a learning curve as well to know how and when to do certain actions, even if the layout is logical. I haven’t whipped an animation up for this posts because I don’t want to end up wasting hours creating one, but if you’ve ever wanted to create your own animated short, bookmark this site now, it’s that good.
GoAnimateHolding companies merge to create $35.1-billion giant
Many in the ad industry will return to work Monday morning in a radically different world than the one they left Friday afternoon.
New York’s Omnicom Group and Paris-based Publicis Groupe SA rocked the industry this weekend with a seismic “merger of equals” that creates the world’s largest marketing communications company, with combined annual revenues of US$22.7 billion, a market capitalization of $35.1 billion and more than 130,000 employees worldwide.
The merger brings together some of the most storied names in advertising — including TBWA, BBDO, DDB, Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett — in a new entity to be called Publicis Omnicom Group.
Omnicom CEO John Wren and his Publicis counterpart Maurice Lévy will serve as co-CEOs of the new merged entity for the first 30 months, after which Lévy becomes non-executive chairman and Wren continues as CEO. The company will have a single-tier board with 16 members, consisting of the two co-CEOs and seven non-executive directors from each company.
Reaction to the merger was swift, with many industry observers stunned by both its scale and complexity.
MDC Partners CEO Miles Nadal called it a “holy s–t” moment for the global marketing communications advertising industry, while experts said it will lead to a further wave of consolidation as rivals like London-based WPP Group — which would lose its title as the world’s biggest marketing services company should the deal be completed — look to grow in response.
Brian Wieser, a senior research analyst with Pivotal Research Group in New York, called it the biggest media deal of the past 20 years, rivaled only by the AOL/Time Warner merger.
That assessment came just two days after Pivotal had termed a potential deal “unlikely” because of a variety of factors: U.S. anti-trust issues; the degree of control Omnicom would have over a company Pivotal described as one of France’s most important multi-national firms; and being counter both to Omnicom’s traditional history of taking a “disciplined and cautious” approach to growth and Publicis’ stated focus on digital and emerging markets.
“I’m a bit surprised, as culturally the two holding companies appear quite different,” agreed Arthur Fleischmann, partner/president of Toronto agency John St., which itself was snapped up by WPP Group last year. “We’ll see how they share leadership and align to a new vision. Industry growth is limited by ongoing global economic flatlining — this is one way to create grander scale, drive down operating costs and possibly complement one another’s worldwide footprint.”
Although a combined firm will allow for more pricing power in general, the decrease in competition could present regulatory hurdles in the U.S. and Europe. Client conflicts also could be an issue, as rivals such as Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo, McDonald’s, Yum Brands’ Taco Bell, Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble now find themselves under the same umbrella.
“This is an interesting,” said Dominic Proctor, global president of WPP’s GroupM, in a statement released early Sunday evening.
“They are making it clear that a primary motive for the merger is achieving scale in media buying. However, neither Omnicom nor Publicis was able to bring their investment teams together effectively as individual companies, so it will be fun to see if they can now do it together.”
Wieser predicted that the merger would lead to a “profound change” in the media industry, with implications for everything from the evolution of media negotiations to ad tech and the shifting competitive dynamic with the likes of Accenture and IBM as they begin their own forays into marketing services.
“It’s hard to not talk about this without being hyperbolic,” said Wieser, who said that the sheer size of the deal means it’s still unclear what kind of reverberations it will send through the industry.
“Some of the conclusions that we’ll all eventually come to are only going to come with time, because this is so far from being considered plausible by most people that it’s not as if the consequences have been thought through,” he said. “Anyone who’s followed the agency business knows it’s a product of mergers and acquisitions, and most of us certainly expected another round of consolidation, we just didn’t expect it would be this kind of consolidation.”
Reached in Toronto on Sunday, Nadal called the merger “a really terrific idea” for the two companies, noting that they possess complementary competencies and deficiencies.
At the same time, Nadal said it represented an “incredible opportunity” for MDC, which operates agencies including Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Anomaly, 72andSunny and KSP+. “Rarely in the history of our industry has consolidation led to more innovative work and better work that drove better performance,” he said. “Clients will move towards more stable organizations that are smaller, more nimble and really have a dedicated mission to do brilliant work.”
Nadal said that the move would be particularly advantageous for MDC in attracting clients in its “sweet spot,” those in the $10-25 million range, because of the combination of client conflicts and a lack of focus. “[The holding companies] will be completely, myopically devoted to the consolidation for the next two years,” he said. “We’ll just have a lot less competition.”
The merger also runs counter to the prevailing trend towards digital in advertising, he said. “Digital is not about scale, digital is about innovation,” said Nadal. “The most innovative digital technologies and campaigns have always been done by smaller, more entrepreneurial firms.”
Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA) CEO Ron Lund predicted that conflicts would be one of the biggest concerns for his members — many of Canada’s marketers and advertisers. “I don’t know what the rationale would be to say why this would be good for any advertiser, especially ones that are in conflict,” said Lund. “They were presumably happy with their individual agency, and now they [have] a conflict foisted on them.”
Lund said that even the promise of additional negotiating power with vendors is compromised by the fact that the buying groups have already ground vendors down significantly.
“Our belief for some time now is that all the agencies are pretty gigantic once you get to that scale, and we think that everybody buys pretty well,” said Lund. “They’ve all got the clout they need, so what we talk to our members about is how do you ensure that you’re getting the best deal within that agency. It’s not one price fits all, so you’ve got work out where you fit in the pecking order. This is just going to compound that.”
But Media Experts founder and CEO Mark Sherman said that holding companies have already created the necessary firewalls to deal with client conflicts and that it won’t be as big an issue as predicted.
“It’s not like PHD and OMD and Starcom MediaVest are going to become one firm and suddenly there’s going to be a bunch of conflicts,” he said. “The multi-banner strategy has been in place for a long time in order to deal with conflicts, so that comes with the merger.
“There might be a few advertisers who protest, but where are they going to go? If they try to go over to WPP they’re going to find there’s another bank or another auto company there,” he added. “Conflicts are quite largely overblown, so I don’t really see that there’s going to be a shakeout of accounts.”
Sherman did predict, however, that the merger would benefit independent agencies and lead to the creation of a wave of new boutique shops as the merger takes its inevitable toll on staff.
“It’s stifling for talent of all types to work in these kind of mega-merger environments where they’re just numbers, where the quarterly numbers are all-important and where there’s going to be a tremendous amount of pressure to rationalize the investment,” said Sherman. “That’s going to be stifling for talent throughout the agency, and I personally think that’s great.”
Photo: Canadian PressThis morning a bird nesting near a window I had left open made sure that I did not oversleep the last day of summer, and once I had gotten up and completed all of my absolutely, positively must-be-done chores and errands, I got to work on one of the elements for my 2015 North Carolina State Fair project that I had started and then set aside.
In early August, I began work on a crochet replica of a clock that had been given to my paternal grandparents on the occasion of their marriage on St. Valentine’s Day 1923. The event is noted in this item from the Edwardsville Intelligencer:
Miss Nora Buchta and Otto Stahlhut were married at the parsonage of the Eden Evangelical Church by Rev. H. Rahn. The attendants were the parents of both bride and groom, Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Stahlhut and Mr. and Mrs. George Buchta. The bride wore a blue suit with hat to match.
Here is a photo of the actual clock:
and here is how far I had gotten with my crochet rendition of the same clock as of late yesterday evening:
This morning I returned to the project, determined to get the hard parts done, and at some point in the early afternoon, I had finally achieved my goal:
By now, there were more errands to be run — which I did — but after they were done, I did manage to sneak in a few more squares that I will need to fill the still plentiful spaces before the last day of the 2015 crochet season arrives:Posted on by meritwager
En annan migga informerar om återvändandebidraget som en migga var lite osäker om i nedan nämnda text, men som alltså har betalats ut under en för mig okänt lång tidsperiod:
Apropå En migga: ”Ledsen, kära politiker, men alla flyr inte för sitt liv. Ganska många gör det inte. Tro mig, jag träffar dem.”: Det har kommit så många irakier på senaste tiden som satt i system att söka återetableringsstöd så vi har (gudskelov) slutat att ge dem stödet. De kommer alltså hit och söker asyl och återtar omedelbart (inom några dagar) sin asylansökan för att sedan ansöka om återetableringsstöd. Det finns starka misstankar om att de söker pengarna för att kunna finansiera sin väpnade kamp i Irak/Syrien. Jag vet dock inte vilken sida de ska ner och slåss för. Jag kan bara misstänka vad det rör sig om.
Kommentar: Ledsen, politiker, att ni inte lyssnat på miggorna under de år de har rapporterat om oerhört viktiga och avgörande saker som ni borde ha brytt er om och reagerat på och agerat för att åtgärda.
Tack igen, alla ni miggor som oförtröttligt sedan 2008 berättat och berättar utan att få respons från dem vars ”ansvar” det borde vara att intressera sig för vad ni berättar!
© denna blogg.
Filed under: Allmänt | Tagged: asyl, återetableringsstöd, återvändandebidrag, Irak, irakier, migga, politiker, Syrien, väpnad kamp |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
This Christmas thousands of people in the UK are hoping for a present money can’t buy - news of their loved one who is missing from home.
Over the last few months the ECHO has been working with the charity Missing People to try and trace those from Merseyside who have gone missing.
Some families have spent years not knowing what has happened to their relative - imagine how you would feel if it was your parent, sibling or child?
Jo Youle, CEO at Missing People, said: “If someone you loved went missing wouldn't you want the world to stop and look for them?
“We are very grateful to the Liverpool Echo for raising awareness of appeals and would encourage all readers to keep their eyes and ears out. They could help reunite a family or bring a vulnerable missing person to safety.”
Here we round up all the missing people stories we have feature so far. If you recognise anyone and have information that you think could help, call or text 116 000 or click here to complete a report a sighting online.
Helen Montgomery
Age at disappearance: 45
Missing Since: August 6, 2008
Missing from: Wirral
Helen is originally from South Africa and has family there and in the UK. Helen is described as white, 5ft 5ins tall, of a slim build, with shoulder length wavy dark brown hair and brown eyes.
Brendan Taaffe
Age at disappearance: 39
Missing Since: January 26, 2010
Missing from: Birkenhead
Brendan was last seen at his sister’s house in Larch Road, Birkenhead. More than four years on, his mother Ina, son Louis, and the rest of the family continue to search for him.
Brendan is a joiner and has worked on building sites as a general labourer and brick layer. He may have travelled to London to find work.
He is described as 6ft 1in, of medium build with dark brown hair that is receding and blue eyes. He has a tattoo on his left wrist of a celtic cross and on his right, a tribal marking.
Kevin Fasting
Age at disappearance: 49
Missing Since: November 21, 2003
Missing from: Aigburth, Liverpool
The father-of-three, who has become a granddad since he disappeared, left his parents’ home on Ampthill Road, Aigburth for work in Bootle and never returned. He has been a missing person case ever since with no signs of his whereabouts.
His son, also called Kevin, said: “The biggest regret I have is that he left when I just turned 21, when I was still very much a kid, and he never got to see the man that I turned out to be. Everything I have achieved since, and aim to achieve, is to make him proud.”
Kevin is 5ft 10ins, slim with brown hair and blue eyes. He has a Liver Bird and LFC tattooed on his right forearm.
Paul Fahy
Age at disappearance: 33
Missing Since: February 18, 2002
Missing From: Liverpool
Paul’s two sons Craig and Daniel, and his mother, Sandra Howarth, have never given up looking for him.
In 2010, Sandra appealed for information again at Christmas, saying, “We love and miss you and just want you to get in touch.”
Paul is 5ft 7ins with blue eyes, blond hair and an |
left cornerback, Adams at strong safety, Lowery at free safety.
Most to prove: Toler. He must perform better in big games, otherwise elite offenses will continue to target him.
X-factor: Geathers. Pagano raved about his versatility after seeing him in action this spring. He remains a player to keep an eye on during training camp.
Stat to chew on: 43.7. That’s the completion percentage for quarterbacks targeting Vontae Davis’ receiver in 2014, the lowest in the league for cornerbacks who saw more than 50 snaps.
Quotable:
"Under the right coach who is going to make my technique even better, I'll probably be the best cornerback to play the game. I'm not even trying to talk arrogant. My passion to be the greatest, my passion to win is (greater) than anybody because I hate losing more than people like to win. I like to compete." – third round pick D’Joun Smith
“He's been really impressive as far as picking things up… He's going to be one of those guys that in today's football you can play inside as a dime backer and get faster, get more speed on the field and match up with the tight ends that we've got to cover now." – Chuck Pagano on Clayton Geathers
Call Star reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134 and follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.Hello, Heroes! Thanks for listening to Shroom for Two episode 8! We took a week off while Taylor was traveling for work, but we're back! Our cup runneth over with listener mail, so we haven't answered every single one yet. If you don't hear your question, though, don't be discouraged! We'll get to it next week.
This week, besides the boatload of listener mail, we talk cryptically about the tournament Mike and I have entered! Will we scrub out like lame noobs, or will we crush everyone and meet in the finals like Goku and Vegeta? We don't know!
If you've got feedback or questions, please send it to shroomfortwopodcast@gmail.com! Thanks for listening! Special thanks to our friend Justin for our sweet new art! If you can't see it in the show feed, we need to tinker with Squarespace a bit. Please let us know if you can see it in your podcast client.
Show Notes for Episode 8
[0:00] EA and loot crates
[9:49] Budget tournament
-Link to reddit thread
[18:56] Listener Mail: Pirate Impfinity
-Link to deck
[22:32] Listener Mail: Beans
-Link to Patrick's write-up
[26:41] Listener Mail: Imitater
-Link to Patrick's write-up
[33:12] Listener Mail: Three nut
[37:50] Listener Mail: Untrickable
-Shroud
-Hexproof
-Hearthstone Developer Peter Whalen about when to keyword things
[44:24] Card of the Week: Mayflower
[46:52] Card of the Week: Figgy boy
[52:03] Card We Talk About For A While: Exploding Fruitcake
[56:10] Deck of the Week: Mike's CC deck (Taylor's note: I lost the screenshot for the deck. Oops! We'll post it soon!)Pueblo customers to testify against proposed rate hike
PUEBLO, Colo. - The cost of utilities for residential customers could increase by four percent if Black Hills Energy is granted a rate increase.
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission is holding a public hearing Thursday to hear from customers, before deciding whether to approve the rate proposal.
"It just seems like another rate hike, again? Didn't we just do this?" asked Sharon Garcia, a Black Hills Energy customer.
Since Black Hills began serving southern Colorado in 2008, the company has asked for a 17.5 percent increase in revenue.
Garcia plans to be at the Pueblo County commissioners' chambers on Thursday to testify against Black Hills latest request.
"I want them to see that we're not just numbers on their reports. This is who we are. We're people who are struggling," she said.
Garcia has taught her two youngest sons to keep the lights and television off if there's no one in the room. Her curtains stay closed in the summer, to keep her southside Pueblo home cool.
"If there's nobody in here to look at the fish tank, why is it on?" she reminds her children.
"I tell my little brother, if you're watching TV, you don't need the light," said 10-year-old Mariano Garcia.
Jones said Black Hills Energy is asking for a four percent electric rate increase to pay for construction of a wind farm that was built in Huerfano County in 2010. The increase would be about a $4 hike in a customers' monthly utilities bill.
The hearing starts at 4 p.m. Thursday at the Pueblo County commissioners chambers at 215 W. 10 St.
Another hearing will be held from 4-7 p.m. on Sept. 11. A location hasn't been determined.
Black Hills energy declined to do an on-camera interview.A Vancouver woman has a cautionary tale for anyone living next to an abandoned house after she battled city authorities for months to stop strangers from partying on the decaying back porch of a rundown house across her lane.
Laura De Munain moved into her family’s Oak Street house on the outskirts of the tony Shaughnessy neighbourhood in April. While working from home, the pregnant lawyer soon noticed groups of two or three people regularly stumbling around her back alley in a daze.
She went to check out the house. After walking through the rubbish-strewn carport, she climbed a rotting back staircase and found a large porch littered with aerosol cans, garbage and a camping stove. Above, a mouldy piece of drywall drooped down from the ceiling, exposing the rafters. With its back door unlocked and kitchen windows open, anyone could, and did, easily slip in.
Police answered her first call to their non-emergency line and toured the property, but they “said they didn’t see any evidence of consistent living here,” according to De Munain. She says city staff referred her back to the police when she complained about drug users and squatters in June and asked the city to force the owner to board the home up properly.
Eventually someone boarded up the patio’s back door, but over the next three months, De Munain and her husband regularly cleaned their alley of broken glass and discarded aerosol cans as she feared for the safety of their three-year-old daughter when walking to their parked car. Several more calls to the police and the city yielded little action, De Munain says.
“The gist of it is: you can have someone purchase property in your neighbourhood, they don’t start constructing, they leave it abandoned, they don’t secure it and suddenly this is your neighbourhood,” De Munain said while giving The Sun a tour of the back patio and adjoining carport. “It’s an unsafe environment and no one will help you. Because you call the police and you call the city — each will point to the other and say it’s not their problem.
“It’s your problem.”
In the weeks leading up to this month’s civic election, a blog showcasing “beautiful empty homes” of the west side and a proposal from COPE mayoral candidate Meena Wong for a vacant home tax gained support from residents simmering with anger over Vancouver becoming a “hedge city” for foreign real estate investors. A poll last month showed 72 per cent of respondents thought such a tax a “very good” or “good” proposal, and only 18 per cent deemed it “very bad” or “bad.”
Vision Vancouver Coun. Geoff Meggs said he, like many, finds it offensive when a perfectly good home is held empty for speculative reasons, but he doesn’t know that such a tax is “legally possible or even desirable.”
“There’s also been a concern on my part and many others that the enforcement of such a (tax) program would create an intrusive new bureaucracy that would be peering through keyholes to make sure people were telling the truth about whether a place was being used or not,” Meggs said.
This summer, two vacant homes in Strathcona burned down reportedly after a squatter lit a fire in one of them.
City inspectors went out 79 times last year to investigate squatters or other problems at 36 vacant addresses, according to a city official. The year before, inspectors were sent out 107 times to 47 addresses, which was about same as in 2010 and 2011.
There are no figures available yet for this year, when the issue began touching a nerve in this increasingly overpriced city. Meggs said Vancouver’s Affordable Housing Agency is researching how many properties are vacant and will report back to council some time “in the new year.”
In the most extreme cases of owner neglect, neighbours’ complaints can spur city council to order demolition.
That’s what happened on Marshall Street, near east Vancouver’s Trout Lake Park, almost two years ago.
Next-door neighbour Kora Small remembers how the rotting home blighted the neighbourhood, with nesting raccoons scaring the area’s many young children. She and her husband also worried they would be liable for any damage to their place if a fire broke out because the empty home’s mercurial owner didn’t have home insurance.
Once, they phoned the VPD’s non-emergency line after noticing the front door had been open three days, Small says.
Police arrived and, after going in, told Small “it was one of the scariest buildings to enter because it was so decrepit.”
“It’s a hard situation — I feel for him, but it also is pretty ridiculous to have an empty lot for so long and an unusable lot,” Small said. “Other neighbours have said (it has been uninhabited) 15 to 20 years — so that’s a long time.”
At the time, neighbour Zoe LeGood told The Sun she was dissatisfied with the city’s drawn-out response, initiated in 2009 by complaints from neighbours.
She and other neighbours complained regularly to the city, which charged the owner three separate times for cleaning up his overgrown yard, Small says.
Eventually staff passed the problem over to council for a vote on the home’s demolition. City councillors were “very responsive” to the concerns of Small and four other neighbours who showed up to the hearing, but she wonders if the demolition process really needs to be lengthened by going to council.
“It doesn’t seem like something that is necessarily a good use of their time, when someone can just check it out and see that this is clearly a house that can’t be restored,” Small said.
The owner has held onto the property since the home was demolished in January 2013, and some enterprising members of the community have seeded a verdant lawn and started a guerrilla garden.
“The neighbourhood just wanted to make it a nice space,” Small said.
In De Munain’s case, at the end of September the city had only registered one formal complaint about the property, which is worth $2.2 million according to its 2014 assessment. Eventually, city staff boarded up the kitchen door and windows and in September gave the owner 14 days to cut the lawn or else a city work crew would clean it up and the bill would be added to the owner’s property tax.
In the first week of November, the owner put yellow fencing around most of the property to try to block access to the abandoned home, De Munain says. But the barrier didn’t cover a decaying clapboard fence that people kicked in to create a new entrance from the alley, she says.
Now, those holes have been patched with scraps of plywood, but De Munain says people are still hopping over that part of the fence. Two weeks ago, her husband chased off a man who parked his trailer and began dumping asbestos tiles over the fence — a problem she’s worried might continue.
VPD spokesman Const. Brian Montague confirmed officers have visited the property a “handful” of times in recent months, but “in most cases officers searched the home and found no one.”
He said even if anyone was caught “loitering” or “prowling” at night near a dwelling on private property it would be hard for police to recommend charges because the Criminal Code defines a house as “the whole or any part of a building or structure that is kept or occupied as a permanent or temporary residence.”
“The question then arises … is an abandoned house kept as a permanent or temporary residence?” Montague wrote in an email. “One could argue no, depending on the state of the property, how long it has been unoccupied and if it is abandoned or merely unoccupied.”
Carli Edwards, Vancouver’s assistant director of inspection services, said any neighbour with a problem involving a vacant property can register a complaint by calling 311. The city then sends inspectors to investigate and it can impose a 14-day notice forcing the landlord to resolve the issue, as it did with the property behind De Munain.
The owners — listed as Toyo Developments Ltd. — applied late last year to redevelop the house, a city spokeswoman confirmed. Toyo’s directors are Chien Cheng Peng and Wen Li Peng, according to corporate records. Their home address is listed as a multi-million dollar mansion on Shaughnessy’s famed Crescent, not far from the property that De Munain and her husband have been complaining about. The owners did not return repeated calls.
De Munain says she just wanted the property and back porch “boarded up” properly and access to the property secured.
“I empathize with the property owner. If he’s stuck in permitting, fine, but just be respectful of your neighbours and realize if you have an abandoned property it is going to attract all sorts,” De Munain said. “This is pretty bad, but it could be a lot worse.
“And it’s not safe, it really could start a fire.”
mhager@postmedia.com
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Tracking complaints
Though there are few precise figures, these are the best numbers municipalities around Metro Vancouver were able to give The Sun about abandoned or vacant homes.
Burnaby doesn’t separate residential buildings from commercial properties — or even parcels of empty land — when a citizen complains about an unsightly property. So these complaints run the gamut from long grass to cars broken down on the lawn, but the data doesn’t indicate whether the property itself is abandoned.Complaints: 2010 — 386; 2011 — 304; 2012 — 372; 2013 — 350; 2014 — 377 to date.
Coquitlam keeps track of vacant homes that people have complained about in terms of causing a nuisance or attracting squatters.
Complaints: 2010 — 6; 2011 — 4; 2012 — 5; 2013 — 10.
Richmond created a group that includes bylaw officers, police and firefighters to monitor abandoned homes. The city’s statistics are skewed because before last year it lumped vacant buildings and reports of unsightly premises with abandoned buildings. Starting with 2013, the data represents abandoned buildings and homes left vacant as they await demolition.
Complaints: 2010 — 309; 2011 — 429; 2012 — 429; 2013 — 72.
West Vancouver records complaints that come in regarding vacant homes or squatting.
Complaints: 2010-present - 154. Of those, 7 involved squatters.
Vancouver keeps track of vacant properties that are causing problems like open buildings or squatters. An “action” means that an inspector was sent out to investigate.
Actions: 2010 — 96 actions at 44 addresses; 2011 — 98 at 47; 2012 — 107 at 47; 2013 — 79 at 36.
Other municipalities did not respond or did not keep records that would allow a response.
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Is there more to this story? We'd like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. CLICK HERE or go to vancouversun.com/moretothestoryMedia playback is not supported on this device Six Nations Highlights - Ireland 21-23 Wales
Ireland (10) 21
Tries: Best, Bowe Con: Sexton Pens: Sexton 3
Wales (5) 23
Tries: Davies 2, North Con: Halfpenny Pens: Halfpenny 2
Wales staged a thrilling late comeback to launch their Six Nations campaign with a stunning victory over a crushed Ireland in Dublin.
Leigh Halfpenny's last-gasp penalty sealed a remarkable victory in a see-saw encounter in which the lead changed hands five times.
The visitors led 5-3 after the first of two tries for centre Jonathan Davies, but Rory Best's score gave the Irish a 10-5 interval lead.
Davies's second try put Wales back in front before Tommy Bowe appeared to have given Ireland victory, only for a George North try and Halfpenny's kick to steal it from under their noses.
Wales, exhibiting much of the free-flowing rugby that marked their run to the World Cup semi-finals, appeared to have blown their chance when Halfpenny failed to convert North's try from out on the left touchline with four minutes left.
Analysis "What a great game of rugby. Both sides played their part. Wales played with width and depth, and the ferocity of their backline was the difference. It was an immense performance to come back when you have a player in the sin-bin. To get that penalty to win the game was a tremendous effort."
But the visitors persisted and Ireland flanker Stephen Ferris conceded a penalty 30 metres out, which Halfpenny - who had taken over the kicking duties from Rhys Priestland - drilled between the uprights.
Until that point it appeared the goalkicking failures that cost Wales so dearly at the World Cup would come back to haunt them, with Priestland missing two penalties and a conversion.
But Halfpenny held his nerve to condemn Ireland to their first defeat in the opening game of the Championship for eight years.
Wales made their intent clear early on, full-back Halfpenny eschewing a kick to touch to run from his own line. But Priestland's clearance failed to relieve the pressure and the visitors were swiftly penalised at the breakdown, allowing Sexton to make it 3-0.
There was an impressive collective confidence about the visitors though, and they should have hit back immediately after two minutes of sustained pressure on the Irish line.
A cheeky line-out throw to Bradley Davies saw the lock charge up the left touchline before Wales set up camp on the Irish line. Jamie Roberts, twice, and Mike Phillips were both held up short in the right corner before North escaped down the left, and Ryan Jones crashed over.
But Best and Conor Murray did just enough to stop the former captain grounding the ball, at least to the satisfaction of the television match official (TMO).
Media playback is not supported on this device Davies scores Wales try in Dublin
Wales got the try their early endeavours deserved, however, in the 14th minute. More quick ruck ball saw Phillips feed Priestland and the fly-half stretched around Tommy Bowe to feed Jonathan Davies, who dotted down in the left corner, after confirmation from the TMO.
Priestland's conversion from the touchline came back off the upright, but he should have extended Wales' lead with a penalty from straight in front of the posts in the 19th minute, only to see it come thumping back off the left upright.
With locks Bradley Davies and Ian Evans and flanker Ryan Jones willing workhorses with their ball-carrying, Wales continued to dominate possession.
Giant debutant wing Alex Cuthbert came off his flank to good effect, Jones indulged himself with a cheeky grubber kick down the right touchline, and Priestland spotted space for a cross-kick, but Sexton arrived just ahead of the onrushing North.
Ireland, struggling to make any advances themselves, managed to disrupt Wales whenever they went to the middle of their line-out, picking off three Welsh throws inside the first half-hour.
The hosts gained what appeared a rather soft penalty, Phillips adjudged to have impeded his Ospreys team-mate Bowe on the touchline, when the scrum-half's momentum seemed to make the contact accidental. But Sexton failed to take advantage, pushing his penalty attempt wide.
Media playback is not supported on this device Best goes over for Ireland in Dublin
Ireland finally built up a head of steam as half-time approached and got their reward, quick hands from Murray, Gordon D'Arcy and Fergus McFadden, and an incisive thrust from Bowe, putting hooker Best over for a popular try, Sexton adding the conversion for a 10-5 lead.
Wales returned after the interval without injured captain Sam Warburton, who picked up a dead leg and was replaced by Justin Tipuric, while James Hook entered the fray at full-back with Halfpenny switching to the right wing for the departed Cuthbert.
Sexton's second penalty on the resumption made it 13-5, before Priestland - whose kicking from hand also became ragged - missed another attempt from wide out, his third miss of the afternoon.
That was the cue for Halfpenny to take over the duties, slotting the next attempt after Sean O'Brien was penalised on the deck.
Wales, suddenly revived, were back in the lead two minutes later with a stunning score. A tap-down from Tipuric at the tail of a line-out saw North launched off his left wing, evading two tacklers before a wonderful offload out of the back of his hand sent Davies haring in for his second try. Halfpenny added the extras from in front to put Wales 15-13 ahead.
Official match stats Ireland Wales 32.25 Minutes in possession 39.54 2 (0) Scrums won (lost) 3 (0) 5 (0) Line-outs won (lost) 10 (4) 6 Pens conceded 7 4 Turnovers won 2 153 Passes made 201 30 Possession kicked 22 127 (9) Tackles made (missed) 94 (9) 8 Errors made 4 2 Line breaks 2 (delivered by Accenture)
But back came the hosts, a series of thundering drives forcing Wales to fall offside on their own 22, with Sexton nailing the kick to make it a one-point game going into the final quarter.
The dynamics of a hitherto even contest were altered with 15 minutes left though when Bradley Davies was sin-binned for a tip tackle on Donnacha Ryan, bringing back unpleasant memories for Welsh supporters after the events of the World Cup semi-final when captain Warburton was red carded.
The visitors immediately compounded the setback by losing their own line-out ball inside the 22, and Ireland - led by the charging Paul O'Connell - went for the kill. Wales scrambled desperately in defence, but when play was switched right, Sexton and Kearney exploited the extra space to put Bowe over in the right corner.
Sexton failed to convert from wide out though, and was also off target with a penalty attempt from inside his own half to keep Welsh hopes alive.
Four minutes from time they grabbed the reprieve after kicking a penalty to touch, Roberts and Jonathan Davies combining to send North charging through Bowe and D'Arcy for the try in the left corner.
Halfpenny, faced with half the Irish team charging up at him, pushed the conversion wide of the right upright.
But moments later Stephen Ferris was also adjudged guilty of a tip tackle, on Ian Evans, and yellow carded and Halfpenny made no mistake from in front of the posts to spark wild Welsh celebrations.
Ireland: R Kearney; Bowe, McFadden, D'Arcy, Trimble; Sexton, Murray; Healy, Best, Ross, O'Callaghan, O'Connell, Ferris, O'Brien, Heaslip.
Replacements: O'Gara for Sexton (74), Reddan for Murray (77), Ryan for O'Callaghan (63).
Not Used: Cronin, Court, O'Mahony, D Kearney.
Sin-bin: Ferris (80)
Wales: Halfpenny; Cuthbert, J Davies, Roberts, North; Priestland, Phillips, Gill, Bennett, A Jones, B Davies, Evans, R Jones, Warburton, Faletau.
Replacements: Hook for Cuthbert (41), James for A Jones (70), Tipuric for Warburton (41).
Not Used: Owens, Powell, L Williams, S Williams.
Sin Bin: B Davies (65).
Att: 51,000
Ref: Wayne Barnes (RFU).Image copyright AFP Image caption The men - some of whom appear to be from Iran's Kurdish minority - sewed their mouths shut and scrawled messages on their foreheads and chests
Migrants stuck on the border between Greece and Macedonia sewed their lips together to protest against not being allowed to continue their journey.
About six men, apparently from Iran, stripped down during the demonstration near the village of Eidomeni.
Hundreds of migrants have been protesting after Macedonia limited passage to only those fleeing conflict.
Europe's border controls have come under renewed scrutiny since the attacks in Paris on 13 November.
Balkan countries said last week they would only open their borders to people fleeing countries affected by war such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption BBC's Ed Thomas: No-one knows what will happen to these people who are stuck
The restrictions came after a forged Syrian passport was found next to the body of one of the perpetrators involved in the Islamic State attacks in the French capital.
The latest action by migrants stranded on the Greece-Macedonia border follows days of protests.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Monday's protest is one of the most extreme seen during the migrant crisis in Europe
The men - some of whom appear to be from Iran's Kurdish minority - sewed their mouths shut, scrawled messages such as "Just freedom" on their foreheads and chests, and sat down on railway tracks in front of riot police.
Men from Bangladesh and Morocco also joined the protests after they too were deemed "economic migrants" and denied passage.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants, many of them Syrians fleeing war, have made the perilous journey through the Balkans after arriving in Europe by boat in Greece from Turkey.
Most head for the more affluent countries of northern and western Europe, mainly Germany and Sweden.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Men refusing to go back to Bangladesh also took part in the demonstration at the border
German federal police said on Monday that the number of asylum seekers arriving in the country in November was expected to exceed the previous monthly high recorded in October.
They said some 180,000 asylum seekers had already entered the country so far this month - compared with 181,000 in the whole of the previous month.
Meanwhile the numbers crossing from Greece into Macedonia fell on Monday amid the new restrictions, according to the Associated Press.
More on the Paris attacks
Image copyright Getty Images
Katya Adler: The huge implications for Europe
Gavin Hewitt: The crisis of Europe's borders
Who were the attackers?
Who are the victims
Around 2,900 people crossed into Macedonia in the 24 hours before 0600 (local time) on Monday, down from more than 6,000 on the previous day, the news agency quoted local police as saying.
The move by Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia and Croatia to impose stricter entry criteria left thousands stranded and sparked human rights concerns.
The Iranian government has disproportionately targeted the country's Sunni, ethnic Kurdish minority with arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention, and physical abuse, according to the US state department.
The EU's Schengen agreement, which allows passport-free travel between 26 European nations, has come under increased strain since the attacks in Paris.
Right-wing European politicians called for border closures following indications that one of the suicide bombers at the Stade de France had crossed into Greece using a fake passport.
A note on terminology: The BBC uses the term migrant to refer to all people on the move who have yet to complete the legal process of claiming asylum. This group includes people fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria, who are likely to be granted refugee status, as well as people who are seeking jobs and better lives, who governments are likely to rule are economic migrants.Greece edged deeper into chaos as workers brought the country to a standstill with a general strike.
The closure of the entire public sector – from schools to hospitals to government offices – left Athens airport looking like a ghost town and kept museums and archaeological sites shut.
Anger was evident on the faces of the protesters who flooded into the streets. "We have no work, we have no money," they screamed, denouncing the EU and IMF which have propped up the near-bankrupt Greek economy with rescue funds. "Erase the debt! Let the rich pay. There will, there can, be no more sacrifices."
Nearly two years after Europe's great debt crisis erupted beneath the Acropolis, the people on its frontline have clearly had enough. An austerity programme that has begun to resemble a bad dream of relentless wage cuts, tax increases, price rises and pension drops has crushed the middle class and sent poverty levels soaring.
Wednesday's demonstrations, the biggest anti-austerity protest since June, were the "beginning of a battle" to eradicate further emergency belt-tightening measures announced last month.
"The government is behaving as if it has a pistol to its head," said Stathis Anestis, a spokesman for the Confederation of Greek Unions. "It is not just that it is the poor who are forced to carry the burden of this barrage of measures," he insisted, denouncing the terms of the €110bn (£95bn) bailout Greece received from the EU and IMF in May last year.
"It's not just that all our hard-earned rights are being peeled away. It is that we wake up every day to another cut, another tax, another pay rise. No one can keep up!"
The prospect of more public sector strikes in the coming months was as inevitable as the precision with which the austerity measures had failed to solve the country's spiralling debt problem, he added. "None of these measures have been effective. They have only served to worsen recession, miss [budget] targets and deepen desperation and despair worse. We have no choice but to take to the streets."
George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister, says nothing short of a revolution can change the debt-stricken country. Since triggering the crisis with the revelation that Greece had clearly cooked the books, hiding a deficit that was three times bigger than originally thought, the ruling socialists have drawn up an array of economic and structural reforms not seen since the second world war.
"The only way that we are going to see real results, real change, is if the reforms are implemented," said a source close to the "troika", which is made up of the EU, IMF and ECB.
Last week Greece acknowledged that it had missed the fiscal goals set out in the 2011 budget, blaming a worse than expected recession. Without the reforms being enacted, the country has been told that it will not receive the next vital €8bn tranche of aid needed to pay wages and pensions in the public sector.
The pressure on a government that is showing all the signs of becoming increasingly shaky is beginning to mount. This week Papandreou admitted that the changes he was being asked to apply were much greater than he would have liked.
"We are forced to take decisions much faster than we would have wished," the prime minister said after his cabinet approved the decision to move 30,000 civil servants into a special labour reserve on reduced pay – the first step towards mass lay-offs in the bloated public sector.
The demonstrations were much less violent than previous protests in a capital that has become increasingly used to toxic chemicals and tears – even if more riot police than ever were dispatched to the city centre.
Instead, it is a new sense of helplessness and hopelessness that is haunting Greece. "We are mourning the loss of our country," sighed Elena Vitali, a national economy ministry employee who, with black flag in hand, joined hundreds of others protesters outside the building.
"The 300 people in that place," she said pointing to the Greek parliament across Syntagma square, "are traitors. They have decided not just to sell our dignity but to sell out our country, to sell assets to privatise the lot. Soon there will be nothing left that is Greek. It will all have gone to those who are supposedly helping us in the EU."In the next several months, phone-based augmented reality is going to become quite a bit more visible for consumers as tech titans like Apple and Google launch new AR platforms. But startups won’t let the big public companies have all the fun.
Blippar has been in the augmented reality field since before Google Glass. “When we just started probably one out of a thousand people knew what augmented reality was,” CTO Omar Tayeb told TechCrunch. At this point, Blippar’s visual recognition tech can identify 5 million entities, including a database of 370,000 public figures.
Today, the company is launching “Halos,” a social feature built on facial recognition tech that will be rolling out in beta to all users on iOS and Android. The feature allows users the ability to scan their face into the app and customize various bubbles around their noggin with some snippets that characterize their current mood, including through some animated emoji, photos, a recent Tweet, a YouTube video or a Spotify song.
It’s all about capturing where you are at the moment based on your “facial profile,” which you calibrate in-app through a process that isn’t much more difficult than registering your fingerprint on your phone.
The “Halos” feature is, in itself, a pretty interesting one, but relies intensely on friends using the app together, something that may be a struggle for Blippar’s central app, which reportedly doesn’t make up a significant percentage of the company’s 65 million registered users. In April, Business Insider reported the central Blippar app had around 500,000 monthly active users.
It may not be there yet, but Blippar wants their app to eventually become a sort of augmented reality browser, putting an image recognition engine in consumers’ pockets that lets them identify and grab context at a moment’s notice.
The company tells TechCrunch that its mobile app is largely just a tool to “showcase” their technologies for other companies interested in adopting their “visual search engine” APIs, which, in the case of facial recognition, may attract clients interested in designing identity verification systems.
The company says it won’t be giving advertisers access to user “facial profiles” for personally targeting ads due to the obvious user privacy implications. Users can designate whether their profile is visible to the public or not.
Nothing quite says creepy like facial recognition, but the technology may grow deeply important in the coming months if rumors of facial unlock on the next iPhone come true, as will other augmented reality features as consumer perception grows due to platforms like ARKit.
“Halos” launches on iOS and Android today in the Blippar app.DETROIT, MI -- Detroit police found a 500-pound pig wallowing in nearly two feet of excrement in a Detroit basement Friday, Deputy Chief Steve Dolunt says.
An anonymous caller, complaining of the stench, told police it had been fed human remains, prompting Detroit and state police to set up a crime scene.
"Apparently, (cadaver dogs) did not hit on anything," Dolunt said Friday evening. "It's just a 500-pound hog in the basement."
It may have been a "prank caller," Dolunt said, referring to the human remains; the pig was real.
It's believed the immense hog belonged to the previous owner, who died of natural causes last week. He was a hoarder who owned several houses in the area, said Dolunt.
The Deputy chief witnessed the disturbing condition of the home, hog and makeshift pen personally.
He said there was fencing in the basement and the stairwell had been removed and replaced with a ladder.
The condition of the basement was so bad, it would take a hazmat suit to enter, according to Dolunt.
Dolunt believes WXYZ-TV, Channel 7 News helped make arrangements for the pig to be transferred to a farm, but had no further details immediately available Friday evening.
A driver arrived to transport the pig.
The hog was too large, Dolunt said, so the driver called for a bigger trailer.
Dolunt believes the house was inherited by a relative of the deceased owner.
"I'm sure the city will come out and may have to condemn it," he said.Former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani speaks with NBC's Brian Williams about why he was shocked that the FBI declined to recommend criminal prosecution of Hillary Clinton for keeping classified data on an unsecured private server and accessing that data using an off-the-shelf Blackberry phone.
FBI director Comey said that: "Although we did not find clear evidence that Sec. Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless."
Giuliani makes that case that when it comes to laws surrounding handling classified data, intent is irrelevant. "The definition of gross negligence under the law is extreme carelessness," he said. The FBI "clearly found a direct violation of 18 United States code section 793 which does not require intent -- it requires only gross negligence in the handling of anything relating to the national defense."
"It's the first definition that comes up in the law dictionary," he said. "It's the definition the judges give to juries when they charge injuries on gross negligence. Negligence equals carelessness. Gross negligence equals extreme carelessness. So that is a clear absolutely unassailable violation of 18 United States Code, section 793, which is not a minor statute, it carries ten years in prison."The formula for creative thinking is pretty elusive, but scientists have a few evidence-based clues. While the brain’s right hemisphere gets most of the credit for thinking outside the box, evidence shows that a collaborative effort between the right and left hemispheres may bring the best results.
Scientists say that it is the fixed rules of the left hemisphere that keeps a logical check on the broad brainstorming of the right hemisphere. So you wind up with super creative, yet practical, ideas.
In fact, a study published this week in the journal Brain and Cognition shows that when you boost the level of communication between the right and left hemispheres your creativity increases.
Sixty-two subjects performed a creativity task, where they had to come up with as many alternate uses for common objects like, a paper clip, pencil, shoe, etc. as they could in one minute.
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“What I do think this shows is another area where lack of leadership from this administration is coming back to haunt us,” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., told Boston.com.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the American Immigration Council both stepped into the immigration debate on Wednesday, filing a class-action lawsuit in Seattle on behalf of the illegal immigrant children being held in U.S. detention facilities. The lawsuit contends that the federal government is not giving the children adequate legal representation during the detainment and deportation process.If you’re in the middle of preparing to take the Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam you have undoubtedly read through A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), Fifth Edition at least once (and possibly even more). The PMBOK should be your primary resource when studying for the exam as it is the globally recognized standard and guide for the project management profession. However as you probably already know, it doesn’t cover every possible topic that the PMP test may touch on.
One of those topics not covered is the concept of “opportunity cost.” There’s no guarantee that you’ll see it during your exam, but there’s also no guarantee that you won’t see it. In this article I explain why as a project manager you need to understand opportunity cost and what it is. I also go through a couple of examples of opportunity cost questions.
Why You Need to Understand Opportunity Cost
It’s possible as a project manager that you’ll be charged with project selection at some point in your career. You’ll need to make sure you evaluate and select projects based on your organization’s goals and needs to ensure returns are maximized and that opportunity costs are minimized. As part of the project selection process, you’ll need to evaluate where to best utilize valuable resources such as specific skill sets, time and, of course, money.
Allocating these resources to a specific project prevents their use for other projects at the same time. After all, an organization only has so many resources and needs to take on projects with the highest potential for success and the greatest return.
Opportunity Cost Explained
A simple explanation for opportunity cost is this: the loss of potential future return from the second best unselected project. In other words, it’s the opportunity (potential return) that won’t be realized when one project is selected over another. For example, if Project X has a potential return of $25,000 and Project Y has a potential return of $20,000 and both require the same set of resources, then selecting Project X for completion over Project Y will result in an opportunity cost of $20,000. You can’t do Project Y, so you lose $20,000 in choosing Project X — the “loss” of not completing Project Y.
Let’s take a look at a couple of sample PMP exam-style questions around opportunity cost to help you understand it better.
Question 1: Which definition best fits “opportunity cost”?
a) The sum of all of the potential returns of projects not selected.
b) The potential return of the second best project that was not selected.
c) The difference between the potential return of the project selected and the potential return of the second best option that was not selected.
d) The difference between the present value of cash inflows and the present value of cash outflows.
The correct answer is B. Opportunity cost is the potential return of the second best option that was not selected. It is not the sum of all potential returns that were selected or the difference between the potential return of the project selected and the second best option. It’s also not the difference between the present value of cash inflows and the present value of cash outflows; that’s the definition of net present value (NPV).
Question 2: You are part of a project selection team…
…The team is evaluating three proposed projects and you need to select the project that would bring the best return for the organization. Project A has an NPV of $25,000 and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 1.5; Project B has an NPV of $30,000 and an IRR of 1.25; and Project C has an NPV of $15,000 and an IRR of 1.5. What would be the opportunity cost of selecting Project B over Project A?
a) $15,000
b) $5,000
c) $25,000
d) $30,000
The correct answer is C. Opportunity cost is the potential return of the project not selected. In this case we did not select Project A, so it is $25,000. There is extra unrelated information in this question; IRR is not relevant when evaluating opportunity cost. Once all of the unnecessary information is filtered out, the question is simply asking for the dollar value associated with Project A.
Opportunity cost simply comes down to the benefits or returns that are passed up when one project is selected over another. Understanding what opportunity cost is may or may not be necessary when taking the PMP exam. But even so, it’s still an important concept for you as a project manager to understand. Opportunity cost as it is a method for selecting one project over another especially when valuable resources are limited. And they always are.
Image courtesy of W.carter — CC BY-SA 4.0The San Francisco 49ers offensive line has had all sorts of problems this season, and one of the reasons for the issues is Anthony Davis' hiatus from football. He was not the best right tackle in football, but he was solid enough, and he was significantly better than Erik Pears.
Davis has chimed in on Twitter every so often about his plans to return to football next year. However, this weekend he has gone into some actual detail about this current 49ers team. There has been some chatter about what he thought might happen to the team, and if that led to his decision to retire. He had this to say:
The 49ers signed Erik Pears prior to Davis' departure, but it seems like the idea was for him to either be a swing tackle, or compete for the right guard position with Alex Boone moving to left guard. Whatever the case, he has been bad, and Davis knows it.
On Friday, Davis had some specific comments about the line, critiquing a play in which Joe Staley did not get a good block on Kam Chancellor, tweeting "The safety shouldn't be setting the edge against the run. Period. That's almost disrespectful."
Someone asked him why he would go after Staley like that, and Davis responded with these three tweets:
Do Joe like what? Hold him accountable? Every time. Someone has to be comfortable being uncomfortable in there. https://t.co/SSnH8DDgyV — AD (@BamDavis_) November 28, 2015
They don't pay us millions to "try". https://t.co/4ffRtx5f1r — AD (@BamDavis_) November 28, 2015
Cant be soft playing Oline, disrespecting the game. Im preparing my body to play my brand of football. Couldn't just go thru the motions. — AD (@BamDavis_) November 28, 2015
On the one hand, Davis played/plays the game, so his comments can ring true to a certain extent. On the other hand, I wonder what Joe Staley would have to say about Davis' critique. And that's what will be particularly interesting when Davis returns, if he does in fact do as he has been saying. How will a guy like Joe Staley respond to having him back on the offensive line next fall? Davis did have this to say to someone suggesting this critiques meant he would not be re-joining the 49ers next season.Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
Earlier today, I published a post titled, Inside the Mind of an Oligarch – Sheldon Adelson Proclaims “I Don’t Like Journalism,” which zeroed in on the condescending attitude oligarchs and their technocrat minions have toward the general population. I wrote:
The term oligarch is reserved for those with extreme wealth who also want to control the political process, policy levers and most other aspects of the lives of the citizenry in a top-down tyrannical and undemocratic manner. They think they know best about pretty much everything, and believe unelected technocrats who share their worldview should be empowered so that they can unilaterally make all of society’s important decisions. The unwashed masses (plebs) in their minds are unnecessary distractions who must to be told what to do. Useless eaters who need to be brainwashed into worshipping the oligarch mindset, or turned into apathetic automatons incapable or unwilling to engage in critical thought. Either outcome is equally acceptable and equally encouraged.
It’s quite timely that those words appeared on the site the same day that a video clip emerged of MIT economics professor, and the architect of Obamacare, Jonathan Gruber, admitting that the legislation was intentionally complex and misleading in order to pass Congress and elicit limited outrage from the “stupid” American public.
The Hill reports that:
An architect of the federal healthcare law said last year that a “lack of transparency” and the “stupidity of the American voter” helped Congress approve ObamaCare. He suggested that many lawmakers and voters didn’t know what was in the law or how its financing worked, and that this helped it win approval. “Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage,” Gruber said. “And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical for the thing to pass.” Gruber made the comment while discussing how the law was “written in a tortured way” to avoid a bad score from the Congressional Budget Office. He suggested that voters would have rejected ObamaCare if the penalties for going without health insurance were interpreted as taxes, either by budget analysts or the public.
The arrogance and destructiveness of this man knows no bounds. Look at how excited he gets, flailing his hands all over the place as he discusses the gigantic deception that is Obamacare.
The full clip can be found on UPenn’s website.
As I have said for years now, these people are sick and dangerous. They are also in power. This needs to change as soon as possible.The Mount Rainier Volcano Lahar Warning System consists of two separate components, operating in tandem: Acoustic Flow Monitors (AFM) and the All Hazard Alert Broadcast (AHAB) sirens. The AFM system was developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in 1998 and is now maintained by Pierce County Emergency Management and the sirens are maintained by Pierce County Emergency Management. The purpose of the warning system is to assist in the evacuation of residents in the river valleys around Mount Rainier, a volcano in Washington, in the event of a lahar. Pierce County works in partnership with the USGS, the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN), Washington Military Department's Emergency Management Division, and South Sound 9-1-1 to monitor and operate the system.
Hazard map
Mount Rainier is an active volcano in Washington. It has previously buried sections of the surrounding river valleys in a volcanic mudflow, called a lahar. The Puyallup River Valley is at greatest risk. Tens of thousands of people live in areas that may have as little as 40 minutes to as much as three hours to move to safety once a large lahar is detected, so the system is robust, warnings are disseminated promptly and widely, and people in harm's way are taught how to respond to the warnings and take protective actions.[1]
Geologists consider Mount Rainier the most dangerous mountain in the United States, [2] and the USGS has estimated there is a one-in-seven chance of a catastrophic lahar at Mount Rainier occurring in the next 75 years. [3]
Mount Rainier as seen from the High Cedars Golf Course in Orting, bordering the Carbon River
Pierce County Emergency Management and the USGS have made plans to upgrade the AFM detection technology, expand the siren component, and are now working on a multiyear project to enhance the system.[4]Abdul Razak Ali Artan was shot and killed after an attack on the Ohio State University campus in Columbus, Ohio, on Monday. He is shown in this photograph from Aug. 23 — the first day of classes — from the Lantern student newspaper. (Kevin Stankiewicz via the Lantern)
Abdul Razak Ali Artan was sitting alone at a red table outside Mendenhall Lab when I met him. It was a little before 6 p.m. on Aug. 23, the first day of classes for the semester at Ohio State, and he was the first person I came across as I headed onto campus that evening.
That he was alone was primarily why I approached. I was on assignment for the Lantern, looking for students for a new feature in the student newspaper called “Humans of Ohio State.” Several paragraphs and a photo profiling members of the campus community, introducing readers to different perspectives. I wanted to find someone who had a moment to talk that day; Artan would be the first such profile.
I found a thoughtful, engaged guy, a Muslim immigrant who wanted to spread understanding and awareness while expressing muted fears that U.S. society was becoming insular and fostering unfair stereotypes of his people. He was measured and intellectual, not angry or violent.
[Islamic State says Ohio State attacker was its ‘soldier,’ school seeks unity as classes resume]
When I introduced myself, Artan initially seemed surprised. It was his actual first day of classes at Ohio State, as he had just transferred to one of the largest college campuses in the country from a community college nearby. But he opened up quickly. He was soft-spoken, in a slightly accented voice, and friendly.
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In a 20-minute, wide-ranging conversation, Artan told me about his major in logistics management. He told me about his family fleeing Somalia when he was about 10 years old — including fuzzy memories of his native, war-torn land — and then about living for years in Pakistan and how much he enjoyed it. He bemoaned what he felt were western misconceptions about Pakistan: “It’s not like people believe.” He told me about his family’s journey once they got to the United States just a few years earlier, first spending some time in Dallas before coming to Columbus, which has a large and vibrant Somali expat community.
Artan spoke calmly but seriously about his acute awareness of what he saw as major American misconceptions about Islam, his religion. From memory, he ticked off examples of Islamophobia that garnered media attention, such as the police being summoned because a man in Avon, Ohio, was speaking Arabic in a parking lot or when a college student was removed from a plane after he said “Inshallah” in a phone conversation with his uncle.
[For Muslims at Ohio State, unease and fears of a backlash after terrifying attack]
He told me, in great detail, about the biggest struggle of his first day on campus: finding a place to pray. That became the central element of the feature in the Lantern, something that felt both important and relevant, enlightening and humanizing, the whole point of our new feature.
“This place is huge, and I don’t even know where to pray,” Artan told me. “I wanted to pray in the open, but I was scared with everything going on in the media.”
His tenor remained the same, but it was clear those examples saddened Artan and likely contributed to his fear to pray openly. He even told me the possibility of being shot if he prayed had crossed his mind. At the time, in the final stretch of a divisive presidential campaign, he spoke of his fears of then-candidate Donald Trump’s rhetoric toward Muslims, what it might mean for immigrants and refugees, what it might mean for those, like him, who practice Islam openly. How ignorance about Islam propels bigotry and hatred.
[Trump says Ohio State attacker should not have been in the country]
Abdul Razak Ali Artan allegedly ran down Ohio State University professor William Clark with his car Nov. 28, before stabbing others. At a news conference the next day, Clark refused to condemn Artan, saying he was waiting for more information to pass "judgment." (Reuters)
He said it is so important to travel and see different parts of the world, as he had. That if everyone could see the world with their own eyes, they’d be so much more informed and have less prejudice toward people who are different than they are.
As the start time of his class neared, I thanked him for his time, made sure the few photographs I took earlier were in focus, and walked home. It was a deep conversation to begin the weekly series. I remember thinking that it would be unlikely I would find a more meaningful personal story this semester. I went home, transcribed the interview, sent the caption and photo to my editor. It ran in print two days later.
There is nothing I heard from Artan that day that would have ever made me think he could be responsible for the brutal, senseless attack that would come just three months later. Nothing to indicate his thoughtful frustrations and fears would lead him to drive a car into a crowd of people on campus, that he would lash out with a knife at students and faculty, that he would make national news for what many believe was a terrorist attack. That he would be dead, shot by a police officer trying to prevent him from killing others.
Aerial view of the Ohio State University campus. (Jo McCulty/The Ohio State University)
I was out at the scene of Artan’s attack near Watts Hall on Monday morning reporting with colleagues when we began working to see if we could confirm the suspect’s identity. I thought about Artan and his story a few times since late August, but nothing prepared me for the Monday phone call I received at 1:31 p.m. It was one of my journalism professors, and mentor, Nicole Kraft. She called to tell me that reports of the attacker’s identity had surfaced from media reports; it was Artan.
My heart sank; that thoughtful, engaged student I had met on the first day of classes had snapped. He had tried to kill people.
I wished the whole day was a dream in the first place; I wished a gray Honda sedan never drove over a curb, struck a group of people, before being lunged at with a knife; I wished the sirens I heard on my walk to class were phantom. And then I wished — like I’ve never wished before — that the assailant was not Artan.
A lot of people have asked me if I regret, or wanted to rethink, what I published on Artan in August. I don’t. I don’t know what was in his heart when we spoke and exactly how, when or why that morphed into violence. The goal of the “Humans of Ohio State” project was to share stories about the people who make up the Ohio State community, from all walks of life. On Aug. 23, Artan told me part of his story, one that I still believe is important on so many levels.
But what he said about his wishes for open-mindedness and unity make little sense now given what happened on Monday, the terror he inflicted. His comments to me about his fears of a nation divided by hate and lack of understanding are now chilling, and what happened Monday has shaken me, as it has much of the Ohio State community.
A page from the Lantern’s Aug. 25, 2016 issue, with the interview and photo of Abdul Razak Ali Artan.
Kevin Stankiewicz is an Ohio State University student who works for the Lantern student newspaper.Gender stereotypes are prevalent in many K-12 public coeducational schools with single-sex academic classes and programs across the country according to the ACLU’s “Teach Kids, Not Stereotypes” campaign report released last week. The ACLU’s report looks at self-reported documents by 21 school districts in 15 states.
The ACLU found that multiple public school single-sex classes centered their practices on gendered stereotypes and served to reinforce them. One school cited by the ACLU strove to “ensure that students would experience ‘male-hood and female-hood defined space’ exhibiting characteristics of ‘warrior, protector, and provider’ for boys and giving girls ‘space/time to explore things that young women like [including] writing, applying and doing make-up & hair, art.'”
The report found that many of single-sex programs evaluated violated Title IX requirements. This echoes the findings of a study on single-sex academic classes by the Feminist Majority Foundation in June, 2012. FMF discovered that from 2007 to 2010, over 1,000 public K-12 schools instituted deliberate single-sex classes. Most were single-sex classes in coed public middle and elementary schools. This total of over 1,000 schools is still an insignificant percentage of the some 98,000 K-12 public schools in the USA but reflects a troubling trend in some states since the 1986 Bush Administration Title IX regulations weakening restrictions on sex segregation in public schools.
FMF found:
1. Justifications and specific plans for single-sex education were not based on scientific evidence that sex separation was needed to achieve desired educational outcomes for girls and/or boys.
2. Single sex classes were not equal. Often there were different student/teacher ratios and purposeful use of sex stereotypes to teach girls and boys differently based on false assumptions that they as a group learn differently.
3. Participation in the single-sex classes was not voluntary despite this requirement in the 2006 Title IX regulation. Schools often assigned students to these single-sex classes and some neighborhoods lost their access to coed schools when segregated schools or dual academies were created.
4. Schools with sex segregation did not have rigorous evaluations to determine whether or not single-sex treatment was more effective in increasing achievement than comparable coed classes, even though periodic evaluations are required by the ED 2006 Title IX regulation. (Occasional anecdotal information or reporting of achievement scores was provided, but not comprehensive quality evaluations to document effectiveness of sex segregation).
Media Resources: ACLU 8/20/12, Feminist Newswire 6/26/12Photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr
The conventional wisdom around why you run for president is that you do it to become president. Maybe you're also trying to make a point, and maybe you're doing it for attention; the ultimate object of that run remains the same. But Mike Huckabee has perfected a new reason for entering the race, one that's unique among the varied candidates competing for 2016: This is just how he makes his living.
Huckabee, who recently declared his second presidential run, hasn't actually held elected office since January 8, 2007, his last day as governor of Arkansas. (Huckabee ran in 2008 and flirted with declaring in 2012, ultimately choosing not to even though he was polling near the top of possible GOP candidates.) But back in 2007, when he launched his first presidential bid, he more or less fit the conventional profile of a Republican White House candidate: He was just finishing his second full term as a governor, and he was an ideological lightning-rod, getting the stone rolling by telling a gathering of Baptists that "I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ."
In part because of these Evangelical leanings, he managed to win Iowa's 2008 Republican caucus, gaining a new level of credibility as a potential contender for the party's nomination. Later, after Huckabee dropped out of the race, he was named as a top contender to be John McCain's running mate but passed over for Sarah Palin, thereby marking the end of his involvement in anything that could be considered actual politics.
Back then Huckabee's vibe was Man of the People, a guy with little money and few connections to the rich representing populist interests in the election. Famously, he even left the trail to go give a speech in the Cayman Islands, explaining that "you have to work for a living and pay your bills." But that has changed. Since his first run, Huckabee's become an odd feature of the new political landscape. Huckabee runs for president to support his career. And his career exists to support his runs for president.
For six years, Huckabee has focused on sharpening his brand as a pundit with the added veneer of real experience, a feel-good-family-values voice on the right whose opinion should be treated as though it has the imprimatur of authority bestowed on possible presidential candidates.
Following the 2008 race, he set about establishing his pulpits, which eventually included a syndicated radio show, The Huckabee Report, and a television program on Fox News called Huckabee, both of which ended this year. He has also written 12 books, including the most recent, Gods, Guns, Grits, and Gravy (seriously), and runs an educational company called Learn Our History, devoted to presenting the story of America "from a positive, patriotic, and faith-based perspective." And of course, like any respectable professional candidate, he has a political action committee, HuckPAC, and gets paid well into five figures for speaking engagements around the country.
This holy hustle has launched the former Every Man into the 1 percent. Huckabee made $500,000 a year from his Fox show alone, according to a 2011 report, plus more from radio and those speeches, which he often flies to on private jets — Politico reported in July 2014 that he'd racked up a quarter of a million dollars on private air travel to political events. On the side, he's earned extra cash with more questionable dealings, which included hocking diabetes cures and selling his email lists to advertisers of survivalist gear and homeopathic medicine. From these spoils, Huckabee built a $3 million home in Florida.
Regardless of what that says about Huckabee the candidate, it's very clear that Huckabee the man went to great lengths to ensure that he would never be wanting for money again after 2008. Rather than working the conventional world of politics, his punditry has enabled him to build the brand of Huckabee, centered on the large-scale Evangelical populism he favored in 2008. Under that umbrella, he's beaten the same drum in different ways from year to year, keeping himself in the spotlight.
In 2012, in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, Huckabee said that "we ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?" In 2014, he suggested that Democrats insult women by "making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control, because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government." Earlier this year, he compared being gay to "drinking and swearing," and he said that Christians being forced to support gay marriage is on par with "asking someone who's Jewish to start serving bacon-wrapped shrimp in their deli."
Unlike most of his 2016 rivals, Huckabee's influence doesn't extend to the halls of government halls of government. Real Clear Politics currently lists 14 candidates in its polling data for the GOP primaries. Of the 12 who have held political office— excluding Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina—Huckabee is one of three who left office in 2007, along with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. But while Jeb Bush's name ensures that he will never be fully outside of the proper political apparatus, Huckabee's does not—and it seems he's more than happy to embrace the role of outsider, in a slightly different way than he did in 2008. In many ways, he's a lot more similar to right-wing ranters like Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck than he is to the rest of the 2016 presidential contenders.
What all this has resulted in is a weirdo hybrid of all the worst parts of our political system. Mike Huckabee is a talking head who has talked so much that his talking has become its own sort of public office. When he doesn't win the 2016 GOP primary and shuts down his campaign, it'll just be another installment of his media empire, from which he'll move on to the next one, and the next, ad infinitum.
Follow Kevin Lincoln on Twitter.A Scarborough councillor who says he was the target of a robocall attack launched by Mayor Rob Ford plans to complain to the city’s integrity commissioner and to a federal regulator. Councillor Paul Ainslie said Ford made the automated calls to his Ward 43 constituents on Friday, the day he resigned from the mayor's executive committee and criticized him as “out of ideas.”
Paul Ainslie criticized Rob Ford as “out of ideas” after resigning from the mayor's executive committee on Friday morning. ( David Cooper / Toronto Star )
The calls, which denounced Ainslie for his Tuesday vote on Scarborough transit, featured a speaker who identified himself as Ford. They showed on recipients’ Caller ID as coming from 416-397-3673 (416-397-FORD), the number for the mayor's office. “I thought we could have an amicable parting of ways and move on. To be attacked over the telephone to my residents with no opportunity to refute what he’s saying leaves a bad taste in my mouth,” Ainslie said. He plans to take the issue to the city’s integrity commissioner and also the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which has investigated complaints about robocalls in the past.
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The Star obtained a recording of a call. Ford's spokesmen did not respond to a request to confirm that the man on the tape, who identifies himself as Ford and sounds like Ford, was indeed the mayor; the recording obtained by the Star plays at faster-than-normal speed at times. The call begins with a statement lauding the approval of the Scarborough subway extension, then turns to criticizing Ainslie for voting against the plan. “It was extremely, extremely unfortunate that your councillor, Paul Ainslie, was the only Scarborough councillor who did not listen to his constituents, and voted against the Scarborough subway. In fact, he led the charge against building subways in Scarborough; unfortunately it has led to his resignation from my executive committee. We are moving forward with a team who support the mandate Toronto taxpayers gave me,” said the call. Ainslie, a Ford loyalist in 2011 and 2012, voted Tuesday against the subway extension Ford promoted, the latest in a series of departures from the administration line in 2013. He criticized Ford as “out of ideas” after resigning from the mayor's executive committee on Friday morning. Ford reacted with visible anger to Ainslie's unexpected support for light rail on Tuesday, asking incredulously, “You're planning to run in the next election?” But he took the high road at council and on television on Friday, calling Ainslie a “good guy” and saying he had chosen not to get “nasty” over the split. Ford also privately shared friendly words following Ainslie’s resignation, the councillor said.
“Even the mayor said to me, ‘Oh buddy, we're still friends.’ Well, none of my friends, or people I consider friends, would be using robocalls and attacking me over the telephone less than three hours later,” said Ainslie. Phil Wadsworth, a resident in Ainslie’s Ward 43, said he received the call around 6:30 p.m. Friday. Wadsworth, who supports Ainslie and his position on the Scarborough subway, said he was shocked to hear his councillor being criticized in the robocall.
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“It seems kind of peculiar to start with,” said Wadsworth. “It’s not his place to phone me at my supper hour and leave me messages like that.” Ford employed robocalls in September to invite residents to Ford Fest, his annual barbecue event. The calls are cheap, and they have become increasingly common in election campaigns, but it would be exceptionally rare for a mayor to use them to attempt to wound a sitting member of council over a policy decision — especially outside of an election period. David Soknacki, a mayoral candidate and former councillor who Ainslie used to work for as an executive assistant, said he received a call at 8:08 p.m. He provided a picture to prove that, as he wrote on Twitter, the number of the caller was identified as the mayor's office number, 416-397-3673. The city's code of conduct for members of council says city resources must be used for city business alone. Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler, a resident who is an expert on council policy who launched challenges of Ford's campaign financial practices and apparent 2012 breach of conflict-of-interest rules, said, “The only rule Ford's robocall broke was being disrespectful to a councillor. Using a political office for non-election politics is OK.” The code of conduct says “all members of council have a duty to treat members of the public, one another, and staff appropriately and without abuse, bullying or intimidation.” Ainslie's council colleagues, including Scarborough councillor Michelle Berardinetti, swiftly criticized the calls. “Even though I support Scarborough subway, not appropriate for mayor to robocall Ward 43,” she wrote on Twitter. Councillor Sarah Doucette, a Ford critic, called the move “despicable,” but said it didn’t come as a surprise. “You don't expect it, but it doesn't surprise me. It's sad because I thought the mayor was meant to be our leader, to bring us together and build a better city, but all he's done is divide it,” she said. In an interview Friday afternoon, Councillor Doug Ford, the mayor's brother, dismissed Ainslie's charge that the mayor's staffers used bullying tactics to try to keep councillors in line. “That's his excuse for the next election, since he was the only councillor in Scarborough that voted against subways,” Doug Ford said. “If there's one thing the mayor's office doesn't do — you know (chief of staff) Earl (Provost), as these guys do, every councillor down there — the last thing Earl does, he may do a few things, but he's not a bully. (Ainslie) has to be held accountable by the people of Scarborough. It's very simple.” More: Listen to robocall recording Paul Ainslie resigns from Rob Ford's executive ‘Intoxicated’ Toronto mayor asked to leave military ball
Read more about:XFX's RX Vega 64/56 Double Edition GPUs have been pictured
No factory overclock?
| Source: Videocardz Author: Mark Campbell
XFX's RX Vega 64/56 GPUs have been pictured
More images and details have been released for XFX's upcoming RX Vega Double Edition series of GPUs, which will release with a unique design aesthetic and a custom dual-fan cooler.
This GPU will be released with RX Vega 56 and 64 variants, with both models lacking a factory overclock, though that being said Vega's performance depends on a lot more on power profiles than cooling than anything else, so this aftermarket version could still outperform AMD's reference model.
(Images from Videocardz)
This strange GPU design will come with two 8-pin power connections that are placed between both of the GPU's large cooling fans, with the GPU offering a PCB that is shorter than AMD's RX Vega Reference models, though at this time it is unknown whether or not XFX has created a fully custom PCB. AMD's reference PCB contains a lot of empty space, so it is not out of the question that the company has simply consolidated AMD's original design onto a shorter PCB.
We can see that this design from XFX uses a custom back-plate that showcases logos for both XFX and Vega, offering XFX's classic X-shaped GPU cooler design.
XFX RX Vega 54 Double Edition XFX RX Vega 64 Double Edition GPU Archtecture Vega Vega Processing cores 4096 4096 Core Base Clock 1156MHz 1247MHz Core Boost Clock 1471MHz 1546MHz Memory 8GB of HBM2 8GB of HBM2 Memory Clock 945MHz 945MHz
The one thing that sticks out here is how awkward cable management could be with this GPU, given the fact that the GPU's power input is at the very centre of the card.
We can see that XFX has opted to use a standard backplate design with this GPU as well as the same stock display outputs as AMD's own reference models, supporting three DisplayPort 1.4 outputs as well as a single HDMI 2.0 output.
At this time no pricing information has been released for these two GPUs or their intended release date.
You can join the discussion on XFX's upcoming RX Vega 64/56 Double Edition GPUs on the OC3D Forums.
1 - No factory overclock? 2 - Cable management is going to be a challenge with this GPU. «Prev 1 2 Next»
Most Recent CommentsMore than three years after signing a massive health care system reform into law, President Barack Obama on Thursday worked to sell the legislation’s benefits to an American public still largely skeptical about the overhaul.
Highlighting nearly half a billion dollars in insurance rebates going back to consumers due to the law's requirement that insurers spend 80 cents on the dollar towards medical care, Obama said the law is "doing what it's designed to do."
"Generally speaking, what we've seen is that health care costs have slowed drastically in a lot of areas since we passed the Affordable Care Act," Obama said in remarks at the White House. "We have a lot more work to do, but health care inflation isn't sky-rocketing the way it was."
Noting that there are still many who are "rooting" for the legislation's failure and cheering "glitches" in its implementation, Obama said that the positive effects of the bill are starting to become evident to consumers.
Pool / Getty Images President Barack Obama delivers a statement in the State Dining Room of the White House July 17, 2013 in Washington, DC.
"You're getting better protections," he said. "You're getting more value for each dollar that you spend on your health care."
A NBC/WSJ poll last month showed that just 37 percent of the public believes the law is a good idea, compared to 49 percent who say it’s a bad idea.
The president’s remarks at the White House come after the administration announced the delay of one key part of the law – the requirement that larger employers provide health care for workers or pay a fine.
With Republicans arguing that it’s unfair to delay requirements |
put forth by the AGRSG.
In December 2014, Theriault spoke to the Armenian Weekly about how the project was conceived and executed, as well as some of the challenges the group had faced. According to Theriault, the resolution of the Armenian Genocide issue has to go beyond simply ending denial, and requires real long-term justice in the form of reparations, including land.
The final report is available in PDF format on the AGRSG’s website.TORONTO — When Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip played Maple Leaf Gardens or the Air Canada Centre and got to “Fifty Mission Cap,” Bill Barilko’s No. 5 banner would be spotlighted in the rafters.
That song, underlining the Kingston band’s strong ties to hockey as fans, players and storytellers, became a huge part of The Hip’s allure. It also restored Barilko, the 24-year-old defenceman who died months after scoring a Stanley Cup-winning overtime goal for the Leafs in 1951, to a prominent place in team history.
“Gord Downie’s lyrics and the song ‘Fifty Mission Cap’ are the main reason Bill is still remembered in 2017,” said Kevin Shea, author of “Without A Trace,” detailing Barilko’s short, eventful life before a fishing-trip plane crash soon after his goal.
“Bill could have become an asterisk, a great Cup-winning goal, but one that was in 1951. He’s not an honoured member of the Hockey Hall Of Fame, just a good player. Yet his legend lives on because the Hip song became ubiquitous across Canada.”
Part of the album “Fully Completely,” that song came out in January 1993 and was a favourite of Leafs coach Pat Burns, new behind the bench and, at that point, leading a team resurgence with new classic logo sweaters at a time when the club’s past was being revived after the rocky 1980s. Barilko’s banner and that of Ace Bailey were raised in 1992 and were seen by some as a good luck charm.
Burns, who played guitar as a hobby, asked that “Fifty Mission Cap” become a Gardens warm-up staple; it remains part of the game-night playlist to this day. In 2001, Downie presented the Leafs with the hand-written lyrics to “Fifty Mission Cap,” which were placed in the dressing room.
Defenceman Morgan Rielly said the Leafs picked out a couple of Hip tunes to play Wednesday morning in their dressing room.
“Very unfortunate. He was a huge inspiration to all of Canada,” the 23-year-old Rielly said. “We have a lot of fans of him in this room. All over Toronto, all over Canada and the world, losing him is tough. I like ‘New Orleans Is Sinking,’ ‘Ahead By A Century’ … they’re all classics. I’ve heard the Bill Barilko story a few times.”
Connor Brown said he was a fan and recalls his parents played a lot of Hip albums in the family home.
Shea, who now works for the Hall of Fame, was also associated with The Hip from his music industry days and confirmed their passion for hockey often competed with their day jobs. Downie’s godfather was longtime Boston Bruins president and Team Canada ’72 coach Harry Sinden, a former Kingston resident.
“I worked fairly extensively when they were signed to RCA and mostly with “Road Apples,” their second full album, so we really got to know each other well,” Shea said. “I was at all the shows, and we sat and talked hockey extensively. With Gord, we never talked music ever. He only wanted to talk hockey, about my game, his road hockey games, his beer league games. He knew I was a big Leaf fan, I knew he was a big Boston fan and we’d go at each other good-natured.
“Sinden had been coaching in the EPHL [Eastern Professional Hockey League] with Kingston, lived near the family at that point and sold real estate as well. Their families got to know each other. According to Gord, he and Harry weren’t especially close, but there was a real connection there with the Bruins.”
The Hip sometimes played shinny around Toronto when working in the area, sometimes outdoor games at east-end Withrow Park, where good friends Jim Cuddy and Blue Rodeo also skated.
“I think everybody in The Hip liked a different NHL team,” Shea said. “[Bassist] Gord Sinclair, I recall was a Chicago fan, but because Toronto was close, he got to a lot of their games with his dad. [Guitarist] Rob Baker was with Toronto, I think, but they were all fans of the game, collected cards and played road hockey. I think Gord was the best of the bunch and was a great goalie.”
— Postmedia NetworkI could just as well have named this blog “Megamold” or “Megafungus” given my impressions of the patterns of growth of industrial civilization. I settled upon Megacancer because the technological system’s essential ingredient, humans, are a renegade species that have evolved into their own complex adaptive system (CAS II) which has its own growth imperative that will destroy the parent ecosystem from which it was derived. Technological civilization will not supersede the ecosystem, but will rather grow haphazardly for a short period doing significant damage to the ecosystem directly and through release of metabolic by-products.
It is amazing to watch clueless humans, rabid for growth and profit, invest in expansion of the cancer and then congratulate themselves on ownership of some portion of infrastructure that they believe will deliver resources to them in perpetuity, even though most of the resources are non-renewable and have been significantly depleted. At some not too distant future the infrastructure will become so worthless as to only become a liability to which no one will claim ownership. The citizenry that work and pay mortgages to one day assume ownership of this infrastructure for all of the income that it can deliver, will find that there is no longer income to be had and will watch their structures slowly degrade. Our leaders seem mostly interested in using their positions to take ownership of as much infrastructure as possible while cheerleading for even more growth without doing the due diligence to figure out where this leaves us in the not so distant future – dead.
A dense mat of industrial mycelium covers the surface of the industrialized world. Small hyphae penetrate new territories, tools are brought in and go to work on newly available resources, to pull them into the fungal/cancer metabolism. Resources circulate within the hyphae and nourish the brightly lit centers of growth, those areas which started from isolated spores or malignant outliers. The consumption is intense and results in more and more infrastructure which sustains an ever-larger human population. At some point the environment will be saturated with growth, that is, the energy return for building roads and cells into new areas will not pay for themselves and will certainly not provide any net energy to be transported to the densest areas of metabolism, the cities. Perhaps we are approaching there now.
Hyphae photo by Bob Blaylock
Roads and streets, like fungal hyphae penetrate the nourishing tissues of the ecosystem to derive nutrition. Enzymes (tools) are put to use upon the substrate to mine, pump, grow and cut resources from the area. These hyphae are analogous to roads in a technological civilization. When growth is no longer possible and nutrition cannot be transported to depleted areas, then technological life will cease to exist in those areas.
NASA – London from space.
A typical concentrated area of growth, the City of London, sends mycelia deep into the countryside for its nourishment in support of its complexity. As older areas are depleted of resources, new areas of growth must compensate to send energy into the city. When growth falters and net energy declines, the city will decline. The world is already feeling the effects of inadequate net energy even though capex is in the many trillions of dollars. High energy prices with less net energy means the human RNA cannot be paid enough to keep the metabolism going within the established spatial and financial parameters. You may think that comparing a technological growth to fungal growth is a mismatch as the fungal cells seem very simple, but this is only because the complexity of the cell is not visible to the human observer.
Aerial view of mold turning bread resources into mold infrastructure.
Human RNA functioning in technological infrastructure are just as clueless as the RNA functioning in the fungal cells. When the nourishment is consumed the mold must sporulate before the mycelium dies. Technological civilizations scale, vastly larger than the mold which still happens to belong to an ecosystem, makes it impossible to sporulate and start again in another nutritious spot. Humans, always using nature as a design template, may try to create a spore to send to Mars, but it doesn’t seem very nutritious. A giant puffball fungus can release trillions of spores into the air in hopes that one or a few will find a spot to grow and repeat the life cycle. Human technological society, as a terminal malignancy/growth, has no life cycle.Get the biggest Sport 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 battle has begun to get a fairer price for Scottish football from mega-rich TV bosses.
But a Record Sport investigation into TV revenue across the continent has provided damning proof of why our game remains the poor man of Europe.
With Neil Doncaster already in discussions aimed at thrashing out an improved deal with broadcasters, the figures we release today show how far our top clubs are lagging behind foreign rivals – and highlight why the SPFL chief executive has to bring home the bacon for the sake of our national sport.
In fact, they provide damning proof the Scottish game is receiving a relative pittance for the rights to screen 60 live top-flight games per season on Sky and BT Sport.
(Image: SNS Group)
The current deal – which has three years still to run – sees Scotland anchored to the bottom of a league of 18 countries, below the likes of Poland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark and dwarfed even by Greece.
BT Sport are believed to be keen to strike a new agreement which would see them go it alone from summer 2020.
But while the potential sums involved are thought to be in excess of the £31million a season which failed satellite company Setanta once forked out for Scottish football, even that would fall way short of the kind of cash which is being pumped into the game abroad.
It’s understood the SPFL’s joint crown-jewel deal with Sky and BT Sport is worth slightly less than £19m per season.
This figure rises close to £30m when overseas rights, highlights packages and a separate deal with the BBC are factored in.
The vast majority of that cash is spread between the top 12 clubs at the end of each season, with the leftover money dripping down to the lower leagues.
But the numbers are made to look absolutely paltry when compared with the enormous amount of cash the same two companies are ploughing into the game south of the border after recently agreeing a new three-year deal worth an eye-watering £5.14billion.
In other words, Sky and BT are forking out £1.71bn a season to showcase the Premier League – which works out at 90 times more than the going rate for Scottish football. Or, in other words, our struggling clubs pocket just 1.1 per cent of that annual telly jackpot.
While not even a newspaper as patriotic as this one would argue Scottish football deserves financial parity with the glitz and glamour of the English game, the sheer scale of this imbalance is ridiculous.
Scottish football is not only shivering in England’s financial shadow. Our figures show disparity knows no borders where our game is concerned.
Not surprisingly, Scotland’s TV cash is dwarfed by the other four of the big five – Germany, Italy, Spain and France.
The Bundesliga has just entered into a new four-year deal worth £900m a year. Serie A is raking in £805m per season.
And La Liga is currently tied into a three-year deal worth £753m a year.
In France, the existing deal for Ligue 1 is worth £638m per season. But it’s when you travel outside the most established, wealthy football nations that the paucity of Scotland’s current financial arrangements becomes even more apparent.
Sixth on the list is Turkey which, although it has a complicated system for selling rights to its Super Lig matches, dishes out £385m a year.
In Portugal the process is even more complex and allows clubs to sell their own broadcast rights to TV companies on contracts of up to 10 years at a time.
Benfica and Sporting Lisbon are believed to have negotiated their own deals worth in excess of £350m. But, even so, the total value of the broadcast deals for the entire Primeira Liga is
calculated to come in at around £110m per year.
In Holland, a long-term deal has also been done for the rights to screen Eredivisie games at £70m a year.
Ninth in the table are Belgium who are entering into the final year of their TV contract, which has been worth £60m a year since 2014.
(Image: AFP/Getty Images)
Even in Greece, a country that has been for some time teetering on the edge of economic obliteration, the TV deals dwarf those in place for Scottish football.
They are currently gorging themselves on a contract which runs until 2019 and is worth £50m a season.
In 11th place in our rich league is Denmark which is incredible given that the Danes have a population of 5.6 million people – which is just 300,000 more than our own.
But, even so, the Danish Superliga is worth 54 million euros per season to domestic TV companies – which means the likes of Copenhagen, Brondby and Nordsjaelland get to split a total pot of £46m per year.
And in Norway, where Ronny Deila is currently in charge of Valerenga, it’s a similar story.
In fact, there is a six-year deal in place for the Eliteserien worth a total of £35m a year.
Which is not only enough to keep Deila in spotless underpants but also secures 12th place in our table.
(Image: Valerenga/Twitter)
Surprisingly, the Russians are down in 13th position with TV rights worth £35m a year. A bumper new deal will kick in later this year but even before that money floods in the existing contract still makes them relative oligarchs compared to the Scots.
In Poland the Ekstraklasa may sound more like a chocolate bar to cure constipation but it’s worth a tasty £28m a year.
Even the Swiss league is more interesting according to telly bosses who fork out £25m a year for the rights to a Super League containing Young Boys, Grasshoppers and Basel.
In Sweden the going rate is 25m euros or £21m per year to broadcast games from the
Allsvenskan, with Austria’s top flight close behind on £19m for each campaign.
And only after all of them comes the SPFL and its relative pauper’s contract with Sky and BT which at the last count was valued at £18.75m a season.
No wonder then that Doncaster has already started the process of escaping from this agreement, which will keep the Scottish game in the poorhouse for three more years. The end can’t come soon enough.By |
Season Three is halfway over already. Time flies when Gyp Rosetti is out of his mind with rage, eh? The episode Ging Gang Goolie focuses on fire. Things are heating up, tempers smolder and blaze, flames erupt, and people get burned. This week showed us how an honest man can stick out like a sore thumb amid a crowd of crooks. We also learned how a five-dollar fine and a twenty-cent breakfast can turn into a forty-thousand dollar windfall for someone like Gaston Means. Inexplicably, we were also told that sometimes, compost can spontaneously combust.
The first fire of the week began in the Thompson’s greenhouse. Teddy, Margaret’s fire-obsessed son, sees it and wakes up his mother, who calls Owen Slater. Viewers are whisked away to a simpler time, when random men with buckets were all we had with which to fight fire. Drag. Teddy claimed that a gypsy set the fire, but Margaret was skeptical, as were we. As the previously clips reminded us, Teddy is a firebug.
Eli Thompson and Mickey Doyle take a meeting with the Sherriff of Tabor Heights. They’re still pretty sore about Rosetti’s massacre of their men. I don’t trust that Sherriff, and can’t imagine why Eli and Mickey would. But they seem to, believing that he’ll call them if Gyp shows his face in Tabor Heights. Confoundingly, Gyp Rosetti is conspicuously absent this week. We can only assume he’s shopping for a new dog collar.
Also missing this week were Al Capone, Arnold Rothstein, Chalky White, Agent Van Alden, and his lovely wife. I haven’t seen nearly as much of Eddie Kessler as I’d like either. For me though, all that is mitigated by the return of Esther Randolph. She’s a wonderful character played by a compelling actress. Julianne Nicholson has had a long career in modeling, TV, and film. I liked her as Logan’s partner on Law & Order CI, (even though I never watch those horrible D’onofrio eps) and in Kinsey. I love her as night-court prosecutor Esther Randolph, especially now that she’s looking shady. Why would any honest government worker agree to a meal with Nucky—especially when he’s not even eating? I’d guess because that judge was so incredibly condescending as he handed out five-dollar fines for violations of a federal statute.
Something is up with Remus. How do I know? He actually used the pronoun “I” when speaking to Nucky about Dougherty skipping their meeting. The Attorney General apparently stood up both of them before a Boy Scout meeting that left Jess Smith crying as if he had no choice but to be a thief.
More evidence mounts against Teddy the firebug. When neighbor Mrs. Praddock pops by with Teddy, matches, and kerosene, Margaret—well, she kind of loses her shit. Despite her own history of abuse, she gives Teddy a few smacks despite his protestations that he’s done nothing wrong.
A lot of what we see on Boardwalk Empire mirrors the same sociopolitical struggles we have today. Nucky tells us how he “delivered New Jersey” to secure the election for President Harding—days before US citizens learned that the United Nations is now supervising our next election.
Richard Harrow and his soldier friends lament how they laid their lives down for their country but can’t get medical attention, job assistance, or even a shot of legal whiskey when they come home. It’s frustrating to hear that things haven’t changed much for soldiers since the days of prohibition. The Margaret Sanger pamphlet Margaret reads also reminds us that every now and again, birth control becomes a huge social issue—even when it shouldn’t.
There’s a double-cross afoot this week. The senate subcommittee is insisting that somebody be arrested and convicted of bootlegging. Nucky and Dougherty have a strong disagreement over who’s the poor sap they’re going to feed to the wolves. The two men exchange threats, and then separate to take whatever measures they each deem necessary.
Dougherty strikes first, having Nucky arrested for a mere pint of booze. A couple of crooked cops sucker punch Nucky in the gut and throw him in the pokey. Moldy cheese and stale bread would be enough to put anyone in a mood. He also meets a small-time bootlegger. Judging by how much camera time this guy got, I imagine we’ll be seeing him again. That said, “Can you break a hundred?” is probably the most chuckle-worthy response to a five-dollar fine ever. Score one for Enoch Thompson.
It’s worth noting that Nucky called Margaret ostensibly to see how she and the kids were. He was so concerned, that when he actually did get back in town, he went to Billie Kent’s home rather than his own. Grumble.
Harrow spent some time at the VFW hall this week. I could tell you what went on, but I’d be breaking the First Rule of Fight Club. In the aftermath, Harrow meets a fetching young lady, the daughter of a sad veteran who lost his son just before the armistices. To my mind, no other adult character on the show deserves a little love and happiness more than Richard Harrow.
Speaking of love, Gillian Darmody is looking for some of her own. Her financial woes are no secret, even as she refuses to let Charlie Lucky peddle heroin in her brothel. Gillian goes out walking and meets a straight-up doppelganger for her dead son, Jimmy. Unfortunately named Roger, he and Gillian do the no-pants dance; and it’s clear that she’ll be keeping her new friend around for as long as she can—even as she insists on calling him James. As Roger has no money or prospects, I suspect that he may end up taking Harrow’s job.
Esther Randolph’s breakfast with Nucky leads to his pitch that Harry Dougherty is their mutual nemesis. To avenge the slight of being arrested and put below Remus in the pecking order—Nucky decides to take Dougherty down. Translation: a public shaming on par with Eli’s—only worse because Harry has farther to fall. Esther can help Thompson in that, lending Nucky the credibility he lacks. Gaston Means is the guy who can make this happen, and his inside information can be had for the low, low price of forty-thousand dollars.
Margaret hears a suspicious noise one night and wastes no time in grabbing a rifle and setting out to find the source. Horror movies weren’t really a thing yet, so she had no idea how dumb that was. She finds Owen guarding the greenhouse, where he reveals that there was a gypsy and he did set the fire. I presumed Teddy would hear Margaret’s apology right away, but apparently Margaret found another fire in the barn that needed tending to. Teddy is a good kid, and I loved the scene where he sat on the bed with his sister and talked about stabbing bad people in the face. Maybe Teddy will be the one who takes out Gyp Rosetti. Even as I know Margaret’s liason with Slater is morally wrong, I still dig it.
Our fun, period word for the week was Scuttlebutt, which it turns out, has nothing to do with having Patrick Duffy for a leg. It actually refers to rumors, as it’s a seaworthy expression similar to a water cooler. Asking, “What’s the Scuttlebutt,” essentially means “What’s the word on the street.”
“Ging Gang Goolie” was heavy on setup and light on action. It’s all important stuff, stuff we need to know for later in the season. Still, compared to other episodes, it was a bit of a snooze.
See you next week, kids!
–WednesResearchers studying a deal in which Google’s artificial intelligence subsidiary, DeepMind, acquired access to millions of sensitive NHS patient records have warned that more must be done to regulate data transfers from public bodies to private firms.
The academic study says that “inexcusable” mistakes were made when, in 2015, the Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust in London signed an agreement with Google DeepMind. This allowed the British AI firm to analyse sensitive information about 1.6 million patients who use the Trust’s hospitals each year.
The access was used for monitoring software for mobile devices, called Streams, which promises to improve clinicians’ ability to support patients with Acute Kidney Injury (AKI). But according to the study’s authors, the purposes stated in the agreement were far less specific, and made more open-ended references to using data to improve services.
More than seven months after the deal was put in place, an investigation by New Scientist then revealed that DeepMind had gained access to a huge number of identifiable patient records and that it was not possible for the public to track how these were being used. They included information about people who were HIV-positive, details about drug overdoses and abortions, and records of routine hospital visits.
As of November 2016, DeepMind and the Trust have replaced the old agreement with a new one. The original deal is being investigated by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which has yet to report any findings publicly. The National Data Guardian (NDG) is also continuing to look into the arrangement. DeepMind retained access to the data that it had been given even after the ICO and NDG became involved, and the app is being deployed.
Both the Trust and DeepMind have disputed the findings in the new study. In a joint response they claimed that the paper misrepresented the NHS’s use of technology to process data and also that the analysis contained several errors. They stressed that the Streams app was making a significant difference to hospital staff, and highlighted its life-saving potential.
The authors, however, said that these accusations of factual inaccuracy and analytical error were unsubstantiated, and that their article makes clear why the agreement is unusual and in the public interest.
The study reviews the original agreement in depth, with a systematic synthesis of publicly available documentation, statements, and other details obtained by Freedom of Information requests. It was carried out by Dr Julia Powles, a Research Associate in law and computer science at St John’s College, University of Cambridge, and Hal Hodson, who broke the New Scientist story and is now Technology Correspondent for The Economist.
Both authors say that it is unlikely that DeepMind’s access ever represented a data security risk, but that the terms were nonetheless highly questionable, in particular because they lacked transparency and suffered from an inadequate legal and ethical basis for Trust-wide data access.
They say the case should be a “cautionary tale” for the NHS and other public institutions, which are increasingly seeking tech companies’ help to improve services, but could, in the process, surrender substantial amounts of sensitive information, creating “significant power asymmetries between citizens and corporations”.
“Data analytics and machine learning in general offer promise in improving healthcare and clearly digital technology companies will have a role to play,” Powles said. “To the extent that it signals a move in this direction, we think that there were inadequacies in the case of this particular deal.”
“The deal betrays a level of naivety regarding how public sector organisations set up data-sharing arrangements with private firms, and it demonstrates a major challenge for the public and public institutions. It is worth noting, for example, that in this case DeepMind, a machine learning company, had to make the bizarre promise that it would not yet use machine learning, in order to engender trust.”
Powles and Hodson argue that the transfer of data to DeepMind did not proceed as it should have, questioning in particular its invocation of a principle known as “direct care”. This assumes that an “identified individual” has given implied consent for their information to be shared for uses that involve the prevention, investigation, or treatment of illness.
No patient whose data was shared with DeepMind was ever asked for their consent. Although direct care would clearly apply to those monitored for AKI, the records that DeepMind received covered every other patient who used the Trust’s hospitals. These extended to people who had never been tested or treated for kidney injuries, people who had left the catchment area, and even some who had died.
In fact, the authors note that, according to the Royal Free and DeepMind’s own announcements, only one in six of the records DeepMind accessed would have involved AKI patients. For a substantial number of patients, therefore, the relationship was indirect. As a result, special permissions should have been sought from the Government, and agencies such as the ICO and NDG should have been consulted. This did not happen.
Such applications of “direct care” have been queried before. In December 2016, Dr Alan Hassey of the NDG, which provides national guidance on the use of confidential information, wrote that: “an erroneous belief has taken hold in some parts of the health and care system that if you believe what you are doing is direct care, you can automatically share information on a basis of implied consent”. Dr Hassey noted that direct care is not “of itself a catch-all… The crucial thing is that information sharing must be in line with the reasonable expectations of the individual concerned”.
The researchers’ survey also criticises the lack of transparency in the agreement, pointing out that neither party made clear the volume of data involved, nor that it involved so many identifiable records. How that data has been, and is being, used, has never been independently scrutinised. Last week, DeepMind announced plans to develop a new data-tracking system, to make such processes more transparent, at an unspecified future stage.
The authors liken the relationship overall to a one-way mirror. “Once our data makes its way onto Google-controlled servers, our ability to track it – to understand how and why decisions are made about us – is at an end,” they write.
The paper says that an obvious lesson is that no such deal should be launched without full disclosure of the framework of documents and approvals which underpins it. In light of the 2013 Caldicott review of sharing of patient information, they write that: “The failure of both sides to engage in any conversation with patients and citizens is inexcusable.”
They also suggest that private companies should have to account for their use of public data to properly-resourced and independent bodies. Without this, they argue that tech companies could gradually gain an unregulated monopoly over health analytics.
“The reality is that the exact nature and extent of Google’s interests in NHS patient data remain ambiguous,” the authors add. Powles notes that while Google has no stated plans to exploit the data for advertising and other commercial uses, its unparalleled access to such information, without any meaningful oversight, does not rule out the possibility in future.
“I personally think that because data like this can get out there, we are almost becoming resigned to the idea,” Powles added. “This case stresses that we shouldn’t be. Before public institutions give away longitudinal data sets of our most sensitive details, they should have to account to a comprehensive, forward-thinking and creative regulatory system.”
A spokesman for both the Royal Free London and DeepMind said that both organisations were “committed to working together to support world class care for patients”. He added: “Every trust in the country uses IT systems to help clinicians access current and historic information about patients under the same legal and regulatory regime.”
Powles and Hodson are working on a second paper, analysing the terms of the revised DeepMind-Royal Free arrangement since November 2016 and the ongoing regulatory investigations. Their current study is published in the journal Health and Technology.?When Justice League Unlimited aired its last episode in May 2006, it was a sad moment for those of us who enjoy quality American animation that doesn’t pander to the wee ones. It was kind of a miracle that for 14 years, Bruce Timm, Paul Dini and others gave us a take on the adventures of DC Comics’ heroes that wasn’t afraid to delve into darkness, present adult characters acting like adults (and progressing), and tell engaging stories with writing that was as good as if not better than most live action shows. It started with Batman: The Animated Series, continued in Superman: The Animated Series and Batman Beyond, and culminated in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. In the latter two series, we got to see adventures that spanned the entire DC Universe and featured its rich cast of characters. There were many great stories and these 10 episodes, we feel, epitomize why the Justice League cartoons were pure, unadulterated awesome.
10) The Great Brain Robbery
After being completely absent from early episodes of Justice League Unlimited, Flash got the well-deserved spotlight many times before the series concluded. This episode, in which he and Lex Luthor switched bodies, was a highlight. In Flash’s body, Luthor comes up with all kinds of evil new ways of using Flash’s power that the Speedster himself had never tried and wouldn’t, like holding his fingers out like a gun and threatening to vibrate them through someone’s head. He also takes off Flash’s mask to learn his identity, and then realizes comically that he has no idea who the person he’s seeing in the mirror is. Flash, meanwhile, has all kinds of fun in Luthor’s body. He talks to a bewildered Legion of Doom in stereotypical villain-speak, then tells one of his minions that he didn’t wash his hands after using the bathroom because he’s evil! And he takes full advantage of Lex’s relationship with Tala, becoming the caring lover that Lex is not; Tala is perfectly happy with the development. After switching back, Flash is of little help to the Justice League in locating the Legion of Doom HQ. Asked where it is, the best he can come up with is “in a swamp.”
9) Kid Stuff
On paper, an episode about the Justice League turning into pre-teen versions of themselves sounds terrible. Episodes where the characters turn into children is a sci-fi staple, and there’s so much that can go wrong. The writers of Justice League Unlimited, however, pulled it off. The reason that the sorceress Morgaine turns Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman into eight-year olds is so that they can battle her power-hungry son Mordred, who has made all the world’s adults disappear. But more important than the clever plot is the interaction between the youthful Justice League members. Green Lantern is enthusiastic about his powers, and gives himself a “cool” new mask that resembles Kyle Rayner’s from the comics. Superman is more of a na?ve farmboy than ever. Wonder Woman turns into the bossy older sister type and doesn’t do a good job of hiding her crush on Batman, who replies with “Whatever!” to most of her attempts to get his attention. Batman hasn’t changed too much; he’s just got more grumpiness contained in a smaller body. And best of all, we get to see the cute-as-a-devil baby Etrigan! Changing his diapers is a “job for Superman!”
8) The Once and Future Thing
This two-part episode is a hectic, random journey through different times and places, but there’s a ton of awesome moments that place it among the best. Henpecked husband David Clinton, a.k.a. Chronos, uses the time machine he invented to escape from his wife and his pursue his love of collecting historical artifacts, which totally screws up the timeline. After Chronos tries to steal Batman’s utility belt, Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern chase him through a time portal and end up in the Old West. There, nefarious outlaw Tobias Manning has stolen the time machine and set his gang up with all kinds of futuristic weaponry. The three members of the Justice League team up with a bunch of DC’s western heroes, including the infamous Jonah Hex, to take the gang down. After Chronos steals back his time machine, the Justice League follows him to the future of Batman Beyond (a welcome return!) where we get awesomeness such as old Bruce Wayne meeting younger Bruce and Warhawk revealing himself to be Hawkgirl and Green Lantern’s son (although the joke that he was born from an egg is cringeworthy). Chronos has become a mad despot in the future and punishes disloyalty among his henchmen severely. One of his minions, an evil clown named Chucko, gets to learn first-hand what killed the dinosaurs. Time spins further out of control, even causing John Stewart to turn briefly into Green Lantern Hal Jordan. After a harrowing race toward the beginning of time to stop the universe from collapsing (in which Batman and Green Lantern witness the hand of “God,” which resembles the Anti-Monitor’s hand in Crisis on Infinite Earths), Batman wickedly places Chronos into a timeloop where he will be nagged by his wife forever. Jesus, Batman, that was harsh.
7) Double Date
One of Justice League Unlimited‘s most inspired moves was taking its two most unstable and obsessive characters and putting them together. After Huntress gets kicked out of the JLU for trying once again to kill gangster Steven Mandragora, the Question agrees to help her find him in return for information on Lex Luthor and his connection to Project Cadmus, the shadowy government organization that is looking for a way to destroy the Justice League if need be. This puts the duo at odds with Green Arrow and Black Canary, the JL’s resident power couple, who are helping to protect Mandragora so he can testify in court. It’s an excellent tag team bout as Huntress and Question rush after Mandragora as Green Arrow and Black Canary race after them. It turns out that Huntress wants to kill the gangster because he killed her parents, and she relents when she discovers that he’s a father. And when she learns that Question knew she was lying about having any information and actually helped her because he likes her, she promptly jumps his bones. Black Canary and Green Arrow are clearly disgusted at such an odd coupling, but it’s certainly an entertaining and well-matched love connection.
6) The Greatest Story Never Told
Booster Gold just gets no respect. The League always puts him on crowd control duty and everyone in the public seems to think he’s Green Lantern (despite not having a spot of green on his costume). Even worse, he was a loser in the far future and came back to the 21st Century with his robot buddy Skeets (voiced by Billy West) in the hopes of being somebody and making a fortune, but he isn’t doing any better. This episode chronicles his hilarious mishaps and, finally, his success in saving the entire planet (and the girl) from a miniature black hole all on his own. The only disappointment is that, most likely due to rights issues, Booster’s buddy from the comics, Blue Beetle, couldn’t appear with him. But we did get to see Elongated Man, who was upset that he was also on crowd control because Plastic Man was in the vicinity of a crisis and they didn’t need “two stretchy guys.”
—-
5) Epilogue
“Epilogue” was technically the finale for Batman Beyond that we never got before that series ended, but it also tied together plot points from Justice League Unlimited and served as a final act for the DC Animated Universe in general, even though it didn’t end up being the final episode before JLU ended (and was replaced with the far inferior The Batman). In this episode, Terry McGinnis discovers that he’s Batman’s genetic son, thanks to a secret project by government operative Amanda Waller, who had decided over time that the world always needed a Batman. It was fate, however, that eventually led Terry to actually come under Bruce’s wing and become the next Batman. After Waller advises Terry to take care of the people that love him, something Bruce didn’t always |
gay whom it has offended," he added, "but has to apologize to the poor, to exploited women, to children exploited for labor; it has to ask forgiveness for having blessed many weapons."
The Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and editor at large of America magazine, called the Pope's apology to gays and lesbians "a groundbreaking moment."
"While St. John Paul II apologized to several groups in 2000 -- the Jewish people, indigenous peoples, immigrants and women, among them -- no pope has ever come close to apologizing to the LGBT community. And the Pope is correct of course. First, because forgiveness is an essential part of the Christian life. And second, because no group feels more marginalized in the church today than LGBT people."
The Pope's comments came in response to a question about a German Cardinal who said the Catholic Church should apologize for being "very negative" about gays. The Pope was also asked whether Christians bear some blame for hatred toward the LGBT community, as horrifically demonstrated in the Orlando massacre at a gay night club that killed 49 people on June 12.
Repeating the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church about respecting and not discriminating against gays, Pope Francis said that one could condemn certain behavior.
"One can condemn, but not for theological reasons, but for reasons of political behavior...Certain manifestations are a bit too offensive for others, no?
"But these are things that have nothing to do with the problem. The problem is a person that has a condition, that has good will and who seeks God, who are we to judge? And we must accompany them well."
'Immense Blessing'
Francis first uttered that rhetorical question -- Who am I to judge gay people? -- in 2013, also during a news conference on the papal plane. His comments were hailed as a breakthrough for a church that has historically condemned homosexuality, often in harsh terms. Francis has not changed church doctrine that calls homosexual acts sinful, but he has shown a more merciful approach to people on the margins, including gays and lesbians.
Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Catholic gay rights group, called the Pope's remarks "an immense blessing of healing."
"No pope has said more welcoming words to LGBT people than when Pope Francis today offered his recommendation that the Church -- indeed all Christians -- should apologize for the harm religious traditions have caused to LGBT people. The pope's statement was simple, yet powerful, and it fell from his lips so easily."
As is often the case, the Pope's press conference encompassed a number of controversial questions. Here are the Pope's answers about Brexit, former Pope Benedict XVI and why he used the word "genocide" to describe the murder of more than 1 million Armenians in the early 20th century.
Brexit
"For me, unity is always superior to conflict, but there are different forms of unity and also brotherhood. and here I come to the EU -- brotherhood is better than enmity or distance and bridges are better than walls.
"The step which the EU has to take to recover the strength of its roots is a step of creativity and healthy'separation;' that is, to give more independence, more freedom to the countries of the EU, to think of another form of union, to be creative in jobs, in the economy..."
"There is something that is not working in that unwieldy union, but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater, let's try to jump-start things, to recreate.. today the two key words for the EU are creativity and fecundity."
Genocide
Pope Francis said that while Turkey has, "a right to protest," he has always used the word genocide, since his time in Argentina, and again last year quoting John Paul II so "it would have sounded very strange," he said, not to use it again.
"In Argentina, when you spoke about the extermination of Armenians, one always used the word genocide. I did not know another word... When I came to Rome, I heard the other words, 'The Great Evil' and the Armenian term which I do not know how to say, and they told me that... using 'genocide' is offensive, that you have to say something else. I have also spoken about three genocides of the last century, always three, first the Armenian, then Hitler, and the last one is Stalin."
"After I heard the tone of the President's speech and also with my past with this word, which I uttered last year in St. Peter's publicly, it would have sounded very strange not to say the same word."
Two Popes?
In response to a question about whether there are two Popes in the Vatican, a story which had received headlines recently because of a comment by Pope Benedict's personal secretary who said that the Pope Emeritus was part of an "expanded papacy," Francis said, "There is only one Pope."
"[Benedict] is the Pope Emeritus, the wise grandpa. He is the man who guards my back with his prayers."Rex Ryan would be a great fit for the Oakland Raiders
2014 was another porous year for the Oakland Raiders. Despite starting the season 0-10, the Raiders have a ton of positives to take away from their 2014 season. For starters, Oakland finished the season with a 3-3 record and although that isn’t amazing, it gives them hope for the future. The best things the Raiders can takeaway from their 2014 season is that they found their quarterback in Derek Carr and they got younger and better on the defensive side of the football.
Ever since their Super Bowl loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2003, the Raiders have not had a quality head coach. Al Davis, when he was alive, took chances on multiple head coaches, and Mark, his son, has also taken chances on lesser-known head coaches. Although Bill Callahan brought the Raiders to the Super Bowl in 2003, there’s no question that team was put together by Jon Gruden. Besides those two, who both had some success in their Oakland tenure, the Raiders have given the head coaching duties to Norv Turner, Art Shell, Lane Kiffin, Tom Cable, Hue Jackson, Dennis Allen, and, their interim head coach after Allen got fired, Tony Sparano.
After years of stagnancy and inconsistency, the Raiders need to bring in a head coach that is established and one that would immediately make this team a better one, rather than another coach who believes the Raiders are in the midst of a process. The head coach that could do that is Rex Ryan.
It may come as a surprise to many as Ryan has had a record of 12-20 in the past two years. But before that, Ryan had brought this team to two AFC Championship games with Mark Sanchez as his quarterback. General manager John Idzik never brought in enough talent for Ryan. In Oakland, the Davis family would be willing to spend all the money in the world for Ryan to have the most competitive team possible.
Yes, Ryan was fired by the Jets after a 4-12 season, but as I said before, the Jets’ downfall was much more because of Idzik’s ineptness than Ryan’s ability to coach. Defense is Rex’s strongpoint, but there were some key injuries and, again, a lack of talent at key positions. 2013 first-round pick and the Jets’ top cornerback Dee Milliner played just three games in 2014. When Milliner went down and the Jets released Dimitri Patterson because of his off-field troubles, the Jets relied on inexperienced players like Darrin Walls and Antonio Allen to play the cornerback positions.
The Jets gave up an average of 3.8 yards per rush, which was good enough for fifth in the league. However, their pass defense gave up a completion percentage 64%, which was the 12th worst in the league. This disparity just goes to show where Idzik failed to bring in talent. In Oakland, the Raiders have one of the youngest defenses in the league, but they also have some key pieces. Rex could turn these pieces into one of the league’s best defenses.
Khalil Mack has the makings of a defensive stud. Sio Moore has a ton of talent. Keith McGill, D.J. Hayden, and T.J. Carrie are excellent pieces at the cornerback position. They also have productive veterans in Justin Tuck and Andre Smith. Offense is Rex’s weakness, however, if the Raiders can bring in a smart offensive coordinator to pair with Rex, they will be golden.
Oakland has a quarterback and their offensive line isn’t bad, but they lack talent at the running back position and in the receiving corps. The good news is that they have a top-5 pick and they have the opportunity to bring in player like Amari Cooper in the first round and even a player like Todd Gurley in the second round. If the Raiders hit again on this year’s draft, and Rex is their head coach, Oakland could be relevant in the AFC in 2015.
Many Raiders fans won’t want Rex as he is very arrogant and his brother, Rob, went out on a bad note as the defensive coordinator in 2008. However, Rex is an excellent coach and many NFL insiders believe that as well. Gruden, who is obviously one of the best Raiders coaches of all-time, believes that the Jets were completely wrong to fire Rex.
The NFL is a league where decisions are based off success and being in the right position at the right time. Rex has had success in 2009 and 2010 when he brought the Jets to the AFC Championship. He has also won a Super Bowl in 2000 with the Baltimore Ravens when he was the defensive line coach. Rex is arrogant, but that is a part of his persona. Rex is a coach players love playing for. Oakland will not win the Super Bowl in 2015 and probably not in 2016 either, but the fact of the matter is that Rex is the coach who can get the Raiders back to the playoffs.A.J. Ellis wasn’t supposed to make it. At least not according to the A.J. Ellis whom the Los Angeles Dodgers took in the 18th round of the 2003 draft. That Ellis wasn’t planning on a career the major leagues. And yet, here he is, 10 years later with at least one facet of his game considered to be elite, and a regular job on a good team in the big leagues. How he got here — and who helped him along the way — best describes the sort of a player and the man he’s become.
Even when he was drafted, Ellis didn’t think like many of his fellow draftees. “I didn’t have major league expectations,” Ellis told me before this past series with the Giants. “I wasn’t being drafted and mapping out a career.” Ellis doesn’t sell himself short — this was more about his skillset and his draft position, and being honest with himself and the people he cared about. The minors were going to be “baseball finishing school” and he was going to finish up and then go coach a college team.
Enter Cindy. His college girlfriend became his wife. But she also took on other roles. Before he was drafted, Ellis says, “she was the first person to believe in me.” When he was drafted and asked her to tell him if she ever felt that “this isn’t the life you wanted,” she punched back. “You’re going to keep going until they say `no’ because I believe you are going to make it to the big leagues,” she told him. While Ellis was in Double-A, she had a full-time job and made much more. She was “the hero throughout,” even as she gave birth to their son — in the passenger seat of his car — while he drove 75 mph down the freeway.
For her, he made a promise that he would work as hard as he could. And though he didn’t have a great swing, he found his niche as a defensive-first catcher who could work with pitchers. Though dominating that niche might just have been a way to keep his organization interested in his skill set, those abilities have followed him to the big leagues. All that effort has paid off: Defensive Runs Saved rated his glove as above-average in 2012 and Matt Klaasen ranked him seventh-best behind the plate.
And, moments after we finished talking, you could see Ellis following through on the other half of his niche skill set — he sought out Hyu-Jin Ryu and went through the pitcher’s last start with him, “watching him, watching the hitters” and talking to the young starter about what he did right and what he could do differently next time. Working well with the pitchers indeed. (To say nothing of his ability to rein in Clayton Kershaw.)
That said, the first major league number associated with Ellis is always his walk rate. Since his debut, he’s 12th in baseball in that category. His 12.8% walk rate since 2010 is also the third-best by a catcher. And, as he did in the minors, Ellis is improving on that skill through hard work. From a minor-league low of 10.7% in 2005 in High-A, he pushed his rate to 20.2% in Triple-A in 2011. He responded to his first major league playing time with a 10.9% walk rate in 2010. Now he’s got that rate up to 15.2%.
His secret? Why is he so good at taking a walk? “I knew that my best chance to help the team was to not swing,” Ellis said, laughing, of his time in the minors. Beyond handling the pitching staff and impressing with the glove, his quest to prove his offensive value to his major league team focused on getting into fastball counts and letting minor-league pitchers display their lack of command. Even before, even at Austin Peay, Ellis was patient, though: “To me there’s no worse feeling that rolling over or popping up on a first pitch and thinking, ‘What if?'”
His patience showed through more as his swing got better. Ellis credits former Dodgers’ hitting instructor Jeff Pentland for much of that improvement. “My first movement with my hands is down,” Ellis said. But then Pentland came on in 2010 and pulled him aside, telling him that, to hit in the bigs, he’d have to bring his hands back up. Can we see the improvements Ellis made? Here’s a video of Ellis facing Madison Bumgarner in 2009:
And now here’s a GIF from last night’s game, from the same angle.
Does it look like his hands drift downward less in the more recent video? Ellis hopes so. For him, it’s about getting above the baseball, because, “unless you are an elite power hitter who can swing up and drive balls out, you want to hit line drives and ground balls.” If he’s not quite there yet, that’s okay with Ellis, who calls the work an everyday battle.
Though the long-term effort with his swing has allowed Ellis to be more aggressive, his emergence also has changed how opponents view his bat. “Pitchers are a little bit more aggressive coming after me,” Ellis said. That’s true. The percent of pitches he’s seen in the zone has gone up from 47% last year to 48.3% this year. What was his response? He had already taken “not swinging” to the top of the leaderboards — only three qualified batters swung fewer times last year — but now Ellis has become even more extreme. No qualified batter in baseball is swinging less often than Ellis this year. In essence, he’s only swinging at a third of the pitches he sees.
“This year I have not had the benefit of hitting eighth,” Ellis said. “It’s a credit to the hitter I’ve become.” But Ellis also has taken pride in getting on base “so the pitcher could bump me over.” Now he has to swing even less often to take his walks.
Ellis is batting seventh most often this year, and the walk rate of the seventh hitter in the National League last year (7.8%) is dwarfed by the walk rate of the eighth hitter (9.9%), so he’s right to point out the difficulty of moving out of the spot. Then again, many of those walks to the eighth hitter are intentional. If you remove intentional walks, the eighth hitter only gets a slight boost (8.13% for the eighth hitter, versus 7.3% for the seventh hitter). Though A.J. did get the four-fingers-wide treatment 11 times last year (and none this year), obviously his walk rate has made the transition to a different spot in the lineup.
Does his team value his elite skill? And why don’t they use him higher in the lineup? “They always credit me for my ability to get on base,” Ellis, said, but added that “you want your best hitters to get the most at-bats as they can” and that his team is “stacked with an elite lineup that can do damage.”
It’s this sort of self-awareness (and self-deprecation) that has served Ellis well. As well as the hard work that he’s put in, and the support of those around him. When the season’s over, he’ll head to Milwaukee for the winter. “My wife is from Milwaukee, so it’s happy wife, happy life,” he told me, which means he’ll train in the snow for another season. “I’m like Rocky in `Rocky IV,'” Ellis said, “going to fight the Russian, in the Siberian snow, chopping down trees, getting to the top of the mountain and yelling ‘Zitooo!'”
That would be quite a sight. Especially for the mild-mannered man who repeatedly quotes his teammate Matt Guerrier on how to better yourself: “Find the thing in baseball that you don’t do well, and then don’t do that thing.“Fascism was highly fashionable throughout Europe and North America in the 1930s, and Britain too was affected. Antisemitism and a desire to keep the “lower orders” in check were widespread beliefs among the British aristocracy, the media, the police, the Conservative Party and large sections of the population. My Jewish grandfather and his family, living in the ghetto in the East End of London, faced discrimination and the threat of violence on a frequent basis. The far-right was strong and confident, and the British Union of Fascists (BUF), led by Oswald Mosley, commanded a membership of up to 50,000, and the support of the ever-moronic Daily Mail.
On Sunday 4th October, 1936, Mosley decided to flex the BUF’s muscles by marching his “blackshirt” street thugs through the East End, the most Jewish area of England. The local Jewish population, including my grandfather, came into their streets to stop the blackshirts marching. They battled the fascists, and the London police who joined the blackshirts in fighting the Jews. But that’s not the full picture: the Jews alone couldn’t have stopped the blackshirts (and their police friends) from marching. The Jews were joined by other immigrants – largely Irish – along with socialists, communists, trade unionists and ordinary Londoners. Local women leaned out of their windows and dropped pots and pans on the blackshirts. The fascists were beaten off London’s streets.
The Battle of Cable Street was a turning point in British history. The BUF never recovered from their physical beating and humiliation. The British people had given their verdict on fascism – unlike in much of mainland Europe or the USA, British fascism was in retreat by the start of the Second World War in 1939. Mosley attempted a come-back in the 1950s and 60s, this time choosing black immigrants instead of Jews as his target, but he was largely irrelevant by then. His fascist mantle was picked up in the 1970s by a new group, the National Front, which targeted blacks, Jews and the latest arrivals: Asians (meaning primarily Indians and Pakistanis). The growth of the NF coincided with the Skinhead cultural movement among young working class whites, and the skinheads were (often unfairly) labelled as fascists and racists.
When I reached my teens, the NF was at its peak, and my black friends would run on sight of a skinhead. But then, in the early-80s, support for the NF collapsed. But why? It wasn’t through official state action: the British police were incredibly racist, and often took the side of the NF in street confrontations. The Thatcher government was riddled with racists who had little understanding of the situation on the streets, and showed no interest in clamping down on street racism.
The answer was culture; or specifically working class culture as expressed through music. In the 60s, while middle class Brits were joining the hippie movement, the young, white working class had discovered Soul music, imported from the US. In the 1970s, the young black British population, with close links to the West Indies, was listening to reggae, the huge new trend from Jamaica. Young white people in the cities, who already had a taste for black music, were discovering reggae, which required going to black concerts and mixing with black people. In the late-1970s, the two-tone movement appeared, blending white skinhead and punk music with reggae and ska from the West Indies. The two-tone movement (including groups like The Specials, The Beat and The Selecter) saw concerts bringing enemy gangs together in the same venues. Rastas and skinheads shared music, danced together and smoked weed together. The National Front lost its constituency of angry, white, racist young men. This didn’t happen because government wanted it to – it happened largely without the knowledge of Britain’s rulers. It happened because of some X-factor in the British population; a natural ability to accept, integrate and mix with immigrant cultures that seems lacking elsewhere in Europe or in the United States.
If two-tone was the first, crude blend of white and black music, it was just the beginning. By the 1990s, mixed couples and mixed music scenes were becoming more frequent. Mixed-race children were becoming a common sight. The Jamaican Dub sound was adopted by musical pioneers in Bristol, who created a new set of genres such as Trip Hop. Jungle music, a London creation, took Jamaican ragga and European dance music and blended them. From this emerged Drum and Bass, and in the late-90s, UK Garage. UK Hip Hop began as a copy of the American version, but was quickly adapted to British styles, from which emerged a truly British poetry form, Grime. Asian sounds joined the mix of Jamaican and European influences. The blender ran ever faster, creating new musical styles that were ever more intertwined, and ever more British.
Outside the cities, most people were oblivious to this. As always, British urban youth were decades ahead of the establishment and the middle class mainstream in integrating their cultures together. The only time the urban scene ever made mainstream news was if a gun was waved at a Garage concert or a stabbing occurred at a Hip Hop rave.
By 2000, it seemed the far-right could never re-establish itself in such a mixed society, so at peace with itself, but 9/11 changed that. The new kid on the fascist block, the British National Party (BNP) quickly rewrote its literature, replacing the word Asian with the word Muslim. Anti-Muslim ideas began to gain traction, especially after 52 people died in the London bombings of 2005. Then the English Defence League (EDL) was born; while the BNP had tried to create a respectable, suited version of fascism, the EDL went back to NF ways, building a street army of angry young white men. The EDL grew fast, but then in the past year or so seemed to have peaked. The EDL’s apparent association with far-right Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik doesn’t seem to have helped them.
If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll have seen regular tweets about the EDL and its idiot supporters, and especially its moronic leader, Tommy Robinson. EDL supporters on Twitter output a regular drip-feed of hateful misinformation about Muslims, which has been hard to tackle. Until yesterday, that is. Tommy Robinson had tweeted one of his standard pieces of anti-Muslim nonsense. Seeing a picture of a “mosque” on the Twitter home page (it was, in fact, the Taj Mahal), Robinson sent the following tweet:
Welcome to twitter homepage has a picture of a mosque What a joke #creepingsharia
The idea being, of course, to convince the British public that Islam is encroaching on every aspect of our daily lives. There have been many such tweets from Robinson and his supporters. But this time, some Twitter users decided to respond, and take the piss out of (to use a British expression) the #CreepingSharia hashtag. By yesterday afternoon, the trickle of tweets was growing into a flood, and by evening it was a tsunami. The British people, in their many thousands, had finally been given their chance to react, in a truly British fashion, to the cancer of the EDL. The response wasn’t anger, threats or hatred. It was a flood of laughter. The EDL was turned within a few hours into a national and international laughing-stock. It was more than a chance to let off steam – it was a turning point. It was a chance for the majority to demonstrate to British Muslims that the EDL is a small, unrepresentative and unliked group of people. The atmosphere on Twitter yesterday can be described as a carnival. I don’t think my grandfather, or other veterans of the Battle of Cable Street, would mind me comparing the two events. Yesterday, 16th April 2012, the British people hounded and humiliated the EDL just as they had the BUF on 4th October 1936.
Here’s a small selection of #creepingsharia tweets (sorry if they’re wrongly attributed – many were retweeted many times):
@DestinyofL: ‘Star Wars’ makes a ‘hero’ of a youth who is radicalised by a bearded old man who lives in the desert wearing robes #creepingsharia @amna_kaleem: The weather in Britain is always Sunni or Shi’ite. #CreepingSharia @lacatchat: If you look really carefully, a packet of iced gems looks like lots & lots of little Mosques. #creepingsharia @stanyalplatford: All the fantastic and clever #creepingsharia tweets utterly nailed @EDLTrobinson. What a fucking prick. @BristolAF: Fell asleep on the sofa again last night. My lovely Muslim housemate tried not to wake me when she got back from work. #creepingsharia @ZiaQureshi11: I once had a go at my housemate for cooking bacon in my frying pan and not cleaning it properly #creepingsharia @KarmaUnc: Marvelous to see the Twittersphere overwhelmingly handing @EDLTrobinson his #creepingsharia arse back to him on a plate today #EDL @ammaarrahim: RT if the #creepingsharia trend made your day today… certainly made mine 🙂
It was a reminder to me that, whatever the downside of living on this cold, wet island among a people who enjoy moaning about most things on most days, there’s a huge reason to be proud of this country. As race hate strengthens in Hungary, The Netherlands and the USA, the British can again be an example to the rest of the western world. While patriotism grows in popularity elsewhere, the British don’t do patriotism. We don’t fly flags on our homes or on public buildings. It’s our contempt for those who label themselves British or English Patriots that is quintessentially British or English.
As for my great love, British urban music, this has continued to evolve over the past decade. For those of you who can’t be here in London to experience our mixture first-hand, here’s a taste of what young white, black and brown Londoners are dancing to, together, in 2012. It contains flavours of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe and the USA, but it’s uniquely British, and it unites young people from all backgrounds. The far-right doesn’t stand a chance.Polish leaders have held a welcome ceremony for the biggest deployment of US troops to Europe in decades.
Meanwhile, Russia called the deployment a threat to its own security.
The ceremony on Saturday in the western Polish town of Zagan comes 23 years after the last Soviet troops left the country.
The move also marks a new historic moment – the first time any Western forces are being deployed on a continuous basis to NATO’s eastern flank.
CNN reports there are also 2,400 pieces of military equipment including tanks sent over.
Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo stood before US and Polish soldiers and called it 'an important day for Poland, for Europe, for our common defense'.
Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz told the troops that 'we waited for you for a very long time, for decades'.
American soldiers are welcomed to the Polish town of Zagan
The Kremlin said they see the bolstering of NATO as a 'threat'
The government organized several other events across the country to welcome the Americans from Fort Carson, Colorado.
It is likely these relations will not be the same over the next four years. President Elect Donald Trump has been a vocal opponent of NATO.
Last July he tweeted: 'My statement on NATO being obsolete and disproportionately too expensive (and unfair) for the U.S. are now, finally, receiving plaudits!'
Trump has stated he thinks NATO is 'obsolete' and 'too expensive'
This goes along with Trump's desire to improve America's ties with Russia. He said having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing and 'only "stupid" people, or fools' think otherwise.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said:'We see it as a threat to us. This is an action that threatens our interests, our security, moreover, this is a third nation (apart from Russia and Poland) that is increasing its military presence near our borders in Europe, and it’s not even a European nation.'
'One thousand or 10,000 — we’re talking about the increase of military presence. There’s nothing to add.'
Prime Minister of Poland Beata Szydlo welcomed US troops to the ceremony
American soldiers attend the official welcome ceremony in ZaganToday’s swatches will mostly be on my mom, Savitry. She’s a tad darker and less yellow-toned than I am, but hopefully these swatches will still be useful. In fact, I hope they’ll be more useful as you’ll be able to see how the products look on mature skin.
So my mom hustled me on Mother’s Day and I ended up buying her 3 new products from Tom Ford. Essentially, she tripled our collection of TF in just an hour. We were helped by Sherry at the Holt Renfrew at Bloor and Yonge. She was extremely helpful and patient as we went through about 25 lip colours looking for a good option.
All of the pictures below show the makeup as it was applied by Sherry.
BLUSH REVIEW
Sherry applied Ravish on the apples and Savage up the cheekbone. However, I found Savage a little too dark to be a blush and too muddy as a bronzer. So Sherry blended Savage out leaving only Ravish visible in the above photo.
The blush retails for $66.00CAD and overall I have to say I am a little disappointed and would recommend a NARS blush over this.
The texture and finish is nicer than NARS blushes. The Tom Ford was easier to blend and was more satiny than the glittery NARS blushes, making it look more natural. However, the wear-time just isn’t there.
On my mom Sherry applied quite a lot, which didn’t look bad, but it definitely more than my mother would apply on herself. That being said, it stayed vibrant until midnight. When I applied it the next day on myself with a more sparing hand, I loved the colour but found it faded (somewhat patchily) within 2-3 hours. This is pretty disappointing to me for a $66 blush, I’d expect the wear time to be the same no matter how much product you apply.
EYESHADOW QUAD REVIEW
The eyeshadow quad retails for $93.00CAD, which gives me heart palpitations thinking about it. Ninety. Three. Dollars.
We purchased the shade Disco Dust although it’s not as popular as others. Disco Dust has more more depth than Cocoa Mirage and Golden Mink, making it perfect for WOC. With this quad Sherry recommended tapping the glitter on using your finger. My mom’s eye look lasted all day perfectly, I was shocked at how good it looked even by midnight.
The matte brown shade on the top right is the perfect brown as a base for my skin tone and to blend other shades out. Usually I find brown shadows too warm, too cool, or too dark, but this one matches my skin perfectly.
I’ve also never had a glitter I love as much as the top left shade. I often experiment doing Indian bridal cut creases with a pop of glitter and the lid shade never turns out right. I now realize that it was because I’ve been using shades that are too pigmented. This glitter doesn’t have a lot of colour underlying it, so the sparkle really shines – I think it may be my favourite shadow of all time.
Additionally, the shadows are nowhere near as powdery as something like Kat Von D Shade and Light. They’re extremely buttery and blending is incredibly easy with them.
This compact was so expensive, but I’m happy I purchased it. If you’re the type of person who is willing to buy single shadows for ~$20 apiece then I think you’d really appreciate this quad. I definitely think my eye makeup looks nicer using this than when I use Kat Von D Shade & Light, Too Faced Chocolate Bar, or an UD Naked Palette.
LIPS & BOYS REVIEW
Tom Ford is well known for their lipsticks, and it’s the cheapest way to get introduced to the brand at $44.00 for a ‘Lips & Boys’ Lip Color. They are so little, and look like sample lipsticks you used to get but they’re really quite lovely.
The lipstick is creamy and comfortable (moreso than NARS or MAC) and lasts extremely well. I applied it at 2pm and wore it until 4pm with no touch ups. I then ate a pretty oily Afghan meal and only the very centre of my lips had faded.
I had originally wanted a Lips & Boys shade with micro glitter because I found they were more unique. But I found shades like Daniel, Derek, and Rocco unflattering due to the way they emphasized lip lines and dryness. This shade isn’t particularly special and you can probably find a dupe for it but my mom liked it so I bought it.
OVERALL
Overall, I’m very happy with my purchases. I think they’ll be well used by my mother as the shades are all absolutely perfect for her solitarily and in combination.
I hope this was useful!
Alyssa
AdvertisementsThe population of San Antonio has passed 1.4 million for the first time ever, according to figures released early Thursday by the U.S. Census Department, 1200 WOAI news reports.
The Census Bureau says the city of San Antonio, not including suburbs and the unincorporated areas of Bexar County, gained 25,378 residents just in the past year, pushing the city's population up to 1,409,019.
San Antonio remains the seventh largest city in the nation, but new figures show San Antonio pulling away from number eight San Diego and gaining on number six Phoenix, both of which reported smaller population growth in the past year.
San Antonio was the fourth fastest growing large city in the country in the past year, based on numeric increase. Houston was the second fastest growing big city.
The real story among big cities is the growth of Austin. The capital city added 20,993 residents in the past year, and surpassed Indianapolis and Jacksonville to become the eleventh largest city in the country.
The Census Bureau released the list of the 15 fastest growing communities in the country with populations between 50,000 and one million, and San Marcos, for the second year in a row, is the single fastest growing city in America.
In fact, seven of the fifteen fastest growing communities in that population range are in Texas. In addition to San Marcos, the Dallas suburbs of Frisco and McKinney, the Austin suburbs of Georgetown and Cedar Park, and Odessa all made the 'fastest growing' list.
All fifteen of the fastest growing communities in that population range are in the south and the west, as the Northeast and Midwest continued wither flat populations or shrinking populations.Dieselgate is one step closer to being over, at least in the US court system.
Volkswagen pleaded guilty Friday to multiple criminal charges stemming from its diesel scandal, Reuters reports. It pleaded guilty to fraud, obstruction of justice and falsifying statements. Manfred Doess, VW's general counsel, made the plea after receiving authorization from the board to do so.
It marks the first time VW admitted guilt in any court in the world, according to a VW spokesman speaking to Reuters. The judge overseeing the case in the US District Court in Detroit accepted the plea and will issue a sentence at a hearing on April 21.
Enlarge Image Ronny Hartmann/AFP/Getty Images
"The agreements that we have reached with the US government reflect our determination to address misconduct that went against all of the values Volkswagen holds so dear," Volkswagen said in an emailed statement. "The plea today is another important step forward for our company and all our employees, and we look forward to concluding this matter at the next hearing on April 21, 2017."
Volkswagen ended up in hot water in 2015, after it admitted to willfully deceiving regulators around the world. Software in some of its diesel vehicles could identify lab testing environments and curb pollution, only to emit well in excess of legal limits once out on the road.
After admitting to its malfeasance, Volkswagen promised a mixture of reforms and audits, which included independent oversight for three years. Executives stepped down, and the company has settled with owners and regulators at the cost of tens of billions of dollars.
The road to Dieselgate's conclusion still has plenty of pavement, though. The company is still under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Internal Revenue Service. And that's in the US alone -- these cars were shipped worldwide, so the automaker must deal with governments and customers around the world.Quote "Current bitcoin holders are the gazelles in the plain, and the tigers and lions are about to get released."
The CBOE will begin issuing Bitcoin futures contracts on Dec. 10 that will let sophisticated investors bet against the asset more easily than ever before. This new instrument, along with similar upcoming offerings from the CME and others, could |
by the time you read this) a stable, end-user ready version of the Repa-like array library Accelerate for GPU computing on Hackage. It integrates with Repa, so you can mix GPU and CPU multicore computing, and via the new meta-par package you can share workload between CPUs and GPUs [13]. This new version 0.12 is already available on GitHub [14]. You need a CUDA-capable NVIDIA GPU to use it.
In addition, we released Repa 3 [12], which uses type-indices to control array representations. This leads to more predictable performance. You can install Repa 3, which requires GHC 7.4.1, from Hackage. We are currently writing a paper describing the new design in detail.
7.4.1 included a few major improvements. For more details on these, see the previous status report [2].
We have a new member of the team! Please welcome Paolo Capriotti who is assuming some of the GHC maintenance duties for Well-Typed.
GHC 7.4.1 was released at the beginning of February, and has been by and large a successful release. Nevertheless the tickets keep pouring in, and a large collection of bug fixes [1] have been made since the 7.4.1 release. We plan to put out a 7.4.2 release candidate very soon (it may be out by the time you read this), followed shortly by the release.
BackgroundUHC actually is a series of compilers of which the last is UHC, plus infrastructure for facilitating experimentation and extension. The distinguishing features for dealing with the complexity of the compiler and for experimentation are (1) its stepwise organisation as a series of increasingly more complex standalone compilers, the use of DSL and tools for its (2) aspectwise organisation (called Shuffle) and (3) tree-oriented programming (Attribute Grammars, by way of the Utrecht University Attribute Grammar (UUAG) system (→ 5.3.1 ).
What do we currently do and/or has recently been completed? As part of the UHC project, the following (student) projects and other activities are underway (in arbitrary order):
What is new? UHC is the Utrecht Haskell Compiler, supporting almost all Haskell98 features and most of Haskell2010, plus experimental extensions. The current focus is on the Javascript backend.
If you find yourself interested in helping us or simply want to use the latest versions of Haskell programs on FreeBSD, check out our page at the FreeBSD wiki (see below) where you can find all important pointers and information required for use, contact, or contribution.
We have a developer repository for Haskell ports that features around 350 ports of many popular Cabal packages. The updates committed to this repository are continuously integrated to the official ports tree on a regular basis. Though the FreeBSD Ports Collection already has many popular and important Haskell software: GHC 7.0.4, Haskell Platform 2011.4.0.0, Gtk2Hs, wxHaskell, XMonad, Pandoc, Gitit, Yesod, Happstack, and Snap — that have been incorporated into the recently published FreeBSD 8.3-RELEASE.
The FreeBSD Haskell Team is a small group of contributors who maintain Haskell software on all actively supported versions of FreeBSD. The primarily supported implementation is the Glasgow Haskell Compiler together with Haskell Cabal, although one may also find Hugs and NHC98 in the ports tree. FreeBSD is a Tier-1 platform for GHC (on both i386 and amd64) starting from GHC 6.12.1, hence one can always download vanilla binary distributions for each recent release.
The stable Debian release (“squeeze”) provides the Haskell Platform 2010.1.0.0 and GHC 6.12, Debian testing (“wheezy”) contains the Platform version 2011.4.0.0 with GHC 7.0.4 and in unstable we are currently ahead of the Platform and ship GHC 7.4.1. We plan to get GHC 7.4.2 and the Platform version 2012.2.0.0 into wheezy in time before the stable release, expected this year.
A system of virtual package names and dependencies, based on the ABI hashes, guarantees that a system upgrade will leave all installed libraries usable. Most libraries are also optionally available with profiling enabled and the documentation packages register with the system-wide index.
The Debian Haskell Group aims to provide an optimal Haskell experience to users of the Debian GNU/Linux distribution and derived distributions such as Ubuntu. We try to follow the Haskell Platform versions for the core package and package a wide range of other useful libraries and programs. At the time of writing, we maintain 500 source packages.
As always we are more than happy for (and in fact encourage) Gentoo users to get involved and help us maintain our tools and packages, even if it is as simple as reporting packages that do not always work or need updating: with such a wide range of GHC and package versions to co-ordinate, it is hard to keep up! Please contact us on IRC or email if you are interested!
More information about the Gentoo Haskell Overlay can be found at http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/Gentoo. It is available via the Gentoo overlay manager “layman”. If you choose to use the overlay, then any problems should be reported on IRC ( #gentoo-haskell on freenode), where we coordinate development, or via email <haskell at gentoo.org> (as we have more people with the ability to fix the overlay packages that are contactable in the IRC channel than via the bug tracker).
Over the time more and more people get involved in gentoo-haskell project which reflects positively on haskell ecosystem health status.
As usual GHC 7.4 branch required some packages to be patched. For a 6 months period we have got about 150 patches waiting for upstream inclusion.
There is also an overlay which contains almost 800 extra unofficial and testing packages. Thanks to the Haskell developers using Cabal and Hackage (→ 6.6.1 ), we have been able to write a tool called “hackport” (initiated by Henning Günther) to generate Gentoo packages with minimal user intervention. Notable packages in the overlay include the latest version of the Haskell Platform (→ 3.1 ) as well as the latest 7.4.1 release of GHC, as well as popular Haskell packages such as pandoc, gitit, yesod (→ 5.2.6 ) and others.
The full list of packages available through the official repository can be viewed at http://packages.gentoo.org/category/dev-haskell?full_cat.
Feedback from users and packaging contributions to Fedora Haskell are always welcome: please join us on #fedora-haskell on Freenode IRC and our new low-traffic mailing-list.
Fedora 18 development work has already started and we have already updated to ghc-7.4.1 and continue work on packaging including web frameworks.
At the time of writing there are now 165 Haskell source packages in Fedora. The Fedora package version numbers listed on the Hackage website now refer to the latest branched version of Fedora (currently 17).
On the packaging side, for Fedora 16 profiling subpackages were merged into the development subpackages to reduce installation overhead. For Fedora 17 the packaging macros have been simplified and made closer to generic Fedora packaging.
Fedora 17 is shipping in May with ghc-7.0.4 and haskell-platform-2011.4.0.0, and version updates to many of the packages. This also includes Fedora 17 Secondary architectures: ppc, ppc64, and the exciting new armv5tel and armv7hp builds (ghc has also been built for Fedora 17 s390 and s390x for the first time). 30 new packages have been added since the release of Fedora 16, including aeson, conduit, hakyll, lifted-base, snap-core, warp, etc.
The Fibon tools and benchmark suite are ready for public consumption. They can be found on github at the url indicated below. People are invited to use the included benchmark suite or just use the tools and build a suite of their own creation. Any improvements to the tools or additional benchmarks are most welcome. Benchmarks have been used to tell lies about performance for many years, so join in the fun and keep on fibbing with Fibon.
This year, the Fibon benchmark suite has been updated to include a Train problem size that can be used for feedback directed optimization work. The Ref problem size has been increased so that the running time of a benchmark program is comparable to the running time when using the ref size of the SPEC benchmarks. With this update a single benchmark will typically take 10-30 minutes to run depending on the power of the computer hardware. See the README file for more information on benchmark size and configuring the benchmarks to finish in an acceptable amount of time.
As a real life example of a complete benchmark suite, Fibon comes with its own set of benchmarks for testing the effectiveness of compiler optimizations in GHC. The benchmark programs come from Hackage, the Computer Language Shootout, Data Parallel Haskell, and Repa. The benchmarks were selected to have minimal external dependencies so they could be easily used with a version of GHC compiled from the latest sources. The following figure shows the performance improvement of GHC’s optimizations on the Fibon benchmark suite.
Benchmarks are built using the standard cabal tool. Any program that has been cabalized can be added as benchmark simply by specifying some meta-information about the program inputs and expected outputs. Fibon will automatically collect execution times for benchmarks and can optionally read the statistics output by the GHC runtime. The program outputs are checked to ensure correct results making Fibon a good option for testing the safety and performance of program optimizations. The Fibon tools are not tied to any one benchmark suite. As long as the correct meta-information has been supplied, the tools will work with any set of programs.
The Fibon benchmark tools draw inspiration from both the venerable nofib Haskell benchmark suite and the industry standard SPEC benchmark suite. The tools automate the tedious parts of benchmarking: building the benchmark in a sand-boxed directory, running the benchmark multiple times, verifying correctness, collecting statistics, and summarizing results.
Fibon is a set of tools for running and analyzing benchmark programs in Haskell. It contains an optional set of benchmarks from various sources including several programs from the Hackage repository.
The next version of Agda is under development. The most interesting changes to the language may be the addition of pattern synonyms, contributed by Stevan Andjelkovic and Adam Gundry, and modifications of the constraint solver, implemented by Andreas Abel. Other work has targeted the Emacs mode. Peter Divianszky has removed the prior dependency on GHCi and haskell-mode, and Guilhem Moulin and myself have made the Emacs mode more interactive: type-checking no longer blocks Emacs, and the expression that is currently being type-checked is highlighted.
A lot of work remains in order for Agda to become a full-fledged programming language (good libraries, mature compilers, documentation, etc.), but already in its current state it can provide lots of fun as a platform for experiments in dependently typed programming.
Agda is a dependently typed functional programming language (developed using Haskell). A central feature of Agda is inductive families, i.e. GADTs which can be indexed by values and not just types. The language also supports coinductive types, parameterized modules, and mixfix operators, and comes with an interactive interface—the type checker can assist you in the development of your code.
Recently, I have added more comfortable syntax for data type declarations and let-definitions. Data and codata types can now also be defined recursively. In the long run, I plan to evolve MiniAgda into a core language for Agda with termination certificates.
MiniAgda is a tiny dependently-typed programming language in the style of Agda (→ 4.1 ). It serves as a laboratory to test potential additions to the language and type system of Agda. MiniAgda’s termination checker is a fusion of sized types and size-change termination and supports coinduction. Bounded size quantification and destructor patterns for a more general handling of coinduction. Equality incorporates eta-expansion at record and singleton types. Function arguments can be declared as static; such arguments are discarded during equality checking and compilation.
Over the last six months we continued working towards mechanising the metatheory of the DDC core language in Coq. We’ve finished Progress and Preservation for System-F2 with mutable algebraic data, and are now looking into proving contextual equivalence of rewrites in the presence of effects. Based on this experience, we’ve also started on an interpreter for a cleaned up version of the DDC core language. We’ve taken the advice of previous paper reviewers and removed dependent kinds, moving witness expressions down to level 0 next to value expressions. In the resulting language, types classify both witness and value expressions, and kinds classify types. We’re also removing more-than constraints on effect and closure variables, along with dangerous type variables (which never really worked). All over, it’s being pruned back to the parts we understand properly, and the removal of dependent kinds will make mechanising the metatheory easier. Writing an interpreter for the core language also gets us a parser for it, which we will need for performing cross module inlining in the compiler proper.
Our compiler (DDC) is still in the “research prototype” stage, meaning that it will compile programs if you are nice to it, but expect compiler panics and missing features. You will get panics due to ungraceful handling of errors in the source code, but valid programs should compile ok. The test suite includes a few thousand-line graphical demos, like a ray-tracer and an n-body collision simulation, so it is definitely hackable.
Disciple is a dialect of Haskell that uses strict evaluation as the default and supports destructive update of arbitrary data. Many Haskell programs are also Disciple programs, or will run with minor changes. In addition, Disciple includes region, effect, and closure typing, and this extra information provides a handle on the operational behaviour of code that is not available in other languages. Our target applications are the ones that you always find yourself writing C programs for, because existing functional languages are too slow, use too much memory, or do not let you update the data that you need to.
The Eden skeleton library is under constant development. Currently it contains various skeletons for parallel maps, workpools, divide-and-conquer, topologies and many more. Take a look on the Eden pages.
The Eden trace viewer tool EdenTV provides a visualisation of Eden program runs on various levels. Activity profiles are produced for processing elements (machines), Eden processes and threads. In addition message transfer can be shown between processes and machines. EdenTV has been written in Haskell and is freely available on the Eden web pages.
A new release of the Eden compiler based on GHC 7.4 will soon be available on our web pages, see http://www.mathematik.uni-marburg.de/~eden, and via Hackage. It will include a shared memory mode which does not depend on a middleware like MPI but which nevertheless uses multiple independent heaps (in contrast to GHC’s threaded runtime system) connected by Eden’s parallel runtime system. An Eden variant of GHC-7.4 and the Eden libraries are already available via git repositories at http://james.mathematik.uni-marburg.de:8080.
Eden’s primitive constructs are process abstractions and process instantiations. The Eden logo consists of four λ turned in such a way that they form the Eden instantiation operator #05. Higher-level coordination is achieved by defining skeletons, ranging from a simple parallel map to sophisticated master-worker schemes. They have been used to parallelize a set of non-trivial programs.
Eden extends Haskell with a small set of syntactic constructs for explicit process specification and creation. While providing enough control to implement parallel algorithms efficiently, it frees the programmer from the tedious task of managing low-level details by introducing automatic communication (via head-strict lazy lists), synchronization, and process handling.
The latest GUM implementation of GpH is built on GHC 6.12, using either PVM or MPI as communications library. It implements a virtual shared memory abstraction over a collection of physically distributed machines. At the moment our main hardware platforms are Intel-based Beowulf clusters of multicores. We plan to connect several of these clusters into a wide-area, hierarchical, heterogenous parallel architecture.
As part of the SCIEnce EU FP6 I3 project (026133) (April 2006 – December 2011) and the HPC-GAP project (October 2009 – September 2013) we use Eden, GpH and HdpH as middleware to provide access to computational Grids from Computer Algebra (CA) systems, in particular GAP. We have developed and released SymGrid-Par, a Haskell-side infrastructure for orchestrating heterogeneous computations across high-performance computational Grids. Based on this infrastructure we have developed a range of domain-specific parallel skeletons for parallelising representative symbolic computation applications. A Haskell-side interface to this infrastructures is available in the form of the Computer Algebra Shell CASH, which is downloadable from Hackage. We are currently extending SymGrid-Par with support for fault-tolerance, targeting massively parallel high-performance architectures.
Another strand of development is the improvement of the GUM runtime-system to better deal with hierarchical and heterogeneous architectures, that are becoming increasingly important. We are revisiting basic resource policies, such as those for load distribution, and are exploring modifications that provide enhanced, adaptive behaviour for these target platforms.
New work has been launched into the direction of inherently parallel data structures for Haskell and using such data structures in symbolic applications. This work aims to develop foundational building blocks in composing parallel Haskell applications, taking a data-centric point of view. Current work focuses on data structures such as append-trees to represent lists and quad-trees in an implementation of the n-body problem.
In the context of the SICSA MultiCore Challenge, we are comparing the performance of several parallel Haskell implementations (in GpH and Eden) with other functional implementations (F#, Scala and SAC) and with implementations produced by colleagues in a wide range of other parallel languages. The latest challenge application was the n-body problem. A summary of this effort is available on the following web page, and sources of several parallel versions will be uploaded shortly: http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/sicsawiki/index.php/MultiCoreChallenge.
We have been extending the set of primitives for parallelism in GpH, to provide enhanced control of data locality in GpH applications. Results from applications running on up to 256 cores of our Beowulf cluster demonstrate significant improvements in performance when using these extensions.
A distributed-memory, GHC-based implementation of the parallel Haskell extension GpH and of a fundamentally revised version of the evaluation strategies abstraction is available in a prototype version. In current research an extended set of primitives, supporting hierarchical architectures of parallel machines, and extensions of the runtime-system for supporting these architectures are being developed.
Cloud HaskellWe have been working on Cloud Haskell for distributed parallelism. In particular, we are developing a new implementation that is intended to be robust, flexible and have good performance. The resulting “distributed-process” package will build off an internal design which includes a swappable network transport layer. As we flesh out this implementation, we are also working on further developing and validating the new design. These ongoing efforts are visible from the GitHub page listed below.
The release is also accompanied by a new tutorial on the Haskell wiki, the ThreadScope Tour. The tours provides a series of self-contained miniature walkthroughs focusing on various aspects of ThreadScope usage, for example, observing the need to consolidate sequential evaluation in order to make ThreadScope output easier to interpret.
Much of the ThreadScope work leading up to this release consists in backend investments, improvements to the ghc-events package (a new state machine representation of the meaning of events) and the GHC runtime system (adding a new startup wall-clock time and Haskell thread labels to the event log). These changes will enable more useful improvements to ThreadScope in the future.
ThreadScopeThe latest release of ThreadScope (version 0.2.1) provides new visualisations that allow the user to observe the creation and conversion of sparks into actual work. These visualisations are aimed at giving users of ThreadScope more insight into the performance of their programs, not just what programs are doing performance-wise, but why.
The two main areas of focus in the project recently have been ThreadScope and Cloud Haskell.
Microsoft Research is funding a 2-year project to promote the real-world use of parallel Haskell. The project started in November 2010, with four industrial partners, and consulting and engineering support from Well-Typed (→ 8.1 ). Each organisation is working on its own particular project making use of parallel Haskell. The overall goal is to demonstrate successful serious use of parallel Haskell, and along the way to apply engineering effort to any problems with the tools that the organisations might run into.
We have already defined, formalized and developed a framework of verification and, now, we try to evaluate which range of concurrency bugs we are able to detect. The ongoing work also includes the implementation of a prototype and the research in order to reduce the number of annotations the programmer has to provide for running the analysis.
This PhD project targets the detection of concurrency bugs in STM Haskell. We focus on static analysis, i.e., we try to find errors by analyzing the source code of the program without executing it. Specifically, we target what we call application-level bugs, i.e., when the shared memory becomes inconsistent with respect to the design of the application because of an unexpected interleaving of the threads that access the memory. Our approach is to check that each transaction of the program preserves a given user-defined consistency property.
The WAI standard has proven itself capable for different users and there are no outstanding plans for changes or improvements.
By targeting WAI, every web framework can share WAI code instead of wasting effort re-implementing the same functionality. There are also some new web frameworks that take a completely different approach to web development that use WAI, such as webwire (FRP) and dingo (GUI). Since the last HCAR, another web framework called Scotty was released. WAI applications can send a response themselves. For example, wai-app-static is used by Yesod to serve static files. However, one does not need to use a web framework, but can simply build a web application using the WAI interface alone. The Hoogle web service targets WAI directly.
WAI is also a platform for re-using code between web applications and web frameworks through WAI middleware and WAI applications. WAI middleware can inspect and transform a request, for example by automatically gzipping a response or logging a request.
Since the last HCAR, WAI has switched to conduits (→ 7.1.1 ). WAI also added a vault parameter to the request type to allow middleware to store arbitrary data.
The Web Application Interface (WAI) is an interface between Haskell web applications and Haskell web servers. By targeting the WAI, a web framework or web application gets access to multiple deployment platforms. Platforms in use include CGI, the Warp web server, and desktop webkit.
Warp is actively used to serve up most of the users of WAI (and Yesod).
Due to the combined use of ByteStrings, blaze-builder, conduit, and GHC’s improved I/O manager, WAI+Warp has consistently proven to be Haskell’s most performant web deployment option.
Warp is a high performance, easy to deploy HTTP server backend for WAI (→ 5.2.1 ). Since the last HCAR, Warp has switched from enumerators to conduits (→ 7.1.1 ), added SSL support, and websockets integration.
The Holumbus web page ( http://holumbus.fh-wedel.de/ ) includes downloads, Git web interface, current status, requirements, and documentation. Timo Kranz’s master thesis describing the Holumbus index structure and the search engine is available at http://holumbus.fh-wedel.de/branches/develop/doc/thesis-searching.pdf. Sebastian Gauck’s thesis dealing with the crawler component is available at http://holumbus.fh-wedel.de/src/doc/thesis-indexing.pdf The thesis of Stefan Schmidt describing the Holumbus MapReduce is available via http://holumbus.fh-wedel.de/src/doc/thesis-mapreduce.pdf.
The Hayoo! and the FH-Wedel search engine have been adopted to run on top of the Snap framework (→ 5.2.7 ).
The second project, a specialized search engine for the FH-Wedel web site, has been finished http://w3w.fh-wedel.de/. The new aspect in this application is a specialized free text search for appointments, deadlines, announcements, meetings and other dates.
Currently there are activities to optimize the index structures of the framework. In the past there have been problems with the space requirements during indexing. The data structures and evaluation strategies have been optimized to prevent space leaks. A second index structure working with cryptographic keys for document identifiers is under construction. This will further simplify partial indexing and merging of indexes.
The search engine package includes the indexer and search modules, the MapReduce package bundles the distributed MapReduce system. This is based on two other packages, which may be useful for their on: The Distributed Library with a message passing communication layer and a distributed storage system.
The framework is now separated into four packages, all available on Hackage.
The framework supports distributed computations for building indexes and searching indexes. This is done with a MapReduce like framework. The MapReduce framework is independent of the index- and search-components, so it can be used to develop distributed systems with Haskell.
The Holumbus framework consists of a set of modules and tools for creating fast, flexible, and highly customizable search engines with Haskell. The framework consists of two main parts. The first part is the indexer for extracting the data of a given type of documents, e.g., documents of a web site, and store it in an appropriate index. The second part is the search engine for querying the index.
For more information check out the happstack.com website — especially the “Happstack Philosophy” and “Happstack 8 Roadmap”.
Happstack can also be extended using a wide range of libraries which include support for alternative HTML templating systems, javascript templating and generation, type-safe URLs, type-safe form generation and validation, RAM-cloud database persistence, OpenId authentication, and more.
At the core of Happstack is the happstack-server package which provides a fast, powerful, and easy to use HTTP server with built-in support for templating (via blaze-html), request routing, form-decoding, cookies, file-uploads, etc. happstack-server is all you need to create a simple website.
While Happstack is over 7 years old, it is still undergoing active development and new innovation. It is used in a number of commercial projects as well as the new Hackage 2 server.
The Happstack project is focused on bringing the relentless, uncompromised power and beauty of Haskell to a web framework. We aim to leverage the unique characteristics of Haskell to create a highly-scalable, robust, and expressive web framework.
Mighttpd 2 is now based on Conduit version 0.4 and provides the functionality of reverse proxy. You can install Mighttpd 2 ( mighttpd2 ) from HackageDB.
The performance of Mighttpd 2 is now comparable to highly tuned web servers written in C Please read “The Monad.Reader” Issue 19 for more information.
Mighttpd 2 stops using the c10k library because GHC 7 starts using epoll()/kqueue(). The file/CGI handling part of the webserver library is re-implemented as a web application on the wai library (→ 5.2.1 ). For HTTP transfer, Mighttpd 2 links the warp library (→ 5.2.2 ) which can send a file in zero copy manner thank to sendfile().
Mighttpd version 1 was implemented with two libraries c10k and webserver. Since GHC 6 uses select(), more than 1,024 connections cannot be handled at the same time. The c10k library gets over this barrier with the pre-fork technique. The webserver library provides HTTP transfer and file/CGI handling.
Mighttpd (called mighty) version 2 is a simple but practical Web server in Haskell. It is now working on Mew.org providing basic web features and CGI (mailman and contents search).
To see an example site with source code available, you can view Haskellers (→ 1.2 ) source code: ( https://github.com/snoyberg/haskellers ).
The Yesod site ( http://www.yesodweb.com/ ) is a great place for information. It has code examples, screencasts, the Yesod blog and — most importantly — a book on Yesod.
We are excited to have achieved a 1.0 release. This signifies maturity and API stability and a web framework that gives developers all the tools they need for productive web development. Future directions for Yesod are now largely driven by community input and patches. Easier client-side interaction is definitely one concern that Yesod is working on going forward. The 1.0 release features better coffeescript support and even roy.js support
Yesod finally reached its 1.0 version. The last HCAR entry was for the 0.8 version. Some of the major changes since then are:
Yesod is broken up into many smaller projects and leverages Wai (→ 5.2.1 ) to communicate with the server. This means that many of the powerful features of Yesod can be used in different web development stacks.
MVC stands for model-view-controller. The preferred library for models is Persistent (→ 7.7.2 ). View can be handled by the Shakespeare family of compile-time template languages. This includes Hamlet, which takes the tedium out of HTML. Both of these libraries are optional, and you can use any Haskell alternative. Controllers are invoked through declarative routing. Their return type shows which response types are allowed for the request.
When type safety conflicts with programmer productivity, Yesod is not afraid to use Haskell’s most advanced features of Template Haskell and quasi-quoting to provide Easier development for its users. In particular, these are used for declarative routing, declarative schemas, and compile-time templates.
Of course type-safety guarantees against typos or the wrong type in a function. But Yesod cranks this up a notch to guarantee common web application errors won’t occur.
But Yesod is even more focused on scalable development. The key to achieving this is applying Haskell’s type-safety to an otherwise traditional MVC REST web framework.
Yesod is a traditional MVC RESTful framework. By applying Haskell’s strengths to this paradigm, we have created a web framework that helps users create highly scalable web applications.
We are starting to see more high level functionality developed by third parties being made available as snaplets. A complete list of the third-party snaplets we are aware of can be found in the snaplet directory page on our website. So far this includes seven different snaplets providing support for various data stores, support for different build environments, ReCAPTCHA support, and a snaplet providing functionality similar to “rake tasks” from Ruby on Rails.
The Snap Framework has seen two major releases (0.7 and 0.8) since the last HCAR. Some of the major features added are better awareness of proxy servers and address translation, more powerful timeout handling, more control over buffering semantics, improvements to the test infrastructure, and a number of other bug fixes and minor improvements.
The Snap Framework is a web application framework built from the ground up for speed, reliability, and ease of use. The project’s goal is to be a cohesive high-level platform for web development that leverages the power and expressiveness of Haskell to make building websites quick and easy.
ghci> url (Blog 2011 9 19)
== "/blog/2009-9-19"
Recent developments
I have ported ivy-web from wai to snap-server backend, and also wrote a sample project correspond to the starter project of snap. When everything is fine and I am free, I will upload the code and bump the version to 0.2.
Further reading
5.2.9 rss2irc Report by: Simon Michael Status: beta rss2irc is an IRC bot that polls a single RSS or Atom feed and announces new items to an IRC channel, with options for customizing output and behavior. It aims to be an easy to use, dependable bot that does its job and creates no problems. rss2irc was published in 2008 by Don Stewart. Simon Michael took over maintainership in 2009, with the goal of making a robust low-maintenance bot to stimulate development in various free/open-source software communities. It is currently used for several full-time bots including: hackagebot — announces new hackage releases in #haskell
hledgerbot — announces hledger commits in #ledger
zwikicommitbot — announces Zwiki commits in #zwiki
squeaksobot — announces Squeak and Smalltalk-related Stack Overflow questions in #squeak
squeakquorabot — announces Squeak/Smalltalk-related Quora questions in #squeak
etoystrackerbot — announces new Etoys bugs in #etoys
etoysupdatesbot — announces Etoys commits in #etoys
planetzopebot — announces new planet.zope.org posts in #zope The project is available under BSD license from its home page at http://hackage.haskell.org/package/rss2irc. Since last report there has been a great deal of cleanup and enhancement, but no new release on hackage yet due to an xml-related memory leak. Further reading http://hackage.haskell.org/package/rss2irc
5.3 Haskell and Compiler Writing
5.3.1 UUAG Report by: Arie Middelkoop Participants: ST Group of Utrecht University Status: stable, maintained UUAG is the Utrecht University Attribute Grammar system. It is a preprocessor for Haskell that makes it easy to write catamorphisms, i.e., functions that do to any data type what foldr does to lists. Tree walks are defined using the intuitive concepts of inherited and synthesized attributes, while keeping the full expressive power of Haskell. The generated tree walks are efficient in both space and time. An AG program is a collection of rules, which are pure Haskell functions between attributes. Idiomatic tree computations are neatly expressed in terms of copy, default, and collection rules. Attributes themselves can masquerade as subtrees and be analyzed accordingly (higher-order attribute). The order in which to visit the tree is derived automatically from the attribute computations. The tree walk is a single traversal from the perspective of the programmer. Nonterminals (data types), productions (data constructors), attributes, and rules for attributes can be specified separately, and are woven and ordered automatically. These aspect-oriented programming features make AGs convenient to use in large projects. The system is in use by a variety of large and small projects, such as the Utrecht Haskell Compiler UHC (→3.3), the editor Proxima for structured documents (http://www.haskell.org/communities/05-2010/html/report.html#sect6.4.5), the Helium compiler (http://www.haskell.org/communities/05-2009/html/report.html#sect2.3), the Generic Haskell compiler, UUAG itself, and many master student projects. The current version is 0.9.39 (October 2011), is extensively tested, and is available on Hackage. Recently, we improved the Cabal support and ensured compatibility with GHC 7. We are working on the following enhancements of the UUAG system: First-class AGs We provide a translation from UUAG to AspectAG (→5.3.2). AspectAG is a library of strongly typed Attribute Grammars implemented using type-level programming. With this extension, we can write the main part of an AG conveniently with UUAG, and use AspectAG for (dynamic) extensions. Our goal is to have an extensible version of the UHC. Ordered evaluation We have implemented a variant of Kennedy and Warren (1976) for ordered AGs. For any absolutely non-circular AGs, this algorithm finds a static evaluation order, which solves some of the problems we had with an earlier approach for ordered AGs. A static evaluation order allows the generated code to be strict, which is important to reduce the memory usage when dealing with large ASTs. The generated code is purely functional, does not require type annotations for local attributes, and the Haskell compiler proves that the static evaluation order is correct. Multi-core evaluation Our algorithm for ordered AGs identifies statically which subcomputations of children of a production are independent and suitable for parallel evaluation. Together with the strict evaluation as mentioned above, which is important when evaluating in parallel, the generated code can automatically exploit multi-core CPUs. We are currently evaluating the effectiveness of this approach. Stepwise evaluation In the recent past we worked on a stepwise evaluation scheme for AGs. Using this scheme, the evaluation of a node may yield user-defined progress reports, and the evaluation to the next report is considered to be an evaluation step. By asking nodes to yield reports, we can encode the parallel exploration of trees and encode breadth-first search strategies. We are currently also running a Ph.D. project that investigates incremental evaluation. We are currently also running a Ph.D. project that investigates incremental evaluation. Further reading http://www.cs.uu.nl/wiki/bin/view/HUT/AttributeGrammarSystem
http://hackage.haskell.org/package/uuagc
5.3.2 AspectAG Report by: Marcos Viera Participants: Doaitse Swierstra, Wouter Swierstra Status: experimental AspectAG is a library of strongly typed Attribute Grammars implemented using type-level programming. Introduction Attribute Grammars (AGs), a general-purpose formalism for describing recursive computations over data types, avoid the trade-off which arises when building software incrementally: should it be easy to add new data types and data type alternatives or to add new operations on existing data types? However, AGs are usually implemented as a pre-processor, leaving e.g. type checking to later processing phases and making interactive development, proper error reporting and debugging difficult. Embedding AG into Haskell as a combinator library solves these problems. Previous attempts at embedding AGs as a domain-specific language were based on extensible records and thus exploiting Haskell’s type system to check the well-formedness of the AG, but fell short in compactness and the possibility to abstract over oft occurring AG patterns. Other attempts used a very generic mapping for which the AG well-formedness could not be statically checked. We present a typed embedding of AG in Haskell satisfying all these requirements. The key lies in using HList-like typed heterogeneous collections (extensible polymorphic records) and expressing AG well-formedness conditions as type-level predicates (i.e., typeclass constraints). By further type-level programming we can also |
would distract me and the urge would pass and I could just add up the days slowly. In my head, I was certain it wouldn’t work but I was desperate. I’d seen what it did to my parent and I did not want to get there. In fact, both my parent and I decided to quit together. It was a scene straight out of the movies. Me hugging them on a hospital bed, both teary eyed. Promising each other, “No more smoking”.
I was shooting in Jodhpur in December 2012 and I was smoking. In the hotel room, during shoot breaks, after the shoots. Everywhere. B wasn’t with me. Family and friends weren’t with me. I was in the middle of a crowd of strangers and acquaintances and clients. I could do as I pleased. And I didn’t want to smoke. Whenever I had the urge, I would text my friend – Twitter DMs, international SMSes and even calls, whatever was convenient. I would succeed sometimes but other times the opportunities to smoke were coming faster than my urges. And I slipped. And she told me it was ok. That it was better than yesterday. That I was making progress.
That an 85 year old gentleman could quit cold turkey after being a chain smoker for 40 years, was hope enough for me. If he could do it, so could I. My friend kept me sane.
My parent on the other hand, slipped. Instead of how I’d reacted in the past, this time, I treated them like my friend was treating me. Gently, with respect, no chastisement, with encouragement. I had realized that the only way I could quit was if I truly wanted to. I told this to my parent. I told them to let go of the years of arguments and chastisement they had faced from family, to forget about illness and addiction and to do it because they wanted to – for their own self. For no one else. I also kept sharing my progress with them.
In March 2013, I had been squeaky clean for three months straight. Those had been three VERY miserable months. I stopped partying, I stopped hanging out with anyone who smoked. Friends and acquaintances would call me up on my phone and I wouldn’t take calls. I would bump into them in market places and on streets and always turn down the offer to hang out / drink / party / have a conversation / coffee / anything and everything.
In March, I told B I had been smoking behind his back. I had to. I don’t lie and this had been the only one thing he didn’t know about and it was making me sick. To say that he felt betrayed is an understatement. But when I countered with having no help from him, there wasn’t much else to discuss. It was what it was and now I was done smoking. I told him it had been three months and if I did need any help, he better stand up to it and help me. He agreed.
I don’t recall any withdrawal symptoms. I just craved for a smoke. A drag even. I would stare at discarded cigarette butts on the streets and obsess about how I could squeeze a drag out of them. All I could see were smokers. Calling out to me, like beacons. It’s not easy – quitting smoking. And it’s a daily process. And I needed help. I took whatever help I got.
Then there was a phase where I forgot to count how many days / weeks / months it had been since I’d quit. I took that as a good sign. I’d racked up 6 months of squeaky clean just like that. My parent had racked up about 4. I started going out little by little – still preferably with people who didn’t smoke and I ALWAYS took B with me. I dragged him along everywhere. I no longer needed to text my friend who started me off on the quitting process but I sometimes updated her with how I couldn’t believe I’d actually quit and how long it had been. If a particularly strong urge to smoke hit – usually when there was a glass of alcohol in my hand and smoker nearby – I would just walk away.
It then came to a point where I was no longer afraid to be in the company of smokers. I wasn’t attracted anymore. I didn’t crave it. I still preferred to stay away from passive smoke but that was my only reason for not standing with smokers while they smoked their sticks.
The electronic cigarettes are still lying sealed in my drawer. I didn’t need them. Neither did my parent.
The fear of quitting and failing is what kept me away from quitting for so long. After almost a decade of keeping the stick company, I’m now successfully and permanently divorced from it.
31st December 2013 completed a whole year for me without smoking anything – no cigarettes, no cigars, no hookah, no sheesha, nothing. Clean chit. I’m done. And I’m so full of myself with pride. And so grateful to my friend who made me believe that quitting was possible.
If you’re thinking of quitting, I hope you will atleast try. Keep trying. And ask for help. It is possible even though you might strongly believe otherwise, like I did. If I had quit because someone else had wanted me to, I would still be smoking because then everything would be about my ego – a little disagreement with that person and smoking would be a way of getting back at them without them knowing. And that’s a miserable way to live. Like most species, I like my peace of mind.
I’m happy to answer any questions anyone might have in the comments section below. You can post anonymously – your email will not be visible to anyone except me.
P.S. ( Talking about smoking or quitting, in public, is easier when I’ve now quit. I don’t smoke and I don’t support smoking but I will shoot it if it’s an assignment. My “showing” smoking doesn’t mean anyone has to smoke. Subject for a whole different blog post. )
P.P.S. ( To the “friends of B” who “reported” to him how I was smoking behind his back, if I ever see you in person again, I will pretend like you don’t exist. Because otherwise I will have to kill you. Interfering bastards. Assholes. Thankfully B did not believe them or else I would have been caught and unprepared and who knows how life would’ve turned out. )After years of unnecessary expansion, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) may soon get some much-needed reform. Senator Wyden, along with Representatives Lofgren and Sensenbrenner, recently introduced Aaron's Law, which offers modest, common-sense changes to the draconian anti-hacking law and brings the statute in-line with recent court rulings limiting its scope.
Though it doesn’t go as far as we would like, Aaron's law, named after the late Internet activist and pioneer Aaron Swartz, draws from EFF's own proposal by adapting the statute to reflect modern times and protect innovation. The bill lowers some of the penalties for crimes that produce little or no harm, deletes a provision that is repeated elsewhere in the statute, and clarifies once and for all that violating terms of service agreements is not a crime.
Unfortunately, despite widespread agreement between all sides that the that the CFAA is both outdated and overboard, many corporate representatives are now claiming that fixing the CFAA will hinder companies from going after “insider threats” or employees who take allegedly confidential company information. For example, in an article arguing that Aaron's Law will "eliminate the use of the CFAA," former Justice Department attorney Jason Weinstein wrote the new bill “would make it effectively impossible to use the CFAA to prosecute, or to bring civil suits based on, insider thefts of intellectual property or other proprietary business information.”
Weinstein’s complaints about Aaron's Law recycle the same old strawman argument: the CFAA is needed to stop employees from taking trade secrets. Companies can use a variety of existing statues, like trade secret, anti-fraud, or economic espionage laws to go after these “insider threats.” And of course even for non-trade secrets, copyright law applies, both civil and criminal. All of these laws have the same or tougher penalties as the CFAA as currently written.
Civil actions are yet another way for companies to tackle trade secrets or intellectual property theft. Even without the CFAA and without trade secrets laws, Companies can resort to civil actions like breach of contract or tortious interference with in either federal or state court. The actions provide them with the threat of bankruptcy for disloyal insiders and possibly even some financial recuperation, on par with what they would receive through a criminal case.
In case companies are worried about what laws they can use to alleviate these problems, we’ve created a handy chart which shows all the ways these types of actions are still illegal.
Unfortunately, it’s not just Weinstein who has made these misleading arguments. In another post, the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) states that the CFAA is effective at "protect[ing] billions of dollars of research and development." Unfortunately, SIIA forgets that those actions are not only covered by some of the above laws, but are covered by many other laws as well. Again we refer SIIA to our chart.
Regardless of the myriad other laws that companies can use to go after this type of behavior, it’s important to remember why this particular provision is being fixed in the first place: the “exceeds authorized access” language in the CFAA goes far beyond the insider threat scenario and creates criminal liability for routine, innocent Internet behavior for the millions of Americans who use the Internet everyday.
In fact, even Weinstein admits the statute is written "broadly enough to cover innocuous online activity." It’s not in dispute that the Justice Department still considers Internet terms of service and employee terms of use violations a criminal act. It’s even in official Justice Department policy guidelines. We've warned the dangers of this interpretation again and again, yet some corporate representatives are willing to let the general public continue to risk being called criminal for lying on Craigslist in order to ensure their easy ability have the cops throw disloyal employees in jail rather than merely firing them or bankrupting them with a lawsuit.
And even with these modest changes, the CFAA still has plenty of teeth. For instance, it severely punishes criminalizes malware injections, distributed denial of service attacks, and theft of login information.
We understand ambiguity about employee “authorized” access is a major headache at companies. But Aaron's law will actually help clarify what is, and is not, authorized by finally defining a key term in the bill. But that’s not why Aaron’s law is important. It’s important, and long overdue because Aaron’s Law stops the Justice Department from using current ambiguities in the law to threatens citizens with serious prosecutions involving felony prison time for common behavior, while still leaving many tools for companies to go after legitimate bad actors. Tell Congress now to reform the CFAA.Data File Updated: Friday, August 23, 2013 Overview Faster Than Light travel in Outsider is via "jump drive", which is a form of point-to-point hyperspace travel. A starship activates its jump field generator while on a vector from one star to another, and the ship is propelled into hyperspace, through which it travels (nearly) instantaneously on a ballistic trajectory and re-enters realspace within the gravity well of the destination star. There are no "gates", but the jumping starship must be within the proper outbound zone and have the correct velocity vector to escape from the originating star and to arrive safely at the destination star. Optimal jump points tend to be located at significant distance from the system primary, so after jumping, the ship must travel through the normal space of the solar system (using conventional drives) before it can reach the next jump point and jump again to the next star. Jump drive only works between adjacent stars because the gravity wells are needed to govern the "pitch and catch" of the hyperspace transit. Other stars' gravity will interfere with this ballistic hyperspace trajectory, so it's usually not possible to jump "past" a nearby star to a more distant star. This effectively limits safe jump range to roughly 6-10 light years, depending upon the density and mass of stars in the area. The energy required for jump is significant, and must usually be built up for several minutes before jump.
The energy cost to jump is up-front, and the ship is ballistic while in hyperspace. It's like a cannon-shot.
The energy cost of a hyperspace jump is proportional to the mass of the ship.
The ship must have some kind of inertial damping system to prevent being torn apart by the transition to hyperspace.
Both entry into and return from hyperspace cause a bright flash of light that is very detectable at long ranges.
The jump is nearly instantaneous, so there is not much you can do while in hyperspace.
Since it is moving faster than light, the ship is blind while in hyperspace.
Realspace momentum is preserved; you have the same velocity after the jump as you did before you jumped.
Hyperspace transit has different effects on different species. Many find it unpleasant and disorienting.
Two masses are required at the start and end points of the jump. You can't jump to or from deep empty space.
It is generally not possible to do short-range jumps from within the same star system.
Hyperspace is chaotic and cannot be directly observed, so accuracy of jumps can never be perfect.
Optimal jump distance (both entry and exit) from a Sun-type star is at about 4-5 AU from the star (Jupiter orbit distance).
By varying pre-jump velocity and position, a ship can exit shallower or deeper into the target well, but at added risk.
A hyperspace "miss" usually means that the ship is never seen again.
The length of a long trip is measured in the time required to travel in normal space from jump point to jump point.
If a jumping mass returns to normal space where another mass already exists, the result is a high-energy collision. Jump Mechanics A jump zone is a conical volume centered on the vector connecting two masses (Fig. I). The outbound jump zone is very wide, and extends some distance out into interstellar space; as long as your initial vector will carry you close enough to the destination star for its gravity well to pull you back out of hyperspace (and as long as you are far enough out / have enough velocity from the departure star to escape its own well), then you don't have to be exactly on the line (the “jump vector”). The inbound jump zone is much narrower; a ship coming out of hyperspace will appear fairly close to this jump vector. How far from the destination star it appears will depend on the ship's hyperspace momentum, which is increased by departure velocity and decreased by jumping from deeper within the departure star’s gravity well. As described in (Fig. II), gravity wells are necessary at the start and end points of the hyperspace jump to achieve proper entry and exit angles into hyperspace. The vessel's starting space-time velocity is added to the +hyperspace momentum provided by the jump drive to give the transiting vessel a ballistic trajectory through hyperspace. Gravity from the stars in realspace still acts on the ship in hyperspace, pulling it laterally between the stars but also "down" in the -hyperspace direction back towards realspace. If the trajectory of the transiting ship again intersects space-time at the proper angle, it will re-embed itself and return to normal space. The more hyperspace momentum you have, the "deeper" into the well you travel and the closer you will appear to the arrival star. If you have too much momentum it’s possible to exit hyperspace too close to or even inside the star, or to overshoot it entirely causing a hyperspace “miss.” If you don’t have enough momentum to escape the departure star’s gravity well, you’ll be pulled back in, either exiting hyperspace inside the star or popping out the other side still in hyperspace, again causing a miss. If you intersect space-time at an improper angle, you may bounce off or even punch through to the other side. Safety Issues and Failed Jumps Jumps and exit points can't be calculated with great accuracy, because the exact geometry of the hyperspace-time "curve" you'll be traveling on can't be directly measured. The n-dimensional curvature of hyperspace is chaotic and is affected by many sources, from the gravitation of nearby stars, planets and interstellar gas and dust, to the rotation of the stellar masses and their electromagnetic fields, not all of which you can measure accurately, so there is always an uncertainty factor to account for in your calculations. Therefore, a jumping ship must whenever possible allow for the largest safety margin that it can: it must endeavor to be as close on the vector between the stars as possible, be moving at the optimal escape velocity, and jump at the optimal slope in the departure star's gravity well. If you jump close on the jump vector, you limit the perturbing influence of your departure star's gravity well to a linear quantity, meaning that it might only affect how deep into the destination star system you arrive. If you jump from a tangential point (Fig. III), then the departure star is pulling you laterally rather than directly back, increasing the chance that you might miss the target altogether. In theory, if your calculations are correct you can jump from a tangent point as illustrated above, but in practice it's extremely dangerous. Maximum arrival distance from the destination varies with the mass of the star, but a successful "short-jump" can often bring you in at the edge of system, outside the orbits of most of the planets. The deeper your jump starts in the departure gravity well, the shallower the exit point is likely to be (Fig. V). Greater starting velocity will also cause the vessel to exit deeper into the destination well. Hyperspace jumps can be compared to putting a golf ball. In theory, if you hit the ball hard enough on the right trajectory, you should be able to get the ball in the (gravity well) hole from any distance... but in practice, the irregularity of the putting surface makes an accurate putt exponentially more difficult the farther you get away from the hole. In most cases, the maximum jump distance between stars is about 10 light years, and preferable safe distance is about 6 light years or less. The limitation on jump ranges is based both on limited ability to calculate trajectories past a certain distance (the chaotic element causes the effect of tiny errors to increase geometrically with distance), but also on the interference of nearby stars. The farther you try to jump, the more likely that other stars are going to perturb your trajectory. Higher density of stars will reduce safe jump distance; lower density will increase it. In a safe jump, the transiting ship reconnects with the space-time curve at the appropriate angle and successfully re-embeds into space-time, usually appearing 4-5 AU from the target star. In a "short jump," the vessel has less than optimal velocity, and so reenters at a more shallow point in the well, and appears farther from the star (often 6-10 AU). Short jumping risks reconnecting with the space-time curve at too steep an angle, causing the vessel to "skip" back into hyperspace. In a "deep jump," the vessel has more than optimal velocity, and so reenters deeper in the well and closer to the star (3 AU or less). Deep jumping risks being pulled directly into the star itself. Jumping vessels that "miss" the target are rarely seen again in this universe. The various conditions of a failure on reentry into realspace illustrated in (Fig. IV) include: Overshoot. If either the linear realspace velocity is too great, or the +hyperspace momentum is too great, the ship may miss the target well entirely ("whiff"). If the ship has achieved escape velocity in the +hyperspace direction, it may never return to realspace. Otherwise, gravity from realspace will eventually pull it back toward realspace, at which time one of the results below will occur. Failure to re-embed into realspace because of angle of entry. This can result in the ship rebounding back into hyperspace ("doink"), or in rare cases punching through realspace altogether and being "liberated" into negative hyperspace. The result of a rebound is usually a series of subsequent further skips until the vessel happens along another gravity well, at which point it will have a chance to re-embed, but will most likely do so in an unsafe manner (see: Collision below). Negative hyperspace is an unknown quantity; objects that enter have never returned. Collision. Objects in realspace do not physically interact with those in hyperspace (except gravitationally), but if the transiting object reenters realspace at the same location as another mass, the result is a high-energy collision. Matter returning from hyperspace does not "materialize," but rather pushes its way through an extra-dimensional portal. The transiting object may collide from "inside" the obstructing object (particularly if it is a star or planet), but it does not technically occupy the same space as the obstruction, but it treated as a normal kinetic impact. Since this entry is very rapid, and the preserved realspace momentum of the transiting ship is usually quite significant, the kinetic energy of any such collision is considerable and usually catastrophic. The most common collision is with the target star itself. Collisions with planets are rare, because inbound jump zones are seldom in the same plane as the planets' orbits, and if it is, then that jump link is probably too dangerous to be used for safe travel. Collisions with smaller objects are very unlikely; the volume of space is very large compared to the size of ships and debris, even in the restricted area of a jump zone. Hazards Posed by Very Massive Objects Very massive objects present a hazard to navigation because their mass can pull a ship off course in hyperspace. This can happen with any star, but a very massive star affects a larger area. In addition to making nearby stars more dangerous to hit, very massive star systems can be difficult to jump directly into, because the gravity well becomes so steep that it's hard to hit the target slope without being pulled all the way into the star. This is why the star-forming regions with star clusters and short-lived massive stars (such as the Gould belt surrounding the local bubble) form natural boundaries to safe jump travel. Stellar remnants (black holes, pulsars, neutron stars) of very massive stars pose additional hazards to hyperspace travel; because they form through the collapse of a star, they usually have an incredibly high rate of spin, which causes gravitational waves. These waves propagate into hyperspace and have an unpredictable effect on the trajectory of objects transiting through nearby hyperspace, kind of like trying to putt a golf ball on an undulating surface. Power and Scope of Jump Fields Because of the high power requirements of the jump field, the field generator must usually be coupled with an array of capacitors (or "accumulators") that can build up the necessary charge over a period of time, usually several minutes. Combined with the requirement of an inertial damping system to protect the ship and crew from the extreme forces experienced when leaving and reentering space-time, this usually means that a jump-capable vessel can't be very much smaller (given Loroi or Umiak technology) than a ~100m gunboat-sized vessel. The smallest jump-capable scouts and couriers tend to be between 100-150m. There is no theoretical upper limit to the size of a starship, but the power required to jump increases with the mass of the vessel. In order for an object to be successfully propelled into hyperspace, a jump field must be generated that encloses the object and is of sufficient intensity according to the object's mass that it overcomes the inertia that holds the object in realspace (which I suppose could be thought of as a kind of "surface tension" of space-time). If the field is not strong enough, nothing happens. If the field is strong enough to breach space-time but does not cover the entire object, then the forces acting on the part of the object covered by the jump field will attempt to rip it away from the rest of the object. If the object is not strong enough to withstand this tensile stress, then the object will be ripped apart, and the portion within the field will be pulled into hyperspace while the rest stays in realspace (though it is very likely that the retarding force of the object's structural failure may fatally reduce the jumping portion's hyperspace momentum). If the object can withstand this tensile stress (or if there is an inertial damping field in effect around the mass, as is likely in the case of a starship), then the field will try to push the whole object through the portal it has created, but if the energy of the field is not sufficient to propel the whole object through the portal, then the jump attempt will fail, and no part of the object will enter hyperspace. Any jump-capable tug must therefore usually have jump field generators powerful enough for the total mass of both itself and any towed ship, and able to project the field to cover both ships. Effects of Hyperspace on Biology The experience of hyperspace transit has differing impact on various species. Humans are typical in this regard and experience transitory "jump sickness" which may include: vertigo, nausea, headache, disorientation, visual and auditory hallucinations, waking dreams, and nightmares (for those already asleep). These symptoms usually pass after several minutes. Some humans (especially civilian passengers) may resort to various drugs to help lessen the effect of these reactions. Umiak can experience more severe reactions, including unconsciousness and sometimes mania, and so most Umiak must use drugs to mitigate these effects. Because of this, an Umiak crew will often be at reduced effectiveness for up to an hour after hyperspace transit. Soia-Liron species (Loroi, Barsam, Neridi) have very little reaction to hyperspace transit. Q & A it should be possible to go around the front lines, yes? there are plenty of stars around after all....and everyone of 'em are a potential jumpgate..... which effectively makes the jumpzone a 360x360 degree sphere..... yes? Not really. Only nearby stars have workable jump links (max 10 light years, and preferable safe distance is about 6 light years or less). Earth has 7 possible jump points (Alpha Centauri, Sirius, Barnard's Star, Ross 154, Lalande 21185, Wolf 359 and Luyten 726-8, if you want to know), but only the two shortest safe for use by most shipping (Alpha Centauri and Barnard's). Most systems will have fewer points. All the entry points must be accounted for in a defense scheme; raiding aside, if an enemy can get a significant force past your front lines into undefended territory, the war is over. All borders must be guarded. That said, finding a new "back door" into enemy territory is the Holy Grail of a frustrated combatant. New systems that might offer a new route to enemy territory are always being sought -- hence the plight of the Humans and other would-be neutral entities.
It's always possible to take the way-long way around and try to come into enemy territory from the rear, but it can take a long time (each system transit can take several days to a week), and supply can become an issue. Such missions will also have a poor survivability rate; if you go the long way around, you have to return the same way, which may take many months. If you were damaged in the raid, or if you should happen to run into enemy forces on the way in or back...
Remember also that the Loroi are not easily taken unawares; thanks to their telepathically amplified farseers, they can often tell when the attacks are coming, and can arrange for a fleet to meet the raiders. Loroi don't spread their forces across the front; they concentrate them at the point of attack. Did humanity develop any slower-than-light travel methods before they got Hyperspace? Say, for instance, Bussard ramjets? Unlikely, but even if they had, they would have been overtaken by the FTL ships that were developed soon after. If I’m in a jump zone, how easily and how accurately can I jump to somewhere else in the same zone? If it's a field, can you 'jump' photons, or other really fast particles? Generally, you can't jump to somewhere else in the same system. To escape being pulled into the primary star, you usually need to have escape velocity out of the star's gravity well, on a vector for another star. Entering "hyperspace" you're hurled toward the other star, the gravity of which rips you back out into normal space. If you try to jump say, from Jupiter to Saturn, chances are you will either be pulled back into the Sun, or you will overjump Saturn and end up who knows where. How long does it take, in hyperspace, to go 1 ly? And for in-system purposes, what's the max speed for most ships? The jump is almost instantaneous, but since your jump range is limited to about 10 LY, traveling a long way means making a lot of jumps, and traveling in-system from one jump point to another. There's no maximum in-system speed, but ships will very rarely go more than 10% lightspeed (because it would take too long to stop, otherwise) and even that is extreme; at 30g it would take 28 hours to reach 10% c, and the ship would displace some 10 AU during that time. A more reasonable in-system speed is something closer to 1% lightspeed (3,000 km/s). So, It will generally take several days to a week to transit each system. It took the Bellarmine nearly two months to reach Loroi space from 82 Eridani, a distance of some 200 LY. So, if you miss, you may never drop out of FTL? Those ships that have overjumped have never been seen again... so it's hard to say for certain what happened to them. It is assumed that most eventually dropped out of hyperspace far away, likely ending up in the center of a star somewhere. Some might never have left hyperspace. Some might have ended up in the same extradimensional place that the Event Horizon went. Libera te tutamet ex inferis! IF you missed everything, then head in the only direction that is truly up (up being opposite of down; down being towards matter) The problem there is that the jump is nearly instantaneous, and for the fragmentary moment you're in hyperspace, you're ballistic. Either you hit the target, or you go bye-bye to goodness knows where. Don't burn too many neurons over this... it's completely inconsequential to the story. Could something really weird like this [ (Fig.VI), at right] happen? I know it's extremely unlikely, I'm just curious if it would be possible to "glimpse the beyond". Anything is possible, though this seems unlikely. But since the ship is completely blind during hyperspace transit, there's nothing to see, and it would be hard to know whether this really happened or not (though I suppose it might be a clue if the crew starts to gouge their eyes out and vivisect each other). But I think a more likely result of this scenario is illustrated in (Fig.VII) at right: W ould the above be an example of entering negative-hyperspace as discussed? Yes, hence the screaming. Also; why is your jump range limited to 10 ly? If only a massive gravity well can pull you out, then isn't it only limited by how much risk you're willing to take? That's right. Because stars are so densely packed, a "safe jump" is usually 10 LY or less. If you were trying to jump somewhere outside dense galactic space, your safe range might be much longer, but that's outside the scope of the story. if coming out of hyperspace makes a lot of light (right now I'm assuming all wavelengths), then with a big enough mass coming out of hyperspace, couldn't you fry a lot of things? And would it also create an EM shockwave? Not quite that much light. If you tossed a planet through hyperspace at them I'm sure you'd cause a great deal of havoc, but none of the combatants has access to quite that much energy. Can you use one ship to throw another into hyperspace without needing to actually follow? It's not possible for one ship to "throw" another object into hyperspace without entering hyperspace itself. There is no method known to the major combatants to project an external jump field that does not include the generator itself. You can use another ship to tow the object into the correct vector, and perhaps use some kind of attachable "jump pack" to perform the jump, but whatever generator that creates the jump field is going into hyperspace along with the object. Wouldn't a viable defensive tactic to deter invasion be to place mines or debris around a jump point? Space is big, and debris is small. The unpredictability inherent in a jump means that even the optimal jump "point" is really a zone almost 1 AU across. That's a lot of space to fill with debris, and there's no way to make the debris stay there; the gravity of the system primary will make it either fall in toward the star or orbit out of the zone. A possible exploit would be trying to hit enemy planets with guided FTL missiles, in order to cause the previously-mentioned "high-energy explosion". That being said, this depends on three factors-- how high-energy is the high-energy explosion, how accurate your hyperspace drives are, and how cheap the drive is. Such a collision delivers normal kinetic energy, determined by the hyperspace momentum of the transiting object plus the difference in velocity between the two objects. Since a typical pre-jump velocity is 3,000 km/s, that kinetic energy is usually enough to vaporize both objects if they are of a similar size. If the object in realspace is very large, however, like a planet, this damage is not likely to be significant, especially since the transiting object will usually impact somewhere deep inside the obstructing planet. Also, because it's not possible to accurately predict exactly where the transiting object will re-enter realspace, it's very difficult to hit a planet-sized target.A look at the regular-season numbers produced by franchise centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin over the past five years:
Mike Johnston understands that much of his success as coach of the Penguins will hinge on the performances of franchise centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
That’s why Johnston visited Nova Scotia and Moscow this offseason to spend time with Crosby and Malkin — in their home countries, on their own turf.
It also is why Johnston not-so-subtly pointed out during an interview with the Tribune-Review inside his Consol Energy Center office Monday morning that giving the Penguins a chance to play for another Stanley Cup isn’t a one-man job.
Johnston said the Penguins need to “lessen the load” on Crosby, who scored one goal in 13 postseason games this past spring and drew intense scrutiny from Penguins fans for the first time in his tenure here.
“You don’t ever question his work ethic,” Johnston said of Crosby. “You don’t ever question his commitment. For a guy his age coming into the NHL and carrying the load that he’s carried, I believe he’s done a phenomenal job.
“Do we have to lessen the load? Yes. We have to ensure that other players on our team take some of the responsibility off his shoulders — both in leadership and also in performance. He is a captain, and he is a leader, but it doesn’t all rest on Sid.”
How will the Penguins make things easier for Crosby and, to a degree, Malkin?
Well, the answer isn’t exactly clear.
Depth is the biggest thing, general manager Jim Rutherford said. And after bringing in potential top-nine forwards Patric Hornqvist, Nick Spalling and Steve Downie, as well as defenseman Christian Ehrhoff, Rutherford thinks the Penguins are plenty deep.
“We have a very well-balanced group of forwards,” Rutherford said. “With that being said, everybody has to do their job. We know who the top players on the team are. We know who’s going to win more games for us. But in order for us to get to our goal, we have to have everybody contributing. When you have that, it should take some of the pressure off the top players.”
Johnston pointed to the team’s existing group of leaders, naming forwards Pascal Dupuis, Chris Kunitz and Craig Adams, as well as defensemen Paul Martin and Kris Letang. He said Malkin and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury are full of “energy and humor” and will “balance the group out a little bit.”
Malkin going all “Malkamania” on the rest of the NHL would, of course, be a trump card. Few are capable of stopping a determined Malkin.
Just look at his hat trick in Game 6 to eliminate the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs or the three goals and seven points he had against the Rangers.
Johnston traveled to Moscow with strength and conditioning coach Mike Kadar, who goes every year, in late July to meet with Malkin. The talk was not centered around hockey, more in getting to know Malkin.
“It was not about power play or penalty kill or where they’re going to be used or who they’re going to play with,” Johnston said of his offseason meetings with players. “It was more about what they like to do, what’s their family situation, how did they grow up.
“I think if you know a little bit about the player’s background, it’s going to help in the transition to a new coaching staff and a little bit of a new management group.”
Johnston said he and Malkin “didn’t spend a lot of time together.” They had lunch, Johnston said. The next day, he and Kadar watched Malkin train in the woods with former Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar. Johnston said he and Kadar ate alone that night.
“It wasn’t a long trip, but again, it was a chance to connect,” Johnston said. “Geno seems to me, at least when he’s around our group, like he’s an upbeat guy, a funny guy.
“I know when he said something in Russian to a few of the people at the table, everybody was almost dying laughing. With Mike and I, he was a little bit more comfortable with Mike. You could tell with his buddies he was much more relaxed.”
It’s doubtful Penguins management will want Crosby and Malkin to relax much, if at all. But them being comfortable around a relatively new group? There’s a good chance Johnston would take that.
Jason Mackey is a staff writer for |
rerolled will be an insufficient measure to stop his dominance.
Keep in mind, anyone running Copycat steals Faust which would have made for a much better world's story. I would, however, like to see D20s be considered Tactics in the new rules to make "No Tactic" events more balanced. Disagree. I have seen him played plenty of times and it is the prob that makes him overly difficult. Any other tinkering would ruin the fig.Keep in mind, anyone running Copycat steals Faust which would have made for a much better world's story. I would, however, like to see D20s be considered Tactics in the new rules to make "No Tactic" events more balanced. 06/12/2015, 10:13 4 MopedKid86 Member Offline Online Status: Online Status: Mar 2006 Join Date: Join Date: 8,242 Posts: Posts: 2 Blog Entries: 57 (100%) iTrader: I agree that Strange would be 100% fine if he was changed to be unprobbable. Strange's effects are tamer, and he can't cripple an entire team with one roll. In addition, Strange uses a free action to make his roll.
Not so sure about Felix. I imagine leaving him banned is the appropriate solution for the time being. His D20 is far more powerful than Strange's. "It is a fool's prerogative to utter truths that no one else will speak."
"Prove you have the strength and courage to be free." 06/12/2015, 10:21 5 Bat-Phreak 'Cuz I'm Just A Phreak!! Offline Online Status: Online Status: Mar 2003 Join Date: Join Date: 6,194 Posts: Posts: 134 Blog Entries: 720 (100%) iTrader: I still contend that making the d20 un-re-rollable and requiring ALL Faust's power be activated by a Power Action rather than a Free Action would be sufficient.
This change would still make Faust very powerful (tones him down to "merely" a Top Tier figure, rather than having him on a Tier of his own) while keeping the flavor of the character. 06/12/2015, 10:22 6 DaddyDoom Member Offline Online Status: Online Status: Sep 2007 Join Date: Join Date: 1,390 Posts: Posts: 207 Blog Entries: 0 (0%) iTrader: Quote What this figure’s designer failed to consider (and playtest must have missed), apparently, was the effect of adding additional instances of the effect, and thus partly eliminating the very randomness that sought to render Faust relatively harmless in the big picture.
Quote I imagine leaving him banned is the appropriate solution for the time being. WKs Playtesting is either a complete myth or an example of total incompetance.Faust is Banned from ROC...he has not (to my knowledge) been banned from the game. If he has, then the GD and testers that created him should be moved onto the Dice Masters team where they can do less harm. 06/12/2015, 10:44 7 MopedKid86 Member Offline Online Status: Online Status: Mar 2006 Join Date: Join Date: 8,242 Posts: Posts: 2 Blog Entries: 57 (100%) iTrader: Quote : Originally Posted by DaddyDoom WKs Playtesting is either a complete myth or an example of total incompetance. core power. Felix has been filed under "catastrophic failure."
Quote : Originally Posted by DaddyDoom Faust is Banned from ROC...he has not (to my knowledge) been banned from the game. If he has, then the GD and testers that created him should be moved onto the Dice Masters team where they can do less harm.
At this point, the figure is so problematic that he's created his own short-term fixes. He's banned from upcoming competitive events, and local events have no place for him. At this point if WK doesn't errata him, there won't be any demand for an ultra-broken and widely banned figure, so they won't eb able to sell any more. I'd file it under "failure" most of the time. Admittedly, it can be difficult to see how specific abilities will interact with other abilities from different sets (past and future) but Faust's case is the figure destroying the game by combining it with a. Felix has been filed under "catastrophic failure."I probably should have been more articulate, but I'm aware that the Felix ban is ROC only. WK runs "big" events very infrequently, so banning him from them would be pointless anyway, since the next one isn't for months unless I'm mistaken. As far as local venues, I think anyone who runs Felix/Prob is going to be strongly discouraged enough that they never do it again.At this point, the figure is so problematic that he's created his own short-term fixes. He's banned from upcoming competitive events, and local events have no place for him. At this point if WK doesn't errata him, there won't be any demand for an ultra-broken and widely banned figure, so they won't eb able to sell any more. "It is a fool's prerogative to utter truths that no one else will speak."
"Prove you have the strength and courage to be free." 06/12/2015, 10:45 8 Swagneto Member Offline Online Status: Online Status: Jul 2013 Join Date: Join Date: 903 Posts: Posts: 0 (0%) iTrader: Good article. Only other thing I would've touched on is the roll doesn't cost an action for Faust. Also, Strange's does so that makes him easier to defend against when team-building. I personally don't want to see Strange changed if possible. 2016 ROC Season: I Sucked.
The Master of Swagnetism of Team Vegas
Viva La ClixTV of Team Vegas 06/12/2015, 10:45 9 Terman8er The ROC Judge Offline Online Status: Online Status: Dec 2002 Join Date: Join Date: 10,676 Posts: Posts: 26 (100%) iTrader: Quote : Originally Posted by DaddyDoom Disagree. I have seen him played plenty of times and it is the prob that makes him overly difficult. Any other tinkering would ruin the fig.
Quote : Originally Posted by DaddyDoom Keep in mind, anyone running Copycat steals Faust which would have made for a much better world's story. I would, however, like to see D20s be considered Tactics in the new rules to make "No Tactic" events more balanced. Did you watch the final match at World's? A total of 1 re-roll was used. Opponent still couldn't do anything.World Champ faced, and beat, a Copycat team. So...???
Respect is a given, only disrespect can be earned.
It's time to ROC and Roll, 2d6!
Politically Incorrect
Bane holding 2 Light Objects at once. What we do in life echoes in eternity!Respect is a given, only disrespect can be earned.It's time to ROC and Roll, 2d6!Bane holding 2 Light Objects at once. 06/12/2015, 10:47 10 konasavage Member Offline Online Status: Online Status: May 2007 Join Date: Join Date: 3,746 Posts: Posts: 15 (100%) iTrader: WKs will never ban a figure. That would be the final nail in the "we don't play test" coffin. Play Testing - Pics or it didn't happen. 06/12/2015, 10:47 11 Thanos-The-Mad-Titan Member Offline Online Status: Online Status: Nov 2007 Join Date: Join Date: 1,406 Posts: Posts: 62 (97%) iTrader: Wizkids needs to just stop making stuff like this. Its already too late to keep me buying cause after AoU I am done. But if they want to keep people interested they need to keep things balanced. 06/12/2015, 10:52 12 DaddyDoom Member Offline Online Status: Online Status: Sep 2007 Join Date: Join Date: 1,390 Posts: Posts: 207 Blog Entries: 0 (0%) iTrader: Quote World Champ faced, and beat, a Copycat team. So...???
As for the final match...yes I did watch it. However, if there wasn't multiple probs available the opponent would not have felt the pressure to run right in and try to end it quickly.
By the way, totally over the top with your punctuation. So either the Copycat player did not take Faust or they did and Faust didn't make that big of a difference without numerous probs....underscores my point.As for the final match...yes I did watch it. However, if there wasn't multiple probs available the opponent would not have felt the pressure to run right in and try to end it quickly.By the way, totally over the top with your punctuation. 06/12/2015, 10:57 13 Typhon Pasoillionaire Online Online Status: Online Status: Jan 2002 Join Date: Join Date: 10,656 Posts: Posts: 5 Blog Entries: 11 (100%) iTrader: Quote : Originally Posted by konasavage WKs will never ban a figure. That would be the final nail in the "we don't play test" coffin. I'm still waiting to see what they do since he is now a "Pay-To-Win" figure. Do they sell him at another event and pretend he's not an issue (money > game)? There is no "wait and see" option here; something has to be done... and every day that ticks by that they don't even address an issue (ie. add him to the "Watch List")... is an issue. 06/12/2015, 11:01 14 konasavage Member Offline Online Status: Online Status: May 2007 Join Date: Join Date: 3,746 Posts: Posts: 15 (100%) iTrader: Quote : Originally Posted by DaddyDoom WKs Playtesting is either a complete myth or an example of total incompetance. You're making this one a tough choice... Play Testing - Pics or it didn't happen. 06/12/2015, 11:04 15 konasavage Member Offline Online Status: Online Status: May 2007 Join Date: Join Date: 3,746 Posts: Posts: 15 (100%) iTrader: Quote : Originally Posted by Typhon I'm still waiting to see what they do since he is now a "Pay-To-Win" figure. Do they sell him at another event and pretend he's not an issue (money > game)? There is no "wait and see" option here; something has to be done... and every day that ticks by that they don't even address an issue (ie. add him to the "Watch List")... is an issue.
Con Exclusives need to be alternate sculpts or something that will have zero impact on the game. People will still want them, but it won't become eBay pay to win. How many lit torches and pitchforks did it take to get the original Watch List?Con Exclusives need to be alternate sculpts or something that will have zero impact on the game. People will still want them, but it won't become eBay pay to win. Play Testing - Pics or it didn't happen. Page 1 of 5 1 2 3 4 5 >
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User Control Panel Private Messages Subscriptions Who's Online Search Forums Forums Home HCRealms.com Forum Regulations & Feedback Forum Regulations and Feedback Units Section Feedback HeroClix: General HeroClix General Discussion Upcoming Sets and Rumors HeroClix A/V Polls/Surveys/Lists HeroClix Rules Discussion The Final Word Unit Rulings News, Articles & Original Content RealmsRadio Article Series Review Library HeroClix Strategy & Tactics Theme Team & Keyword Discussion Combat Formations: Discuss & Review Tournament/Event Discussion Tournament Reports Tournament/Event Announcements Creative Corner Realms Open Championship ROC News & Information The Quarry Podcast ROC Events 2013 ROC (Archive) ROC General Discussion Flight Path System Flight Path General Discussion News, Articles & Original Content Flight Path Rules Discussion Flight Path Strategy & Tactics Fleet Building Flight Path Marketplace Dice Games Dice Games General Discussion News, Articles & Original Content Dice Rules Discussion Dice Games Marketplace WizKids/NECA Dear WizKids/NECA WizKids Help Desk Other WizKids/NECA Games Discussion HCRealms.com : Neutral Ground / Marketplace Marketplace General Discussion TRADE SELL & AUCTION BUY Online Play HeroClix Online Tools Play By Post HeroClix Fantasy League Popular Culture Comics General Discussion Video Games Movies & Television Shows Rate the Movies Sports 'Mafia' Game Forum 'Mafia' Game General Discussion 'Mafia' Game Sign ups Another Realm The Arena The Arcade HCRealms : Player Groups Group Discussion/Recruitment Groups By CountryWe’ve previously reported that there are four Game of Thrones spinoffs in development at HBO and now George R.R. Martin, author of the original A Song of Fire and Ice book series, has revealed there’s a fifth as well.
In an entry posted Sunday on Live Journal, Martin writes: “We had four scripts in development when I arrived in LA last week, but by the time I left we had five. We have added a fifth writer to the original four. No, I will not reveal the name here. HBO announced the names of the first four, and will no doubt announce the fifth as well, once his deal has closed. He’s a really terrific addition, however, a great guy and a fine writer, and aside from me and maybe Elio and Linda, I don’t know anyone who knows and loves Westeros as well as he does.”
Martin also mentions in the entry that he’s not particularly fond on the term “spinoff” saying, he doesn’t think it applies to the new projects.
“What we’re talking about are new stories set in the “secondary universe” (to borrow Tolkien’s term) of Westeros and the world beyond, the world I created for A Song of Ice and Fire. He also noted that the new series are officially prequels. He also says it’s unlikely that five series will make it to air. But he confirms that he’s definitely involved in the new projects and has been for months.
Martin also made it official that Dunk and Egg (the adventures of Dunk a.k.a. Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire Egg a.k.a. King Aegon V Targaryen of Westeros) won’t be part of the new series. “We’re not doing Dunk & Egg,” he writes.Yesterday we brought you news of poisonous caterpillars falling from trees. Well, it looks like the weird creatures invasion of Florida is nearly complete with the news that at least 50 giant African land snails were caught invading homes in the Davie area on Wednesday.
The problem with these mollusks -- aside from being giant -- are that they multiply quickly and carry meningitis. Also, they eat houses.
Yes. HOUSES.
Continue Reading
According to the Florida Department of Agriculture, in an attempt to quell a county-wide invasion, workers went to a home on 136th Avenue in western Davie and began raking the surrounding area, and other homes.
See also: Florida Scientists Warn of Venomous Caterpillars Falling Out of Trees
The giant African land snail issue has been a problem for Florida for some time. In early last year, a South Florida homeowner reported seeing them outside their home, and a 2013 Florida Department of Agriculture report says that a total of 130,000 of these suckers have been caught since then.
Officials say that the snails hail from Africa and may have been brought here in 2011 via a Santeria group who apparently use the snails in one of their ceremonies. The experts also fear that the snails may carry meningitis, which is where it can become hazardous to humans.
The snails are also known to devour hundreds of different kinds of plant species in Florida.
The snails also weirdly have a craving for stucco, which is how they end up going to homes to eat the walls. The usually leave big globs of slime residue and feces everywhere they crawl.
While the snails do procreate rather quickly -- females can produce close to 1,200 eggs a year -- officials have said they've been able to contain the invasive creatures for the most part.
Officials have been using dogs to sniff out and find the snails and reported to have killed over 130,000 of them sine April of 2013.
Other that that, officials say, the creatures are not aggressive towards people or pets. There's just a lot of them. And they can come in droves if they're not controlled.
More than anything, they're a nuisance and, like all other invasive species, they pose a problem to the eco system and an overall problem of inconvenience towards people.
Besides being insanely creepy, the giant African land snails have also been known to be a real problem once they've spread themselves in any given area.
For example, according to one report from Barbados, the snails have been known to blow out tires on the highway and turn into flying projectiles when lawnmowers accidentally mow them over and spit them out with their blades.
The Florida Department of Agriculture is asking anyone who thinks they see the snails around their property to report it to them at 1-888-397-1517.
You'll know them when you see them. They're giant. And they'll be eating your house.
Send your story tips to the author, Chris Joseph. Follow Chris Joseph on Twitter
Follow @NewTimesBrowardThe coverage of the topic was concise. It is a reasonable overview of the history of the EIC. If you are looking for a quick (less than an hour) read, this is a decent book. If all you want is a summary, this suffices. I purchased it as a gift for a friend who plans to publish a novel with a character from the EIC. I was surprised and bitter upon receiving this book and almost returned it unread.
READERS BE AWARE that this is a 44-page text (in trade size copy). I was hoping for a more in-depth history. I made the mistake of not checking the length prior to the purchase, or I would have selected a different book. I finally decided to give it a read before I gave the book to my friend (now a donation and to avoid embarrassment as a gift), and found it a reasonable overview of the topic. If I had been looking for a quick snippet of history (as one might summarize from a couple college lectures), this might suffice, though not for the price.
The cover art is the best part of the book. While well enough written, it struck me more as a term paper than a book. I wrote longer, researched papers in college in less than a couple weeks. The chapters are short. There are no graphics in the book to support the discussion. I might not have minded as much for $5.99, but I pay $12.99 for good trade covers that are at least 100+ pages long. Also, the text lacks a list of references (bibliography) which would, at the very least, give greater faith that the topic was well researched and would provide other sources that could be used to learn more about the topic. Wikipedia has almost as much content. A short web tour would reveal several great sites that would provide this content or better, in my opinion.
In the end, it leaves me thinking about some books that I have seen on Amazon about 'How to Make Fast Money Writing on Amazon". It feels a like a shill game. I see that he has published a number of other historical'summaries' on Amazon for $12.99. I am sure they are similar in nature, so if you like it than you may like the others, but you can be sure I won't be a customer for that value. I thought about giving it one star, but given that the page length is listed (should you think to look for it) and there are other reviews that point out the issues as well, I thought I would be more fair-minded. Definitely a case of caveat emptor.With fears running high among Latinos, Muslims, women, and other groups in the wake of Donald Trump’s election, South Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wassermann Schultz and three of her Democratic colleagues aim to be proactive in telling those groups that they’re thinking of them, and will be wearing safety pins on the floor of Congress as a symbolic gesture. And they’re encouraging their congressional colleagues to follow suit.
“In the wake of the legitimate fear that has been instilled in the hearts of too many of our fellow Americans, a symbol of safety, unity, and love has been advanced by wearing a safety pin on your lapel,” reads the letter, co-authored by Wasserman Schultz, Indiana’s Andre Carson, Texas’ Joaquin Castor, and Pennsylvania’s Brendan Boyle to the Democratic caucus.
“We invite you and your staff to join us in fastening a safety pin to your clothing this week, as a demonstration that we stand for safety, healing, and unity against bigotry, anti-Semitism, homophobia, and misogyny,” the letter continues. “Let’s go high by sending a message that we are a safe haven, a refuge, and a bulwark against hate.”
The safety pin movement began over the summer, after British citizens voted to leave the European Union. According to the New York Times, an American woman living in Britain suggested on Twitter that people wear safety pines to show support for immigrants living in the United Kingdom
The Guardian reported there was a 57 percent rise in reported hate crimes after the referendum. The woman, the newspaper reported, wanted to do something to show she supported the immigrant community. She was inspired by the #illridewithyou movement. In Australia, people used the hashtag to take public transportation with Muslims after a Muslim gunman held people hostage in 2014.
The lawmakers say they’ll be sending a strong message to those in fear that “regardless of which political majority wins an election, the American majority stands against those who wish to divide us. Let us all stand in solidarity with those whose differences are what make our nation truly great.”
More than 20 other Democrats say they’ll be wearing safety pins, according to Wasserman Schultz spokesman.“Drink more water to clear up your skin” is popular common sense advice, but is there any science to back it up? Surprisingly, there wasn’t evidence that drinking more water could improve your skin until very recently! Let’s have a look at what the science says…
There’s nothing to back up drinking 2 litres of water a day
First off, some mythbusting. You’ve probably heard the recommendation that you need to drink 2 litres (or 8 glasses) of water a day – it turns out that it’s not actually backed up by any science! On average, you lose about 2.5 L of water a day, but you also consume about 1 L of water in food and produce 300 mL of water through metabolism, so you actually only need to drink about 1.2 L of water to replace what you’ve got. Most health authorities recommend drinking when you’re thirsty (“when you’re thirsty it’s already too late” is another myth!), unless you’re in a very hot climate or you’re exercising very hard.
Studies on drinking more water and skin
I could only find 4 peer-reviewed studies on the effect of drinking more water on the skin, and unfortunately none of them have a control group (a group of people who didn’t drink extra water during that time). This is really annoying, because you can’t tell if any skin changes are due to something else entirely, like if it rained a lot during the study period and the humid weather caused skin hydration. For these reasons, none of these study results should be taken as definitive.
Mac-Mary et al. 2006 in Skin Research and Technology
80 people (about half-half male and female, aged 50-74 years) drank an extra 1 litre of Evian water a day for 6 weeks, on top of their normal diet.
They found that forearm skin hydration increased by 14%, which is a similar effect to using a moisturiser. Transepidermal water loss (TEWL: evaporation of water from the skin) also increased.
There were improvements in facial skin roughness, dryness and elasticity, though it wasn’t very noticeable for the participants.
Williams et al. 2007 in International Journal of Cosmetic Science
86 people (about 2.5 times more women than men, average age 31.8 years) drank 2.25 L of either mineral water or tap water a day for 4 weeks on top of their normal diet.
The effects depended on the type of water used: mineral water led to decreased skin density and slightly increased skin thickness, while tap water gave the opposite result. pH decreased for the tap water group but stayed the same for mineral water.
Skin roughness and wrinkliness didn’t decrease overall, but the skin of some individuals in both groups became smoother
Palma et al. 2015 in Skin Research and Technology
34 women (average age 24.5) drank an extra 2 L of bottled water on top of their normal diet for 30 days
Superficial and deep hydration in the skin improved in the people who normally drank less water (average 792 mL a day), but TEWL did not
There were very few significant changes in people who normally drank more water (average 1260 mL a day)
Palma et al. 2015 in Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology (open access)
49 women (average age 24.5) drank an extra 2 L of water on top of their normal diet for 30 days
Women who normally drank more water (more than around 1 L) experienced less skin changes than those who normally drank less
Superficial and deep hydration in the skin improved, while epidermal barrier function and TEWL did not
Measurements of the skin’s “envelope function” (its elasticity, “bounciness” etc.) had mixed results
What can we tell from these studies?
There isn’t any solid evidence of what extra water can do, but we can pick out some general trends from these studies:
Drinking an extra 2 L of water a day can have noticeable effects on the amount of water in your skin, especially if you don’t drink much water normally If you’re lucky, it’ll make your skin noticeably smoother, but it doesn’t seem like a common result
Verdict
If you don’t drink much water normally, upping your water intake could be worth trying for smoother skin. It’s cheap, and adequate hydration has other benefits too like improving energy levels, brain function and helping with weight loss. However, at the moment, the evidence that drinking more water works for improving everyone’s skin (or even the majority of people’s skin!) is far from clear-cut.
References
R Wolf, D Wolf, D Rudikoff and LC Parish, Nutrition and water: drinking eight glasses of water a day ensures proper skin hydration-myth or reality? Clin Dermatol 2010, 28, 380-383
S Mac-Mary, P Creidi, D Marsaut, C Courderot-Masuyer, V Cochet, T Gharbi, D Guidicelli-Arranz, F Tondu and P Humbert, Assessment of effects of an additional dietary natural mineral water uptake on skin hydration in healthy subjects by dynamic barrier function measurements and clinic scoring, Skin Res Technol 2006, 12, 199-205
S Williams, N Krueger, M Davids, D Kraus and M Kerscher, Effect of fluid intake on skin physiology: distinct differences between drinking mineral water and tap water, Int J Cosmet Sci 2007, 29, 131-138
ML Palma, L Tavares, JW Fluhr, MJ Bujan and LM Rodrigues, Positive impact of dietary water on in vivo epidermal water physiology, Skin Res Technol 2015, 21, 413-418
L Palma, L Tavares Marques, J Bujan and LM Rodrigues, Dietary water affects human skin hydration and biomechanics (open access), Clin Cosmet Investig Dermatol 2015, 8, 413-421
Do you think drinking more water makes a difference on your skin? Or is 2 L more a day just too much effort?3 NASA Astronauts Who May Have Seen UFOs
Buzz Aldrin
(NASA)
In a 2005 interview with Science Channel, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin seemed to say he saw an unidentified flying object (UFO) that followed Apollo 11 on its 1969 moon mission and may have contained aliens.
In a recording of the video uploaded to YouTube, Aldrin recalls his experience and his conversation with mission control: “[There was] something out there that was close enough to be observed, and what could it be?
“Mike [Collins] decided he thought he could see it in the telescope and he was able to do that. When it was in one position, it has a series of ellipses. But when you made it real sharp, it was sort of L-shaped. That didn’t tell us very much.
“Obviously the three of us were not going to blurt out, ‘Hey Houston, we’ve got something moving alongside of us and we don’t know what it is; can you tell us what it is? We weren’t about to do that, because we know that those transmissions would be heard by all sorts of people and who knows what somebody would have demanded? That we turn back because of aliens, or whatever the reason.”
Thinking the object might have been the S-IVB rocket stage, the crew asked Houston how far away it was. The S-IVB was 6,000 nautical miles away. “We really didn’t think we were looking at something that far away,” Aldrin told the Science Channel.
He said the crew decided they wouldn’t talk about it anymore until debriefing.
In a posting on the NASA website, astrophysicist David Morrison reported that he spoke with Aldrin after this interview.
Aldrin told Morrison the quotes were taken out of context. Aldrin told Morrison, and also said on Larry King Live in 2007, that what they saw was likely a panel separated from the spacecraft as various stages dropped off—a normal procedure.
Edgar Mitchell
(NASA)
Edgar Mitchell flew in Apollo 14 to the moon in 1971, and is known as the sixth person to walk on the moon. He told WPTV he is certain aliens have been watching us and that the government is aware.
“I don’t know how many or where or how they’re doing it, but they’ve been observing us and here for quite some time. We see these craft all the time,” he said.
“I believe what I’m saying and I cite the evidence that I know,” Mitchell said.
Many websites and blogs interested in extraterrestrial life have cited a transcript said to have been leaked by a NASA employee after the Apollo 11 lunar landing.
The conversation takes place between the Apollo 11 crew, mission control, and an unnamed professor.
The name of the NASA employee is given as Otto Binder, a famous science fiction author, casting doubt on the transcript.
“Apollo 11” is quoted: “These babies are huge … You wouldn’t believe it. I’m telling you there are other spacecraft out there … lined up on the far side of the crater edge.
“They’re on the moon watching us.”
Astronaut Neil Armstrong is quoted as saying, “We were warned off.”
When questioned further, Armstrong said, according to the transcript: “I can’t go into details, except to say that their ships were far superior to ours both in size and technology—Boy, were they big … and menacing. … No, there is no question of a space station.”
Morrison again answered a query on the NASA website, stating: “There were no aliens on the moon. Armstrong and other Apollo astronauts saw no evidence of aliens either on the near-side or the far-side of the moon.”
Gordon Cooper
(NASA)
Gordon Cooper was one of the Original Seven NASA astronauts. He piloted the last Project Mercury space mission in 1963.
In 1951, he was flying with the U.S. Air Force in Germany when he saw many UFOs in formation at high altitude. The UFOs were flying higher and faster than human-built aircraft could at the time, he said in an interview with Yolanda Gaskins in 1996 on Paranormal Borderline.
“We couldn’t get anywhere near their altitude,” he said. After filing a report, he explained, “the answer that finally came back months later is they were probably high-flying seed pods, which didn’t sound very logical.”
Then, in 1957, his military film crew recorded footage of a saucer-shaped UFO landing on a dry lake bed. It had three landing legs. They approached it and it took off. The film was sent to his superiors and never mentioned to him again.
He also said friends of his who were commercial pilots have told him they have seen UFOs.
RELATED: 4 Pilots Who Say They’ve Seen UFOs
RELATED: Everything You Ever Wanted to Ask an Astronaut: Exclusive Interview With NASA Astronaut Tom JonesTampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans (13) dives for extra yards against Dallas Cowboys cornerback Brandon Carr (39) in the third quarter at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, Sunday, November 15, 2015. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News)
"I don't think we'll contain him," Jones said Friday morning on 105.3 The Fan's G-Bag Nation show [KRLD-FM]. "I think he will get catches. The quarterback will really throw the ball for long gains. That's a real challenge.
FRISCO -- No player has been targeted more than Tampa Bay's Mike Evans this season. Pro Bowl quarterback Jameis Winston doesn't have a problem giving the 6-5 receiver an opportunity to make a play on the ball even when double-covered.
"To me, that really separates this quarterback from the pack. He will throw that ball deep. He's got a guy there that will go up and get it against always smaller, physically, defensive backs. That's a heck of a weapon."
Evans is from Galveston. He was raised around Cowboys fans, but he was a Peyton Manning fan growing up.
"A lot of my friends are telling me to take it easy on them and things like that," Evans said. "They love the Cowboys down there."
Evans, who has purchased more than 50 tickets to Sunday night's game for family and friends, played in AT&T Stadium while at Texas A&M. He caught seven passes for 83 yards in a 41-13 Cotton Bowl victory over Oklahoma in 2013.
"That's the best stadium I've ever seen, as far as being up to date and all that," Evans said. "The biggest jumbotron. I couldn't take my eyes off of it during the game. It's an amazing place."
And his thoughts on returning to the billion-dollar building for a nationally televised game?
"That's what you want," Evans said. "Prime time. Sunday night against America's Team. We're trying to make it to the playoffs, so this is going to be a real good test for us. And it's a great venue."The 40 Tips for Life
1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day and while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.
2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Buy a lock if you have to.
3. Buy a TiVo (DVR), tape your late night
4. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, "My purpose is to__________ today."
5. Live with the 3 E's - Energy, Enthusiasm, Empathy, and the 3 F's - Faith, Family, Friends.
6. Watch more G movies play more games with friends and read more books than you did in 2006.
7. Make time to practice meditation and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.
8. Spend more time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of six.
9. Dream more while you are awake.
10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less foods that are manufactured in plants.
11. Drink some green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, seafood, broccoli, almonds & walnuts.
12. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
13. Clear your clutter from your house, your car, your desk, and let new energy into your life.
14. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you
cannot control. Instead, invest your energy in the positive present moment.
15. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn, pass all your tests. Problems are simply part of the
curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.
17. Smile and laugh more. It will keep the energy vampires away.
18. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
19. Life is too shor t to waste time hating anyone.
20. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
21. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
22. Make peace with your past, so it won't mess up the present.
23. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
24. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?"
27. Forgive everyone for everything.
28. |
a public will for that information. Industry needs to find a way to make that information public.”
In a recent letter to Enbridge, the NEB expressed concern over the company’s requirement that municipalities sign non-disclosure agreements before emergency plans are released.
“I am concerned that Enbridge’s practice of requesting NDAs is not consistent with the principle of regulatory transparency that guides the board’s regulatory approach,” NEB chairman Peter Watson said in a letter, available on the NEB website.
Watson said he would like to know how Enbridge would proceed with a municipality unwilling to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Despite the NEB’s recent push for increased transparency, the board ruled Kinder Morgan was within its right to deny the province of British Columbia detailed spill response and emergency plans for the Trans Mountain pipeline.
When B.C. asked the NEB to compel Kinder Morgan to release the plans, the board refused.
As DeSmog Canada reported, the plans withheld in B.C. included contact information for first responders and company officials and outlined access to oil booms, pumps, hoses and storage tanks and other supplies needed in the event of an oil spill.
Canadian Energy Pipeline Association vice-president Pay Smyth said the group is seeking disclosure standards that will satisfy the public demand for disclosure while protecting personal information of company employees and first responders.
“This is by no means a PR exercise,” Smyth told the Calgary Herald. “We are treading new ground here. Industry recognizes that Canadians have the right and the need to know and we’re going to make sure they have access to information.”
Image Credit: Jimmy Jeong, JimmyShoots.com via The Globe and Mail64 Branksome Gardens, City Beach
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Read moreHouse Republicans shot down another Democratic resolution regarding President Trump's tax returns Wednesday evening, one day after Trump's 2005 tax returns were leaked to NBC News.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) offered the resolution Wednesday that instructs the House to request Trump's tax returns from 2006 to 2015, so the Ways and Means Committee can examine them in a closed session.
Under federal tax law, the chairmen of the Ways and Means Committee, Senate Finance Committee and Joint Committee on Taxation can request tax return information from the Treasury Department.
Crowley noted that a growing number of Republican lawmakers have said they want Trump to release his returns. He specifically singled out Rep. Steve Knight (R-Calif.), who is one of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's targets for 2018.
“This resolution is not about partisanship, it’s about America,” Crowley said, to jeers from Republicans.
Crowley's measure is similar to resolutions Democratic Reps. Bill Pascrell Jr. (N.J.) and Anna Eshoo (Calif.) offered on the House floor in recent weeks. It includes additional language that says the American public need to know more about Trump's business interests in order to "ensure that all policies put forward by the Trump Administration solely benefit the American public and not his corporate business partners."
As was the case in past weeks, Crowley tried to offer the resolution as "privileged," meaning the House would have to act on it within two legislative days. But Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who was presiding over the House, ruled that the measure was not privileged, and the vast majority of Republicans voted to table Crowley's appeal of that ruling, 223-183.
Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) voted "present," and Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) voted with the Democrats, as they did on a similar vote last week. Knight voted with the bulk of the Republicans.
This is the third week in a row that Democrats have offered a resolution on the House floor pertaining to Trump's tax returns. While none of those measures have passed so far, Democrats want to keep the pressure on Trump.
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DCReport.org has published a leaked copy of the first two pages of Trump's 2005 tax returns, which revealed that he had more than $150 million in income and paid about $38 million in federal taxes that year.
Trump said repeatedly during the presidential campaign that he wouldn't release his tax returns because the IRS is auditing him, though the tax-collection agency has said that an audit doesn't prevent people from releasing their own tax information.
The White House confirmed the 2005 returns' authenticity, but press secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday that Trump would not release more just because there were media reports about one year of returns.
In addition to forcing Republicans to take votes related to Trump's tax returns on the House floor, Democrats have also offered amendments twice in the House Ways and Means Committee on the topic.
Both amendments were blocked on party-line votes – but more votes are likely.
On Friday, Pascrell offered a "resolution of inquiry" instructing Treasury to provide the House with Trump's returns and information about Trump's debt held by foreign governments, investments in other countries and use of tax-avoidance strategies. Under House rules, these types of resolutions can get a floor vote if they are not considered in committee within 14 legislative days.
The chairmen of the congressional tax-writing committees have rejected Democratic pleas for them to request Trump's tax returns from Treasury. They have said it would be an abuse of their authority to do so.Donald Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE's campaign chief on Wednesday pushed back on reports of turmoil within the campaign, calling it a 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 narrative that the media has picked up on.
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Paul Manafort's comments follow a hectic few days for the Trump camp, in which the Republican presidential nominee has faced bipartisan backlash over his attacks on the family of a slain U.S. soldier and refused to back Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Five takeaways from McCabe’s allegations against Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Sanders set to shake up 2020 race MORE (R-Wis.) in his primary race.
Other reports surfaced that Manafort has lost control of the GOP nominee and that top Republican leaders plan to stage an "intervention" with Trump in the coming days.
"This is the first I'm hearing of that," Manafort said on Fox News Wednesday, rejecting a report that he, Trump's children, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) would meet with Trump in the coming days for an "intervention."
"The only need we have for an intervention is maybe with some media types who keep saying things that aren't true.... The campaign is focused and the campaign is moving forward in a positive way."
"The candidate is in control of his campaign, that's No. 1, and I'm in control of doing the things he wants me to do in the campaign. The turmoil — this is another Clinton narrative that she put out there and that the media is picking up on," Manafort said.An article published in Australia’s leading general medical journal has raised serious concerns about the standard of academia with blatant evidence of bias and easily challenged claims. The article ‘The Port Arthur massacre and the National Firearms Agreement: 20 years on, what are the lessons?’ published in the May edition of The Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) lists four authors who are all affiliated with known anti-gun group, the National Coalition for Gun Control. Two of the four authors are vocal about increased restrictions on licensed firearm owners.
One author, Philip Alpers, does not even list any academic qualifications or credentials and is linked with anti-gun group Gun Control Australia (GCA), while the article itself was originally scheduled for an inappropriate release on the anniversary of the Port Arthur murders. Fellow author Rebecca Peters is known for her involvement in the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), which is increasingly against civilian firearm ownership. The other accredited co-authors are Alan Rosen and Michael Dudley.
Laced with sweeping statements, figures citing cases of “mass gun killings” spanning from 1987 to 2015 actually fall under different legislation, therefore making the article an unreliable source of data. Further claims that the National Firearms Agreement (NFA) has “reduced firearm deaths, particularly suicides” are at a stretch considering the NFA predominately focused on banning self-loading longarms. The reality is self-loading firearms are not necessary for suicide given that the trigger only needs to be pulled once.
A major criticism of the article is that the authors appear to appeal to the Australian sentiment of a ‘fair go for all’ and defends those with mental health issues by stating that “screening mentally ill populations for violence risk is misguided”. At the same time, the authors target other minority groups in society by labelling them “high risk populations”. This includes, but is not limited to, children, teenagers, farmers and anyone who lives in regional communities, who have been deemed “high risk” without much supporting evidence. The hypocrisy of the article is clear: we are asked not to target specific groups such as the mentally ill when it comes to gun control measures, but in the same breath are warned that other minorities are supposedly at risk of conducting mass gun murders!
While the SSAA backs mental health initiatives such as headspace youth support clinics and increased government funding in this challenging area, we must point out that some of Australia’s biggest mass murders were carried out by criminally mentally ill individuals. This includes the perpetrator of the Monash University shootings, Huan Yun Xiang, who was acquitted due to mental impairment; anti-gun campaigner Michelle Fernando’s sister, Shamin, who shot their father and was clinically diagnosed with a mental illness; and the mentally unstable arsonist Robert Long who was responsible for the Childers Palace Backpackers fires that killed 15 people.
In what can only be described as deliberate laziness to push a political point, claims that the medical community “has long supported bans for semi-automatic handguns” refers to no sources and gives no supporting evidence. The SSAA can confirm that many of our 180,000 members are doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals who historically compete in handgun competition shooting.
Finally, references to Martin Bryant as not being mentally ill during the Port Arthur murders are misguided and highly debatable. A litany of anti-social and concerning behaviour from childhood up until the murders meant he was well known to police for being mentally unstable prior to the tragedy.
The authors are unable to explain throughout their ‘academic’ article why it is appropriate to call for further restrictions on law-abiding firearm owners and other minority groups despite much supporting evidence. It is a poor excuse for a journal article and the SSAA is disappointed the MJA choose to publish the fluff piece in the first place, scribed by well-known anti-gun lobbyists.Was Gisele Bundchen trying to send an anti-Trump message as her husband, Tom Brady, skipped out on the Patriots’ visit to the White House on Wednesday? Maybe.
Bundchen tweeted information about an April 29th climate change rally in Washington DC.
“March for climate, jobs, and justice. To change everything, we need everyone,” Bündchen wrote with a link.
The tweet has since been deleted but it was captured by numerous screengrabs. The message raised eyebrows given its timing.
Bundchen’s tweet came as Brady opted out on the visit to Trump’s White House.
“Thank you to the president for hosting this honorary celebration and for supporting our team for as long as I can remember,” he said in a statement. “In light of some recent development, I am unable to attend today’s ceremony, as I am attending to some personal family matters.”
Bundchen is known not to be a fan of Trump's. On Instagram a fan asked her in November if she and Brady would be voting for Trump. She replied: "NO!" Brady, however, has been coy about who he voted for or if he even voted in the presidential election.
Brady previously missed a Patriots trip to the White House when former President Barack Obama was the resident, too, citing a scheduling issue.The Hockey Hall of Fame announced its class of 2016 yesterday, with Eric Lindros, Sergei Makarov, Rogie Vachon and Pat Quinn receiving the game’s ultimate honour.
These announcements always make for a fun debate. And that extends to future classes; we’re already seeing some attention turn to 2017 and beyond, when we’ll have a mix of holdovers from this year’s vote, recently retired sure-things like Teemu Selanne and Martin Brodeur, and some tougher cases like Daniel Alfredsson and Saku Koivu.
But today, let’s look ahead even further. Let’s look at the five players nearing the end of their careers who could make for the toughest calls among active players when they become eligible for Hall of Fame consideration.
Let’s set a couple of ground rules. First, we’ll focus on players who are 36 or older, since drawing the line there should limit us to players who truly are almost done. Note that that limit means we can hold off on a few contentious names, like the Sedin twins and Henrik Zetterberg.
And we’re also going to exclude active players who are already shoe-ins. That list might be controversial in its own right, but we’re going to go ahead and award early Hall passes to:
Jaromir Jagr: Because come on.
Because come on. Zdeno Chara: While he only has one Norris, his seven post-season all-star nods and a Stanley Cup win as a captain will be more than enough to get him in.
While he only has one Norris, his seven post-season all-star nods and a Stanley Cup win as a captain will be more than enough to get him in. Jarome Iginla: Scoring 600+ goals means guaranteed entry (unless you’re Dave Andreychuk).
Scoring 600+ goals means guaranteed entry (unless you’re Dave Andreychuk). Marian Hossa: I took an in-depth look at the argument for Hossa last season, and concluded that his case was strong but not a slam dunk. I heard from several respected hockey people who thought he was a sure thing, and he’s since added another Stanley Cup ring, so let’s say he’s in.
I took an in-depth look at the argument for Hossa last season, and concluded that his case was strong but not a slam dunk. I heard from several respected hockey people who thought he was a sure thing, and he’s since added another Stanley Cup ring, so let’s say he’s in. Joe Thornton: Every player ahead of him on the career points list is already in, with the exception of Selanne (who isn’t eligible). And his playoff run this year seems to have put a few dents in that “can’t win the big one” narrative that’s followed him through his career. Maybe voters pull a Mark Recchi and make him wait, but surely we can all agree he gets in eventually, right?
With those five off the board, here are the five active players that look like they’ll make for the toughest HHOF calls.
Patrik Elias
The longtime Devil’s status for next year isn’t known yet. He’ll technically become a free agent on Friday, but all indications are he’ll be back in New Jersey or not at all.
The case for: He’s an extremely well-respected veteran with two Cup rings. He’s also crossed a pair of major milestones, cracking both the 400-goal and 1,000-point marks during the 2014-15 season.
The case against: While he did reach both milestones, it was only barely, and he didn’t add much to his career totals last season due to injury. Plenty of players with better career numbers haven’t made it in, and that remains true even if you adjust for era. Realistically, Elias was always very good but was never viewed as one of the game’s very best – his 2000-01 season was the only one in which he made a postseason all-star team or cracked the top-10 in Hart voting.
My vote: This feels like one of those Hall-of-Very-Good cases. He’s a no for me.
Prediction: Elias is a tough call who always seems to split the vote. One factor that could work in his favour: he played his entire career for one team, and for some reason that seems to help. As the all-time leading scorer for one of the more successful franchises in recent league history, he’ll have an entire fan base (and more than a few media) pushing his candidacy hard. But unless he comes back and has a big year or two, I don’t think he gets in.
Roberto Luongo
Please note that as of 2016, the Hockey Hall of Fame does not give bonus points for Twitter jokes. It should, but it doesn’t.
The case for: If he retired today, Luongo would finish with the seventh most wins in NHL history, one back of Jacques Plante (he’ll probably rank fourth by the end of next season.) He also ranks in the all-time top-10 in save percentage, and 11th in career shutouts. He’s been a second-team all-star twice, and a Vezina finalist three times (although he’s never won.)
The case against: He’s never won a Stanley Cup, which matters for goaltenders even though there’s a good argument that it shouldn’t – the HHOF hasn’t inducted an NHL goaltender without a Cup ring since Tony Esposito in 1988. Further, Luongo’s wins total is offset by his also ranking fifth in career losses, and in that sense his candidacy starts to look a bit like another goaltender who racked up big career numbers without ever winning a ring: Curtis Joseph, who hasn’t got a plaque and doesn’t sound like he’ll get one anytime soon.
My vote: An easy yes. Cup or no Cup, Luongo is easily one of the best of his generation at a position that’s badly underrepresented in the Hall.
Prediction: If the vote were held today, it would be a close one. Remember, the Hall has been notoriously stingy with goaltenders, inducting just five in the last 20 years. But given how well Luongo has played even into his late-30s, the betting here is that he can put up another season or two strong enough to move him from the “tough call” column to a solid yes.
Patrick Marleau
We’ve already waved Thornton in the door. But what about his longtime teammate?
The case for: He’s already passed the 1,000-point mark, and he should crack 500 goals next season. Adjusting for era, those numbers put him solidly into HHOF range; he’s already passed guys like Joe Nieuwendyk and Denis Savard. (Although it’s worth noting that adjusted-era scoring is far from a perfect metric.)
The case against: You could tag him with the same “can’t-win” label that’s followed Thornton around, although you shouldn’t because it’s a silly way to look at a team game like hockey. But Marleau’s case is clearly weaker than Thornton’s; he’s never been a postseason all-star or won a major award, and has only one top-10 finish in Hart voting.
My vote: He wouldn’t have my vote today, and I’m not sure that even two or three more productive seasons would get him there.
Prediction: Marleau’s recent play suggests that he could be a solid player for several seasons to come, so it’s possible we could be looking at a guy with nearly 1,200 points by the time he’s done. That might be enough for a dead puck-era player, if barely. But if the end of the road is near, he won’t make it.
Shane Doan
Like Elias, the longtime Coyotes captain hits free agency on Friday but isn’t expected to go anywhere.
The case for: Assuming he plays next year, he’ll crack the 400-goal mark and has a chance at 1,000 points. Those numbers wouldn’t be enough for most players, but Doan has always been known as a guy who can contribute beyond the scoreboard. He’s a physical player with a reputation as a heart-and-soul leader, and voters have been known to lower the statistical bar for guys who fit that mold.
The case against: The numbers aren’t quite there, and it’s possible that playing in a market like Arizona won’t help his case. More importantly, he was never really in any sort of “best player” discussion. He was never a postseason all-star, and according to the hockey-reference.com records, he’s yet to receive even a single Hart vote over the course of his career.
My vote: The parallels to Elias go beyond their contract status, as both players have put up similar numbers over long careers spent with one team. Elias has two Cup rings and a better peak, while Doan has that reputation for a physical game. I think he’s a weaker candidate than Elias, and the weakest on this list, so my vote here is a no.
Prediction: Certain hockey types love their power forwards, but Doan probably needs two more big seasons.
Pavel Datsyuk
OK, we’re stretching the definition of “active” a little bit here, but if it’s good enough for the Coyotes’ accounting department, it’s good enough for us.
The case for: He’s widely considered one of the best two-way players of his generation, scoring ridiculously brilliant goals at one end and winning three Selkes for his work at the other. Two Stanley Cup rings will help. If anything, my guess is you may even be surprised to see him on the list at all, since many seem to assume he’s a lock.
The case against: Stronger than you probably think. He’ll finish his NHL career with 918 points, and the list of modern day forwards who made the Hall without even getting near the 1,000-point milestone is basically limited to guys whose careers were cut short by injury. In fairness, Datsyuk’s career was short too, because he didn’t make his NHL debut until he was 23, but that’s not really the same thing. He was never a first-team all-star, only had one second-team selection, and only had one year in which he finished in the top five in Hart voting.
And while his two-way play was excellent, the Hall’s track record with defensive forwards is spotty; Clark Gillies waited over a decade, while Steve Larmer and Guy Carbonneau didn’t get in at all. And then there’s Rod Brind’Amour, another multi-time Selke winner who outscored Datsyuk by over 250 points, but who never even seems to have his name come up.
My vote: He’s in. Look, the case against him being a slam dunk is a lot better than you’d expect. But he’s still a Hall-of-Famer.
Prediction: First ballot. Numbers and individual honours are nice, but the hockey world loves Pavel Datsyuk.This may appear to be a little extreme, but let this nut-head explain
A five-year-old girl was brutally raped in Lahore on Thursday and was found dumped outside Ganga Ram Hospital around 8 pm on Friday. The very next day a 12-year-old girl in Faisalabad and another first year student in Toba Tek Singh were gang raped. This was followed by another gang rape of a 15-year-old girl yesterday in Tharparkar. Last year 7,516 cases of violence against women were reported in Pakistan with 822 of them being rape cases. And anyone who’s familiar with the perverted concept of ‘honour’ in our country knows that 822 is a sorry fraction of the actual number.
While there is universal condemnation of the acts that would run the entire gamut from dubbing it any degree of ‘wrong’ to protesting on social media or even streets, there’s a criminal dearth of noise or endeavour with regards to actually deracinating the root cause behind rape: the reprehensible image of women.
Every individual who propagates the deplorable myth that women are inherently dependent on or weaker than men is a rape accomplice. Every person who scorns at a girl for not catering to their definition of decency is a rape accomplice. Anyone who is a flag-bearer of double standards of modesty for men and women is a rape accomplice. Everyone who teaches women to be ashamed of their bodies is a rape accomplice. And if your respect for a woman is dependent on how well covered her body is, then you sir/ma’am, are a rape accomplice as well.
While this might appear to be a little ‘extreme’, let this nut-head explain his stance.
An accomplice is ‘a person who helps another commit a crime’. And while most of us won’t directly provide a rapist the aid that he needs to commit his monstrous crime, by propagating the aforementioned ideals we definitely help him unleash the loathsome ‘beast’ inside him.
Answer this: who would have more of a tendency towards rape, a man who’s told that a woman not dressed up in synchrony with (insert any cultural/social/religious/individual standard of modesty) is dishonourable, or a man who’s told that how a woman chooses to dress up should be no one else’s concern, regardless of whether she’s wearing a burqa or a bikini?
Now answer this: who would have more inclination towards physically abusing a ‘party girl’ who’s drunk and has ‘many male friends’, a man who’s taught that women must follow a different set of morals as compared to men, or a man who’s taught gender equality in every single aspect of life?
And finally answer this: who has more of a chance to become a rapist, a man who lives in a society where a woman’s respect has got nothing to do with her body or a man who lives in a society where a woman not following a certain ‘dress code’ is dubbed an open lollipop inviting flies and insects?
Maybe in an abhorrent fit of ‘bestiality’, your son might not particularly mind temporarily being one of those insects.
Now a rather appalling flipside to this argument is that if the women are forced to dress up according to the ‘socially acceptable’ standards, men wouldn’t plunge to the lower echelons of humanity and that any woman who isn’t dressed up ‘properly’ or doesn’t ‘guard her modesty’ is actually ‘asking to be raped’.
First of all, in my very humble opinion, in an ideal world any person who says that any woman who’s raped, under any circumstances whatsoever, was ‘asking for it’, is ‘asking’ to be beaten up publicly. Secondly, as a man myself, I find men’s portrayal as a sex-hungry ‘monsters’ who lose their control at the sight of a woman’s skin, pretty hard to digest.
Let’s set the record straight. A woman not covering her head isn’t ‘asking for it’; one wearing a bikini isn’t ‘asking for it’ and yes, one who might not be wearing anything at all is still not ‘asking for it’. Those that justify rape under any circumstance shouldn’t merely be dubbed rape apologists but should instead be called rape accomplices and should share a fraction of guilt for every rape where the victim was ostensibly ‘asking for it’.
The myth that the hijab, burqa, or following a particular definition of modesty protects women is busted by the fact that in a recent BBC report it was revealed that 99.3 per cent of Egyptian women had experienced harassment, while the rate of sexual offenses in Saudi Arabia is 58.6 per 100,000 and Qatar and UAE have rates of 1.7 reported cases of rape per 100,000 population. Also, when 5-year-olds and 7-year-olds are being raped, it’s obviously not a case of what’s atop the woman’s head, more a case of what’s inside the man’s head. And those who want to flaunt the fact that forcing a woman to wear the hijab reduces the chances of her being raped, should know that those chances would be further reduced if you lock her up in a cupboard and throw away the key.
Rape cannot be prevented by forcing women to cover up, it can only be prevented by women empowerment, promotion of gender equality and the eradication of antediluvian myths that teach us how women are men’s property who must keep a watch on them and control them. When it is stated or implied that women are men’s property and that the latter have an upper-hand over the former, you’re cultivating a ground for rapists to grow. And everyone who plays even the most minor of roles in the cultivation should be called a rape accomplice.
Not only are we all rape accomplices because we promote the aforementioned ideals, but our law is quite possibly the grandest of all rape accomplices, since it doesn’t consider DNA as primary evidence in rape cases in the year 2013 AD. Furthermore, by asking for four witnesses – who can only be dubbed the closest of collaborators, since they preferred watching a woman being abused than preventing the act – it’s almost as if we’ve created a social and judicial setup to facilitate rapists.
Merely screaming bloody murder over a heinous act won’t suffice in its eradication, and propagating the West’s rape statistics won’t particularly help the cause in our neck of the woods, where rape is criminally misreported and prevails despite us purging our society from ‘Western evils’. To actually reduce rape, every single one of us must ask ourselves if we’ve ever, intentionally or inadvertently, promoted misogynistic ideals or tried to justify rape under any circumstances. If the answer to those questions is in the affirmative, we’ve all played a part in the physical and mental trauma of every raped woman in our society.
The writer is a financial journalist and a cultural critic. Email: [email protected],
Twitter: @khulduneA teenage girl from Pakistan faces a sentence of death by stoning after she reported being brutally raped in her family home in Rajanpur, on Friday.
The 19-year-old claims her cousin, Khalil Ahmed, placed a gun to her head and demanded she not cry out as he viciously raped her. The victim reported the rape to the village panchayat, a tribal council of Islamic elders operating outside of the government. The council, which was comprised of local men, including the father of her attacker, deemed the girl a Kari, or an adulteress, and accused the victim of seducing her cousin.
Consequently, the young girl was sentenced to death by stoning or to be sold off, reports The Hindustan Times. The alleged rapist was let off the hook.
The girl's father said he was forced into accepting the decision by the panchayat.
"Since the panchayat declared her liabale to be killed, he had to accept the decision as it was the tradition of his village," said an police official.
The victim, on the other hand, did not accept the sentence, escaping to her uncle's home where she reported the incident to the police.
"I could not raise an alarm as Ahmed was holding a gun. But the panchayat refused to accept my statement and declared that I wilfully slept with him," she told Fazilpur Police on Saturday.
An investigation has been launched into the rape and warrants have been issued for the alleged rapist and the village council members who sentenced the victim to death; the girl has been placed in a "government safe house."
As noted by The Hindustan Times, so-called "honor killings," such as the girl's sentence in this case, are typically sanctioned through the local panchayat in Pakistan to help restore the reputation to the girl's family, though they have "no legal standing."
H/T The Daily MailAlex Kazemi’s Insta campaign was pulled last minute - here he explains why and shows us the clips
Text Dazed Digital
With Marilyn Manson’s new album Heaven Upside Down due out next Friday (October 6), there’s been a lot of press surrounding the release (including this interview). Not all of the campaign made it though – including these Instagram clips created by pop artist Alex Kazemi. The videos were intended to be used for an Insta series that Manson pulled due to timing. But now the ads are being used - like, right now, so have they been pulled? We’re through the looking glass here. “Marilyn Manson is a friend of mine and we’ve been trying to work together for the past two years, but by some weird alchemy it’s never worked out,” Kazemi explains. “I made this Instagram campaign for his new album and it never got to be released. I believe Heaven Upside Down is his greatest and most prolific work to date – what’s a better way to celebrate than satanic strippers, boys getting hardcore and blood?” “I wish this could air on TV. This is the kind of thing I would want to disrupt people in their living rooms when they are watching America’s Got Talent or whatever. This is the best time to be bad. These are the kinds of things we should be doing in a world where someone like Trump is in power. America needs rock‘n’roll and Marilyn Manson more than ever. It’s clear Jesus is still around, and that to me is like a a total serious problem.” Apropos of nothing, Bret Easton Ellis says, “It's crazy, it's radical, it shocked me.” Check out the campaign below, via the Banned MM ads Instagram account.
How did you meet Marilyn Manson and how did your friendship blossom? Alex Kazemi: A series of bizarre coincidences and magickal events led me to him, and we just kept talking over and over. He was really impressed by my Snapchat movie and the concept of real-time art, and since then I’ve been trying to do something with him. The first time we talked on the phone was from 3am to 10am, and during that talk he said to me, ‘I know all you want is to make a dent in culture’ – and it’s true, that’s all I want. I still think about that all the time. A lot of spooky paranormal stuff happens whenever I talk to him – I get sleep paralysis, he always messages me under a specific moon phase. It sounds cliché, but people say he could be haunted, and I don’t doubt that. At the end of the shoot of these ads, I looked down at my hand and it was gushing/bleeding. I don’t know what that means, but it happened and I didn’t notice for a while.
What’s the concept behind the campaign? Alex Kazemi: The truth is, I’ve been rewriting ideas for Heaven Upside Down since I heard clips of it over the phone, and since the ‘say10’ clip dropped we’ve been trying to work together. I kind of was just like “I’m ready to do this, and I’m going to do it” and he wished me good luck and knew I’d bring back something that would make me proud. Everything was very conceptual for a long time; it wasn’t until I met this guy Riley Johnson – who is probably one of the most talented makeup artists I know – (that I was able) to bring this all together in a way that was the closest to the vision in my mind. In the video, these characters have taken something and romanticised something from Manson’s work and they’ve tried to incorporate it in their personal and sex life, whether it’s fetishes, fashion, kinks, or drug use. Manson’s music evoked something inside of them to lose control or shed something. Every millennial who encountered Marilyn Manson for the first time as a child either felt comforted or terrified. These to me are the adults who found comfort, not disgust in his music and visuals. The campaign should be a reminder that not everyone subscribes to the idea of asking to be accepted, and these clips are supposed to display what it’s like to watch people doing things Christians and conservatives consider to be transgressive, and the things I would want people to be doing and |
“It is very clear aspirationally they would like to do more and it is a concern to us in the United States because the indications are that they would like to use chemical weapons against us.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest James Clapper said Isis had procured chemical weapons. Photograph: Molly Riley/AFP/Getty Images
Clapper was speaking ahead of a screening of a CBS 60 minutes programme that will show the impact of a chemical warfare attack in Syria.
“Potentially it is a game changer, there are all kinds of scary scenarios you are able to conjure up if in fact Daesh [Isis] is able to enhance its competence with chemical weapons. It is of course a global issue given the spread of the provinces so-called that are the caliphate of Daesh,” said Clapper.
Chemical weapons attack on Europe seems highly unlikely Read more
In November, the French prime minister Manuel Valls warned of the possibility of chemical or biological attack by Isis or its associates on Europe following the Paris terror attacks. But experts have downplayed the threat, pointing to little evidence that even the most capable extremists are close to carrying out such an attack on the west.
Hannigan, appointed to head the UK government’s intelligence agency in 2014, made no reference to chemical warfare abilities of Isis, but instead expressed fears that the group would soon be involved in cyber-terrorism.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Robert Hannigan, head of GCHQ (pictured), warned of Isis cyber-terrorism. Photograph: GCHQ/EPA
He said: “Daesh differed from other terror groups in seizing the power of global communications to radicalise individuals and to plan more ambitious, centrally driven, directed attacks in an increasingly undetectable way.
“Daesh is an organisation that understands the power of technology, thinks about it. We see them talking about it and learning how to abuse it.”
He said they had a high level of expertise, and although they were “not there yet” in terms of cyber-terrorism, “there will come a point when the capability matches the intent”.It is funny that at the talks between the leaders of the Eurasian Customs Union and Ukraine the European troika will be in attendance, whereas the real policy for Kiev is being drawn up in Washington, foreign affairs analyst Srdja Trifkovic told RT.
“So far Washington has been playing a game of geopolitical encirclement of Russia which cannot be in the European interest, and which in the long-term can only result in the kind of civilizational catastrophe that we have seen exactly a hundred years ago in 1914”, Trifkovic added.
RT: Today’s is the first major meeting between the new Ukrainian president and Vladimir Putin. What’s the significance?
Srdja Trifkovic: I greatly fear there is less than meets the eye, because neither Poroshenko has a great deal of leeway in the proceedings, he has opted for a military solution in the east and he cannot backtrack on that one without losing credibility with his base particularly in the west of the country, nor does Vladimir Putin have any motivation to offer anything now that the negotiations are stalled and federalization and the protection of Russian language rights are a non-issue. So I think this will be an exercise in futility, it will be used for propaganda purposes by both sides but the elephant missing from the room is John Kerry and Victoria Nuland, because it is rather funny that there will be the European troika in attendance from Brussels whereas the real policy and agenda for Kiev is being drawn up in Washington DC.
RT: Angela Merkel said in a recent interview that she doesn’t expect these talks to bring about a breakthrough. Do you think she’s right?
ST: The Germans have effectively abdicated their role in determining European policy by joining the sanctions two weeks ago. The Germans could have had an opportunity to display statesmanship and display a genuine role in meeting the two poles of policy in Washington DC and Moscow, and by failing to do that and effectively joining the American bandwagon they have become irrelevant. Angela Merkel’s weight in Moscow used to be much greater a month ago than it is now.
Ukraine’s President-elect Petro Poroshenko (R) walks past Russian President Vladimir Putin during the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the D-Day in Ouistreham, western France, Friday, June 6, 2014.(Reuters / Christophe Ena)
RT: Senior EU representatives will be present on Kiev’s side at the talks. What do they want to come out of those talks? Are they perhaps worried about gas?
ST: If they were truly worried about gas transit and they certainly have a reason to be worried, in the past form we have seen Ukraine up to no good in 2006 and again in 2009, they would at least exert some pressure on Poroshenko to reach a political solution of the conflict in east. That solution has been on offer all the time, it simply means decentralization and language rights, it is nothing particularly remarkable, and they are certainly not stabbing the back of the Ukrainian state. But so far unfortunately, we have seen nothing but following up the American lead in Europe on a very hard-line, very stiff and uncompromising line that Kiev has followed for the past five months. If we see some readiness for compromise, I am certain that Vladimir Putin and his national security team will be all too happy to take it, but at the moment there is none of it on the horizon.
RT: Do you think the united efforts of Ukraine and the EU will be enough to make President Putin submit to their demands?
ST: The Russian side has said repeatedly that this is a political problem that requires a political solution. If there is a degree of decentralization that would take into account the particular interests of Donetsk and Lugansk and also places like Odessa, Nikolaevsk and even Kharkov, I am sure that the Russian leadership would be eager to embrace it. It is not in the interest of Moscow to prolong this conflict. They want a settlement that will take into account the interests of the inhabitants of Eastern Ukraine, they do not want secession, but at the same time the hard line from Kiev, supported unfortunately by some of the worst elements in the country such as the Right Sector and the Svoboda party, does not bode well for a political solution. If there is a readiness in the West to prompt Kiev in the direction of a political solution, we indeed could have it today in Minsk.
RT: Chancellor Merkel also believes Ukraine should strike a balance between its European leanings and good relations with Russia. Can Poroshenko do that?
ST: In geopolitical terms it is absolutely essential that the formula be found that would guarantee Ukraine’s military neutrality and balance its economic needs between the East and the West. But at the same time, unfortunately, Washington has been pressing a zero-sum game and I am pretty certain that the Europeans would really like to resolve this one because it is a minus-sum game for all concerned, certainly for both the Germans and the Russians. The problem is that Washington has been up to no good, Washington has been playing the game of geopolitical encirclement of Russia which cannot be in the European interest and which in a long term can only result in the kind of civilizational catastrophe that we have seen exactly a hundred years ago in 1914.Opposition candidates have gained a majority in more than 10 central Moscow districts during municipal elections held on Sunday, preliminary results show.
Out of around 1,000 candidates put forward by the “United Democrats” opposition movement, some 200 have won seats, the independent Novaya Gazeta outlet reports.
Around one-sixth of the votes across 125 Moscow districts have been counted so far.
“United Democrats” candidates, led by opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov, appear to have secured all 12 seats in a southwestern district where President Vladimir Putin cast his ballot on Sunday.
The district, Gagarinsky, is listed among 13 others where the “United Democrats” gained a majority, the Vedomosti business daily reports.
“We took the center,” Novaya Gazeta quoted campaign manager Maxim Katz as saying.
“United Democrats” leader Dmitry Gudkov wrote on his Facebook page that “our victory is incomplete, but it is a victory.“
The elections were marred by claims of vote rigging, including reports of election monitors being bribed and forced voting in some Moscow districts.
In total, the election monitoring NGO Golos registered around 600 complaints. The Central Elections Committee, however, said there had been no grave violations during Sunday’s vote.
Despite traditionally attracting little interest, this year’s vote is seen widely as a bellwether for next year’s mayoral elections in Moscow and the presidential race.
Opposition politicians have accused the city authorities of deliberately trying to downplay the elections to secure a lower turnout, especially in Moscow, where the opposition has a larger presence.
Around 15 percent of Muscovites turned up to vote on Sunday, which is roughly half the turnout in parliamentary elections last year.Back then, they will say, Australians had no idea what was ahead of them, so they were easily distracted by stuff that, today, we'd regard as trivial. Take the huge fuss over a trickle of asylum seekers coming to Australia. According to speeches delivered at the time, Australian politicians were pressing for the establishment of a regional processing centre, yet there is no record of anyone offering to set one up in Australia. Of course, this was before the Global Resettlement Project, when Australia was simply assigned its quota of refugees and told how they must be treated. Until then, most asylum seekers were treated more harshly than criminals. People must have known what was happening in the infamous detention centres - there was plenty of media coverage - but apparently they did not care. Politicians used "border protection" as a fear trigger, and it seemed to work. Politics was a very different game back then. Party machines had ground the last shreds of ideology into media-sized pellets, and Australia had caught the American disease - grafting commercial marketing techniques onto political campaigning. By 2013, elections had become a battle between competing slogans and advertising campaigns. Needless to say, this eroded voters' respect for politicians, reducing them and their parties to mere brands. Vast sums of money had to be raised to pay for all that advertising, so there were constant scandals about so-called "political donations" and the potential for corruption.
You'll find this one hard to believe: in 2013, government money was being poured into non-government schools, including some that were already very wealthy. Taxpayers were (apparently cheerfully) subsidising private schools attended by kids whose parents wanted them to have a "separate" education, based on socio-cultural elitism or religion, while the public education system was pleading for more funding. The resulting two-tiered school system hastened Australia's retreat from egalitarianism. These days, with the egalitarian spirit revived and budgets even tighter, we accept that if you want such luxuries, you pay for them yourself. In 2012, they had an inquiry into school funding, but it was hidebound by a government decree that no private school should lose a single dollar of government funding as a result of its recommendations. So the proposed massive increase in funding for state schools never happened: no one could find the extra $15 billion needed, and a conservative government later scrapped the whole idea. In the meantime, NSW actually reduced its budget for public education. The mass transit revolution was yet to come. In 2013, they were relying heavily on petroleum-powered road transport for people and freight. There was not a single high-speed train. Air fares were too cheap: flying in the dirty jet aircraft of that era was an act of environmental vandalism that should have been restricted, not encouraged. Professional sport appears to have been one of their most popular forms of distraction. It supplied the populace with tribes, totems, rituals and festivals, plus a pantheon of heroes to rival the saints of traditional religion. Indeed, sport appeared to have replaced religion as the Marxian "opiate of the masses": the religious counterpunch came later.
In these frugal and health-conscious times, it's hard to imagine that highly acidic carbonated drinks, laden with fructose and caffeine, were as popular in 2013 as tobacco had once been. The processed food lobby wielded such power that manufacturers were free to market products known to promote obesity, without any health warnings. When you look at the burden placed on the primitive healthcare system by the obesity epidemic, you wonder why the regulators didn't act more quickly. Here's the biggest question: how could they have ignored all the warnings about the looming impact of the Great Warming? With global temperatures now up by almost four degrees, it looks as if the Great Warming has been responsible for the deaths of 2 billion people so far. That's better than was feared, thanks to some revolutionary mitigation projects that secured food and water supplies and suppressed the spread of mosquito-borne disease, but there might be worse to come. In some countries, the early signs of climate change had been a catalyst for crash programs to develop clean and renewable energy sources, but there was no sense of urgency in Australia. Even if it was too late to avert disaster for much of the world's population, surely people realised a clean planet would be better than a dirty one for the survivors. And yet, in 2013, Australia was still extending its coal-mining and fracking operations. Did they really not get it? Was it because they were more concerned about economics than ecology? (You'd hope not, though that would explain how they were able to mock or ignore the scientists' predictions.) Or was it simply that they wanted to believe everything would go on as it was?
"Go on as it was"? In fact, they weren't doing as brilliantly in 2013 as they thought they were. Rampant alcohol abuse, an unhealthy obsession with self-esteem, soaring levels of stress, millions drugged with anti-depressants and tranquilisers, poorly paid teachers, many women paid less than men for doing the same work, the stockmarket run like a casino, more than 100,000 homeless, ludicrously low taxes on the uber wealthy … and cotton farming in the driest continent on earth! How did they let all that happen? Still, top marks to them for being able to sing "our home is girt by sea" with a straight face.Story highlights Schools around North America are changing traditional report cards
Instead of numbers or letters, some focus on detailed feedback, communication
Superintendent: "We're trying to boil it down to what do parents really want and need to know"
Some parents find changes confusing, while others like the more detailed insight
Krista Wolfram might be out running errands or in the pickup line at her daughter's school when the alert appears on her smartphone.
Sometimes, it's a picture from 7-year-old Serenity's writing journal, with a line or two of feedback from her teacher; or, it could be a video of Serenity singing in music class.
The messages come at least once a week, sometimes more, and provide Wolfram with more than just a brag book of images. It's real-time insight into her daughter's learning, enabling her to think ahead about how she can help Serenity at home.
The messages started going out to some parents at Georges Vanier Elementary School in Surrey, British Columbia, in fall 2013 as part of a pilot program. The school wants to make communication between parents and teachers more detailed, frequent and collaborative.
Because Wolfram is getting frequent updates about her daughter's educational highs and lows, there are no surprises come report card time. Eventually, the district is hoping to phase out periodic report cards in favor of regular, descriptive communication and a year-end summary or portfolio review, Surrey school district Superintendent Jordan Tinney said.
"We're trying to boil it down to what do parents really want and need to know about a child's progress in school? How can we give parents a window into class?" Tinney said.
"We believe traditional report cards are highly ineffective in communicating to parents where their children are in learning. If we can communicate this learning routinely to parents, then we see the need for report cards and the stamp of letter grade going way down."
Schools around North America are trying to replace traditional report card grids of letters and numbers with descriptive feedback about students' mastery of topics. Rather than a series of cumulative scores in each subject based on a mashup of tests, homework, extra credit and behavior, schools are trying to show how well students understand core concepts -- and involve parents more in the process.
In the education world, it's often called standards-based grading. It's become the norm at most elementary schools, and it's gaining momentum at the secondary level.
Still, it can be a struggle for parents who remember their own semester report cards and the easy comparisons made between As, Bs and Cs or number scales. Others, like Wolfram, like the change.
"It's been helping me feel like I'm more connected to my daughter and her classroom," Wolfram said. "By visually seeing my child's work, I can see what the teacher means by 'She's not writing enough,' and work with the teacher to fix the problem."
Separating achievement from behavior
The philosophy behind standards-based grading is generally consistent from school to school, but it can look a lot different in practice.
At Georges Vanier and other Surrey elementary schools, it means abandoning letter grades for a color-coded sliding scale with cues like "approaching expectations" and "meeting expectations." Nearby elementary schools serving the Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows communities rank student comprehension as "emerging," "developing" or "applying," and hold "student-led," in-person reporting conferences twice a year instead of sending home formal report cards.
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In Oregon, a new law says schools can use letters or numbers to assess students, but the grades must be based solely on academic performance. Those marks will no longer consider whether an assignment was turned in late or if a student talks in class.
Proponents of the new systems believe that traditional grading leads to inflated marks for students who behave well in class, even if they don't have a strong grasp of concepts -- and lower grades for those who understand ideas but arrive late or fail to turn in homework.
Flaws in traditional grading come from outdated and inconsistent notions about its purpose, said Ken O'Connor, an education consultant who advocates for standards-based grading.
"They give the community the wrong message of what school's all about, that it's about the accumulation of points, when we should be doing everything to make clear school is about learning," O'Connor said.
But what's popular for elementary-age students can be a tougher sell in middle and high school.
Parents and teachers become less willing to abandon letters and numbers as students prepare to apply for college, O'Connor said. But even within the same school, different teachers might determine grades in inconsistent ways, he said.
O'Connor argues that numbers and letters can serve a purpose -- as long as they're buttressed by ongoing communication of a student achievements.
"Report cards are a permanent record -- they're helpful to provide a summary of student achievement every year as part of a communication system, but it's not right to think they're the be-all-and-end-all," he said.
Some schools are compromising at the middle and high school levels by implementing standards-based learning that still incorporates letter and number grades.
At the Solon Community School District in Iowa, older students still receive letter grades, but parents hear more often from teachers and there's a fresh focus on priorities, said Matt Townsley, the district's director of instruction and technology.
Solon schools are in the second year of implementing standards-based learning for kindergarten through 12th grade. In the past, teacher comments might be jotted on the pages of a test or scribbled in the margins of a term paper. In the new system, detailed feedback is available digitally, and it's the focus of periodic parent-teacher discussions and student evaluations. Plus, it helps to use those tests and term papers as evidence to support student assessments.
"We felt eliminating letter grades would be too much at once," he said. "But we know homeschooled children who often don't get letter or number grades make it into college each year. We just need to do the research on our end and figure out how to make the college seamless transition for students and be able to assure parents."
No parent support? 'Dead in the water'
The schools serving Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows in British Columbia began developing a plan to eliminate letters and numbers from kindergarten through seventh grade in the 2010. Parental involvement was essential to taking the plan live district-wide in fall 2013, acting Assistant Superintendent David Vandergugten said.
"We realized early on that if you don't have parents on board, you're dead in the water," he said.
All schools in British Columbia stopped using letters and numbers in kindergarten through third grade classrooms years ago, and more recently in grades four to seven.
The district interviewed parents and asked them to evaluate templates, leading to the new system in which students and teachers fill out an assessment sheet that measures their competencies at their grade level.
In the first two terms of every school year, students lead a conference with their parents and their teacher to discuss the evaluation. In the third term, the student and teacher work on the evaluation together before sending it to parents at the end of the school year. That final evaluation goes into students' permanent records.
Parents of students in grades four to seven can still request letter grades. But Vandergugten said the number of parents who requested them went down after the first term.
"The face-to-face process is so powerful that we're finding once parents go through it, they understand what we're trying to accomplish," he said, claiming a 97% participation rate among parents in the student-led conferences.
At Georges Vanier Elementary School in Surrey, students still received report cards in the first term. But by using notes she'd been taking throughout the year, second-grade teacher Wendy Hall said she spent far less time preparing them.
Before, she said, she would jot notes on slips of paper and rarely reached out to parents. Newly equipped with an iPad and FreshGrade assessment software, she typically sends parents one to three individualized updates each week.
Parent Krista Wolfram says she is already seeing the benefits for her daughter. When Hall told Wolfram that Serenity was struggling to write about her favorite superhero, Wolfram immediately knew it was because Serenity didn't have one -- she's more interested in fantasy stories and dragons.
She and Hall came up with the idea to provide alternate writing topics for students, and that improved Serenity's performance, Wolfram said.
"She went from complete fail in the topic, which I wouldn't have known about until report card time, to a complete pass by report card time, which is just so exciting for a parent," she said.
Susan Taylor, whose son is also in Hall's class, used the evidence to improve her son's penmanship. Taylor said she loves the window into her son's classroom because he rarely offers up information when she asks him.
"It gives me the ability to do more directed questioning instead of 'How was your day?'" she said. "I have a better take on what's happening."
Still, the transition isn't entirely smooth. Not all the elementary school teachers use the software with the same frequency.
An older son in eighth grade is adjusting from receiving letter grades in seventh grade to a new sliding scale that says he's approaching, meeting or exceeding expectations.
Meanwhile, Taylor says she wouldn't want to give up letter grades for her 12th-grade son. He's applying to post-secondary schools that ask for GPAs and reports in numbers and letters. Still, she wishes she received regular updates on his progress, and that he'd have a digital portfolio of work like her younger children will.
"If they could find a way to dovetail the two systems, that would be ideal," Taylor said.
Reconciling multiple systems -- and levels of comfort among educators -- are some of the biggest challenges schools face, Georges Vanier Elementary School Principal Antonio Vendramin said.
And, that's OK, he said. Changes take time.
"As long as we're getting into the habit of communicating student learning on an ongoing basis, we're on the right track," Vendramin said. "Scales, letters and numbers are only as good as the meaning you give them."Bokor Hill Station is an abandoned French town built in 1922 on Bokor Mountain, just outside the town of Kampot, southern Cambodia. mark M. who visited the area was kind enough to send us some pictures. the buildings look absolutely eerie and beautiful. It seems that the area that has been abandoned for so many years has some new development on the way and is becoming touristy.
Bokor resort Hotel/casino
The following description is from Mark M. :" I went to Cambodia and one of the highlights of my trip was a night's stay on Bokor Mountain to see the abandoned resort up there. It was built by the French in the 20's and then expanded much later (evidenced by some sleek and modern architecture), but was abandoned due to the war in the 70's and was used as a hold out for the Khmer Rouge for a while. An important battle happened there, I believe. The main building is intact, overlooking a dramatic cliff toward the distant ocean. There are several other buildings including a catholic church, a casino, some homes."
The following description comes straight out of wikipedia:" The town was built as a resort by the colonial French settlers to offer an escape from the humidity and general insanity of Phnom Penh. The centrepiece of the resort was the grand Bokor Palace Hotel & Casino, complemented by shops, a post office, a church and the Royal Apartments. It is also an important cultural site, showing how the colonial settlers spent their free time.
Now abandoned, most of the buildings are still standing. The strategic importance of the location is underlined by the fact that the Cambodian authorities maintain a Ranger Station on the site."
coordinates : 10°37'19.78"N 104°01'34.61"E
google map
pictures sources : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 & Mark M.
text source : 1 & Mark M.
Artificial Owl recommends:
Read more [+]A tumultuous period in The Gambia looks to be ending as the country’s new president, Adama Barrow, returned to the country from Senegal today to begin his tenure.
Gambians elected Barrow as their next president in December, but longtime leader Yahya Jammeh contested those results and refused to step down. Barrow was inaugurated in a makeshift ceremony at Gambia’s embassy in Dakar on Jan. 19, while leaders from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) worked to convince Jammeh to cede power. The former president has since gone into exile in Equatorial Guinea.
Following a difficult week which saw ECOWAS troops enter The Gambia, and thousands of citizens fearful of violence flee, the immediate task for Barrow will be to restore calm and help Gambia navigate its first ever peaceful transition of power (Jammeh took power in a military coup 23 years ago). The new president will also have to ensure there is no lasting damage to the country’s tourism sector, which accounted for 20.2% of Gambia’s GDP in 2015.
Long-term, Barrow has hinted that he will look to restore democratic rights and principles in the country after decades of press and human rights suppression under Jammeh. “An environment where there is no fear,” Barrow says, is crucial to ensuring “real development” in the tiny West African country, where around 60% of people live in poverty. Young Gambians frequently look to Europe for opportunity, and last year represented the fourth-largest group of migrant arrivals to Italy, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
As Barrow kicks off a new chapter in Gambia’s history, the international community, which provided vital diplomatic support after the elections, will hope for improved relations with the country. Karamba Touray, an aide to Barrow, has said the new president will reverse some of Jammeh’s isolationist foreign policies, such as its exit from the International Criminal Court.The Denver Broncos were without one of their major defensive stars for much of the 2013 season, and yet they were still able to make a run to the Super Bowl.
Perhaps if two-time Pro Bowler and 2011 defensive rookie of the year Von Miller was on the field on that fateful February evening, the Broncos would not have gotten beat down by a score of 43-8. On the other hand, maybe Miller would not have been able to stop the surging Seahawks offense, but you can bet he wishes he was there to try.
Last season was a rough one for Miller. After being suspended for the first six games due to a violation of the NFL’s banned substances policy, Miller returned to the Broncos for two months before tearing his ACL against the Houston Texans.
Playing in only nine games was tough for Miller, as he was considered to be one of the NFL’s best defensive players, and was certainly hoping to vie for Defensive Player of the Year in 2013.
Although the 2013 campaign was cut short due to injury, Miller’s confidence and goals are still as high as ever as the Denver Broncos recently opened up their training camp in preparation of the 2014 season.
“I want to be the best, that’s my mission.” – Von Miller pic.twitter.com/Etn96TQ4oD — Benjamin Hochman (@hochman) July 24, 2014
Miller’s athleticism and ability to play multiple positions has made him one of the most threatening players on the defensive side of the ball in the NFL.
Only time will tell, however, with regards to how well he plays coming off ACL surgery.Just had your paper rejected? Don’t worry — that might boost its ultimate citation tally. An excavation of scientific papers' usually hidden prepublication trajectories from journal to journal has found that papers published after having first been rejected elsewhere receive significantly more citations on average than ones accepted on first submission.
This is one of the unexpected insights from a study1 by Vincent Calcagno, an ecologist at the French Institute for Agricultural Research in Sophia-Antipolis, and his colleagues. They tracked the submission histories of 80,748 scientific articles published among 923 bioscience journals between 2006 and 2008, based on information provided by the papers’ authors. The used the data to construct a network of manuscript flows.
“The authors should be commended for assembling this previously hidden data,” says Sidney Redner, a physicist at Boston University in Massachusetts, who studies networks of scientific citation.
To each their own
Some of what Calcagno and colleagues found was unsurprising. On the whole, the network was composed of distinct clusters that corresponded to subject categories such as plant sciences, genetics and developmental biology, with little movement between journals in different categories. The general tendency was for resubmitted papers to gravitate from higher- to lower-impact journals.
It is also no surprise that the highest-impact multidisciplinary journals, such as Nature and Science, were central to the network. What was less expected was that these journals published a higher proportion of papers previously submitted elsewhere than did more specialized and lower-impact publications.
Some of those papers defied the impact factor gradient. Two of the biggest 'upstream' jumps involved papers initially rejected by Ecology and Annals of Botany that later found homes in Nature and Science respectively — though Calcagno cautions that few conclusions can be drawn about such extreme cases.
This greater prevalence of resubmitted papers in high-impact journals was opposite to what the researchers expected to find, says Calcagno. “The result is at first sight paradoxical,” he says. But physicist Michael Schreiber, an expert in bibliometrics at the Technical University of Chemnitz in Germany, argues that this “is not surprising if you turn it around: it means that lower-impact journals get fewer resubmissions”. For one thing, he says, there are more low-impact journals, so resubmissions are more widely spread. And low-impact journals will have a lower threshold for acceptance and so will accept more first-time submissions.
There are, however, rather few resubmissions in general: 75% of all published papers appear in the journal to which they are first submitted. This suggests that scientists are efficient at working out where their papers are best suited on the first try. Calcagno says he “expected more resubmissions, in view of the journal acceptance rates I was familiar with”.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Although the papers in this study were all in the biological sciences, the findings show some agreement with a study2 of papers submitted to the leading chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie. That work too found that most rejected articles ended up being published in journals with a lower impact factor.
Whether the same trends will be found in other disciplines remains to be seen. “There are clear differences in publication practices of, say, mathematics or economics,” says Calcagno, and he thinks that these might alter the proportions of resubmissions.
Indeed, the two studies differed on the benefits of resubmission. The Angewandte Chemie study found that very few manuscripts change substantially between first submission and eventual publication. Calcagno, in contrast, found that 3–6 years after publication, papers published on their second try are more highly cited on average than first-time papers in the same journal — regardless of whether the resubmissions moved to journals with higher or lower impact.
Calcagno and colleagues think that this reflects the influence of peer review: the input from referees and editors makes papers better, even if they get rejected at first.
So there is apparently some reason to be patient with your paper’s critics — they will do you good in the end. “Given the headaches encountered during refereeing by all parties involved, it is gratifying that there is some benefit, at least by citation counts,” says Redner.
But Schreiber draws conclusions for journal editors that are less likely to please authors: “Reject more, because more rejections improve quality.”275 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
Like a rat who could not wait to flee his own sinking ship, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) turned off the microphone of ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings, and fled the room after Lois Lerner took the Fifth at Issa’s latest IRS witch hunt hearing.
Video:
House Oversight Committee ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings described Issa’s behavior in a statement:
During a hearing today before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Committee Chairman Darrell E. Issa posed questions for approximately 15 minutes to former IRS official Lois Lerner, who stated as she had nine months ago that she was invoking her Fifth Amendment right not to testify. When it came time for the Committee’s Ranking Member, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, to take his turn for questions under Committee and House Rules, Issa quickly adjourned the hearing, turned off Cummings’ microphone, and refused to allow him to make any statement or ask any questions. Cummings immediately protested, stating: “You cannot have a one-sided investigation. There is absolutely something wrong with that. And it’s absolutely un-American.” Issa then returned, turned on Cummings’ microphone, and allowed him to begin his statement. However, when it became clear that Issa did not like what Cummings was saying, Issa again turned off Cummings’ microphone and repeatedly signaled to Republican staff with his hand across his neck. Cummings proceeded to read his statement and questions in the hearing room as all of the Committee’s Republicans fled the hearing room.
Rep. Cummings’ statement accurately described what is visible in the video above. Some media outlets have reported this as an argument between Issa and Cummings. There was no argument. Cummings tried to speak. Issa cut off his mic. Issa turned the Democrats mic back on, adjourned the hearing, and quickly ran out of the room.
Like a cockroach running from the light, Issa couldn’t wait to escape the hearing room after it became clear that he lied to the world on Fox News Sunday. Lois Lerner never had any intention of testifying today. That didn’t stop Issa from inventing some breaking news that he passed on to Fox News that Lerner would be testifying.
Issa should have been humiliated, but he was outraged that Lerner would not play a part in his attempt to revive the widely debunked IRS scandal. Fox News is expressing shock that Lerner didn’t testify, but they have known since Sunday that she wasn’t going to play a role in Issa’s latest show trial abuse of power.
Rep. Cummings was correct. That was no way to run a hearing; however it did lay bare the partisan witch hunt that Darrell Issa is carrying out against President Obama. What we saw today was not democracy. It was a pathetic attempt to grandstand in order to revive a scandal that doesn’t exist.
The only person in that room who deserves to be investigated it is Rep. Darrell Issa.
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:Supernova shrapnel
found in meteorite
DR EMILY BALDWIN
ASTRONOMY NOW
Posted: 10 September 2010
Traces of an ancient supernova event have been identified in a meteorite, explaining the curious chemical fingerprints found in the rock. Chromium 54 is the cosmic chemical that has fallen under the scrutiny of University of Chicago cosmochemist Nicolas Dauphas and colleagues, which is found to vary from one planet and meteorite to another. This was unexpected, since all elements are thought to have been evenly spread throughout the cloud of gas and dust that collapsed to form our Solar System. “It was a very well-mixed soup,” says Clemson University professor Bradley Meyer, who was not involved in the new study. “But it looks like some of the ingredients got in there and didn’t get completely homogenized, and that’s a pretty interesting result.”
The Crab nebula is one of the most well-known supernova remnants. Image: NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University). Scientists suspect that a supernova occurred around 4.5 billion years ago, possibly triggering the birth of our Sun – the evidence coming from traces of aluminum 26 and iron 60, two short-lived isotopes found in meteorites but not on Earth. “It seems likely that at least one massive star contributed material to the Solar System or what was going to become the Solar System shortly before its birth,” says Meyer. Aluminum 26 and iron 60 could have been generated in a Type II supernova, caused by the core-collapse of a massive star. While supern |
isyphean: Since he was 5 years old, he’s been pushing, endlessly, to get to the top of the sport he loves. He’s been bowled over and he's tumbled down many times. But — thanks to his raw talent, dumb luck, and sheer force of will — he’ll race tomorrow night at the highest level of the sport in a car that has his name on the side. His equipment isn't the best, and he knows there’s no way he’ll win. But just the fact that he’s made it this far, he says, is like lightning striking twice.
He can finally see the crest of the hill. The question now is whether he can make it to the top.
Sandy calls DiBenedetto her “oops baby.” When she found out she was pregnant in 1991, she and DiBenedetto’s father, Tony, were in their late 30s, already had three kids, and were running Tony’s business fixing washers and dryers. Sandy says she cried for the entire first trimester, but is quick to add that Matt’s been the best thing that ever happened to the family.
Family lore has it that Young Matt fell in love with NASCAR when he caught a glimpse of a race as his father clicked through the TV channels trying to find a baseball game. He became obsessed, watching every Sunday after that, tracking his favorite driver Jeff Burton in the No. 99 car.
DiBenedetto is telling me The Myth of Matt on Thursday night from the passenger seat of Ryan’s 2012 Ford Focus. Ryan’s driving us from his house just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, to the Richmond Raceway. Ryan always drives. DiBenedetto hates driving anything when there’s a destination. He only likes going in circles: driving race cars around tracks, doing doughnuts in parking lots, forcing ATVs up and down mounds of dirt.
Once they realized DiBenedetto was hooked on cars and there was no dissuading him, Sandy and Tony bought him a go-kart, then a modified car. DiBenedetto turned his family's grassy backyard in Northern California into a dirt track. When he got home from school, he would drag the unwieldy garden house out to the yard so he could water, rake, and tamp down the dust of his race course. Then he’d fire up the engine of his lead sled — brap, brap, brap — and tear up all his hard work, splattering mud onto the metal of his machine as he careened around the corners he'd constructed.
DiBenedetto at a NASCAR Pro East Series race at Dover International Speedway in 2009.
Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images for NASCAR
DiBenedetto started winning races, then championships. People at tracks who watched him deftly maneuver the used go-karts and modified cars the DiBenedettos could afford would tell Tony and Sandy to “do something with this kid.”
So they did. When DiBenedetto was 12, the family moved to North Carolina. They wanted to be close to Charlotte, where the majority of NASCAR teams are headquartered, but the city was too big and busy for them. So they settled on Hickory, a small town about an hour outside of Charlotte that has a race track.
DiBenedetto was fresh out of Outlaw karts and just getting into racing Legends cars on local circuits by then, winning race after race at the Hickory Motor Speedway. He soon graduated to Late Models, and won lots of those, too, eventually touring up and down the East Coast.
Despite his promise, when DiBenedetto was 16 his parents realized they couldn’t afford to pay for his passion anymore. They wanted to, but it was just too darn expensive. If DiBenedetto was really as good as everyone said he was, someone — a team owner, a wealthy patron — would put him in a car, Tony believed. So he told his son he was going to sell all of his racing equipment.
A lot of families on the race circuits below NASCAR often say they’re going to get rid of everything. They’ll kvetch about it at races with other parents, saying to each other, “Oh, yeah, this year is the last.” Owning a race car is like feeding a growing teenage boy; you can’t ever put enough into one. But most of the families who threaten to quit don't. They’ll show up the next year with a few new parts, maybe a new trailer.
Tony actually followed through. DiBenedetto came home from high school one day to find that everything was gone. His cars weren’t in their parking spots, and the truck his parents dragged the trailer behind had disappeared. The trailer was gone, too. Their little makeshift shop next to the house was empty. You’d only know someone there drove race cars because of the trophies in DiBenedetto’s room.
“And then, at the end of the season, another driver came in with millions of dollars. I was out as quick as I was in. So again, I’m like, well, my career is over. I have nothing.”
“It was time number one of one thousand that I thought my career was over,” DiBenedetto says. “I thought I was all done.”
DiBenedetto says his family thought they’d be able to run a team for him because they were “naive.” His parents use the word “naive,” too. They also all say “struck by lightning twice,” and Sandy and DiBenedetto list the racing equipment they sold in the same order. Tony says that if DiBenedetto ever disrespects a fan, even if he’s super old, he’ll “get out of his wheelchair and kick his ass.” DiBenedetto tells me that if he ever disrespects a fan, Tony will “get out of his wheelchair and kick my ass.”
The DiBenedettos know the script. They’ve had to tell and sell their story to countless sponsors, team owners, fans, and (more recently) journalists just to keep DiBenedetto in the sport. They schmooze, network, cold-call businesses, and market DiBenedetto — who turns himself into a human billboard whenever he puts on his fire suit splashed with sponsor’s logos — just to stay in the sport.
At this point in the story, we pull into a gas station in the middle of nowhere. DiBenedetto asks Ellis if he needs gas, and Ellis says no, we should be fine. As Ellis pays for the energy drinks and snacks he’s hoping will help him stay awake, DiBenedetto goes outside and fills up his friend’s car anyway.
We get back on the road. It’s 11:30 — we’ve been driving for close to two and a half hours, and we still have two left. That’s nothing for these guys. They're now on a team with enough money to fly to most races, but the first time they raced together in 2014, they’d drive across the country smushed into the backseat of a van with 10 pit crew guys. They recall some of their trips, like the time they overslept and had to Uber to the racetrack in Chicago. It's funny to imagine: two race car drivers with their helmets and fire suits in the back of some stranger’s Kia.
After Tony sold his racing equipment, DiBenedetto was rudderless for a while. But, just like Tony said they would, people started calling, offering rides. First, it was a team out of Asheville, then it was a family in Charlotte. DiBenedetto hopped in and out of different cars and put up more incredible finishes.
It was during this time that DiBenedetto won at Bristol. Then he got a call from Joe Gibbs Racing, a powerhouse team that guys like Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin drive for. Gibbs had been keeping an eye on him since he beat his team in a race a few years ago. They wanted him to come in for a meeting at team headquarters in the Charlotte area.
DiBenedetto, who was 17 at the time, had no idea what to expect. He thought they just wanted to meet him, say hello, keep him on the back burner. Instead, they put a contract on the table in front of him and told him to sign if he wanted a development deal.
DiBenedetto couldn’t pick up the pen fast enough. It would be the first time that he had steady access to equipment commensurate with his talent. He started beating most of the people he raced against in one of Gibbs’ K&N cars (think minor, minor leagues of NASCAR). He was ripping up concrete tracks like he was back on the West Coast tearing through the dirt of his old backyard.
Matt and Tony after Matt won the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Race at the Bowman Gray Stadium, on Saturday, June 4, 2011.
Photo by Sara D. Davis/Getty Images for NASCAR
So the team bumped DiBenedetto up and put him in an Xfinity car in 2009 (think triple-A). He’d never driven one before. They’re a whole different animal from K&N cars, but that first race in the Xfinity Series was a dream come true anyway: DiBenedetto finished an impressive 14th after running second for most of it against big names like Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth.
The next season was a nightmare. Everything went perfectly wrong. DiBenedetto didn’t get to practice enough, and he only got to run six races. He made mistakes he says he’d be able to avoid now, but he also had a lot of bad luck, from blown tires to wrecks that weren’t his fault.
“And then, at the end of the season, another driver came in with millions of dollars,” DiBenedetto says. “I was out as quick as I was in. So again, I’m like, well, my career is over. I have nothing.”
Sandy and Tony say they’re glad the Gibbs deal didn’t work out. They think their son has stayed grounded because he’s had to fight so hard to stay in the sport since then. But DiBenedetto has a hard time truly believing that. If he’d done well, it would’ve been a fast track to a ride in one of the best Cup Series cars on the circuit. He could’ve been a household name by now.
Instead, DiBenedetto went home to Hickory. He was 19, and, feeling like he was out of options, went to work at Carillo’s Collision Repair, an auto body shop in the area.
“I wanted to blow my brains out every day,” DiBenedetto says, turning around in his seat to look at me. “Not that I was unappreciative of life or anything, I just had no passion for doing that crap. I hated it.”
DiBenedetto worked at the shop while he continued to network in the NASCAR world. He’d run some races on the weekends, but during the week he fixed normal cars that normal people drove to run normal errands. It smelled like racing — engine grease, burnt rubber, oil-soaked rags — but it was the opposite. It was standing still.
Eventually, a family-run team took a liking to DiBenedetto and let him “start and park” the worse of their son’s two Xfinity cars. This meant that DiBenedetto would qualify the car, then start the race so the owner could collect the money from simply making the field. DiBenedetto would then run a handful of laps and drop out, so as not to burn through a fresh set of wheels.
Then he’d go back to Hickory and the auto body shop.
As frustrating as it was for DiBenedetto not to be able to run full races, just being in the cars paid off. The Motorsports Group (TMG) noticed him and offered him a deal starting-and-parking. They eventually moved him into one of their Xfinity cars in 2014.
Ryan Ellis racing at Daytona International Speedway in 2016.
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
At this point in our road trip, Ellis has started interjecting more as DiBenedetto talks. He was also racing on and off for TMG at the same time DiBenedetto was, so he’s in the story now. He remembers the races, the practices, the long cross-country drives, the sponsor meetings, that DiBenedetto is telling me about.
Ellis’s grandfather built cars for Mario Andretti and died in a crash the same year Ryan’s father was born. But despite being a racing family like the Elliots, Earnhardts, or Childresses, the Ellises didn't get rich from cars. They couldn't fund Ryan's career.
Ellis misses driving more than he’s willing to admit. When a few fans recognize him at the track over the course of the weekend he lights up, thrilled to sign their cards and hats. What Ellis doesn’t miss is the cutthroat side of the sport. Last year, he kept getting bought out of races by richer, younger, and less experienced drivers who come from family money (we're talking serious money, here: NASCAR drivers are the sons of Vegas casino owners, heads of agricultural lobbies, owners of airlines). It was the same thing that happened to DiBenedetto at Gibbs.
“I became emotionless,” says Ellis, who dropped out of college two classes shy of a marketing degree to drive full time. “Literally. I felt like I was just a zombie. When I’d get bumped from another race, I’d be like, ‘Oh, well that sucks, I’m going to hang myself again.’ I don’t blame the teams, it makes sense for them. But you just become numb.”
He’s glad to finally have a steady paycheck working for Matt. And if it can’t be him, at least his best friend is the one who got one more lucky break than he did. When someone he knows bumps into Ellis bumps at the track and asks what he’s up to now that he’s not racing, he tells her, “I’m living Matt’s dream.”
Despite the fact that DiBenedetto drove well for TMG, the team dropped him at the end of 2014. Thinking it was all over for the umpteenth time, but refusing to quit, DiBenedetto kept calling, emailing, and taking team owners out to dinner trying to schmooze his way back in. He says he even drove eight hours to show up at the Daytona 500 uninvited to convince a team called BK Racing to give him a chance. It worked, and he ran some races for them starting in 2015. Last year, he drove to a sixth-place finish at Bristol, his lucky track. The cars weren’t great, but BK eventually gave DiBenedetto a proper crew chief — a surly guy named Gene — and a dedicated crew that worked on only his ride.
At the end of 2016, DiBenedetto signed with GoFas Racing. A family named St. Hillaire owns the team — they made their fortune running garbage removal and port-a-potty businesses in Maine. GoFas was doing poorly every week, and wanted to be better. DiBenedetto — handsome, talented, personable, available — seemed like the perfect guy to drive their No. 32 car.
Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images
DiBenedetto says that everyone thought he was crazy to sign with GoFas. Gene told the St. Hillaire’s, to their face, that their cars were “junk.” But DiBenedetto believed if he could turn a low-budget program around, maybe the owners of the best teams would finally consider him. Maybe the big-time sponsors would come calling. Maybe the NASCAR world would realize he wasn't going away.
So far, he seems to be doing it. In used equipment and almost no time, DiBenedetto has taken the team to its best finishes ever, including two in the top 10. He came in ninth at the Daytona 500 and eighth in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis — two of NASCAR’s biggest races. GoFas has improved from 38th to 31st in the owners points standings.
The problem is that a whole lot of money still separates DiBenedetto from where he is now and the chance of winning a Cup race. This weekend at Richmond, a finish close to the top 20 would be GoFas’s version of coming in first.
But 20th isn’t first. DiBenedetto’s best still won’t earn him a trophy, and it drives him insane.
On Saturday night at Richmond, DiBenedetto comes in 31st.
The bright floodlights of the raceway glint off the advertisements on the hood of his car as he pulls into the pits. His fenders are scraped up, and the track smells like burning rubber and gasoline fumes. When DiBenedetto takes his helmet off and climbs out of the car, his usually perfect hair is poking up and matted down in various places. He’s a little pale. His lips looked chapped.
“We sucked,” he says.
Ellis and DiBenedetto are driving to back to Charlotte tonight because they want to sleep in their own beds rather than the cramped bunks of Willie’s old bus. Ellis will drive, that is. DiBenedetto will probably fall asleep in the passenger seat after about 45 minutes. But before they can hit the road — before DiBenedetto can even change out of his fire suit — he has to go talk to the sponsors he’s been shepherding around the track all weekend.
These sponsors are wealthy, but they're not giving DiBenedetto enough for him to finally end up in a car as good as he is. For that to happen, DiBenedetto needs to convince a huge corporation to back him, or find many more smaller businesses that want to slap their logos onto his body. He has no choice. In NASCAR, marketing is as much a sport as the driving itself. Even though DiBenedetto signed for another year with GoFas, it all still feels precarious.
Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images
Most people like DiBenedetto — including Ellis — have given up the dream of driving. In Ellis’s car on Thursday, both of them joked that the most talented driver in the country is probably driving a tractor somewhere. But racing cars is DiBenedetto’s only passion. His stubborn optimism makes him think that maybe someday his skill, dogged ambition, and charisma will be enough. Despite the many times he’s seen evidence that it might not be. The dang world just isn’t fair.
“All I can do is turn left,” he says.
Since DiBenedetto was 16, people have been asking him what he’ll do if this all falls apart. He’s never had an answer, and even thinking about it is terrifying. He keeps straining against that boulder, believing he will get it over that hill. Somebody has to make it, and DiBenedetto refuses to accept that he might not be the guy who does.
Except that it’s not up to him. He’s reminded weekly, thanks to the leaderboard, exactly how far away he is from becoming the face of NASCAR. His story is familiar and deeply American; he wasn’t born with the right last name, or the correct amount of zeros in his bank account, and no matter now hard he pushes his foot down on the pedal of that No. 32 car, it won’t be enough, not unless something changes.
DiBenedetto finally takes off his sweaty suit and puts on a T-shirt and shorts. He and Ellis say goodbye to the sponsors, the team, and DiBenedetto’s parents. They duck into the media center to grab some free pizza before they head back to Ellis’s car.
I retrieve my bag from where I left it on the counter of the GoFas hauler and bump into Curtis, one of the guys on DiBenedetto’s team. He’s older, tall, with a big, white beard, broad shoulders, and a sizable belly. Curtis loves NASCAR. His parents used to carry him to races before he could walk. Working on cars is the only job he’s ever had.
“I can't imagine doing anything different,” Curtis says. “They'll be carrying my cold, dead carcass out of here.”Wireshark has quite a few tricks up its sleeve, from capturing remote traffic to creating firewall rules based on captured packets. Read on for some more advanced tips if you want to use Wireshark like a pro.
We’ve already covered basic usage of Wireshark, so be sure to read our original article for an introduction to this powerful network analysis tool.
Network Name Resolution
While capturing packets, you might be annoyed that Wireshark only displays IP addresses. You can convert the IP addresses to domain names yourself, but that isn’t too convenient.
Wireshark can automatically resolve these IP address to domain names, although this feature isn’t enabled by default. When you enable this option, you’ll see domain names instead of IP addresses whenever possible. The downside is that Wireshark will have to look up each domain name, polluting the captured traffic with additional DNS requests.
You can enable this setting by opening the preferences window from Edit -> Preferences, clicking the Name Resolution panel and clicking the “Enable Network Name Resolution” check box.
Start Capturing Automatically
You can create a special shortcut using Wirshark’s command-line arguments if you want to start capturing packets without delay. You’ll need to know the number of the network interface you want to use, based on the order Wireshark displays the interfaces.
Create a copy of Wireshark’s shortcut, right-click it, go into its Properties window and change the command line arguments. Add -i # -k to the end of the shortcut, replacing # with the number of the interface you want to use. The -i option specifies the interface, while the -k option tells Wireshark to start capturing immediately.
If you’re using Linux or another non-Windows operating system, just create a shortcut with the following command, or run it from a terminal to start capturing immediately:
wireshark -i # -k
For more command-line shortcuts, check out Wireshark’s manual page.
Capturing Traffic From Remote Computers
Wireshark captures traffic from your system’s local interfaces by default, but this isn’t always the location you want to capture from. For example, you may want to capture traffic from a router, server, or another computer in a different location on the network. This is where Wireshark’s remote capture feature comes in. This feature is only available on Windows at the moment — Wireshark’s official documentation recommends that Linux users use an SSH tunnel.
First, you’ll have to install WinPcap on the remote system. WinPcap comes with Wireshark, so you don’t have to install WinPCap if you already have Wireshark installed on the remote system.
After it’s isntalled, open the Services window on the remote computer — click Start, type services.msc into the search box in the Start menu and press Enter. Locate the Remote Packet Capture Protocol service in the list and start it. This service is disabled by default.
Click the Capture Options link in Wireshark, then select Remote from the Interface box.
Enter the address of the remote system and 2002 as the port. You must have access to port 2002 on the remote system to connect, so you may need to open this port in a firewall.
After connecting, you can select an interface on the remote system from the Interface drop-down box. Click Start after selecting the interface to start the remote capture.
Wireshark in a Terminal (TShark)
If you don’t have a graphical interface on your system, you can use Wireshark from a terminal with the TShark command.
First, issue the tshark -D command. This command will give you the numbers of your network interfaces.
Once you have, run the tshark -i # command, replacing # with the number of the interface you want to capture on.
TShark acts like Wireshark, printing the traffic it captures to the terminal. Use Ctrl-C when you want to stop the capture.
Printing the packets to the terminal isn’t the most useful behavior. If we want to inspect the traffic in more detail, we can have TShark dump it to a file that we can inspect later. Use this command instead to dump traffic to a file:
tshark -i # -w filename
TShark won’t show you the packets as they’re being captured, but it will count them as it captures them. You can use the File -> Open option in Wireshark to open the capture file later.
For more information about TShark’s command line options, check out its manual page.
Creating Firewall ACL Rules
If you’re a network administrator in charge of a firewall and you’re using Wireshark to poke around, you may want to take action based on the traffic you see — perhaps to block some suspicious traffic. Wireshark’s Firewall ACL Rules tool generates the commands you’ll need to create firewall rules on your firewall.
First, select a packet you want to create a firewall rule based on by clicking on it. After that, click the Tools menu and select Firewall ACL Rules.
Use the Product menu to select your firewall type. Wireshark supports Cisco IOS, different types of Linux firewalls, including iptables, and the Windows firewall.
You can use the Filter box to create a rule based on either system’s MAC address, IP address, port, or both the IP address and port. You may see fewer filter options, depending on your firewall product.
By default, the tool creates a rule that denies inbound traffic. You can modify the rule’s behavior by unchecking the Inbound or Deny checkboxes. After you’ve created a rule, use the Copy button to copy it, then run it on your firewall to apply the rule.
Do you want us to write anything specific about Wireshark in the future? Let us know in the comments if you have any requests or ideas.A Democratic lawmaker from Alaska who has been accused by seven women of sexual misconduct and otherwise inappropriate behavior refused to resign on Tuesday.
State Rep. Dean Westlake, 57, who is recovering from heart surgery, said he sought the counsel of friends, family, native leaders, elders, and God when making his decision to remain in office amid calls for him to leave his post from leaders of the House majority and the head of the state Democratic Party.
He announced his decision in a statement, and was confirmed by his staff.
'I want to once again apologize to any woman whom I have made uncomfortable with either my actions or words. I never intended to hurt anyone, but I understand now that I have. I am truly sorry for that, and I want to thank anyone who came forward. Doing so required strength and bravery,' he said.
Defiant: State Rep. Dean Westlake, 57, an Alaska Democrat, is refusing to resign in the face of multiple accusations of sexual misconduct
Silence breaker: Former legislative aide Olivia Garrett (left and right) last week went public with claims that earlier this year, Westlake grabbed her buttocks and told her her hair 'turns him on'
Garrett sent this letter complaining about Westlake to House leadership in March
Westlake, who is divorced, vowed to become an ally and supporter of women moving forward.
'I am committed to being better and to changing my behavior. I will learn from this experience,' Westlake stated.
His announcement came after a former legislative aide, Olivia Garrett, complained last spring to House leadership about two instances of unwelcome physical contact from the Democrat at work-related functions outside the Capitol.
Garrett decided to break her silence after she said no one informed her how the matter was handled.
The Anchorage Daily News reported on Friday that six other female aides said Westlake acted inappropriately toward them or made them feel uncomfortable.
Garrett, who did not work for Westlake, told The Associated Press on Friday that she recently filed a human resources complaint against Westlake and said it was being investigated.
'These allegations have become a confidential personnel matter, and in respecting the process I cannot discuss the details,' Westlake said.
Westlake, 57, is divorced and is currently recovering from heart surgery
Garrett initially complained last March in a letter to House Speaker Bryce Edgmon and House Majority Leader Chris Tuck detailing two alleged instances of unwanted physical contact.
In her letter, Garrett alleged that on January 16, she and Westalke were at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum when the lawmaker grabbed her in a narrow hallways and told her that her hair 'turned him on.'
Then on March 11, Garrett wrote that Westlake accosted her at a downtown art studio and grabbed her buttocks as he walked by in the dark, crowded room.
'I pushed his shoulder, but not with enough force for him to move or probably even notice since he kept moving,' she stated. 'A nearby staffer saw the incident.'
Edgmon, a Democrat from Dillingham, said he spoke with Westlake after receiving the complaint in March. Tuck, an Anchorage Democrat, declined to comment on the matter to the AP, saying it was a personnel issue.
Westlake's six other accusers recounted for the Anchorage Daily News last week how the lawmaker would give them overly long hugs, make sexual comments, ask them out and even make unwelcome physical contact.
Four of the women said they had encounters with Westlake after Garrett had filed her complaint.
One staffer at the state Capitol claimed that Westlake put his hand on her leg during a meeting in January.
Six other former legislative aides have come forward, accusing the lawmaker of making inappropriate comments, giving lingering hugs and asking them out
A second staffer said Westlake passed a note to her boss, also a legislator, saying she looked good in the dress she had on that day.
A third aide alleged that Westlake once made a comment about her outfit and at various times called her 'baby,' 'honey' and'sweetheart.'
Two others staffers claimed that Westlake gave them lingering hugs, and one of the women said the lawmaker also asked her to go out with him.
Another legislative aide claimed that on three occasions, Westlake made comments to her, or touched her, in ways that made her feel uncomfortable.
The Alaska Legislature recently put together a panel to recommend changes to its policy on sexual and other workplace harassment.
After Garrett went public, Westlake issued a statement saying he welcomed a review and updated sexual harassment policies.
'I firmly believe that everyone deserves a safe, healthy, and professional working environment,' he said in a press release last week. 'I sincerely apologize if an encounter with me has made anyone uncomfortable. That has certainly never been my intent.
'I welcome both the review and update to the legislature’s sexual harassment policies, as well as new training for members and staff.'
Westlake is a freshman lawmaker from the western Alaska community of Kotzebue who narrowly won the Democratic primary in 2016
Leaders of the House majority coalition on Friday called for Westlake to step down after the six other women came forward with their own allegations.
A statement from majority leaders, released by Edgmon, said the coalition, largely comprised of Democrats, takes seriously its obligation that everyone who works in the Capitol should feel safe and respected.
'In light of recent reports of inappropriate behavior related to his position in the Legislature, House leadership believes Representative Dean Westlake should resign from the office his constituents sent him to Juneau to represent,' the statement said.
The chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, Casey Steinau, said Westlake should immediately step down.
'There is no place where sexual misconduct, harassment, or sexual assault is acceptable,' Steinau said in a statement. 'Elected officials, regardless of party must be held accountable.'
Westlake is a freshman lawmaker from the western Alaska community of Kotzebue. He narrowly won the Democratic primary over incumbent state Rep. Benjamin Nageak of Barrow in August 2016.
Nageak challenged the results, claiming election workers botched the election, which Westlake won by eight votes.
Nageak won at the state court level, but the Alaska Supreme Court reversed that decision and awarded Westlake the primary election. He was unopposed in the general election.Echo Park News Sponsor
• Masa of Echo Park
By CECILIA PADILLA-BRILL
ECHO PARK — Next Monday’s Opening Day at Dodger Stadium is going to be a game changer for many Dodger fans and local residents alike. What’s the change? Parking restrictions that are designed to deter Dodger fans from tailgating and disturbing residents. But those same efforts will also force some Echo Park residents to move their cars or get a ticket.
“There’s going to be zero tolerance for tailgating on Opening Day,” announced Council District 1 Field Deputy Melinda Alatorre at last week’s Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council meeting. “I don’t know how to express it enough. LAPD is bringing all of the resources that they possibly have to try to maintain the tailgating activity in the park as well as in the neighborhood.”
In preparation for the season opener on Monday, April 6, Alatorre said that the city is trying to minimize the disturbances caused by tailgating in Elysian Park and the surrounding neighborhoods by posting no parking signs along the Avenue of the Palms, a stretch of Stadium Way that has traditionally served as the center of tailgate parties and picnics that begin in the morning hours before the game begins. The details of the parking restrictions are scheduled to be released later this week.
“Avenue of the Palms is just uncontrollable,” Alatorre said regarding last year’s tailgating activities. “We had incidences with Banda [a style of Mexican dance music] down Scott Avenue, and folks weren’t too happy about that,” she said. “We had a lot of folks partying on the street, disturbing the neighbors, parking in the neighborhood, drinking in front of people’s homes, urinating in front of their homes… we’re trying to curb it as much as possible and prevent it from happening altogether.”
But to prevent the the fans from simply moving their cars from Stadium Way and Elysian Park to nearby residential streets, a two-hour parking limit will also be enforced on several nearby streets:
Scott Avenue between Echo Park Avenue and Elysian Park
Morton Avenue between Echo Park Avenue and Academy Road
Academy Road between Morton Avenue and Elysian Park
Portia Street between Sunset Boulevard and Scott Avenue
The goal of the two-hour parking is to prevent tailgating in those neighborhoods. However, local residents who park their cars on the street will need to move their cars every two hours to avoid being ticketed.
“We are trying to minimize the inconvenience” caused by tailgaters, said Tony Arranga, communications director for Council District 13 said during a telephone interview. He said that Councilman Mitch O’Farrell’s office heard the local community’s complaints about opening day disturbances “loud and clear.”
Further details about the parking restrictions are still being determined. However, Sargent Vincent Aguirre of the Los Angeles Police Department, said that the parking restrictions on Avenue of the Palms will only be enforced on Opening Day.
“It is really going to be a game changer for the area,” he said.
Cecilia Padilla Brill is a communications writer and journalist. She writes news, health, education and feature stories. Cecilia is currently working on her first novel. She has lived in Echo Park since 1999In a clever bit of miniaturization, [JediJeremy] has nearly completed a gyro-mouse controller for a Raspberry Pi Zero! Ultimately this will be a wearable Linux-watch but along the way he had some fun with the interface.
Using the MPU6040 gyroscope/accelerometer card from a quadcopter, [JediJeremy] spent a week writing the driver to allow it to function as a mouse. Strapping an Adafruit 1.5″ PAL/NTSC LCD screen and its driver board to the Zero with rubber bands makes this one of the smallest functional computer and screen combos we’ve seen. Simply tilt the whole thing about to direct the cursor.
It presently lacks any keyboard input, and [JediJeremy] has only added a single button for clicking, but look at this thing! It’s so tiny! In his own words: “I think this is the first computer that I can accidentally spill into my coffee, rather than vice versa.”
There have been a few issues along the way. He was originally planning to detect taps on the screen using the accelerometer and use that as the clicking input, but it disrupts the cursor position. The screen’s driver board also likes to overheat, and it tends to kill the battery life since the screen doesn’t shut off completely — but it is still a functional proof of concept.
Stripping away the need for clumsy mouse is in perfect thematic keeping with this efficient powerhouse of a computer. The best part is the extremely low price point of all the components so building your own is a cost-effective project as well! If that’s not to your taste, why not a button that plays a random episode of The Simpsons?
[via /r/raspberry_pi]Earlier people used to think that good and strong health is possible only by eating chicken, meat and eggs… But now this misconception is changing and people have realized the importance of eating vegetables.
India has around 49% of the population who are vegetarians. As per food experts each person should have atleast 300 grams of vegetables but most people do not eat so much. Vegetables are good source of natural fibre which helps in digestion. It helps to flush out toxins generated after eating meat, chicken and fast food items. Vegetables at the same time are good source of carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals.
Tomato, carrots, cabbage and chili for example are good source of Vitamin A, which is necessary for body development and good eyesight.. Deficiency of this vitamin leads to night blindedness, pimples, stone, and delayed development in children.
Cabbage, tomatoes, green pea, brinjal, onion and carrots are also high in Vitamin B. Deficiency of this vitamin leads to Beri Beri, lack of apetite, weight loss, and decrees in body temperature.
Sweet potatoes, cabbage and certain fruits like, Aamla,lemon, Tamarind has lot of Vitamin C. Daily use of these in cooking helps to maintain Vitamin C in our body. The deficiency if this vitamin leads to Scurvy, and problems in gums. Vitamin C also boosts our immune system.
Similarly Spinach, pigweed, coriander, cabbage, French beans and other green vegetables provide good amount of iron and calcium for our body lack of which leads to anemia and bone problems.
Onion is a good source of iodine which helps in brain development.
So far we talked about eating vegetables but It is also important to cook vegetables properly. There are few instructions to follow:
Use very less water when cooking vegetables.
Always eat fresh vegetables as far as possible.
Always wash vegetables before cutting. As after cutting it loses its |
, the algorithm was actually implementation- and language-independent. (It is actually a greatly simplified description of Damas-Hindley-Milner type inference on untyped lambda calculus.) Now, with this additional knowledge, one can map the now-typed methods to an optimized implementation. In this case, we will get the biggest benefit from specializing the add method and thus avoiding the + method lookup on each invocation.
Now, both of these specializations can actually be inlined to avoid method call overhead. As each of them is only called from one location, this is safe, straightforward and will actually reduce code size.
Also, this process will optimize out most, if not all of argument verification code—bound checking (if a constant is passed), respond_to? and similar operations.
Advanced type inference
Hindley-Milner type inference only operates on functions, and thus it does not cover some of the problems arising from the use of objects. For example, an array, being strictly heterogenous, is a “typing black hole”: it can accept objects of any type, and it always emits unqualified objects.
A solution to this problem will be presented in a future article.
Space optimizations
As it has been mentioned already, Ruby has a lot of metaprogramming methods, most of which, especially the introspecting ones, require to keep a lot of data at runtime and sometimes have an impact of performance.
For example, if something is calling methods method of an instance of Float, the compiler is required to include method lists for the entire ancestor chain for Float, which isn’t very large, as symbols are used, and to add all of the method names to the symbol table. The latter would consume 905 bytes (as of MRI 1.9.3), which isn’t a big amount for a desktop system with gigabytes of RAM, but may eat up a significant part of ROM of a microcontroller.
All of the instance variable accesses (including those through attr function family) can be compiled to fast indexed access—that is, unless there is a instance_variable_set call somewhere. If there is, a compiler is required to include a hashtable for looking up instance variables by name, and use a less efficient structure for storage to allow expanding the table at runtime.
By correctly inferring the possible types for metaprogramming method applications, the compiler can significantly reduce the space requirements for compiled code. On the other hand, if such a method is applied to unqualified type (represented by * in the graphs), the compiler will then be forced to include metadata for each and every type used.
A way to identify the location of such deoptimizing statements will be provided in the form of detailed optimization log.
Code generation
At last, the machine code is generated. This topic will also be discussed in following articles.I believe I made a mistake yesterday, and want to apologize for it publicly. I took an article yesterday, taken from one of the writer’s reddit posts, and posted it to the website. I do not believe this is where my fault lies. I believe my problem was in the way I framed it, or in this case, didn’t frame it. The original writer of this article (who I will stress works here, and gave me full permission) is not the one to blame. It was a reddit posts, and like many reddit posts, was an opinion piece. I believed it was a very concise and well written article. However, it was written in a style that was meant for reddit, not for a newspaper
This article should have been framed as an opinion piece. It was an oversight I didn’t even think of at the time, and regret that instead learned about it through others. I am still very new to this, and I’m sorry if I offended any of you. I hope I do not lose any of your viewership, as all I am trying to do is make articles that people want to read.
I started this site a few days ago and am astounded at the support I have already recieved. I hope this one mistake wont change any of that. Thank you
-Justin Unterreiner
AdvertisementsPosted on August 16th, 2016 by Marc Stevens
Congrats to Ricardo in Staten Island for getting a traffic ticket dismissed, and thanks for sending me the documentary proof below.
Ricardo filed the motion to dismiss and discovery request as there was no evidence to even suggest the constitution and code applied to him just because he was physically in New York. Richard sent me the following details.
Hello Marc, wanted you to add another confirmed “DISMISSAL" to your success stories. I was the last person to walk in the “court room” and the first person to be called without the police officer being present. I pleaded “Not Guilty" and the “fake judge” dismissed my case. After listening to your show, following your steps and doing my research I was able to have my ticket thrown out. I want to thank and commend you for your dedication promoting awareness of true law to those who are willing to wake up from the delusion these crooks have managed to implanted upon our society. The fake judge gave me no reason for the dismissal. In fact, I barely heard him when he spoke to me, that I had to ask him what was the verdict, like if he didn’t want the rest of the people in the court to hear his decision. This experience really showed me the amount of FRAUD within this system.
The facts are there was a traffic ticket filed against Ricardo. Ricardo filed a motion to dismiss because the prosecution had no evidence proving the constitution and laws applied just because he was physically in NY. This being the basis of jurisdiction.
At the arraignment the judge dismissed without argument or trial. This evidence, without speculation, the judge granted the motion or at least agreed with it. But for the motion would the judge have dismissed? That’s an obvious no. Saying that Ricardo was “too much trouble” requires one to speculate.
If there was evidence of jurisdiction, then the judge would not have dismissed. But, if you have proof, proof no other bureaucrat (or apologist) has been able to provide, please present your proof (relevant facts) during a live broadcast.D.C. Forging Surveillance Network
Privacy a Concern as 1st Phase Links 4,500 Cameras to Central Office
By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 1, 2008
The D.C. government is launching a system today that would tie together thousands of city-owned video cameras, but authorities don't yet have the money to complete the high-tech network or privacy rules in place to guide it.
The system will feature round-the-clock monitoring of the closed-circuit video systems run by nine city agencies. In the first phase, about 4,500 cameras trained on schools, public housing, traffic and government buildings will feed into a central office at the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency. Hundreds more will be added this year.
By making all those images available under one roof, officials hope to increase efficiency and improve public safety and emergency response. But civil libertarians and D.C. Council members say the network is being rushed into place without sufficient safeguards to protect privacy.
"The planning has been wholly lacking," said council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), chairman of the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary, who plans to hold a hearing on the project.
With its vast reach, the system underscores how security cameras have multiplied since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. By this fall, the District will have installed about 5,600 closed-circuit cameras, about triple the number it had in 2001. Tens of thousands of other cameras have popped up at monuments, banks, stores and other places.
Elsewhere, New York has announced a network of 3,000 public and private cameras to protect Lower Manhattan. Chicago's emergency management office will soon have access to more than 6,000 cameras run by schools, police and other agencies.
The boom has been fueled by technological advances that make it easy to install cameras and search video. But U.S. cities -- and D.C. government agencies -- have varying rules on the cameras' use.
The D.C. attorney general's office is working on a policy to protect privacy rights, but it will not be completed by the system's launch, said Darrell Darnell, head of the city's homeland security agency. The agencies involved will follow their own rules in the meantime, he said. They vary on such matters as how long images are kept.
"We're doing everything we can, humanly possible, to make sure we are respecting the rights and privacy concerns" of residents and visitors, Darnell said.
Civil liberties activists and some politicians worry about abuse.
"The new system is excessive in scope, with absolutely no safeguards for individual liberties," said Corey Owens of the Constitution Project, a bipartisan nonprofit group that wrote to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) expressing concern.
"Just to go forward without any real thought about byproduct effects and unintended consequences, I don't think is a good idea," said council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3).
The controversy has flared in the past. The D.C. Council drew up detailed guidelines for police security cameras after they were introduced downtown in 2001, including periodic audits of their operations.
Officials initially said the new system, Video Interoperability for Public Safety, would include the 92 D.C. police cameras. But Darnell said those cameras will stay under the control of police, who won't be able to tap directly into the new system. If the monitoring office detects a crime occurring, it can transmit video to police.
Courts have ruled that people have no right to privacy in public spaces. But civil libertarians and even security professionals worry about who is looking through the electronic eyes and how long they store the digital footage.
"If you're just saving it, at some point, this stuff is going to be posted to YouTube," said Frank Baitman, president of Petards Inc. of Baltimore, a developer of surveillance systems.
Problems also can occur when cameras installed for one purpose, such as crime prevention, are used for another. For example, in Tacoma, Wash., last year, there was an uproar when a high school official showed parents surveillance footage of their daughter kissing another girl.
Darnell said the city is sensitive to privacy concerns. The fact is, he said, the city has thousands of cameras in place. "Why wouldn't we want to use them in the most efficient and best way possible?"
Under the existing system, Darnell's office can request camera feeds from other agencies. But the procedure can be too slow in an emergency, he said.
The new system will also save money, cutting in half the $1.7 million the city spends annually to operate and monitor non-police cameras, officials say.
Currently, many of the city's cameras are viewed on site by security guards at city facilities. Some also are monitored by personnel at central offices in the agencies. A number of those employees will work at the new monitoring center. Security guards could be given other duties, Darnell said.
"We'd like to be able to do real-time monitoring, where we could prevent something from happening or get the police there quicker," Darnell said.
The new system will have three to five operators watching images from the cameras during each eight-hour shift, Darnell said. By year's end, analytic software is to be installed that can alert operators to potentially dangerous situations -- perhaps a fight or a person abandoning a suitcase.
Baitman, the security expert, questioned whether that size staff could prevent crime.
"There's no way you could have someone watching 1,500 cameras, even with video analytics, and identify crimes," he said.
The D.C. police usually assign two or three people to watch their cameras.
There is broad variation among video systems being developed in U.S. cities. New York, for example, envisions a mix of public and private cameras in its downtown system, linked to pivoting gates that could close off all or part of the financial district to block a suspicious car. Chicago's system is focused on responding to emergencies, rather than routine monitoring, according to a spokeswoman.
The D.C. system is going ahead although it is not yet fully funded. The city has in hand $500,000 of the $9.6 million in homeland security grants it plans to use for the new network, Darnell said. He said that will be enough to get the project started, and the city is confident of receiving the other grants in coming months. They will be used for computer hardware, software and training.
The city will also kick in $886,000 a year, Darnell said.
In its start-up phase, the system will include the public schools, the D.C. Housing Authority, the Office of Property Management and the Transportation Department. By year's end, it will expand to homeland security and the departments of Parks and Recreation, Corrections, Health and Fire and Emergency Medical Services. The schools have the largest number of cameras, about 3,600.
Workers will be cross-trained in the first 60 days to monitor various agencies' cameras at the centralized office in Southeast Washington, Darnell said.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said this year that violent crime had decreased 19 percent near each of the police crime cameras, which were installed starting in August 2006. Critics have said the cameras simply displace crime to other streets, and they question the cost-effectiveness of monitoring them.
Staff writer Lena H. Sun and staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.
© 2008 The Washington Post CompanyThe future of Android is here. Android M (I’m still hoping for Muffin) is the software that will power Android smartphones starting this fall. Aesthetically, everything looks familiar, but there’s a lot buried under that Material Design exterior. Let’s take a look.
App Permissions
Google’s Senior VP Sundar Pichai introduced M saying that Android focused “on polish and quality” for its newest release, which comes out in a few months (though the developer preview drops today). One of its first big updates was app permissions. This gives users the right to accept and revoke permissions to apps for enhanced security and privacy.
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Permissions are managed through a new dashboard where you can go through and pick and choose what an app can and can’t do. Google also says that this will make updates to apps for developers more seamless and painless. Basically, a win-win.
Custom Chrome Tabs
Android is also bringing Chrome Custom Tabs to Android. What all that insidery mumbo-jumbo means is that apps can now run closely with the Chrome browser, having the app actually running over top of the app itself. But this also means that you get some of Chrome’s excellent capabilities such as saved passwords, autofill suggestions, and multi-process security.
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Developers can now link between apps, so you don’t have to stare at that infamous “Open With?” menu option. This means it goes right to app because Android to check apps to make sure it supports the capability. Android just saved you a click.
Android Pay and Fingerprint Authentication
One of Android biiiig updates for M is Android Pay. As its simple name suggests, it’s just like Apple Pay, the tap-to-pay service for iPhones. The actual card number is never shared with the merchants and can use all major credit cards. Obviously, NFC is needed for you to use this neat-o feature at 700,000 stores across the U.S. Read all about it right here.
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Of course, secure payments means Android needs a secure way for authentication. Yep, fingerprint sensor support for Android.
Better Idle Battery Life and USB Type-C
And when we’re talking “polish and quality,” hopefully that would mean extending battery life—something every smartphone in the world could use. Android has a new feature called Doze. With Android M, the device will use motion detection to see if it’s been left alone for an expended period of time. If it has, the smartphone will go into a “deep sleep.” This will essentially trade off app freshness for battery life but will still be able to sound off alarms and delivery high-priority messages like always.
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Google says they loaded two Nexus 6s, one with Lollipop and one with M, and the new software gave the M-powered Google phone double the battery life in standby. Ok, you have my attention.
But that’s not all the charging news. USB-Type C is also coming to Android (obviously), which is expected news but great news nonetheless.
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Google Now, Upgraded
Google’s also been hard at work toiling away on Google Now by inviting tons of third-party developers to join in on the convenient virtual assistant. However, in Android M, it’s getting even better. You can now double tap on the home screen which basically tells Google Now you need help. This is called Now on Tap (: /), and Aparna Chennapragada, director of the Google Now team, went through a few scenarios using the new M-powered Google Now. You can check the name of music artists, quickly create Google Card reminders to pick up laundry, learn more about a movie some just emailed you about, or helping you not sound like an idiot at a fancy Italian restaurant. Also, you can use it in Chrome by tapping on things in the browser you have questions about. All great things!
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Google Photos App
We also got a good look at the new Photos app for Android (and also iOS) that’s been born from the ashes of Google+. Now that it’s untethered from the Google’s limping corpse of a social network, you get its best feature stock on Android. This means facial recognition powers, seamless sharing, and an improved editor and storage interface. But the biggest news? Free unlimited backup for photos and videos. That’s zero dollars, euros, yen, pounds, or whatever! It’s also available for iOS, Android, and web starting later today. Read more about it right about here.
When Dave Burke, the vice prez of engineering at Android, closed out his speech, he said that M is all about “the little things,” and that’s seems true. It’s some fine-tuning here and there, but a necessary step to make Android that much better.Somehow, between releasing a new album with Queens Of The Stone Age (out August 25th) and working on the roll-out for the third Mini Mansions album, Michael Shuman has filled his schedule even more by taking on a new solo project, in the form of soundtracking ‘Feed’ - a film directed by friend Tommy Bertelsen, and written/produced by fellow friend Troian Bellisario (of ‘Pretty Little Liars’, who also plays the film’s lead).
The project eventuated into an entire album’s worth of music (as well as a score for the film), including original songs composed and recorded by Shuman - several of which feature vocals from Z Berg (of The Like, JJAMZ, and Phases) instead of his own, and offered him with a songwriting outlet outside of his other projects.
We caught up with Shuman in New Zealand recently to discuss the film's soundtrack pre-release, as well as the status of Mini Mansions Album #3…
COUP DE MAIN: When we spoke to you last year in Los Angeles you mentioned you were working on ‘Feed’, and now the film is finally about to come out! What was the recording process like for scoring/writing music for the film?
MICHAEL SHUMAN: I wrote-- well the thing was, it’s a small movie and it’s my friend Tommy Bertelsen’s first feature, and so I was brought on board, and actually Troian Bellisario, I hadn’t seen her in years but we went to high school together… we weren’t like best friends, but we were friends and I just hadn’t seen her in years. I didn’t even know how successful she really was because I wasn’t a big fan of ‘Pretty Little Liars’, and then I was like, ‘Oh my god this is this massive, massive show.’ So when it was brought on board it felt like a family. They didn’t really have the money for licensing certain songs - of course as a director you want big songs - so I kind of had to fill that space not just on a score level, but on a song level. A lot of the songs I had written in some form or another and then just kind of re-did them and repurposed them or rearranged, whatever it was to fit the movie. Now there is actually a record which is really cool, I didn’t see that coming, I was just expecting to do a score.
CDM: Is it a mixture of songs and scoring instrumentals?
MICHAEL: Yeah, it’s crazy. I mean, I don’t think a lot of people do this actually. I’ve never heard of someone doing a soundtrack where they did the score, like a badass like Jonny Greenwood, he’s gonna do the score but he’s not doing songs - maybe Nick Cave has done that. I’m not a pioneer, but it was a lot of work, but it was also really great to actually basically make a record too.
CDM: Did you write/compose ahead of seeing any footage, or did you work alongside while the film was being created?
MICHAEL: Yeah, so there were two songs that me and Tommy talked about beforehand - I made those songs before the movie was even shot, so he was playing them for the actors before they did a scene. They were actually a very integral part of the shooting.
CDM: How much of a brief did he give you on what he wanted?
MICHAEL: We talked a lot about it. He’s a friend and also he’s very passionate, so he knows what he wants and we have the same aesthetics so it was fully talked about in every way.
CDM: In songs like ‘Cigarettes And No Regrets’ your vocals sound so different to how they do in Mini Mansions. Did you modulate your singing voice or channel the characters of ‘Feed’ at all when recording the vocals for different songs on the record?
MICHAEL: I didn't do any special tricks for my vocals really. But for that song in particular, I recorded it live with the acoustic guitar in an echo chamber to give it that sonic depth and space, and so that when the whistles come in we could really utilise the room mics and get that natural chamber reverb. Also, because that song is much mellower than most tunes I've made, it allowed me to be able to sing much softer and get a different tone out of my voice. Certain songs on the record I definitely thought about the characters and what emotional spot they may have been in for that particular scene. And then some songs, like ‘Another Wave’, were used during the filming process to inspire the actors to the vibe of the song. Tommy would play some of the songs on set to create a specific mood for the actors and crew. He was an integral co-collaborator for all the music.
CDM: You told us that the soundtrack was inspired by the 80s/90s, are there any other film soundtracks that inspired how you went about the process?
MICHAEL: That’s a good question. As you said, it started as an 80s/90s thing and it developed into something that wasn’t that, but I think the one thing that you try and do is not be too derivative of that so you become… you don’t want it to be cliché, and we had mentioned composers, someone like what Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross do, how they bring this modern element to film is really great. I don’t know... I try not to think about that too much.
CDM: Each song on the record sounds like an entirely different musical genre. When you first started working on the soundtrack was it intentional for each song to sound so different, or was it something that you realised in retrospect?
MICHAEL: Because you're making music for a film, my whole intention was to serve that and the vision of Tommy. It's much different than when you're make a record for yourself. As strange as it is to remove yourself from some of the songs, there is something extremely freeing about it, being able to put on another mask. Each song sounds so different because each scene called for something different; different emotions.
CDM: Did you record everything yourself?
MICHAEL: I recorded all the score myself. I did all the writing process myself and basically, because I felt like I was making a record I went to a studio with my friend. He did everything, but I played everything except this girl called Z Berg, she sang on two the songs - which is really cool, they’re songs I wrote but with a girl singing them.
CDM: I guess you kind of detach with those ones?
MICHAEL: That’s the best part about this whole thing - I could write songs and not feel like they’re me. Some songs were already written, but like I said, I repurposed some of them so that they fit the character, or even just a certain sound.
CDM: Z Berg’s vocals feature on ‘Good Thing’ and ‘All Hell Broke Loose’ - what was it about those songs in particular that you wanted to have a female voice on them? Did you write them knowing that you wanted another voice to sing them?
MICHAEL: Those songs were actually for the most part written beforehand. But we wanted to have a female voice to tie into Olivia's character and make that connection. A female voice was important for those particular songs. The original 'All Hell Broke Loose' was a much darker, quirkier, stripped-down demo. But because it was a sort of a montage/party scene, I developed it into what it is now.
CDM: Did the process of writing/working alone change how you work in a band environment at all? Because you were doing that at the same time as the Mini Mansions album?
MICHAEL: No, but it did make me understand how much you are putting yourself out there. And in Mini Mansions, the new record that we did is very vulnerable and just kind of dumping all my feelings out there, whereas this is the complete opposite. You’re hiding behind some other character basically, so it just gave me a clear understanding.
CDM: Congratulations on reaching a career highlight in that you have now recorded not one, but TWO Christmas songs! Can your next project please be an entire Christmas album?
MICHAEL: I would be totally into doing a Christmas record. Although I'm of the Jewish persuasion, I grew up with all the classic Christmas songs blasting throughout the house every year, all of December. You can't beat that feeling of Christmas tunes during that time of year. I just think of the badass ones The Waitresses, McCartney, etc have done. Mini Mansions had once discussed doing some Christmas songs. Maybe we'll get around to that.
CDM: If you could choose any one additional song from any of your musical endeavours to add to the ‘Feed’ soundtrack, which song would you pick?
MICHAEL: Maybe ‘Kiddie Hypnogogia’ from the first Mini Mansions record. I think the film bends between a very feminine perspective and then a very dark place, which is what the song kinda does as well.
CDM: Is your IMDB accurate, that you’ve done another composing job for a film called ‘Escaping Dad’? What was that job like?
MICHAEL: Yeah! It was funny, so I did ‘Feed’ which is great, and then the producer of that film was doing this Lifetime movie and he was like, ‘Will you do this?’ And I was like, ‘Sure!’ It was fun, it was an experience, but like it wasn’t like a movie that I would usually like. I wanted to start getting this going, and the more practice I have the better.
CDM: So you want to keep doing this as well?
MICHAEL: Yeah, I did another score, and I’m doing another one right now.
CDM: How do you have time to do this? Do you ever sleep?!
MICHAEL: I do sleep actually. I get a good night.
CDM: We also last spoke about how it’s tough with record labels only caring about hits etc - but when we talked to Tyler [Parkford] last month in L.A. he told us you guys have just signed with Fiction Records. That’s so exciting! Is there anything you can tell us about the new Mini Mansions album now?
MICHAEL: We’re planning all the roll-out right now, and I have another [Queens Of The Stone Age] record coming out in a month that’s taking up my time and we’re all really excited about it, so that’s my focus right now. Once that gets done, I will try to map out how Mini Mansions is going to fit. But the record is done; I’m really happy with it. I think like I said, all Mini Mansions records are like-- I think the first record leaned heavy on Tyler, I think the second record it was pretty in the middle, and this one leans more towards my songs. That’s just the way that it ended up turning out.
CDM: How did all the recording/studio stuff go for the MM album? Was it a similar process to recording ‘The Great Pretenders’?
MICHAEL: Unfortunately not. I think that’s why it ended up being heavily on me, not for any reason that-- it was tough, we were supposed to make a record and they committed to doing The Last Shadow Puppets, so the timing was a tough one. So we made the record together, 100%, but I think some of the pre-production or some of the mixing, they were on tour; I was home, we were still obviously discussing everything together, but I did take the reigns more for this.
CDM: For ‘The Great Pretenders’ you recorded 25 songs… How many is there for the new album that were in contention?
MICHAEL: No, we recorded I think 12. There won’t be 12 on the record, there will be like 9 or 10.
CDM: Lana Del Rey recently revealed that Zach [Dawes] has been working with Miles Kane on his new album - is all of Mini Mansions involved, or just Zach?
MICHAEL: It’s Tyler and Zach; I did some stuff. Did she reveal it, really?
CDM: Yeah she did an interview with Zane Lowe during which she said that her, Zach, and Miles were basically in a band together for a few months, from December to March.
MICHAEL: Yeah, Tyler is part of that and so is our friend Loren [Humphrey]. They were writing at my spot for a while so I was coming in and out, but I was making the Queens [Of The Stone Age] record. I would’ve liked to. I helped in some respect, but they played together before me.
Michael Shuman’s ‘Feed’ soundtrack is available now - click here to purchase.
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New Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp described himself as ‘an average’ player during his first ever press conference as Liverpool manager at Anfield on Friday.
And after a long playing career spent at German minnows Mainz 05 between 1989 and 2001, people can probably see why he self-effacingly says that.
But if we already know lots about Klopp the manager after a whirlwind week, then take a look at these, arguably his top five goals, and you can learn a bit about him as a player too.
IN PICS: Klopp's first press conference
The 6’4” tall Stuttgart born Klopp started life as a striker for Mainz before ending his career in defence.
In all he played 377 games for Mainz over 11 years - his entire playing career - and scored 52 goals - before taking over as manager and leading Mainz to promotion to the Bundesliga in 2004 after four decades for the club in Germany’s second tier.
Click on the link below to see some of new Anfield manager Klopp’s best moments as a player - including a stunning strike at no.1.The man who perpetrated the horrific massacre in Las Vegas this week was converted to Islam before his name became known, and he continues to convert after his death as well. Numerous news and social media sites that cater to the right willingly succumbed to reports that 64-year-old Stephen Paddock of Mesquite, Nevada had turned into a devout Muslim without any of his relatives or acquaintances knowing about it. At first they relied on Israel’s Reshet Bet, which reported that Paddock was actually Samir al-Hajib, who converted at the age of 20. Then ISIS itself got into the act, anointing the killer as Abd al-Bar al-Ameriki, “a soldier in the service of Islam” who had answered the call to “harm the countries of the Crusader coalition.”
The political motives of those who are desperately seeking a link between Paddock and Islam, from Donald Trump on down, are clear and obvious. A mass killing that has no connection to Islam gives American liberals a battering ram to assault right-wing support for free guns for all. Islamic terror, on the other hand, exempts the right from the need to provide excuses or explanations and gives it an instrument with which to whip up public rage, call for closing the ranks against a common enemy and condemn all those who don’t join the choir as collaborators who are stabbing America in the back.
Though the right hates to be reminded of it, radical Islam is often its best friend. America’s humiliation by Khomeini revolutionaries in Tehran helped Ronald Reagan beat Jimmy Carter in 1980. The war against Al-Qaida after the 9/11 atrocities pushed George Bush to a second term in 2004. A comprehensive study carried out by the Rand Corporation almost a decade ago found that terror attacks that were carried out within three months of elections added an additional 1.35 percent of the vote to the Israeli right, a bonus big enough to give the Likud’s Yitzhak Shamir the edge in the 1988 elections and to make Benjamin Netanyahu prime minister by a razor-thin margin in 1996. Perhaps more than any other leader in the world, Netanyahu is a prime example of how a talented and eloquent right-wing leader can climb to the top on the back of Islamic terror, and then stay there for what is beginning to seem like eternity.
But the reliance of the right on Islamic terror isn’t simply tactical. It is essential to its core identity and addictive as a hard drug. The existence of an evil and dangerous enemy buttresses the simplistic right wing view of the world as a battle between black and white, good and evil, for us or against us, with no middle ground in between. The battle against Islamic terror allows the right to foster nationalism, chauvinism and hatred of foreigners, which are all part of its essence as well as tools that serve its purposes.
The more the right wing succeeds in inflating the undeniable threat posed by Islamic terrorism, the easier it gets to concoct a perpetual state of emergency that shunts aside controversies and crimes, enables the erosion of civil rights and the rule of law and exempts the public and its leaders from the need to account for their actions. The horrific suicide bombings of the second intifada more than a decade ago, for example, erased in Israeli minds any connection between the occupation and its consequences and paved the way for the unrestrained and guilt-free de facto occupation that is happening now.
By obsessively focusing on Islamic terror however, the right is sowing the seeds of its own decline as a part of democracy, in America and Israel both. There is a close correlation between the compulsive addiction of right wing parties to eternal war against Islam over the past two decades and their transformation to intolerant and anti-pluralistic groups that eject anyone who is suspected of moderation or complex thought. Even when it is being beaten on the battlefield, Islamic terror and its adherents could not dream of sweeter victory.JAMES ELLSWORTH-WWE UPDATE
PWInsider.com has learned there has been a push in the last week internally for WWE to sign James Ellsworth to a full-time deal, so don't be shocked to see him pop back up on WWE TV as soon as this week's Smackdown.
We are told that the merchandise sales for his t-shirt turned a lot of heads inside the company as has his popularity online, so if you bought a shirt, you may have helped him get a WWE contract.
James Ellsworth is the guest on the latest edition of Ken Tuccio's "Welcome to Connecticut" podcast, which you can check out at www.WelcomeCT.com.
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more, right now for THREE DAYS free by clicking here!Great hammock for a great price Got this for a very good price (buy one get one) and I'd say it's a competitor for the more expensive ones. Only complaint (and reason for the 4 stars) is that the color was a LOT brighter than I was expecting. The picture looked like a mint color and it came BRIGHT neon green. Otherwise it's really good
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Great hammock at an affordable price! Scored a neolite double when Fox Outfitters ran a hammock promo. The price was right so I figured why not try it? It shipped the same day I made my purchase and was there by the end of the week. It’s a bit brighter than I’d prefer but I imagine some will see that as a plus. The rope straps are a piece of cake to use on tress of all sizes as long as you know how to tie good knots and I appreciate the included tree savers. The fabric feels plenty sturdy and stretches minimally when first used. All in all, this seems just as well made as a number of other brands I’ve used in the past and the price is hard to beat...pick one up, you won’t be sorry!
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SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHAREWe’re not afraid anymore: Dawson’s Creek’s big gay kiss. photo: Julia Xanthos
The Producers, The Producers, The Producers. Everybody shut the fuck up about the goddamned Producers!
Anyway, The Producers people were considering doing “Keep It Gay” as a Tony Awards telecast number, but I hear they nixed it, thinking it might not work out of context. (Besides, telling the Tonys to keep it gay is like telling Tom Stoppard to keep it abstruse.) In other news about that show, the theater manager was hoping to stop the outrageous ticket scalping happening on Ebay, but struck out, finding himself a prisoner of love for a smash. Why am I hearing strains of “Keep It Gay, but Keep It Off Ebay”?
They keep it fey over at 42nd Street, which is glitzy, brassy, lavish, smirky, declamatory, and lots of fun. The show’s all about a hooker — I mean a hoofer — who becomes a star, but it’s mainly about things like tapping, twirling, and swirling in front of a large mirror (sort of like the human swastika does in The… you know). At the opening-night party, TV personality? Revlon spokesmodel Karen Duffy told me the show was “the best antidepressant — it’s theatrical lithium.” Duffy’s written her own play that might have the same effect — a one-acter called The Importance of Being Ernest Borgnine, about the short-lived marriage of Borgnine and Ethel Merman. Duffy — who’s won Borgnine look-alike contests at Tortilla Flats — told me she learned that in the divorce proceedings, Merman revealed that Ernest gave her a Dutch oven (meaning he passed gas, then pulled the bedsheets over her head). “That’s what I’m looking for in a man,” said Duffy, who’ll have to fight me over the guy.
Everyone fought over eternal moppet Macaulay Culkin at the Madame Melville opening, but I went for guest Natasha Richardson, who told me she plans to return to Cabaret, but she won’t push Gina Gershon off the stage — “it’ll be much later than that.” Honey, I’ll be on Ebay looking for tix.
Another show that’s not The Producers — King Hedley II — is set in the Pittsburgh I only know from Queer as Folk and from being an extra in Dawn of the Dead. But it’s more dignified than all that. The contrived play has little forward motion and too much halo talk, but there’s undeniable power there, and lots of dirt. At the opening-night bash, costar Leslie Uggams told me it’s demanding “just maneuvering through the dirt onstage. Sometimes you’re walking and you find yourself sinking in a hole.” Well, I had the dirt on Leslie — in an outdoor televised concert that’s been making the rounds, she flubbed the lyrics to “June Is Busting Out All Over,” but didn’t sink in a hole at all; the resourceful diva cleverly made up some mesmerizing mumbo jumbo and got through the song alive. “I’ve become famous for that!” Uggams told me, fully aware that the video’s become a cult item. “The camera went this way, the lyrics went that way, and I made up a language!”
I went thataway to the Roundabout’s salute to Stephen Sondheim, who may not have written The Producers, but has made up a language that’s redefined the musical. (He should be knighted just for rhyming Loreleis and moralize.) But the Cipriani event unwittingly turned out to also be a tribute to presenter Elaine Stritch, who typically stole the night with her saucy talk. After being introduced by some theater personage, Stritch blurted, “If he just said I’m fearless, he’s full of shit” (he’d said “peerless”). In other highlights, Stritch declared, “I wish I was Bernadette Peters!” and blatantly begged for a job (“There must be something for me in Wise Guys!”).
Even beerless, Russell Crowe is a trip. A source from the set of A Beautiful Mind tells me that while shooting a wedding scene with Crowe and Jennifer Connelly, the extras threw rice, as directed, only to have Crowe crab, “How dare you throw rice at me! Who do you think you are?” He should have been relieved, for his career’s sake, that it wasn’t Minute Rice.
They threw wild rice at a special screening of last week’s Dawson’s Creek episode with the big gay kiss, the one you’ll see on my next Christmas card, wallpaper, and tie pattern. The lip-smacking turned out to be short and chaste, but rather important, as it was promoted as the first romantic prime-time smooch between two guys — i.e., the first time the characters actually meant it. “It’s gratuitous and groping,” David Monahan, who plays Kerr Smith‘s love interest, told me before the screening, but he was totally kidding; it was tasteful — maybe too much so — but still a landmark in that it was presented with an invigorating matter-of-factness. And the memories! Episode director Jason Moore said that as they approached the 2 a.m. shoot, Smith told him he had a problem. “Oh my God,” Moore remembers thinking, “my career is going down the toilet. He’s not going to do the kiss!” “No, the kiss is fine,” said Smith, “but I want to add a line — ‘I’m not afraid anymore.'” In other words, he’s fearless (but thankfully his character’s not pierless).
So am I, gleefully going along on a junket to check out that gigantic Mohegan Sun casino on the site of a reservation in Uncasville, Connecticut, maneuvering through the dirt in my apartment in search of some certified glamour that’s not The Producers. Well, I had no reservations, yuck yuck yuck, and was amazed to find a splash of Vegas in the middle of the Martha Stewart state, and one that makes the desert look deserted by comparison. The place is mobbed, with even barely mobile people in iron lung?looking contraptions managing to pull that damned lever.
The decor is elaborately executed in a Native American theme replete with four entrances based on the seasons, dreamed up by architect David Rockwell (who also did the more intentionally kitschy Rocky Horror Show set). Every beaver carpet has a meaning, and even the restaurants are themed — like Mohegan Territory, where the mixed drinks include the Muddy Paw, Indian Leap, and Flaming Arrow; and Chief’s Deli, where a corned beef and Swiss sandwich is intriguingly called the Chief Tantaquidgeon.
While waiting for the billion-dollar expansion that’ll include a Tree of Life and a Wombi Rock, there’s plenty to do in the casino besides ordering Tantaquidgeons on rye — like paying homage to the sculpture of a 102-year-old medicine woman holding an offering basket. Alas, the real-life lady is too frail to host a party in a drag restaurant in New York. (I asked.)
But other still-kicking luminaries, from Jerry Lee Lewis to Duran Duran, turn up in the Wolf Den, the Mohegan’s concert space that tribe members are guaranteed admission to. (As junketeering journo Mickey Boardman noted, “Preferred seating for Mickey Gilley is the least we can do in exchange for stealing away their land!”) After five more meals at the casino, we took in a performance in the Uncas Pavilion by Ray Romano, who said, “Nice to be here. Where am I?” Ray was surprisingly funny talking about everything from long-term companions to rectal leakage, one of which I think I have. (Either way, a Dutch oven’s out of the question.) What I don’t have? Tickets to The Producers. I wish I was Bernadette Peters!
Exclusive on Porn Star Sued by Tom Cruise
As you know, porn actor Kyle Bradford (a/k/a Chad Slater, a/k/a Phil Navarone) is being sued by Tom Cruise for allegedly saying he had an affair with the superstar. Well, Bradford’s ex-partner, Randall Kohl, just gave me his take on Kyle/Chad’s persona.
“I have great feelings for Chad,” said Randall, “but I think he’s an actor on the stage and doesn’t know when to get off. He reminds me of a little kid telling stories to get attention. He’d tell me that Tom gave him a watch and also offered to buy him a car. And on the CD that Chad did [a well-sung ditty called “Standing Here Alone”], it was his singing, but enhanced with computerization — he’s the new Milli Vanilli.
“I was with him almost a year, but I didn’t really know him until after about six months. I noticed his lying when he said he was going to appear on [the British music show] Top of the Pops and he didn’t — he actually went to Europe to wrestle. He said he did a Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial that I found out was not true. Also, I introduced him to the director of Days of Our Lives, who put him on. They called him to go on again, but Chad said he’s better than that and didn’t want to make just $600-700 for a part. Can you believe that?
“He wants to be like Tom Cruise. Deep down, Chad thought he was Tom in his mind. He thought he looked a lot like him — he told me he did.” Well, they’re both short.
“Chad’s family found out about his life as a result of this lawsuit,” added Randall (who markets Frixion lube, among other things). Meanwhile, Randall says that Cruise’s lawyer, Bert Fields, told him Kyle/Chad has faxed over a statement stating he’d never met Cruise. He may not have always sung that tune. According to Randall, the porn star gave a quite different interview to the London Daily Mail (it didn’t end up running that paper, which reportedly had doubts), though Kyle recently told me he never spoke to the French magazine that sparked the suit. The porn actor did not return a call for comment.
Kyle/Chad has appeared in movies like The Cockpit Club and Porn Star: The Joey Stefano Story. As for his CD, I’m thanked and pictured in it — maybe he likes press people — having met him several times through a friend. He seemed perfectly nice!
P.S. A tabloid will soon print an interview with Kyle’s ex-wife — yes, he has an ex-wife — giving her take on all the gossip and why they broke up.
Related article:
“Cruise Control.” Why is Tom Cruise so quick to sue over gay rumors? Richard Goldstein looks at closets, lawsuits — and the scariest straight-male fantasy of all.NAME
Menlo - A CPAN client
DESCRIPTION
Menlo is a code name for cpanm 2.0, developed with the goal to replace cpanm and its backend with a more flexible, extensible and easier to use APIs.
COMPATIBILITY
Menlo is developed within cpanm git repository at the menlo branch. It keeps the developer test suite intact, which means all of the features implemented as of cpanm 1.7032 are supposed to work in Menlo with cpanm-menlo command line tool and its backend, Menlo::CLI::Compat.
Menlo::CLI::Compat started off as a copy of App::cpanminus::script, but will go under a big refactoring to extract all the bits out of it. Hopefully the end result will be just a shim and translation layer to interpret command line options.
A new client, possibly called menlo, and object oriented APIs will be added later in the development phase.
MOTIVATION
cpanm has been a popular choice of CPAN package installer for many developers, because it is lightweight, fast, and requires no configuration in most environments.
Meanwhile, the way cpanm has been implemented (one God class, and all modules are packaged in one script with fatpacker) makes it difficult to extend, or modify the behaviors at a runtime, unless you decide to fork the code or monkeypatch its hidden backend class.
cpanm also has no scriptable API or hook points, which means you have to work around its behavior by writing a shell wrapper, or parsing the output of its standard out or a build log file.
Menlo will keep the best aspects of cpanm, which is dependencies free, configuration free, lightweight and fast to install CPAN modules. At the same time, it's impelmented as a standard perl module, available on CPAN, and you can extend its behavior by either using its modular interfaces, or writing plugins to hook into its behaviors.
FAQ
Dependencies free? I see many prerequisites in Menlo. Right now, Menlo is in the development phase and is released as a standard perl module distribution, and has a few runtime dependencies. Actually most of these modules were consumed by cpanm as well, and they aren't new. When I decide it's ready for production and to replace cpanm, I'll make a fatpacked version of the script, which will bundle all the dependencies into one file, just like cpanm does. Is Menlo a new name for cpanm? Right now it's just a code name, but I'm comfortable calling this a new package name for cpanm 2's backend.
AUTHOR
Tatsuhiko Miyagawa <miyagawa@bulknews.net>
COPYRIGHT
2010- Tatsuhiko Miyagawa
LICENSE
This software is licensed under the same terms as Perl.
SEE ALSO
cpanmFor China's 'Left-Behind Kids,' A Free Lunch
Hide caption Hujiaying primary school in China's remote Shaanxi province is among the schools benefiting from the nonprofit Free Lunch for Children program. Previous Next Louisa Lim/NPR
Hide caption For many of the students, the free school lunch is the best meal of the day. A study last year found that malnutrition has stunted the growth of 12 percent of China's poorest children. Previous Next Louisa Lim/NPR
Hide caption On a recent day, the children receive a tray full of rice, stir-fried pork with celery, spicy tofu and greens with mushrooms. Previous Next Louisa Lim/NPR
Hide caption Bai Baojun is the school's headmaster. The parents of 80 percent of his students have moved away to find work, and many of these "left-behind" children routinely go hungry, he says. Previous Next Louisa Lim/NPR
Hide caption The school's new canteen was built with government funding; the government is also stepping up its efforts to provide nutritional supplement for the country's poorest kids. Previous Next Louisa Lim/NPR
Hide caption The Free Lunch for Children program is a godsend for 10-year-old Xie Xiaoyuan, whose family of five survives on just $120 a month. Previous Next Louisa Lim/NPR
Hide caption Xie has frostbitten ears from her daily trek to school. She eats no breakfast and, before the school lunch program, had only two pieces of bread to keep her going until dinner. Previous Next Louisa Lim/NPR
Hide caption Because they are so hungry, the children say, they are unable to concentrate on their lessons. Previous Next Louisa Lim/NPR
Hide caption The Free Lunch for Children program is the brainchild of journalist Deng Fei. In eight months, he raised $4 million online, and is now feeding 25,000 children a day. Previous Next Louisa Lim/NPR 1 of 9 i View slideshow
For 10-year-old student Xie Xiaoyuan, just getting to school is an ordeal. On a recent day, her frostbitten ears are testament to just how difficult the trip is.
"I get up at five o'clock," she says, "then I comb my hair and start walking."
Xie navigates a mountain path in China's remote Shaanxi province in the dark, trudging through snowstorms and mudslides. Then she has to get a bus for about 10 miles. She hasn't time to eat breakfast.
"For lunch, I spend 15 cents on two pieces of bread and a drink," she says.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Louisa Lim/NPR Louisa Lim/NPR
There's no such thing as a free lunch — or so the economic theory goes. But that's no longer the case for Xie and the 25,000 poverty-stricken children in China who now receive a free meal, thanks to the "Free Lunch for Children" charity campaign set up by a Chinese journalist.
Indirectly, his efforts have led to the government announcing it will provide nutritional support for 26 million of China's poorest children every day.
Economic Miracle's Hidden Cost
For Xie, those two pieces of bread used to be all she ate until dinner at home at 5 p.m. That's all her family can afford, with their combined income of about $120 a month providing for five people.
For a while, she even stopped going to school because the family couldn't afford her bus fare. But she returned after a teacher trekked to their village to inform her family that dropping out was against the law.
Many of her fellow students at Hujiaying primary school in Shaanxi province's Nanzheng county go hungry every day. Eating no breakfast is pretty common for these "left-behind" kids, according to headmaster Bai Baojun, describing the hidden social costs of China's economic miracle.
"About 80 percent of our kids have parents who've gone away to find work," he says. "For half our students, both their parents have gone away, so they depend on their grandparents, who can't help with their homework."
China's growing income disparity can be seen in Shaanxi, and not just in the dirt roads, the lack of sanitation and the classrooms with no heating. In China's poorest rural regions, the physical growth of 12 percent of children is stunted due to malnutrition, according to a survey carried out last year by the China Development Research Foundation.
The survey indicates that these poverty-stricken children are on average 2 to 6 inches shorter than Chinese city kids, a figure more shocking than any statistical abstract measuring inequality.
Poverty Shocked Reporter Into Action
Now, a new grass-roots program aims to change that by providing free lunches for thousands of rural children. It's the brainchild of a campaigning journalist from Phoenix Weekly news magazine, Deng Fei, who became famous for his campaign against child abduction.
During a reporting trip to Guizhou province, Deng was shocked to discover that schools there had no canteens for students. He began raising money online from his 1.4 million followers on China's version of Twitter and at a popular online shopping site, soliciting donations of 3 yuan (less than 50 cents) to pay for one lunch for one poverty-stricken rural child.
At Hujiaying school on a recent day, this money pays for huge basins of meat and tofu that are being tipped into enormous sizzling metal vats in the new canteen. The school chef is cooking for more than 250, stirring the food with a shovel to make sure it's all cooked.
"Today is a day worth celebrating," says Bai, the headmaster, as he gives a speech to mark the first official day of free lunch. The students line up, applauding enthusiastically, though most of them have fixed their eyes on the lunch counter, salivating at the delights that await them. On this day, the free lunch consists of spicy tofu, stir-fried celery with pork, and mushrooms with cabbage, along with a hot soup.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Louisa Lim/NPR Louisa Lim/NPR
For most of these kids, this is their best meal of the day. The government has recently reorganized rural schools, closing or merging smaller ones. This means it's not unusual for the more far-flung students to spend two or three hours walking to and from school, after which they may have to cook their own supper.
In the dining room, they wolf down their meals, giggling as they use chopsticks to shovel hot rice into their mouths. Headmaster Bai patrols the tables, telling off students who don't finish their enormous portions.
Government Boosts Its Efforts
This "Free Lunch for Children" charity program has been remarkably successful, partly because of its high-profile support from some 500 journalists and their media organizations.
"In eight months, we've raised $4 million in funds," founder Deng says. "Nine-hundred-thousand people gave us money. We've helped 162 schools to give free lunches to 25,000 children."
He has been working closely with local authorities, who sometimes contribute funds or help target poorer schools. In the case of Hujiaying school, the local government provided 1 million yuan ($150,000) to build the school canteen.
The government would probably have given some money for free lunches anyway eventually, but I think it would have happened later.
Recently, the central government announced it will expand its own program, spending $2.5 billion providing nutritional subsidies for 26 million primary and junior high school students in rural areas.
"[The expanded program] is to provide a nutritional supplement," says Du Ying, the deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission. "The rough standard for each poverty-stricken student is to provide one cup of milk and an egg."
The government — like the Free Lunch for Children program — is working on the basis of providing 3 yuan per student per day.
Deng says there is "a definite link."
"We can't say that our Free Lunch has directly led to the government's Free Lunch, because the government was doing this before, but there's a link," the journalist says.
However, Bai, the school headmaster, believes Deng's success prodded the government into action.
"The government would probably have given some money for free lunches anyway eventually, but I think it would have happened later," Bai says.
Inequality Deeply Entrenched
But the journalist's program is facing challenges, in part because of its rapid expansion, including how to monitor funds and check that schools are spending the money on food for students. So far, it has relied on Chinese Twitter, requiring each participating school, including the one in Hujiaying, to post its weekly expense reports online.
Deng hopes the government will adopt his Free Lunch model, believing that such transparency could help avoid the corruption that has plagued government projects in the past. Never one to shy away from a challenge, he is now planning to turn his attention to raising money to fund rural children's health insurance, something he believes he can achieve for just $15 a year.
In Hujiaying, the school is taking matters into its own hands, showing the speed at which the program is evolving. Teachers at the school plan to launch a two-track system, with better meals with more meat for those who can pay an extra 2 yuan (30 cents) a day.
The administrators of the Free Lunch program say they think this plan is acceptable. It's a sign, perhaps, of just how entrenched inequality is in China that even within a poverty-alleviation program, there are haves and have-nots.Tiger Woods is building a high-end restaurant in Jupiter, Florida, at a price tag of $8 million. It's a very ambitious project, but one that could thrive in the resort town, which is flush with wealth thanks to residents like Woods himself and Michael Jordan.
The restaurant will be called "The Woods Jupiter: Sports and Dining Club." It's a bit of a mouthful. If you're wondering why it isn't called "The Tiger Woods Jupiter," Sports Illustrated can explain why.
In a conversation with property developer with Nicholas A. Mastroianni II, the magazine found out that the full name "Tiger Woods" isn't on the table because, despite that being his name, Woods is barred from using it:
"Mastroianni said he was told that Nike 'has the rights to the name Tiger Woods,' which prevented Woods using his first and last name in the restaurant name," according to Sports Illustrated.
It doesn't stop there, either. Nike's stranglehold on the Tiger Woods name has led it to be very controlling about how it is used -- even in ways that seem innocuous or even obvious.
"Mastroianni said that anytime he wants to use Woods's name in a press release or anything similar he needs permission from Woods's business people," according to SI, which quotes Mastroianni as saying the rules are "over the top."
It's not clear if Nike has similar agreements in effect with other sports figures. Few, if any, have the name-brand value of Woods, but it's surprising that he would accept such extreme conditions even when he's working in an industry outside of Nike's scope.
Bet you didn't even know you could sell the rights to your own name to a company.A team of researchers in the GIPSA-Lab (CNRS/Université Grenoble Alpes/Grenoble INP) and at INRIA Grenoble Rhône-Alpes has developed a system that can display the movements of our own tongues in real time. Captured using an ultrasound probe placed under the jaw, these movements are processed by a machine learning algorithm that controls an "articulatory talking head." As well as the face and lips, this avatar shows the tongue, palate and teeth, which are usually hidden inside the vocal tract. This "visual biofeedback" system, which ought to be easier to understand and therefore should produce better correction of pronunciation, could be used for speech therapy and for learning foreign languages. This work is published in the October 2017 issue of Speech Communication.
For a person with an articulation disorder, speech therapy partly uses repetition exercises: the practitioner qualitatively analyzes the patient's pronunciations and orally explains, using drawings, how to place articulators, particularly the tongue: something patients are generally unaware of. How effective therapy is depends on how well the patient can integrate what they are told. It is at this stage that "visual biofeedback" systems can help. They let patients see their articulatory movements in real time, and in particular how their tongues move, so that they are aware of these movements and can correct pronunciation problems faster.
For several years, researchers have been using ultrasound to design biofeedback systems. The image of the tongue is obtained by placing under the jaw a probe similar to that used conventionally to look at a heart or fetus. This image is sometimes deemed to be difficult for a patient to use because it is not very good quality and does not provide any information on the location of the palate and teeth. In this new work, the present team of researchers propose to improve this visual feedback by automatically animating an articulatory talking head in real time from ultrasound images. This virtual clone of a real speaker, in development for many years at the GIPSA-Lab, produces a contextualized -- and therefore more natural -- visualization of articulatory movements.
The strength of this new system lies in a machine learning algorithm that researchers have been working on for several years. This algorithm can (within limits) process articulatory movements that users cannot achieve when they start to use the system. This property is indispensable for the targeted therapeutic applications. The algorithm exploits a probabilistic model based on a large articulatory database acquired from an "expert" speaker capable of pronouncing all of the sounds in one or more languages. This model is automatically adapted to the morphology of each new user, over the course of a short system calibration phase, during which the patient must pronounce a few phrases.
This system, validated in a laboratory for healthy speakers, is now being tested in a simplified version in a clinical trial for patients who have had tongue surgery. The researchers are also developing another version of the system, where the articulatory talking head is automatically animated, not by ultrasounds, but directly by the user's voice.Cash in bank accounts will only be guaranteed up to a limit of £75,000 from January 1, 2016, the Bank of England has said, down from the current limit of £85,000, because of the euro's weakness against the pound.
Senior Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie called the decision "absurd" and urged the Chancellor George Osborne to push for the EU's rules to be changed to allow the guarantee to be raised back up to £85,000.
The level of protection is fixed across the EU - if any bank goes bust across the Union, depositors' money is still safe up to a limit of €100,000. When the level was agreed in 2010, that figure translated to £85,000. But because the euro has fallen against the pound, it is being chopped back to £75,000.
“It is absurd that the 16pc depreciation of the euro largely brought about by the crisis in the eurozone in general, and the Greek crisis in particular, should be forcing a reduction in the level of protection available to UK depositors," said Mr Tyrie, the chairman of the Treasury Select Committee.
“In this respect, the EU Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive is defective. It has been designed without adequate consideration for the requirements of those, like the UK, in the EU but outside the eurozone."
Andrew Tyrie MP has attacked the £10,000 cut in the deposit guarantee
Mr Tyrie said he would write to the Chancellor to ask him to raise this issue in Europe, and demand more flexibility on the level of the deposit guarantee.
"He may need to be robust – this won’t matter a scrap to the eurozone. Something will clearly have to be done," Mr Tyrie said.
• 'It's time to hold physical cash,' says one of Britain's most senior fund managers
The guarantee is used by savers when a bank or building society collapses. The level of deposits covered by the scheme was increased in several stages through the financial crisis to reassure savers their money was safe, in a bid to avoid bank runs. This is the first time the level of protection has been cut since the credit crunch.
The Treasury-backed but industry-funded Financial Services Compensation Scheme refunds those who lose money, and the cash is later recouped from the rest of the banking industry. Savers called on the protection when Bradford & Bingley failed, and when the Icelandic banks crashed.
The level of deposits covered by the scheme was increased in stages
"HM Treasury has today put in place legislation to maintain the existing limit of £85,000 until 31 December 2015 for depositors who were previously protected by the FSCS and continue to be protected (including individuals and small companies)," the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority said.
"This transitional measure helps to ensure that depositors have suitable time to plan for and adjust to the change and will protect most depositors from experiencing a sudden change in the amount of compensation available in the event of the failure of a bank, building society or credit union."
Couples with joint accounts receive the protection of the guarantee for each individual named on the account - that is, if the bank goes bust, they will receive up to £75,000 each, totaling £150,000.
• FSCS cash compensation limit cut to £75,000: Q&A
The protection applies to each bank, so savers with more than £75,000 in cash can split their funds across multiple banks to ensure the whole sum is covered by the guarantee.
Before 2007, only the first £2,000 was completely protected, as well as 90pc of the next £30,000.
But as customers of Northern Rock panicked at the start of the financial crisis, the government introduced a complete guarantee on deposits of up to £35,000 to stem the run on the bank.
The guarantee was then raised to £50,000 in 2008 and to £85,000 in 2010, along with the €100,000 guarantee across the European Union.
Temporary protection
Bank or building society customers who come into a large sum of money are also given an extra degree of temporary protection.
"Depositors with temporary high balances will be covered up to £1m for six months from the date on which the money is transferred into their account, or the date on which the depositor becomes entitled to the amount, whichever is later," the Bank of England said.
"This is to ensure that depositors are protected when they deposit funds over the limit as a result of specified events, including following a house sale or funds received from a ‘life event’ such as a divorce settlement or inheritance, for a period of time until they have had sufficient time to spread the risk between institutions to appropriately protect these funds."
"People could unwittingly leave thousands of pounds at risk if they're not made aware of the new rules" Richard Lloyd
Consumer campaigners said it was important that customers were made aware of the change in the limit.
"A reduction in the compensation scheme limit means people could unwittingly leave thousands of pounds at risk if they're not made aware of the new rules," said Richard Lloyd from Which?.
"We've consistently found bank staff have an extremely poor knowledge of the scheme so, with people's savings soon to have less protection, we expect all banks to ensure staff are properly trained and proactively communicate these new rules to customers."
The change in the threshold comes after the FSCS ran a major advertising campaign to increase awareness of the guarantee, comparing the scheme to other safety equipment such as a seatbelt or padlock.
• Best fixed-rate savings bonds
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See more from CNN affiliate KOVR.
(CNN) -- A Southwest Airlines flight landed safely at a military base in Yuma, Arizona, on Friday with what passengers described as a 3-foot hole in the fuselage of the Boeing 737.
"I heard a loud popping sound about three or four minutes before it blew open on us," passenger Greg Hansen told CNN.
"(Then) a big explosion happened. A big noise, and from there, you felt some of the air being sucked out. It happened right behind me, in the row behind me and it covers about two and a half rows," he said from seat 11C.
Hansen, 41, a regional sales manager for a biotech company, was flying home to Sacramento from a business trip. Some people panicked and screamed as the blue sky and sun began to shine through the cabin in mid-flight, he said.
"Most people were just white knuckles holding onto the arm rests. The pilots did a great job and were under control to get us to a manageable level," he said.
But just behind him, Hansen says he could see the jagged edge of the aircraft where the rivets used to be.
"You can see the insulation and wiring. The interior ceiling panel was bouncing up and down with the air," he said.
"It was surreal, when you're riding in a modern aircraft. You're used to being enclosed and not having the window rolled down," he said.
Hansen described the hole as being about 3 or 4 feet long and about a foot wide.
Hansen said that he and the rest of the passengers were still on board Southwest Flight 812, after making an emergency landing at Yuma Marine Corps Air Station/International Airport at 7:07 p.m. ET.
The FAA said the captain made a rapid controlled descent from 36,000 to about 11,000 feet after the cabin lost pressure. Investigators are en route to the base, the FAA said.
"We do not know the cause of the decompression," said Ian Gregor of the FAA.
Southwest said in a statement that the flight crew "discovered a hole in the top of the aircraft."
A new aircraft is en route to the base with maintenance, ground crew and customer service agents "to assess the damaged aircraft and support the 118 customers aboard."
Hansen said the incident took place about 35 minutes into the flight. He says that it took about 45 seconds or a minute before the oxygen masks came down after the hole blew open.
"The crew was pretty calm about it. They walked around and checked on everyone," he said. "But it wasn't like the movies where papers get sucked out of the hole, but you could feel it and hear the noise."
Hansen said that most of the passengers were complaining of a pain in their eardrums from a rapid descent.
Southwest Airlines said only one injury is being reported.
"There are no reported customer injuries," reads a statement released by the airline. "One of the flight attendants, however, received a minor injury upon descent."
Hansen said one male flight attendant appeared to fall, and was bleeding from a facial injury.
An airport official told CNN that passengers will remain on board the damaged plane to ensure their safety, until the new replacement plane arrives.
"They have been tended to and are being given refreshments because the temperature on the tarmac is near 100 degrees," said Yuma International Airport spokeswoman Gen Grosse.
One of the passengers told CNN affiliate KOVR that the incident occurred shortly after flight attendants took drink orders.
"I heard a huge sound and oxygen masks came down and we started making a rapid decent. They said we'd be making an emergency landing," said the passenger, identified only as Cindy. "There was a hole in the fuselage about 3 feet long. You could see the insulation and the wiring. You could see a tear the length of one of the ceiling panels."
A spokeswoman for Boeing declined to comment on possible causes of the incident.
"The 737 has an outstanding safety record," said Julie O'Donnell. "We are in communication with the (National Transportation Safety Board) and stand ready to assist."
CNN's John Branch and Rich Phillips contributed to this reportEver wondered whether that person tweeting incessantly about Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump could possibly be real?
Well, you have reason to be suspicious, because researchers at the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute have found computer bots are responsible for a fifth of all tweets about the US election.
How do they know?
The researchers analysed some of the most popular US election hashtags — including #trump2016 and #imwithher, and of course #nevertrump and #neverhillary — and came up with over 20 million tweets sent over a month by almost 2.8 million users.
They found that about 400,000 of the users were likely to be bots, and that they were behind 3.8 million or so tweets.
How did they know they were bots?
It was complicated because the bots were pretending to be human. But there are tells. Bots tend to tweet more frequently; have fewer followers; and be less likely to post from phones. Bot accounts also tend to have been created more recently and have more random names.
The researchers put the tweets |
is what Vision is referring to.
So…good news for a unified MCU? We'll have to wait and see.
-
Any other major changes you can think of in the wake of Civil War? Let us know in the comments.NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices gained more than 2 percent on Monday in volatile trading after falling as much as 2 percent, recouping losses as the market reacted to the shaky prospect of major producers being able to agree output cuts at a meeting on Wednesday.
A pump jack stands idle in Dewitt County, Texas January 13, 2016. REUTERS/Anna Driver
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures CLc1 settled up $1.02, or 2.21 percent at $47.08 a barrel. Brent crude LCOc1 rose $1.00, or 2.12 percent, to $48.24 a barrel.
In post-settlement trading, oil futures pared gains after Reuters reported that OPEC experts did not agree on the details of a deal to cut output.
Trading was choppy after prices tumbled more than 3 percent on Friday as doubts grew over whether the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries would reach agreement to help curb a global supply overhang that has more than halved prices since 2014.
“Through Wednesday, trade will be very headline-driven,” said Tony Headrick of CHS Hedging. “Comments coming out of pre-meetings, particularly from Iraq this morning, are really a driver today.”
Market watchers expected prices to remain volatile until OPEC’s Wednesday meeting offers the market a definitive answer as to whether OPEC and non-OPEC producers can agree on cuts.
“You’re going to see a flattening out of positions closer to Wednesday,” said Gene McGillian at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut. Traders with long positions in the market may be reluctant to sell for fear of missing out on an upside if there is a production cut that triggers a rally.
After a cut is announced, sellers could emerge as oil rallies toward $52 a barrel, he said. “You don’t fade at 47 or 45, because you’re risking a loss on momentum if they do have an agreement.”
On Sunday, Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said the oil market would balance itself in 2017 even if producers did not intervene, and that keeping output at current levels could therefore be justified.
The statement stoked simmering disagreement between OPEC and non-OPEC crude exporters such as Russia over who should cut production by how much.
By Monday, OPEC was scrambling to rescue the deal, with analysts warning of a sharp price correction if they fail. Prices spiked as Iraq’s oil minister said the country would cooperate with the group to reach an agreement “acceptable to all”.
A meeting scheduled for Monday between OPEC and non-OPEC producers was called off after Saudi Arabia declined to attend, while concerns over the feasibility of a deal pushed the crude oil volatility index.OVX close to a nine-month high.
Others warned that even if some form of output restriction is announced after producers meet in Vienna on Wednesday, the details matter greatly.
Related Coverage Hedge funds raise bullish bets on U.S. crude ahead of OPEC meeting
“Do not take an announcement of a headline cut of 1 million barrels per day (bpd) at face value. It could still imply an OPEC production level considerably in excess of 33 million bpd, depending on developments in Libya and Nigeria and the speed and rigour of compliance,” David Hufton, managing director of brokerage PVM Oil Associates Ltd said in a note.
Even if a cut is agreed, oversupply may not end soon.
The U.S. oil rig count rose by three last week, and Goldman Sachs said that “since its trough on May 27, 2016, producers have added 158 oil rigs (+50 percent) in the U.S.”.Mornings were becoming a new favorite for Blake. The raven-haired girl had easily slipped into her new routine, one that gave her a certain satisfaction that the rest of the day would progress quite nicely.
After her usual morning necessities, she'd exit the bathroom to greet Weiss in a more coherent fashion, now that she was feeling more like a Faunus rather than a houseplant. Then, of course, came her favorite part. She'd stand up on her tiptoes and gently shake her girlfriend awake.
If there was anything more adorable than a sleepy Ruby when she first wakes up, she had no idea what it could possibly be.
Sometimes Ruby would peer at her blearily before grabbing her hand and trying to use it as a teddy bear. Sometimes she'd slip it under her head and smile softly. And then other times, like this morning for instance, she'd just gaze back at her with a certain wonder in her silver eyes as if she wasn't quite sure if she were dreaming or not.
"Come on, sleepyhead," Blake said softly. "Rise and shine."
"Can't I lay here and just stare at you a bit longer?"
"No, you can't. Shower time."
"Awww… but Blakeyyy…"
"Do you want Weiss to wake you up?"
That was the point where Ruby usually quit her adorable attempts to cajole more bed time out of the Cat Faunus, but today she got a big smile on her face and held her arms out to her.
Blake just blinked her eyes uncertainly. "Um… What?"
"Carry me."
"... You're serious?"
"Yep!"
"Oh my Oum, Ruby," Weiss huffed irritably. "Will you please just get out of bed already?"
And then Ruby turned on the Secret Weapon. The one she rarely took out of her arsenal, a weapon so powerful it would reduce mere mortals to a quivering pile of submission.
The pout.
Her eyes got as wide as saucers, her lower lip trembled (and that was something Blake was trying not to focus on this close, thank you very much), and then the finishing move, the coup de gras, the ultimate final attack…
"Please?"
Blake sighed, maintaining a neutral expression by sheer willpower alone though her defenses were otherwise completely in disarray by this point.
"Okay."
"Yay!" Ruby cheered quietly, wiggling out from under her covers. Blake scooped her up with one arm under her knees and the other around her waist, while Ruby wrapped her own small arms around her neck and burrowed her face into her shoulder.
The sensation of having her that close to her, feeling her warm breath on her skin, made her blush furiously. All she could do was stare down at the red-tipped hair that lay against her chest.
"Blake."
She glanced down at a smirking Weiss, who had an eyebrow raised. "Are you going to stand there with her in your arms all morning?" she asked humorously.
Blake blinked her eyes, realizing that she'd been standing there motionless for a couple of minutes now. "Oh. Yes, right."
She took several steps over towards the bathroom, halting in front of the door.
"Okay, Ruby, I'm putting you down now."
No response.
"Ruby?"
Finally a soft snore came from the vicinity of her neck, causing her to sigh softly.
"Well, I could have told you that was going to happen," Weiss said levelly, though her smirk was still firmly in place.
Ever so carefully she set the small girl down on her feet. Ruby stood there, peering about blearily before she lurched back into Blake again, wrapping her arms around her waist in a tight hug.
"Ruby…" she sighed affectionately. "Go get a shower."
"Did you already get one?" she mumbled into her chest.
"Yes, I did."
"Pity." With that Ruby staggered into the bathroom, grabbing her stack of clothes for the day on her way in, and closed the door behind her.
Meanwhile, Blake was once again frozen in place, this time doing her best impression of a goldfish.
"Hey, you okay there kitten?" Yang called out curiously as she sat up in bed and stretched. "You look kinda flushed."
"Yeah," Blake. "Flushed. Just… yeah."
Only Ruby could reduce her to nonsensical incoherence like this.
How does she even manage to do that? Does she actually realize what she's saying when she does that, is it all just an innocent act?
She'd considered herself fairly world-experienced, having had not only a lover, granted one that had ended disastrously, as well as a few romantic relationships. But nothing had prepared her for what Ruby was capable of, a sweet and bubbly exterior that hid what might be a particularly devious side.
The brunette had managed to convince two girls to date her at the same time, for Oum's sake. That in and of itself was an impressive feat, and she was one of those that had been convinced!
"Oh," she murmured absently as she walked back over to her bed. "And don't call me kitten."
The next part of her new routine involved the first stop the group now made once they exited their room. Instead of proceeding directly towards the cafeteria for breakfast, Ruby would immediately march up to JNPR's door and knock quietly (just in case one of them was sleeping in).
As was usual now, Pyrrha opened the door immediately as if she were waiting behind it. Which, Blake thought with a small grin, she likely was.
"Good morning," the redhead greeted Ruby warmly.
"Heya, Pyrrha!" the brunette chirped, wrapping the much taller girl up in a hug. "How'd you sleep?"
"Well enough, you?"
"Eh, not long enough, but that's nothing new."
Yang and Weiss stepped forward a few paces to wait for them, but Blake closed the distance between the pair and herself.
"Good morning, Pyrrha," she said with a soft smile.
"And good morning to you, Blake," the redhead smiled back. "Ready to go?"
"You bet!" Ruby giggled, grabbing hold of both girls. "The rest of your team coming?"
"Not just yet," Pyrrha sighed. "There was an incident involving Nora and a hair dryer. Jaune and Ren are still… cleaning up."
"Ohhh," Ruby winced. "I'm guessin' it got ugly."
"Oh, yes," Pyrrha shuddered. "It would be best not to ask."
As they started down the hall, Pyrrha sent a tense-looking glance her way, which caused her to pause. There was obviously something else on the tall girl's mind, and it would seem that it involved Blake.
She quirked an eyebrow questioningly, which for some reason made the redhead blush slightly.
"Um, Ruby," Pyrrha began hesitantly. "Can I… speak with Blake for a moment? We'll catch up with you."
Ruby sent an inquisitive glance at Blake, who gave her a reassuring smile in return.
"Okay, then," Ruby said cheerfully. "Don't be too long!"
She gave another quick hug to each of them, not that Blake minded really as getting Ruby hugs were the highlights of her day, and then skipped ahead to join Yang and Weiss, chatting with them cheerfully about what might be on the breakfast menu, and whether or not cookies would count yet as said breakfast (which Weiss would likely shoot down immediately as she always did).
"Is there something wrong, Pyrrha?" she asked curiously. They walked slowly and side by side, though Pyrrha's hands were clasped in front of her, displaying her nervousness.
"Blake," she began in a whisper. "Do you know what day it is, three days from now?"
"Um… Friday?"
"No," Pyrrha sighed. "Well, yes, technically. But… it's Valentine's Day."
Blake stopped in her tracks, looking at her friend with an expression of abject dismay. "Oh my Oum… we are the worst girlfriends ever…"
"I was worried it was just me who forgot," Pyrrha admitted quietly.
Blake put her arm around the other girl as they began to walk again. "If I had known, I would have said something about it to you, just as you did with me. So, what should we do?"
"Has she mentioned it at all?"
"No, not a word. I'm guessing it's the same for her as it is for us, just not a holiday she normally pays attention to."
"Well… I had a thought."
"Do tell," Blake grinned.
Pyrrha unclasped her hands and slipped an arm around Blake's waist as well, giving her a friendly squeeze. "What if you and I got together and planned something for the three of us?"
"That… is brilliant. Shall we tell her?"
"I think so, yes, just so she doesn't try to plan anything herself."
"Right. Well, let's go give her the news."
Ruby was suitably appreciative, if the high-pitched squeals of joy and crushing hugs were any indicator.
"You guys gonna hang out this afternoon then?" the bubbly teen asked, her excitement still causing her to bounce in her seat restlessly.
"I have nothing else to do," Pyrrha mentioned, turning to Blake.
"Neither do I," she replied. "Sounds like a plan, then."
"Well, while the two of you conspire, I'll just hang out with Yang or Weiss," Ruby declared cheerfully. "We haven't gotten to do that in awhile. Whaddya say, partner? You wanna go hit the town this afternoon?"
"Oh, I'm not sure," Weiss hemmed. "I have some studying to do…"
"You always have studying to do," Ruby complained with a roll of her expressive eyes. "C'mon, I'll take you to the ice cream stand…"
Weiss' eyes lit up. For some reason the heiress had never had ice cream while growing up, and the simple treat of a vanilla cone was like a decadent dessert for her. "I suppose I could postpone studying for a little bit," she conceded.
"Yang?"
"Sure, Rubes, I'm always up for Weiss cream."
"Yang," the white-haired girl sighed. "I really will hurt you one of these days."
"Okay, it's settled!" Ruby cheered. "Operation Ply Weiss With Ice Cream is a go!"
"I'm being plied?" Weiss asked worriedly as they headed for their first class of the day. "That sounds painful."
Later that afternoon, Blake and Pyrrha agreed to meet in the courtyard outside the dorms to begin their planning. They walked together over towards a bench and sat facing one another, each clutching a piece of paper with their ideas they'd jotted down beforehand.
"Would you like to go first?" Pyrrha asked politely.
"Certainly," Blake replied. "This is in no particular order here… The first idea I had was a restaurant. Banal, but difficult to go wrong."
"Hmm, I suppose it would depend on the type of restaurant," Pyrrha mused. "Also, many of the nice ones will be booked already."
"Yes, I did think of that, but the kinds of food Ruby likes isn't necessarily on the 'nice' end of the spectrum."
"True enough," Pyrrha giggled. "I was thinking the same. Is she as fond of pancakes as Nora?"
"Pyrrha, nobody is as fond of pancakes as Nora," Blake deadpanned. "But yes, she does like them. I just…" She sighed softly. "I wanted to do something romantic, you know?"
"I do, absolutely," Pyrrha nodded rapidly. "Er, what other ideas did you have down?"
"Well… a walk along the edge of Forever Falls forest to watch the sunset…"
"Oh, I like that one!"
"Thank you. I'll put a check by it, we'll come back to it later. Now… what about a boat ride?"
"Can we do that?" Pyrrha asked.
Blake shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure, but we could find out."
"Alright then, let's make that another possibility…"
After a few hours of discussion and tossing ideas back and forth, as well as a few calls placed (in which they discovered that yes, there were boat rides, but they were rather outside their budget), the two of them had a fairly short but comprehensive list.
"So, which of these should we do?" Blake asked, chewing on her bottom lip.
Pyrrha leaned over her shoulder to read what they had. "Well… as much as a field trip to Forever Falls sounds nice, we won't have time for much else really… What if we combined these two?"
"That... sounds plausible. Wait," Blake glanced glanced behind her and into the emerald green eyes of her friend. "Do you want to do all of the others here?"
Pyrrha shrugged. "Why not?" she grinned.
"Why not indeed…" Blake murmured, turning back to the sheet. "Alright, then. Let's do it."
"This," Pyrrha proclaimed softly, "will be grand!"
A/N: Hmm, what could the duo have in mind for Ruby? Stay tuned to find out tomorrow! So these three consecutive chapters are the ones I've been eagerly anticipating, revolving around Valentine's Day. They're gonna be a little longer than most of the others so far, especially the third (chapter 15). But worth it, I hope!
You guys continue to amaze me. So this story, just a week old, has just surpassed in hits my opus from the Firefly fanfic (which was 450k words and written exactly a year ago). I'm still stunned, thank you all so much for the attention and follows (127 of you guys? Seriously, you're awesome!), and I hope I continue to entertain on this lovely little crack ship voyage!
SirAlcain: Welcome! I'm honored that mine is one of your initial fanfic reads, and very happy to provide a dose of lightheartedness!
THB4: It's true, I'm pulling a bit from how I assume Pyrrha might act if she weren't trying to build up Jaune's confidence and all, letting him deal with things on his own.
DustGremlin: If Yang had been involved as well as Blake and Pyrrha… Yeah. There wouldn't have been enough pieces of Cardin left to scoop up with a shovel.
growlscout: As far as Ch11 goes, I think Yang would just give Blake a hard time because she couldn't 'handle' her girlfriend on her own. And Yang is always looking for excuses to tease those she loves (teammates included). And I'm sure Yang has years of experience in dealing with Ruby that she'd be able to subdue her easily. Post-sugar-crash cuddle pile can be easily insinuated. So for the last chapter, I'm so glad you enjoyed Ruby's conversation with her brain, I enjoy writing characters arguing with various aspects of their body. Maybe because that's how my own brain works. Also, yep, I'm hoping I'm not taking too much liberty with Pyrrha 'cause I honestly feel that this is how she might be in an established relationship, very protective so long as they were capable of standing up for themselves in the first place. She's very loyal. Oh, and I don't think Ren can ever stay mad at Nora for too long…
Stay shiny!A toxic battle for power and media attention is behind the disintegrating relationship between the state's Deputy Premier and Justice and Police Minister Troy Grant and Attorney-General Gabrielle Upton, according to several government sources.
One senior government source has said the pair's relationship had soured to the point where they were "barely on speaking terms" outside of work commitments.
"Barely on speaking terms": Deputy Premier Troy Grant and NSW Attorney General Gabrielle Upton during the Law Crime and Community Safety Council meeting at Old Parliament House in Canberra last week. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Fairfax Media understands tension is at boiling point over who has control of what, and which minister is responsible for policy announcements from the Department of Justice to the media.
For example, on Friday the Deputy Premier announced a $10 million fund, for community safety grants of up to $250,000 each. The initiative was originally announced by former Attorney-General Brad Hazzard in March.The 2014 elections are now 11 months away, but the political scene has already undergone dramatic changes just in the past three months. Republicans went into a political free fall after the government shutdown, and shortly thereafter Democrats plunged into boiling water thanks to the botched launch of and early public reaction to the Affordable Care Act. This column has cautioned against prematurely casting either of these developments as the defining events of the campaign. There is a natural human tendency to believe that any major development, no matter how long before an election, will be the last important influence on said election. This theory is fine in the last days before an election, but with almost a year to go, it is pretty unlikely that the national political situation will suddenly become static for well over 300 days.
As Democrats attempt to gain the 17 seats they need to win a House majority and Republicans work toward a six-seat net gain to capture an equally important Senate majority, each side faces an uphill slog — fighting inertia as much as anything else. For House Democrats, the challenge is that both parties have effectively consolidated their positions in the House, leaving little room for either party to make significant gains. Between a historically low number of competitive districts in play — 93 percent of House Republicans occupy districts carried by Mitt Romney, and 96 percent of Democrats represent Obama-won districts — the House is pretty much sorted out. There are few “fish-out-of-water” districts (members holding seats that ought to be held by the other party), along with only a few “jump ball” districts (where each side has more or less an equal chance of prevailing).
This curious phenomenon is the result of a number of factors. First, redistricting, carried out in an era of highly effective technology and databases, has been conducted in such a way as to allow the dominant party in each state to draw boundaries for optimal performance at a level never before seen. Population sorting, otherwise known as the “birds-of-a-feather-flock-together” dynamic, is another important factor. Democratic voters tend to live in urban areas and college towns, while Republicans are more often found in the exurbs — small-town and rural America. As our country has become more polarized along political lines, we have become divided geographically as well. Finally, the last four elections have effectively culled each party’s hold on districts they probably shouldn’t have held in normal political circumstances.
In the Senate — now divided among 53 Democrats, two independents who caucus with them, and 45 Republicans — 10 seats will likely see most of the action; eight of these are held by Democrats, two by Republicans. The GOP needs a net gain of six seats in the Senate to capture a majority. Republicans have excellent prospects to win open Democrat-held seats in Montana (Max Baucus), South Dakota (Tim Johnson), and West Virginia (Jay Rockefeller). Of course, Democrats could manage to hold onto one or two seats, but at this point, that looks pretty unlikely. Assuming Republicans pick up those three Democratic open seats, the GOP still needs to win three more from the remaining five vulnerable seats Democrats hold. These include incumbents Mark Begich (Alaska), Kay Hagan (North Carolina), Mary Landrieu (Louisiana), and Mark Pryor (Arkansas), as well as an open seat in Michigan (Carl Levin). This assumes that Republicans don’t lose either of their own vulnerable seats to Democratic challengers, those vulnerabilities being Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky and the open seat in Georgia (Saxby Chambliss). McConnell is facing both a rear-guard attack from a tea-party challenger in the GOP primary and an aggressive general-election opponent in Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes. The race between McConnell and Grimes right now is essentially even, with about 10 percent of the electorate undecided (public polls show substantially higher levels of undecided Kentucky voters).
The uphill battle Senate Republicans face is that even assuming they pick up Montana, South Dakota, and West Virginia, and just for a moment assuming that they hold onto both McConnell and Chambliss’s open seats (neither are safe assumptions), the GOP would still have to defeat two out of the four incumbent Democrats (Begich, Hagan, Landrieu, and Pryor) and win the open Michigan seat. If they fail the latter, the GOP will have to beat three out of the four Democratic incumbents. This challenge to overcome inertia comes into play for the GOP in two ways. First, over the past five elections (2004-12), Democrats have unseated 11 Republican Senate incumbents, while Republicans have only defeated three Democratic incumbents: Tom Daschle (South Dakota), Russ Feingold (Wisconsin), and Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas). Depending upon Michigan, the GOP must beat two or three incumbents at minimum, something that has been very difficult for the party as of late. Keep in mind that one of those five election years, 2010, was one of the best GOP years in modern history. The other way to look at it is that even if Republicans win Montana, South Dakota, and West Virginia, they still need to win five out of the seven races that are notably expected to be the closest. Even in 2010 when Republicans picked up a net gain of six seats, most of those were foregone conclusions. The GOP lost five of the seven seats that The Cook Political Report had rated as Toss Ups going into Election Day that year. Last year, of the 10 races we had rated as Toss Up, Republicans lost eight of them. So Senate Republicans have had trouble defeating incumbent Democrats and, for that matter, winning the close races. In 2014, they have to do both.
CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the GOP needs six seats in the House to capture a majority. In fact, the GOP needs a net gain of six seats in the Senate to win a majority.Adder, a pale young man with long blond hair, meets me in the garden. He is the designated host for my visit to Twin Oaks. He apologizes for having childcare responsibilities tonight, but promises to show me around in the morning. For now, Adder, shoeless in a woman’s thin skirt, points me to a small guesthouse, where I find my name on a card taped to the door of one of four rooms. Each room, like each of the buildings at Twin Oaks, is named after a former utopian community. My door reads “Walden Two.”
The sparsely furnished room, like the food I will eat at Twin Oaks, is free—I have been asked only to do a little work during my stay as recompense for the hospitality. There’s a set of bunk beds, a small table, and a chest of drawers in the room. I settle into the lower bunk and pull from my suitcase a copy of B. F. Skinner’s utopian novel, Walden Two. In 1967, eight friends, mostly graduate students, read this book by the founder of behavioral psychology and decided to bring that fiction to life. Altogether, their assets added up to $2,000; they had a benefactor who was willing to lease them 123 acres of forest and farmland in Louisa and a parent willing to float them a loan for the mortgage. The small group moved into the lot’s only structure, a small farmhouse, and began planting a garden.
“Some of us were happy,” one of them, Kat Kinkade, remembered 26 years later in her history of Twin Oaks, Is It Utopia Yet? “Central to my own happiness was my conviction that there was no task on earth more important, or certainly more interesting, than the building of an egalitarian community.” While Kinkade left Twin Oaks at times to visit or help create other intentional communities, she always returned to the region, and after succumbing to bone cancer in 2008, she was buried in the small cemetery at Twin Oaks, beneath a circle of quartz stones.
Twin Oaks hardly ever dips below or swells above 100 members: Right now there are 93 adults and seven children. Each permanent member is voted in after a six-month trial period. With community feedback, a team of three men and three women makes the final decision for acceptance.
The one thing Twin Oaks has retained from Walden Two is what the novel calls a planner-manager form of governing. The three planners serve a limited term and are responsible for the community’s long-range decision making. The managers are those in charge of specific areas of work, from the farm to the kitchen to the various manufacturing operations at Twin Oaks. They oversee all daily decisions, and are responsible for decisions that affect the whole community.
To an outsider, it might seem that the planners wield considerable power in a community that espouses complete egalitarianism. The reality, says Adder, a planner himself right now, is that most members take on the role rather hesitantly. (In fact, there are currently only two planners because no one has come forward to be the third.) Something like Plato’s reluctant philosopher-kings, the planners don’t really want power—there is, after all, really nothing to be gained from it at Twin Oaks—and are serving only at the request of the community. Once a planner is nominated, members offer input about the candidate for 10 days, and then a “veto box” is set out. If less than 20 percent of the community votes no (which I sense is almost always the case), a new planner is elected.Russia 2014 World Cup Home Kit
Russia 2014 World Cup Away Kit
Russia 2014 World Cup Away Kit unveiled - The new Russia 2014 Brazil World Cup Kits are made by adidas and come with unique designs.The new Russia 2014 Away Kit was released today and will be worn by Fabio Capello's team in the next friendly. The design of the new Russia 2014 Away Kit is showing a looking down on Earth from Space. This is the new Russia 2014 World Cup Home Kit.The new Russia 2014 World Cup Home Kit comes in red with dark red details around the shoulder and dark red sleeves. The adidas stripes and logo on the Russia 2014 World Cup Home Kit are golden.On the back of the new Russia 2014 Kit below the collar is written "пoеxали!" which means "Let's go!" which was what Yuri Gagarin, who was the first human in outer space, said during the launch of Vostok spacecraft in 1961.The sleeves of the Russia 2014 Home Kit feature a Russian flag detail while the front of the new Russia kit shows a watermark of the 'Kosmonauts Museum' in Moscow to honor the Russian space program.This is the new stunning Russia 2014 World Cup Away Kit.The new Russia 2014 World Cup Away Kit may be the most stunning 2014 World Cup Kit showing the view the first men in space had of the Earth.On the front of the shirt features the impressive front graphic showing the blue earth's surface. The sleeves are blue / white.When all employees in the company were given the option of working from home, about half took up the opportunity and the gains from the strategy almost doubled to 22 per cent. ''Our results suggest a promising future for working from home,'' concluded the economists' paper, Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment. Even though the research was conducted in China the paper's lead author, Bloom, said the results were likely to be similar in comparable firms in Western countries.
So if telecommuting can be so beneficial for employers and employees, why isn't it more common? Some firms have decided they need workers to be side-by-side if they are to succeed. Chief executive of Yahoo! Marissa Mayer banned telecommuting this year, arguing workers are ''more collaborative and innovative when they're together''. Also, many employees like the social interaction of work and fear their careers may suffer if they are not in the workplace.
But the Centre for Work + Life's director, Barbara Pocock, said managers in industries that lend themselves to telecommuting have been surprisingly resistant, even though workers would like to do more work at home. ''We underestimate the stickiness of old-style cultures of supervision and management, which like to see face-to-face,'' she said. ''There's a bit of managerial catch-up needed here - it's been a bit slower to unfold.''
While a surprisingly small share of Australians have formal telecommuting arrangements, a larger proportion are taking work home thanks to mobile technology. The Work and Life Index found 41 per cent of workers take work home and about half those hours were unpaid. It estimated the average employee who took work home last year donated three weeks of labour annually - almost as much as their annual leave entitlement.
A separate survey on email use by the Centre for Work + Life found 48 per cent of workers who had a mobile device with email access checked their work emails when they were not at work. One in five checked their emails before breakfast and more than a third checked them in the evenings.General Hayden's enthusiastic endorsement of metadata as the digital equivalent of strapping nitrous tanks to your state-sanctioned murder program was short, simple and direct. It popped, in marketing speak. Everything George's rambling interview with David Speers on Sky News didn't. Maybe he was still hurting from the hits he took after speaking up for the rights of Nazi sympathisers and YouTube trolls. "People do have a right to be bigots, you know." The Speers interview went viral and a perfectly reasonable plan to snoop on the private lives of 20 million or so law-abiding citizens suddenly seemed... well, not very reasonable at all. Perhaps quoting another NSA old boy, General Counsel Stewart Baker, might have helped to sell the government's massive expansion of everyday spying on everyone and everything. Explaining the mysterious properties of metadata, Baker didn't resort to misleading or tortured analogies with stealing and reading old-fashioned paper envelopes. He simply said: "Metadata absolutely tells you everything about somebody's life." That's how simple it is, Senator. You could have saved yourself all that trouble and embarrassment. Next time Speersy asks one of those awkward, embarrassing questions about your awkward, embarrassing habit of rifling through our online unmentionables, just tell him: "We need to know everything. So we can kill you." Funny to think the whole fiasco was supposed to distract from the bigots-have-rights-too botch-up. Just as Canberra was promising to record everything you ever do or say online, it was also stamping out your precious, precious freedom to say the dumbest, most hurtful thing you can think of. Here was the hapless inefficiency of Big Guv on display; spending hundreds of millions of dollars to put our milquetoast spies on steroids at the |
Gun Training Skyrockets Following Orlando AttackThe Department of Homeland Security was wrong when it told both California and Wisconsin that Russian hackers had tried to hack their election website and registration files.
The DHS notified 21 states including California and Wisconsin that Russian-linked individuals had tried to target either voter registration files or public election sites. The DHS is now claiming that these hackers targeted the California Department of Technology and the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.
“The work of our intelligence agencies is critical in defending against cyber threats. I remain committed to a partnership with DHS and other intelligence agencies, however, elections officials and the American public expect and deserve timely and accurate information,” California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said in a statement Wednesday.
Mark Thomsen, chairman of Wisconsin’s Elections Commission, said Tuesday, “Either they were right on Friday and this is a cover up, or they were wrong on Friday and we deserve an apology.”
DHS spokesman Scott McConnell was rather unapologetic in a Tuesday statement to The Daily Caller.
“While we defer to each state whether to disclose the circumstance surrounding their networks, it’s important to point out that discussions of specific IP addresses do not provide a complete picture of potential targeting activity. The Department stands by its assessment that Internet-connected networks in 21 states were the target of Russian government cyber actors seeking vulnerabilities and access to U.S. election infrastructure,” McConnell told TheDC.
His statement came before California’s announcement and suggested the DHS was wrong about additional states. “DHS has made an effort to respond quickly to questions and requests for further information from states following Friday’s calls, and today we provided additional information to a number of states, including Wisconsin,” the spokesman said.
The DHS notification on Friday was met with anger by Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner. “It’s unacceptable that it took almost a year after the election to notify states that their elections systems were targeted,” Warner said.
A Washington Post report about the alleged Russian hacking attempts also noted, “In only a handful of states, including Illinois, did hackers actually penetrate computer systems, according to U.S. officials, and there is no evidence that hackers tampered with any voting machines.”
WATCH U.S. INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS DISCUSS RUSSIAN MEDDLING IN U.S. ELECTION:
Chuck Ross contributed reportingPlaywright and actor Harvey Fierstein says it’s time to let the world know that the LGBT community is “too dangerous to mess with” and that “Rat Putin” is the perfect guy to use to send that message.
The Tony Award-winner, whose smash Broadway hit “Kinky Boots” is riding high, had sounded the alarm on Russia’s anti-gay crackdown in a NewYork Times Op-Ed and called for a boycott of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. In an interview with me on SiriusXM Progress, Fierstein said he was just “getting angrier and angrier” about the Russian government’s actions and wanted to try to get people involved. (Scroll down to listen to the interview)
“It seemed to me a really good time for us as a community to say, ‘You know what boys? Time to stop fucking with us,’” he said, also backing the boycott of Stolichnaya Vodka that has taken off worldwide. “It’s time for them to stop making money. Time for churches to stop raising money by demonizing us. Time for politicians to stop making money by demonizing us. It’s time to make the gay community too dangerous to do that to. Russia happens to be a great place to do it because Putin -- I call him 'Rat Putin' -- is such a villain. I think there’s an entire movement here and an opportunity to say the gay community is no longer available to be your scapegoat.”
Fierstein urged LGBT people to take a stand.
“A lot of people are saying, ‘We can’t do this, we can’t do that,’” he said. “You can do everything. You don’t necessarily see the results right away. We have to create an environment where we are too dangerous to mess with. “CLICK THE PIC!
We explored the diverse culture of the 90s in our last season, and after many exciting rounds, Malcolm, Fairplay, and Danielle are battling it out to be the first ever winner of Survivor Decades. Join us as we enter our second season, packed with 1980s nostalgia, pop-synth soundtracks, and a heck of a lot of 8-bit glory! (or 16-bit, but who can really tell the difference?)
Applications will be closing on November 6th at 11:59PM EST. We will send out acceptance emails that evening and begin check ins on November 7th or 8th.
Keep checking in with this board, we may change the schedule!
You can contact the hosts by one of the following methods:
Host Kenny
AIM: kennythecanuck42
Skype: bipolarchemist
Host Sean:
AIM: mattheewwww@gmail.com
A LINK TO OUR FIRST SEASON:
Hello and welcome to the Survivor Decades: 1980s board! If you would like to apply to be a part of the fantastic second season:CLICK THE PIC!We explored the diverse culture of the 90s in our last season, and after many exciting rounds, Malcolm, Fairplay, and Danielle are battling it out to be the first ever winner of Survivor Decades. Join us as we enter our second season, packed with 1980s nostalgia, pop-synth soundtracks, and a heck of a lot of 8-bit glory! (or 16-bit, but who can really tell the difference?)Applications will be closing on November 6th at 11:59PM EST. We will send out acceptance emails that evening and begin check ins on November 7th or 8th.Keep checking in with this board, we may change the schedule!You can contact the hosts by one of the following methods:A LINK TO OUR FIRST SEASON: http://survivordecades90s.proboards.com/
Host Kenny
Reputation: 12 Group: Admin Posts: 480 Joined: Sep 6, 2015 Post #2: 13th Oct 2015 7:15:42 PM
Bumping this!
Host Kenny
Reputation: 12 Group: Admin Posts: 480 Joined: Sep 6, 2015 Post #3: 6th Nov 2015 2:42:27 PM
Applications close TONIGHT!
Acceptances and Check-Ins will begin TOMORROW! Probably in the early evening.
Host Kenny
Reputation: 12 Group: Admin Posts: 480 Joined: Sep 6, 2015 Post #4: 7th Nov 2015 1:01:43 AM
APPLICATIONS ARE CLOSED.
We will deliberate and prep and then send out acceptance emails early tomorrow night.
'Host Sean'
Reputation: 6 Group: Admin Posts: 257 Joined: Oct 11, 2015 Post #5: 7th Nov 2015 4:24:36 PM
A little preview of who will be playing is up on the memory wall. Acceptance emails will be sent out tonight, and we are very excited to get started on a great season
Host Kenny
Reputation: 12 Group: Admin Posts: 480 Joined: Sep 6, 2015 Post #6: 7th Nov 2015 6:36:00 PM
Emails are beginning to be sent out after this message is posted!
We received a massive number of sign ups, which sadly means what we will have to cut some players. If you do not receive and email or message from us, you still have a chance to be in the game as an alternate so stand by over the next day!
Host Kenny
Reputation: 12 Group: Admin Posts: 480 Joined: Sep 6, 2015 Post #7: 7th Nov 2015 7:32:17 PM
All acceptances have been handed out. Please check Skype and AIM if you did not receive an email, we may have sent it via that route!Xeni Jardin is an editor and founding partner at BoingBoing.net. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely hers.
(CNN) When news of Senator John McCain's brain cancer diagnosis hit the internet, I thought it was beautiful to see so many well-wishers tweet to him with messages of support.
President Barack Obama tweeted : "Cancer doesn't know what it's up against. Give it hell, John." Rep. Steve Scalise, still recovering from surgeries to treat his gunshot wound, said : "Praying for my friend @SenJohnMcCain, one of the toughest people I know."
It's hard to know what to say when someone gets bad news, but when I read some of the well-intentioned tweets from McCain's colleagues in the Senate and House, from former Presidents and vice presidents, one thing I kept seeing really bothered me.
I'm a cancer survivor, and since the day of my own diagnosis, it felt strange to hear it myself.
"You'll beat this."
"You got this."
"You'll win this battle."
"Cancer isn't as tough as you."
"You have a positive attitude and you're a fighter, so I know you'll get well soon."
"You'll be fine."
Strangers and friends who loved me said some of these things too. I knew they meant well. Like them, I grew up hearing cancer described as combat, something you "beat" if you've got enough "fight" in you. President Richard Nixon declared war on cancer when I was a baby. Military metaphors were familiar, but they stopped making sense when the war was me. My own body.
Cancer, I soon learned, is my own cells going rogue. Suddenly all the combat language was confusing. Am I the invading army or the battleground? Am I the soldier or a hostage the soldier's trying to liberate? All of the above? If the chemotherapy and radiation and surgery and drugs don't work, and I die, will people be disappointed in me for not "fighting" hard enough?
For me, cancer never felt like a war. Cancer wasn't something I "had," but a process my body was going through. Brutal but effective medical treatment paused that process, as far as I know today. By the grace of science and God, I'm alive with no evidence of active disease as I share these words. It's as close to "cured" or "winning" as I get, one day at a time. And I'll take it, with gratitude.
Writers before me like Susan Sontag and Barbara Ehrenreich lived with breast cancer (and Sontag died from it), and both wrote about the dissonance of war metaphors in describing our disease. In war, we are taught, there are winners and losers. When breast cancer, a disease for which there is no known cure, progresses to our lymph nodes and shuts down our organs, have we as fighters failed?
There's no one right thing to say when someone gets diagnosed with cancer. Even if there were, nobody elected me to be the cancer vocabulary police.
I am no warrior. I just showed up to my medical appointments, did what I was told, and lived as best I could. Now, I try to avoid saying things to other cancer patients that imply I expect a certain outcome for them, or that I expect them to feel or behave in a particular way. "Try to think positive!" isn't always reasonable or possible, and I don't want to make a fellow patient feel bad by commanding them to feel one thing or another.
Some of the fellow cancer patients I met online became close friends during the isolation of treatment. They freely shared invaluable tips from their own cancer experience that helped me have a good outcome. Some of these men and women didn't live. Their cancers didn't respond to treatment, or they did but later popped back up as metastatic recurrences. Some of those stage IV patient friends have since died. They taught me that acceptance of the unknowable, and doing our best with our bodies, our lives, and our treatment options a day at a time is the best any of us can do.
One of those beautiful friends was Lisa Adams, a mother and writer, and a fearless soul.
"When I die don't say I 'fought a battle.' Or 'lost a battle.' Or'succumbed," she wrote. Don't make it sound like I didn't try hard enough, or have the right attitude, or that I simply gave up.
When I die tell the world what happened. Plain and simple. No euphemisms, no flowery language, no metaphors."
She lived. She died. She is still loved. Her words still resonate for me.
During this odd era in which facts, truth, and reality itself seem to be up for grabs, I'd like to propose that with cancer, as Lisa suggested, we just call it what it is. War is war. Cancer is cancer. Cancer is a disease of cellular biology in which some cells stop obeying the good instructions they've been given. They hog the body's shared resources, and replicate over and over again, until the body's own organs cannot carry out the basic functions we need for life to continue.
We don't know how any cancer patient's life will unfold. What will become of any one of us is not ours to know. All that any of us can do is try to live today as best we can.
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Dear Senator McCain, thank you for your lifetime of service to America. Cancer sucks. Glioblastoma is a rough diagnosis. I'm so sorry you have to deal with this. I'm glad you have expert oncologists and surgeons working with you, and that you have such an abundance of loving support from family, friends, and us, your fellow Americans.
We are all wishing you the best, Sir.
Godspeed.#017 John Greycrow
For a 60 point figure, John Greycrow brings a lot to the table. 7 Range is way better than average, and when paired with Running Shot, and a 9 Speed he has a very impressive swing. Furthermore, his trait that lets him get powers from objects gives him a ton of ways to deal with bigger characters, and the ability to switch gives him even more options every turn. Both Precision Strike and Penetrating/Psychic Blast allow him to get through every major defense outside of Stealth and Shape Change. Outside of his trait, John Greycrow is still a statistically fantastic attacker, with high attack and high damage when assisted with Ranged Combat Expert. His defense is a little lacking, especially with Willpower on his first click, but all this means is you’ll have to be more thoughtful about his placement, which isn’t too hard with his very high range and Running Shot. Generally, John Greycrow is a fantastic ranged attacker, with the interesting ability to gain useful attack powers. He’s a little fragile, but with the right team, which he can support with his Leadership that can be useful in a Marauders team, he’ll always carry his weight. He’s also possibly the best user of the Mutant Massacre trait with his enlarged range and Running Shot, allowing him to almost always have access to opposing characters to hit when the trait is activated.
Final Score: 4/5
#018 Vanisher
Vanisher is a simple value proposition. Would you like to pay 40 points to carry 3 of your characters regardless of their keywords? If your answer is yes (and it certainly should be), then Vanisher is the figure for you. He’s the best taxi in the entire game now, and there’s more to him than just that, but there really doesn’t need to be. He brings so much freedom in who he can carry that he really doesn’t need to be any more than his first two click, but instead they felt giving him Probability Control on his last two clicks would be fair, and I’m not complaining. He might not take hits well, or do much damage, but being able to carry 3 characters, especially with the Brotherhood of Mutants Team Ability so that it doesn’t take an action from your action pool, makes him one of the best pieces in the game. Remember how Mercury from World’s Finest started showing up all over the place, because of his cheap access to Telekinesis? Vanisher is as good a piece, but focusing completely on carrying. He also makes every single Marauder, many of whom suffered from a lack of mobility (Blockbuster, Arclight, Prism), hugely more competent, especially Riptide who can Sidestep and Pulse Wave after being carried. Yes, this means you could carry 3 Riptides up, drop them off, and have them Sidestep/Pulse Wave on a single turn, and it wouldn’t cost you a single action from your total.
Final Score: 5/5
#019 Warpath
Warpath’s claim to fame is Exploit Weakness on his first 3 clicks. Aside from that one power, he’s not offering anything significantly different than Colossus. He’s not bad, but he doesn’t fill much of a role in this set. His offensive potential is good on his first three clicks, but it drops off on his last two, which gives him an 18 Defend and Empower. Overall, he’s just a little less of an effective attacker than the other 50 point close combat pieces, even though he’s not inherently bad. His trait is useful in sealed, but outside of this set it’s probably never going to see play, as the X-Men team ability just isn’t commonly used. Warpath isn’t bad, he’s just outclassed by the other 50 point pieces.
Final Score:2/5
#020 Wolverine
The second Wolverine in the set is almost as sub-par as the first one, and comes in at more than double the point cost of the 50 point Wolverine. Instead of healing when he clears, or having Regeneration, Wolverine gets heal tokens that he can remove to heal a click. The thing to notice about this is that it’s not just damage dealt by opposing characters attacks, but all damage including pushing, basically giving him a more limited version of Willpower. It also gives him a psuedo stop-click by removing 3 Heal tokens, giving him a little more survivability. If you have 6 tokens, that’s going to allow him to do it twice, but with the low defensive values and Toughness, there’s a big chance that he’s going to be getting to that last click very quickly. Offensively he’s not even close to being the best there is, with very mediocre attack values and being forced to rely on Blades/Claws/Fangs for damage, which is not something you want to have to rely on at 115 points. Even Exploit Weakness only shows up when he loses Charge, this isn’t a Wolverine that I’d want to play, and I don’t think it properly represents the character. This Wolverine is overly expensive, vulnerable to attacks, and is a surprisingly mediocre close combat attacker. His special healing power helps him stay alive, but doesn’t give him enough control of his dial to remain alive.
Final Score: 1/5
#021 Cyclops
The first of three Cyclops doesn’t disappoint. His dial seems a little bare, especially in the defensive slot, but he makes up for it with powerful ranged attacks. Like the 50 point X-Men before him, Cyclops’s dial is split into two sets of powers. Unlike Storm or Nightcrawler where the shift between the two power sets is drastic, Cyclops just changes the way in which he goes about his ranged combat. His first power set has restricted movement, relying on Sidestep to get in range, and Ranged Combat Expert to insure he’s hitting his target, and dealing a good amount of damage. His last two clicks gives him Running Shot and Penetrating/Psychic Blast, which, with 7 range, gives him a good fairly good swing, and his values actually increase when he gets to this clicks, keeping up his good offensive capabilities. Defensively he’s not winning any prizes, but like the other figures, 5 clicks for 50 points gives him enough life to survive most attacks. His trait also gives him extra supporting capabilities, even though currently his Leadership can’t help the other characters on his team, getting an extra action is useful, and getting Probability Control 1 out of 3 times really helps him support the rest of his team, while still keeping up his ranged barrage. Cyclops is a really good ranged attacker, and the potential Probability Control isn’t dependable, but very helpful when it happens.
Final Score: 4/5
#022 Beast
Beast has a lot going on in this dial. He starts out with Outwit which pairs well with his traited Leap/Climb, allowing him to get into position to Outwit, followed by 3 clicks of Close Combat Expert goodness, and ends with two strange clicks of Support, giving him a ton of things to do for your team. Beast’s biggest problem is that he’s just not as good at doing those things as cheaper characters, making his 75 point investment kind of steep. Overall he’s just a little bit lackluster for 75 points, especially with some of the better close combat pieces, but he does get a little bit better when considering his trait. I personally think that Probability Control is by far the strongest support power in the game, and not being able to target a character with it can render some support characters virtually useless. Beast works better as a secondary attacker, due to his Outwit and ability to get into position with Leap/Climb, but his jack-of-all-trades approach with Support means that you’re either going to need to know every click of his dial, or you’re going to have to be very lucky to insure he’s in the right place to use the powers on his dial.
Final Score: 2/5
#023a Kitty Pride
This Kitty Pride is kind of disappointing. You’re basically paying 50 points for a really good Leadership power, and after you lose it, Perplex. Without the ability to carry, or move and attack, she’s not a great attacking piece. Defensively, she’s a little confusing, featuring Energy Shield/Deflection for her first three clicks and Willpower for her last two, allowing her some protection from range, but not a lot of protection from where she actually wants to be, up close and personal. Her Leadership is really powerful for All New X-Men teams, as taking a token off of every character adjacent to her is actually incredibly powerful. If you’re not running an All New X-Men team then she’s a waste of points, but if you are, she’s provides a service.
Final Score: 2/5
#023b Kitty Pride
The Prime Kitty Pride is way better than the Uncommon, but she still doesn’t live up to the Kitty I’m looking for. Her most useful tool in her kit is her Phasing + Incap power, but with 9 movement, and an 18 defense with Super Senses, she can be left vulnerable when moving her out to use that power. The redeeming factor for her is her incredibly cheap 65 point cost. With a lot of assistance, Kitty Pride shines, especially when the enemy is grouped up together. Her use is diminished against teams with less characters, or players who position their units with the intention to limit your use of her. She’s best as a disrupting character who forces your opponent to adapt to her position, but there’s the danger that she will have a very limited affect on the game if your opponent builds in a specific way.
My favorite thing about this Kitty Pride is the Guardians of the Galaxy keyword, where her 18 Defense pairs well with the GotG #030 Star-Lord, who shares that 18 with the rest of the Guardians on your team. Overall, she’s more of an interesting piece than an effective one, but she has high enough values, and enough potential to make a difference in a game.
Final Score: 3/5
#024 Cyclops
Two Cyclops in one rarity does seem like a bit much, but I’ll allow it due to the fact that they’re both really decent. The first thing of note on this Cyclops is traited Force Blast. Having Force Blast is always useful because of how important positioning is in Heroclix; one space further away from their target can be the difference between being able to reach them and being forced to waste a turn and an action moving up, and re-positioning. It’s even more effective when you’re dealing with characters without reducers so you can increase the damage through knock-back. Aside from that, Cyclops has an 11 range swing, with an 11 attack and 3 damage. He also has Enhancement so that he can assist the other X-men from range (or perhaps a Prism?). Of course, the elephant in the room is his special attack power, not only because it’s confusing, but because it’s really not too great, so lets go over it quickly. The first thing you have to do is choose a vertical and horizontal line from Cyclops. This means you choose either in-front of him, or behind him, and the left or right of him. Then you target all characters within that arc, creating a quarter slice from Cyclops and make an attack dealing 1 penetrating damage to all characters within that arc, and within 5 squares and line of fire. It’s a cool sounding power, and really flavorful, but in use, it’s not great unless you’re going up against swarms. Dealing 1 penetrating damage for a Power Action to a very specific place on the map isn’t very strong. Thankfully, Cyclops makes up for that weak power with solid stats, the inability to be targeted by Probability Control and traited Force Blast.
Final Score: 4/5
#025 Jean Grey
At the high cost of 100 points, you would hope Jean Grey brings a lot to the table, but sadly she’s just not worth the points unless you’re playing an All-New X-Men team. She brings a lot of useful powers with her, but at strange points to make them less useful, like her Pulse Wave which appears alongside Mind Control. Her first two clicks are her best, featuring Sidestep, Telekinesis (one of the only figures in this set with this power), and a special Perplex that lets her target the other All-New X-Men without drawing a line of fire or having range to them. She’s a useful support piece, but 100 points is too much to spend on a support figure.
Final Score: 2/5
#026 Chief Magistrate
Looking at Chief Magistrate is frustrating to me, It’s a cacophony of powers that don’t fit together in any logical way, but having them on a 40 point figure is fantastic. In some ways I like the concept of giving really useful powers to low cost figures by limiting their use on the dial and putting them in conjunction with other non-synchronous powers. Chief Magistrate is probably going to end up being played competitively, not too often, but often enough to be mentioned. For 40 points you’re getting 5 clicks of life, and on three of those clicks Penetrating/Psychic Blast, and on the other two, Pulse Wave. That’s pretty insane value, what’s strange about this figure is the other powers it gets. In conjunction with Penetrating/Psychic Blast is Close Combat Expert, which then is replaced by Leadership. Having Leadership isn’t very useful on a 40 point figure, but having it on it’s last three clicks is just strange. Movement wise it’s going to be getting places with its Phasing/Teleport. Of course Chief Magistrate also has unbelievably good values to go with those powers, having a 10 attack that dips to 9 on 2 clicks, and surprisingly good defense powers on its first three clicks. Having the Police Team ability never hurts either.
Final Score: 4/5
#027 Brood
Brood is a surprisingly good generic especially on his 30 point starting line. At his higher point cost, he gets 2 clicks of 5 range charge, Flight (including the ability to Carry) and a really good special Blades/Claws/Fangs that allows him to put a token on his target on the role of a 4-6. His attack is a pretty average 10 throughout his dial, only falling to a nine one his last two clicks. If you’re playing him at 50 points, you’re doing so to make use of his ability to carry other people, which mixed with that surprising offensive offering, makes Brood a really awesome secondary attacker. His 30 point dial does lose the ability to carry, but a 10 attack, Blades/Claws/Fangs with a 4 charge for 30 points is astounding, and he brings more variability to the table when he pushes to get Plasticity, Combat Reflexes and Exploit Weakness. Brood is as good as any of the 50 point X-Men, and offers two separate, but equally good starting lines to tear apart your opponents.
Final Score: 4/5
#028 Caliban
Caliban’s role is to carry people up, and then assist them with targeting the opposing force, by granting Improved Targeting: Ignores Hindering Terrain. His value is tied to how useful you think this is, and if you can build a team that takes advantage of it. In terms of dial length, he’s giving you 5 clicks for 40 points, but i’m not sure that he’s worth that. If you’re playing him you’re probably not playing Vanisher, and you’re trading the ability to carry 2 more units for Improved Targeting. Ignoring Hindering terrain is actually really good, look at how effective the Superman Team Ability is, especially when you’re going up against teams featuring Stealth. Overall he’s just a little bit overpriced, especially when he’s sharing the uncommon section with Vanisher. If you’re struggling with hindering terrain, I’ve got to recommend the AVAS Jarvis over Caliban, although his only works in Indoor Terrain. Overall he’s decent, but just outclassed by Vanisher.
Final Score: 2/5
#029 Magneto
For 50 points Magneto is a fantastic secondary attacker and support piece, and is a huge threat to every piece on the table. He starts out with Telekinesis and Sidestep making him a great Telekinesis piece, but his real strength comes from his Trait. Free action Running Shot is unbelievably good, even if it’s only once per game, especially when paired with Pulse Wave, allowing him to Running Shot/Pulse Wave and then use his action to attack again or use Telekinesis. In terms of values, he’s pretty decent, with a 3 Damage and 10 attack on his top click, both of which only fall by 1 by the end of his dial. 2 Damage is a little bit of a concern, but Magneto offers enough other utility to make up for his potentially low damage, having Pulse Wave doesn’t hurt either. Overall he’s a decent Telekinesis figure with the potential to be a surprise threat on the battlefield, but his lower values definitely limit his offensive potential.
Final Score: 4/5
#030 Juggernaut
Finally we get a Juggernaut that feels like a Juggernaut. The most interesting thing about him is his Trait that allows him to charge in a straight line. This initially seems really open, but you’ll soon learn just how restrictive this is. You can’t end your movement in a space occupied by an opposing character, as they only move away after you’ve made your attack. Having Sidestep really helps Juggernaut get into position, but having Telekinesis really helps him. Now I don’t tend to advise extending a character that far into opposing territory, but Juggernaut’s helmet trait makes him potentially unstoppable. He’s assisted with Impervious on his first few clicks, and cannot be Outwit or hit with Penetrating/Psychic Blast making ranged attacks against him tough. When he’s hit with a close attack, if you do hit his 18 defense, you have to struggle to get that helmet off before you can even do anything about hurting him. Even then, his 4 printed damage is going to be hard to beat in a roll off unless you’re opponent is fielding something as big as him. When his helmet comes off he’s not worthless, but he loses a lot of his power, and basically all his survivability. Overall I think Juggernaut is incredibly flavorful and balanced, offering some fun and useful abilities and a really strong body to use them with. He’s a little expensive at 150 points but he crushes opponents who can’t get his helmet off.
Final Score: 4/5
#031 Sabretooth
Sabretooth benefits from a really strong attack value. He starts with an 11, which after a push, ends up as a 12.The worst thing about Sabretooth is his point cost. At 75 points you’re paying a lot more instead of a cheaper Blades/Claws/Fangs piece like Wolverine, but you also get a much better version of Blades/Claws that hits all adjacent characters. This power can be either game changing or absolutely useless depending on the team build and placement of your opponents. Any teams that require adjacency in order to function can be torn apart by Sabretooth’s charge, but against a larger figure, he’s running around with the basic Blades/Claws/Fangs. Sabretooth’s other values are all pretty average, his speed falling to a low 8 on his second click. After his first three clicks he loses Charge for Leap/Climb, really lowering his mobility. His last 2 clicks give him a chance to heal with Regeneration, but his low defense and lack of Willpower makes him pretty vulnerable, and forces you to try to protect him while he regenerates. Finally, the Mutant Massacre trait can really keep him alive, but also doesn’t function as well with his special Blades/Claws/Fangs, because if you do manage to kill more than 1 enemy, his triat only activates once.
Final Score: 3/5
#032 Super Sabre
Now it’s time for a new Sabre. This one features the effective power combination of Hypersonic Speed and Force Blast allowing for some really fun displacement of opposing characters. Sadly, his values really let him down, especially when, for 5 points more, you could be playing Quicksilver. Defensively Super Sabre is solid, with mostly 17’s but an 18 on his second click and mixed with Energy Shield/Deflection. His last 3 clicks he picks up Precision Strike allowing him to insure he’s hitting everyone for something. The Freedom Force trait also is great on him due to his high speed value, giving him a lot of range to move and use Force Blast. If his attack was a little higher, and his damage more dependable than a 2, he would be a lot better. As it stands now, he’s a fun Hypersonic figure but is just too weak to compare to the Quicksilver from this set, or even the Flash from the prize support.
Final Score: 2/5
AdvertisementsReal Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane has defended his decision to remove Cristiano Ronaldo in the second half of Los Blancos' 2-2 draw at Las Palmas on Saturday.
With 20 minutes remaining and his team 2-1 ahead, Zidane decided to remove Ronaldo and send on Lucas Vazquez, and the three-time Ballon d'Or winner did not look happy as he slowly took his place on the bench.
Las Palmas Las Palmas Real Madrid Real Madrid 2 2 FT Game Details GameCast
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"It was not that [Ronaldo] was playing badly," Zidane told reporters after the match. "We are playing on Tuesday and Cristiano must rest too sometimes. It was just for that. He was playing well. Tonight I took him off thinking of Tuesday's game.
"Angry? That would be your interpretation. He always wants to be on the pitch. We have to take him out sometimes, and we did today. It does not change anything."
Zidane had criticised his team's first-half performance after their midweek draw at home to Villarreal, but rejected an idea that they had been similarly lacking in intensity for a second game in a row, adding that defensive issues leading to two goals conceded would have to be analysed.
Cristiano Ronaldo was subbed off in the second half of Real Madrid's 2-2 draw at Las Palmas.
"We had many chances in the first half tonight, also in the second," Zidane said. "I do not believe we lacked hunger -- just the opposite. We started well, pressing high, we did what we had prepared. But when they score twice -- well something has happened, and we must analyse it.
"The second goal was not just one player's mistake, it was a bit of everything. The team are working well, are committed to what we are doing. In football you cannot always win, but we are on the right path and we have a game on Tuesday which is coming up soon."
Dermot Corrigan is a Madrid-based football writer who covers La Liga and the Spain national team for ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @dermotmcorriganMore than 300 children have been taken on the outing to the seaside from Glasgow.
Hundreds of children have been driven to Troon for a day at the seaside by generous Glasgow cabbies.
More than 300 children who require additional support for learning have been chauffeured to the seaside along with their parents or carers as part of an annual charity trip on Wednesday.
This will be 71st annual outing organised by the Glasgow Taxi Outing Fund (GTOF), with more than 100 taxi drivers giving up their day to take the children to the seaside for free this year.
The popular event was attended by well-wishers at the traditional starting point on Kelvin Way before the taxis travelled through Glasgow city centre and the south side on their way to South Ayrshire.
Many of the cabbies wore fancy dress costumes and decorated their taxis for the journey.
Backers include Glasgow Taxis Ltd, Celtic FC Foundation and Optical Express.
Taxis arrived at Kelvin Way from around 9.30am, with representatives from Glasgow Taxis and Celtic arriving shortly after.
West end restaurant The Butchershop Bar & Grill provided complimentary rolls and sausage for spectators and participants.
A fleet of 13 police motorcyclists travelled with the fleet of taxis on the road to Troon.
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Boyce's job carries with it the possibility of life-and-death moments that most of us just see on TV. He's worked as an emergency medical technician (EMT)—an entry-level position that requires the completion of a certification course—since 2013, and cut his teeth driving an ambulance in Boston, where he's from. Last month, he officially became a paramedic, a more advanced position that carries with it the responsibility of interpreting a patient's vitals, putting them on a heart monitor or giving them breathing tubes, and administering powerful medications.
I recently spoke to Boyce, who now works in a rural area near Colorado Springs where the staff is limited, about how he handles the most gut-wrenching parts of the job and the common misconceptions people have about paramedics.
VICE: Does it scare you seeing someone who is as badly hurt as that guy who fell? How do you respond to something like that emotionally?
Nate Boyce: I just look at what happened and I try to put together a plan. And as soon as I have a plan for how I want to treat the patient, that's just what I do. We were fortunate with this guy that I actually got to talk to him for a while cause it took us so long to get him out. I had a much longer conversation than I do with most patients. He was a student who had just moved here from New York and also went to the same school as me.
Honestly, it was the most personal connection I've ever had with any of my patients. I've definitely crossed the line from empathy to sympathy in the past. But obviously our goal is to never have emotions affect the way you do things. That's like a tenant of medicine: You treat everyone the same way regardless of your connection to them. We talk about that and we try to stress its importance, but obviously we can't guarantee that.
When you were starting as an EMT what was the first serious situation you had to deal with?
I remember starting and not running any good calls for six months probably. You know, calls where we could do anything. The very first serious call I went on was a guy who shot himself in the head. He was so dead that we didn't even go inside. The cops were already there. They were like, "You can just leave." I was pretty freaked out at the time because I didn't know what to do next. There was a hysterical family and I was just totally underprepared to deal with them. And I just kind of stood there awkwardly and looked, and I didn't know what to say to them. It takes years to learn to tell someone that someone they love is dead. That is a true statement for sure.
It takes 140 hours to get your EMT license. That's really minimal, and it doesn't teach you that much. I think that was the most surprising part for me—how unprepared I was to be dealing with all of these things, and yet everybody I worked with was totally fine with all of it. If you work in finance and you have a business degree, you probably show up on your first day with some amount of knowledge of what your job is going to be like. That just totally isn't the case here.
Were you often afraid at the start of your career?
When you're new, you're staring at the patient afraid and you're not really sure what to do, or even what you're afraid of. Mostly, you're afraid of being awkward, you're afraid that they know you're new. When you're really new you're afraid that everyone in the ambulance is gonna die, or take a turn for the worst. And that's just totally not gonna happen. You know, it's just not how it works. Most people are not that sick. But when you first start you're feeling is that, like, I'm on an ambulance—this is life and death stuff. It could be any second that this person who just called me for leg pain just drops dead! Over time you get over that because it just doesn't happen like that very often, and you realize that it's just two people in the back of the truck by happenstance. Why not take advantage of that and talk to them?
Paramedics treat a man inside an ambulance in California (August, 1989). Photo via Chuck Nacke/Getty
Do you feel personal satisfaction about giving back in this way?
Yeah, but I would never do this for free. It's very much a job. It's my job, and it's a job I happen to really enjoy. But if tomorrow they said, "It's gonna be on a volunteer basis," I would be out of there. I can't emphasize how terrible the pay is. I mean, I live a very comfortable life because I'm a non-married, mid-twenties male. But I also work, on average, 70 hours a week to do that. It's a problem, and it's not sustainable. My solution of picking up overtime or having other jobs for different ambulance services could totally fall apart if I wanted to have a family. And we just haven't been able to figure out how to change the pay. And that's a problem as well because we have so many people leave the industry who are good at their jobs. They interact with the rest of healthcare professionals who are well-compensated, and they're like, "Shit. Why shouldn't I just go to nursing school and make twice as much money for significantly less responsibility?"
"The surefire way to get someone in my industry riled up is to call him or her an ambulance driver."
So a lot of people quit these jobs?
According to the federal government, the national average length for a paramedic's career is three and a half years to five. Not an EMT—a paramedic who went through an associate's degree program to get there. Even after all that investment into themselves, the average paramedic works for less than four years before doing something else.
I can count on one hand the number of paramedics [I know] that are over the age of 50. It just doesn't happen. People have to move on because they work really hard. They run 12 calls in 12 hours; they're stuck in the ambulance all day. It breaks most people after a while, and I'm fortunate that my full-time job is at a place that doesn't run so many calls, has a station, and has a boss that try to take care of us as people. It's extremely rare to see people retire from this job, though.
Are there any misconceptions about your job and industry that you'd like to address?
People who are paramedics are true healthcare professionals and I think a lot of times that's kind of lost. The surefire way to get someone in my industry riled up is to call him or her an ambulance driver. Yeah, I drive the ambulance, but I do a whole lot more than that. That's a small part of my job. We provide surprisingly advanced care. Not only do we have the ability to treat really life-threatening illnesses, but we make people feel better. Treating people's pain is awesome, you know? Also, chances are you're not gonna die in front of me. You just feel like shit. And I'm here, so let me help you. Most all of the time we are able to make things better, and that's where most of my satisfaction comes from.
An unidentified person is moved to an ambulance after four people were shot, resulting in one fatality in Chicago's South Side (November, 2013).
Photo by Brian Jackson/Chicago Tribune via Getty Images
Follow Zach Sokol on TwitterWarbreaker is a fantasy novel written by American author Brandon Sanderson. It was published on June 9, 2009 by Tor Books.
Sanderson released several rewrites of Warbreaker under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US), one chapter at a time.[1] The entire novel, including older drafts, is available in digital format from Sanderson's website. Warbreaker has been well received by reviewers.[2][3][4]
Plot summary [ edit ]
Warbreaker tells the story of two Idrian princesses, Vivenna and Siri. Vivenna was contracted through treaty to marry the God King of rival nation Hallandren. Instead, Siri is sent to meet the treaty.
Vivenna follows to Hallandren in hopes of saving Siri from her fate. Upon arriving in Hallandren, Vivenna meets up with Lemex, one of her father's spies in the city, but he has taken ill and dies shortly thereafter—though not before bequeathing his BioChromatic Breath to her.
Vivenna then joins up with Denth and Tonk Fah, mercenaries that were under Lemex's employ, and together they begin making guerilla attacks against Hallandren's supply depots and convoys that will hopefully give the Idrians an advantage in the seemingly inevitable war.
Siri, after spending many terrified nights waiting for the God King to procreate with her, finds that he is not actually the menacing, frightening God that she thought, but has actually had his tongue cut out by his priests, making him nothing more than a figurehead. Siri teaches the God King to communicate by writing, and over time they fall in love. However, Siri believes that the priests are secretly plotting to kill her and the God King if she produces an heir.
Back in the city, Vivenna discovers that Denth and Tonk Fah are not working for her but against her, and she barely escapes their custody with her life.
After living destitute in the Idrian slums of Hallandren for weeks, Vivenna is taken in by Vasher, a mysterious man who can use his BioChromatic Breath to Awaken objects with a skill surpassing that of most others. Together, Vivenna and Vasher work to undo the damage done by Denth and avert the war Denth was trying to instigate.
Vivenna convinces Vasher to try and save her sister Siri from the God King's palace. However, Vasher is captured and tortured by Denth, who is revealed to have been working for the God King's Pahn Kahl priests, who are trying to incite war between the Idrians and Hallendren so they can take the city for themselves.
The Pahn Kahl priests capture Siri and throw the God King in the dungeon. The priests, having gained the Commands to control the city's undead Lifeless army, send them to attack the Idrians and start the war.
However, one of the city's Returned gods, Lightsong, also imprisoned in the dungeon, sacrifices himself by giving the God King his BioChromatic Breath. This heals the king, giving him his tongue back and allowing him access to his godly cache of BioChromatic power. The God King uses his magic to save Siri from the Pahn Kahl priests just as she is about to be sacrificed.
Meanwhile, Vivenna uses her own BioChromatic powers to break into the God King's palace and frees Vasher, who kills Denth.
Vivenna and Siri are reunited. However, even with the God King's near unlimited power, the Lifeless army cannot be stopped. Vasher then reveals that he is actually one of the Five Scholars—those who originally discovered the Commands for using BioChromatic Breath—and bestows upon the God King the code to awaken the city's secret army of nearly indestructable Lifeless soldiers, which have been hidden in plain sight throughout the city as statues.
Awakening [ edit ]
The book uses a system of magic, "Awakening", which allows mages to bring life to objects as well as provide benefits directly to the mages while they hold "BioChromatic Breath", the source of their power,[5] such as perfect pitch, perfect color recognition, perfect life recognition, and agelessness.[6] Use of Awakening drains the colors from surrounding objects and the less colorful an object is, the more difficult it is to apply Awakening to it.[4] The system has been praised as a unique and original magical system.[5]
Major themes [ edit ]
According to Sanderson, "Warbreaker's substructure is that of reversals."[7] In the early chapters Sanderson begins to show a swap in the roles and attitudes of the main characters Siri and Vivenna. Through the contrast between the Hallandren and Idrian civilizations, a few major themes are displayed. One is the misunderstandings that can occur between two cultures, and the biases that can result from these. This is in part shown by the mistreatment of Idrian workers, who are thought to be boring, untrustworthy, and stuffy. Another is how two cultures may interpret history differently—the Hallandrens think of the Idrians as rebels, while the Idrians think of themselves as the rightful rulers.
Reception [ edit ]
Orson Scott Card said that he initially found some aspects of the magic system disappointing because he felt it was too far-fetched to obtain magical power from color. He did not mind it as much when it turned out that the draining of color was a symptom of magic use rather than the source of the power. He stated that "As with all good fantasy fiction, the story isn't about the magic; that's just the rule set within which the real story takes place. That story is absolutely up to Sanderson's very high standard, with political intrigue, carefully differentiated cultures and believable human motivations."[4]
Michael Moorcock also praised Warbreaker saying, "Brandon Sanderson has written a heroic fantasy depending on originality of character and plot. His "heroines and heroes are outstanding – especially Vasher, the Warbreaker, whose special relationship with his sentient sword is both sardonic and sinister. The mysteries of life after death, of identity and destiny, the politics of magic, are unveiled through three-dimensional characters." He finished, "Not only has Sanderson drawn a freshly imagined world and its society, he has also given us a plot full of unexpected twists and turns... Anyone looking for a different and refreshing fantasy novel will be delighted by this exceptional tale of magic, mystery and the politics of divinity. Warbreaker might even take your breath away."[8]
SFFWorld called the book "well-wrought, intelligent, and at times, surprising – one might say a conspiracy novel with slight hints of 1984 wrapped in a wonderful fantasy package."
Sequel [ edit ]
Sanderson has discussed the possibility of writing another book in the same world as Warbreaker. It would not be a sequel (in the strictest definition of the term) as the first book was written as a stand-alone novel.[9] Sanderson has not stated anything about possible location, events, or characters involved. A possible name for the second book is Nightblood, which refers to the living sword Nightblood that is carried by Vasher, one of Warbreaker's main characters.[10]
Audiobooks [ edit ]
GraphicAudio has released Warbreaker as a dramatized audio production.[11] It was adapted and produced with a full cast, narrator, sound effects and music.
Recorded Books has also published an authorized audiobook of Warbreaker. The first version was read by James Yaegashi.[12] A second version was released in 2015 read by Alyssa Bresnahan.
References [ edit ]NEW DELHI: In further retaliatory steps over the arrest of diplomat Devyani Khobragade, India has asked the US to "discontinue" commercial activities being undertaken from its embassy premises in New Delhi by January 16.India's action comes ahead of the January 13 deadline for the indictment in New York of Khobragade, deputy consul general in New York, on visa fraud charges.Acting tough, the government has asked the embassy to stop commercial activities undertaken under the aegis of the American Community Support Association (ACSA), including restaurant/bar, video club, bowling alley, swimming pool, sports field, beauty parlour and gym.The US has also been asked to provide the tax returns filed by it with Indian authorities for commercial activities which are afforded through ACSA to non-diplomatic persons, including private American citizens and their families, government sources said.Indian authorities have cited the provision of such commercial facilities to non-diplomats as a violation of Article 41(3) of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961.The convention states that "the premises of the mission must not be used in any manner incompatible with the functions of the mission as laid down in the present convention or by other rules of general international law or by any special agreements in force between the sending and the receiving State."It is also understood the US diplomatic vehicles will now attract penalties for all traffic-related offences such as unauthorized parking, red light jumping, dangerous driving, etc.Necessary action against Vehicles with AF (Applied for) number plates is also on the cards.The latest Transformers 5 news could change everything. It seems Mark Wahlberg, in spite of being part of the highest grossing film in the series, has left the franchise alongside the ever critically despised Michael Bay.
The loss of the series’ long-time director may be a ray of hope for those intent on hating any film that has his name on it. Age of Extinction was a definite comeback for a film series which started out huge and became almost a laughing stock by the third entry.
Michael Bay allegedly stated that he doesn’t have the time or the energy to continue with the series. Skeptics could add that the critics and fans had bashed the films so much that he simply doesn’t care any more about the franchise, but that’s just an assumption.
The news of Transformers 5 not having the star returning from its prequel might also have given Michael Bay a sense of dread. There is a chance the rest of the cast of Age of Extinction might also walk away.
Transformers 5 rumors claim that Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox could make a comeback, which would probably be a challenge for any director taking the reins. Shia LaBeouf was so annoying the first three times that the audience will likely be hesitant to give him another try. The spectacle he made of himself earlier this year about “not being famous anymore” could also be working against him, so it’s doubtful that he will return to the franchise.
Megan Fox could be more likely, though she may have to choose between a role in the Transformers 5 cast and starring in the next Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. After making amends with Michael Bay, it seems she’s willing to work with him again.
Some might suggest that Megan Fox skip the TMNT sequel, since Age of Extinction was a better box office draw and might need her to draw the audience in alongside another set of new faces.
‘Transformers 5’ Possibly a Summer 2017 Release; Michael Bay and Mark Wahlberg Walk Away From Project http://t.co/WhGZeHuFIX #Chicago #News — BreakingChicagoNews (@iChicagoNews) September 1, 2014
While Mark Wahlberg’s contribution to this round of Transformers 5 news may come as a shock, it’s in line with what he’s done before. The Pain and Gain star stated that he’s never done a sequel.
“Some people think of this as a sequel. We thought of it more as a stand-alone thing. I’ve never done a sequel.”
Technically it’s not a sequel to anything he’s done before, but Age of Extinction was definitely a sequel to Dark of the Moon. Mark Wahlberg is half right.
With Wahlberg and Michael Bay officially leaving the franchise, what do you think of the latest Transformers 5 news?
[image via Hitfix]Bell System Recorded Announcements (SIT Tones) "We're sorry, you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service..." Ever wonder about the history of these call intercept messages? In recent years these voice messages are usually preceded by what is called SIT tones which stands for "Special Information Tone". Here is a brief explanation of these tones from AHK & Associates website: "The special information tone is provided for those cases in which neither the busy tone nor the network congestion tone (fast busy) can give the required information to the calling party. SIT tones are three precise, sequential tones, typically applied with a recorded announcement to explain the failed call attempt to the calling party. In the United States we use eight SIT tone sequences, which in turn are a subset of the thirty-two SIT sequences defined by the ITU. The most common SIT tone is the vacant number intercept SIT (i.e.: the number you have dialed is no longer in service)." - from http://www.ahk.com/Special%20Information%20Tones.pdf There are many websites that go into more detail on the technical aspects of these SIT tones and so I won't bother with the details on this web page. Instead I want to cover the more "human" side of what follows those tones - the recorded voices. Perhaps the most famous recorded voice to most of us in the USA is Jane Barbe. Jane Barbe (pronounced "Barbie") was the woman who did the later voice recordings for the Bell System. Most USA telephone customers know her as the "Telephone Lady". Her voice is heard by millions of people every day speaking for the telephone networks (changed numbers, disconnects, circuits busy), Bell Laboratory computers, The National Bureau of Standards, announcing ETC’s Audichron® time, temperature, and weather services, and many voice mail systems nation wide. Her predecessor was Mary Moore (she sounded like a schoolmarm and said "Fiyiv" and "Nyun" for the numbers 5 and 9 respectively). Jane passed away in July of 2003. Another famous recorded voice used by the Bell System was that of Pat Trumbull. It is difficult for most people to discern between Jane's and Pat's voices. Click HERE to read an article on the Automatic intercept service machine found in an old Bell Laboratories Record magazine. The following information and audio files were sent to us during March 2004 by an anonymous visitor to the website. Update: We received helpful information from Gadi Niram that the following recordings are all by Pat Fleet (formerly Pat Trumbull), except where noted where they are not either. BlankNumber-.wav
CentrexError-.wav
ChargeACall-.wav
custom-.wav (neither Pat nor Jane)
CustomCalling-.wav
CustomCallingManual-.wav
FacilityTrouble-.wav
JaneBarbe_AIS_disc.wav
JaneBarbe_AIS_notinsvc.wav
JaneBarbe_AIS_trouble.wav
listNPA_251-.wav
No911-.wav
NoCircuitBOC-.wav
NoCircuitIXC.wav
NoCircuitIXC-.wav
not_jane_AIS_disc-.wav (neither Pat nor Jane)
NoTouchStar.wav
NoTouchStar-.wav
PermanentSignal.wav
PermanentSignal-.wav
Reorder.wav
Reorder-.wav
RepeatDialingFailure.wav
RepeatDialingFailure-.wav
TouchStarOutOfArea.wav
TouchStarOutOfArea-.wav
VacantCode.wav
VacantCode-.wav
WATSOutOfBand.wav
WATSOutOfBand-.wav
WATSOutOfBank-.wav "BellSouth is now producing its recorded network announcements in house. Someone in Birmingham is doing them.
I've always been interested in the phone system growing up and always noted the different [recorded] voices I'd hear. [The audio links above are] examples of both the AIS and standard machine intercept recordings I'm referring to so you know exactly who I'm talking about. Also found above are:
Examples of Jane Barbe doing the so-called "CK-22550" series of announcements for Southern Bell and South Central Bell. These came out around 1986. According to the old practices and letters I found that were issued at the time, they were in response to customer complaints of overly loud SIT's on the KS tapes. The KS tapes had their SIT's recorded at about -10dB whereas the CK tapes had levels of -24dB. Note how emphatic she sounds on many of them.
Examples of Jane Barbe doing the "BS1991 LATA" series of announcements for BellSouth. These came out in 1991 in response to continued customer complaints. Testing revealed that the Automatic Gain Control circuit was jacking up the level by about 8dB on startup. The letter I saw didn't specify what announcer frame was causing the trouble, but mentioned techs adjusting the levels, which leads me to think the Western Electric 13A machine was the trouble (the NT announcers made under the Cook name at the time did have adjustments, but few offices used them and some test calls I made do seem to indicate the 13A does this). Supposedly the SIT levels on these were 10dB below voice, which is normally -22dB, so I guess that would make these -32dB, but I'm not sure Audichron really got this right. The Bellcore practice was changed the first time, but not the second time, so it still calls for -24dB.
Probably the last announcement Jane did for BellSouth, the NPA split for Mobile, AL. This is in.wav form directly from Audichron, so you get to hear Jane just as the techs heard her. As we receive more info on this topic it will be posted here. We Offer Personalized One-On-One Service! Call Us Today at (651) 787-DIAL (3425)Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul blames President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the rise of the Islamic State.
“I would say that she and the president are responsible for ISIS rearing its ugly head,” McCaul said, during a Christian Science Monitor breakfast with reporters in Washington D.C. this morning.
He argued that any Republican nominee for president would have a huge advantage over Clinton in 2016 as it was clear that the issue of national security was paramount among voters.
“I think Mrs. Clinton has a lot of weaknesses because she was the architect of the Obama administration’s foreign policy,” McCaul said, referring to her role as Secretary of State.
He argued that a lack of a status of forces agreement in Iraq was mainly responsible for the security implosion in that country, pointing out that Clinton only visited Baghdad one time while serving as Secretary of State.
After Clinton and Obama took office, he noted, the entire State Department had dumbed down their language on the threat from radical Islamist terrorism and created a more dangerous world.
“The whole vernacular in the State Department changed when they came into office … they just wanted to wish this away, and you know what, it didn’t go away,” he said. “And now he can’t get his head around this thing called ISIS.”
By not defining the enemy, McCaul argued, or changing the rules of military engagement, it was hard to say that Obama believed his was at war with ISIS.
“I think that they are war with us, but I don’t think this administration is at war with them, and I think that’s the inherent problem,” he said. “We need to be.”Frontman Wayne Coyne says Lips are working on new songs with former Bad Seed – and other artists – and hope to collate results on April album
The Flaming Lips have revealed they are working on a "collection of songs" with Nick Cave. As the band unveil their newest release – a 24-hour track, embedded in a real human skull – they have confirmed plans to team up with Cave at the end of his current tour.
"We've done a couple of things with Nick," Lips leader Wayne Coyne said in an interview with Pitchfork. "We already have one really good [cut], so that seems like it'll work out." Since January, the Oklahomans have already issued collaborations with Neon Indian, Prefuse 73 and Lightning Bolt, with a four-song Deerhoof EP due in December. According to Coyne, they have also initiated projects with No Age, Stars, Death Cab for Cutie, Lykke Li and Ke$ha. They hope to collect all of these team-ups for an LP in April.
In the meantime, the Flaming Lips are offering the natural follow-up to their six-hour song, released last month. The new track, 7 Skies H3, is 24 hours long. It comes on a hard drive encased within a real human skull. And it goes on sale on 31 October, costing $5,000 (£3,100). "It's a pretty exotic art object," Coyne admitted. "Only 13 of them are being made." To celebrate the new song's release, the Flaming Lips have accepted a 17-year-old girl's invitation to play at her house in West Virginia. "All of her friends are going to come over," Coyne said. "We're going to play Halloween by the Dream Syndicate and then do one or two Flaming Lips songs before the police show up to shut the thing down."
The Lips will also appear at MTV's online O Music awards. After an introduction by Yoko Ono, the band will use iPads to perform the Beatles' song Revolution, a tribute to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who died on 5 October.Vincent Bugliosi received his law degree in 1964. In his career at the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, he successfully prosecuted 105 out of 106 felony jury trials, including 21 murder convictions without a single loss. His most famous trial, the Charles Manson case, became the basis for his bestselling true-crime classic Helter Skelter. Two of Bugliosi's other true-crime books also reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list--no other American true-crime writer has ever had more than one book that achieved this ranking. Bugliosi lives with his wife in Los Angeles.
Marc Cashman is a three-time winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award for audiobook narration. His voice has also been heard locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally on radio, television, film, documentaries, radio plays, and video games.
--This text refers to the Audible Audiobook edition.United assistant coach Davy Arnaud has accepted a role as an assistant coach for the Houston Dynamo coaching staff. The Texan native joins Dynamo head coach Wilmer Cabrera after spending his first full season as an assistant coach under D.C. United head coach Ben Olsen.
“A true professional, Davy continued his career with us as an incredibly hard-working and dedicated coach this season. Under Ben’s tutelage, he has quickly developed as a coach and Houston are gaining a great addition to their staff,” Dave Kasper, general manager and VP of soccer operations, said. “I know Davy will be a great asset for the Dynamo and we thank him for all of his contributions to our club the past 3 years.”
In his two seasons as a player with D.C., Arnaud made 54 appearances in the Black-and-Red midfield, scoring two goals and recording three assists.
Arnaud, who played for the Kansas City Wizards and Montreal Impact before United, is in the top ten of various MLS all-time records, including eighth in games played (351), tenth in minutes (28,471) and tied for seventh in starts (316). He is also the most fouled player in the history of MLS, drawing the referee’s whistle 746 times over his career.What’s at stake: Marion Fourcade and her co-authors (Etienne Ollion and Yann Algan) have made a big splash this week in econ departments and in the blogosphere with a paper giving a sociological perspective on the economics profession and arguing that economists’ objective supremacy is intimately linked with their subjective sense of authority and entitlement.
What’s at stake: Marion Fourcade and her co-authors (Etienne Ollion and Yann Algan) have made a big splash this week in econ departments and in the blogosphere with a paper giving a sociological perspective on the economics profession and arguing that economists’ objective supremacy is intimately linked with their subjective sense of authority and entitlement.
Paul Krugman writes that Fourcade’s basic point is that successful economists tend to be intellectually arrogant because they live in a social setup that is very hierarchical, with steep gradients of prestige, widespread agreement about what constitutes good work and who is doing it, and pretty big rewards by professorial standards for climbing to the top of the heap.
Livio Di Matteo writes that this is a rather unflattering portrait of the profession as a self-centered, financially privileged, male dominated clique of academic imperialists. Crooked Timber writes that a lot of economists are reading the piece don’t really get Fourcade’s argument, which is a Bourdieuian one about how a field, and relations of authority and power within and around that field get constructed.
How economists see themselves (and how others see them)
Marion Fourcade and al. write that economists see themselves at or near the top of the disciplinary hierarchy. In a survey conducted in the early 2000s, Colander (2005) found that 77 percent of economics graduate students in elite programs agree with the statement that “economics is the most scientific of the social sciences.” They see the field’s high technical costs of entry and its members’ endeavors to capture complex social processes through equations or clear-cut causality as evidence of its superior scientific commitment, vindicating the distance from and the lack of engagement with the more discursive social sciences.
Marion Fourcade and al. write that from the vantage point of sociologists, geographers, historians, political scientists or even psychologists, economists often resemble colonists settling on their land. Lured by the prospect of a productive crop, economists are swift to probe the new ground. They may ask for guidance upon arrival, even partner-up with the locals (with whom they share some of the same data). But they are unlikely to learn much from them, as they often prefer to deploy their own techniques.
Noah Smith writes that a lot of academic disciplines look down on other disciplines – that’s part of the fun of academia. But psychologists certainly don’t think economists reign supreme over them. Nor, I assure you, do finance professors. It’s mostly sociologists who seem to have an inferiority complex. Peter Dorman is surprised by the data that suggests that economists are not collaborating more across disciplinary boundaries than they used to. One possible source of omitted evidence is that their list of external disciplines does not include psychology or biology, two fields where it seems to me that collaboration has been most fruitful.
Tyler Cowen writes that economists are in fact the smartest of the social scientists (on average), but this also has led economics to degenerate somewhat into a game of signaling smarts, to the detriment of breadth and knowledge of facts about the world.
The clubby character of the economics field
Paul Krugman writes that academic economics is indeed very hierarchical; but it’s important to understand that it’s not a bureaucratic hierarchy, nor can status be conferred by crude patronage. The profession runs on reputation — basically the shared perception that you’re a smart guy. Reputation comes out of clever papers and snappy seminar presentations. While it may seem like a vague concept, within each subfield everyone knows who the top guns are, and there’s a very steep slope downward from the few people at the very pinnacle and the next level. In my original home field, international trade, we used to joke that senior hires were difficult because there were only four people in the top ten. Because everything runs on reputation, a lot of what you might imagine academic politics is like — what it may be like in other fields — doesn’t happen in econ.
Crooked Timber writes that the paper provides good evidence that economics hiring practices, rather than being market driven are more like an intensely hierarchical kinship structure, that the profession is ridden with irrational rituals, and that key economic journals are apparently rather clubbier than one might have expected in a free and competitive market. What appears to economists as an intense meritocracy is plausibly also, or alternately, a social construct built on self-perpetuating power relations.
Marion Fourcade and al. write that several leading economic journals edited at particular universities have a demonstrable preference for in-house authors, while the AER is much more balanced in its allocation of journal space. Looking at home bias figures since the 1950s, Coupé (2004) finds a consistent pattern of over-representation of in-house authors over time. Between 1990 and 2000, for instance, the Harvard-based QJE “assigned 13.4 percent of its space to its own people” and 10.7 percent to neighboring MIT (against 8.8 percent to the next most prominent department, Chicago). Conversely, 9.4 percent of the pages of the Chicago-based JPE went to Chicago-affiliated scholars. This was equivalent to the share of Harvard and MIT combined (4.5 and 5.1 percent, respectively). Wu (2007) shows that these biases actually increased between 2000 and 2003.8 Our data (2003–2012) confirm this domination of Cambridge, Massachusetts over the QJE and (to a lesser extent) Chicago over the JPE.
Peter Dorman writes that the treatment of organizational structure focuses entirely on the AEA in relation to the professional organizations for American political scientists and sociologists. This material was quite interesting, but aren’t they leaving out something important? I’m thinking of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), which provides support and especially networking for “core” researchers in economics. From where I stand, many rungs beneath, this looks like a nomenklatura for the profession. Perhaps this is a misinterpretation. But if not, we ought to document how members of NBER are recruited and what the career consequences are for inclusion versus exclusion.
Read more blog reviews:
The new oil price war
Obama’s executive action on immigrationAMD Radeon 400 Series Graphics Cards
AMD Radeon 400 Series Graphics Cards: Few months ago when AMD launched its next generation Polaris graphics architecture but its look like company’s Radeon 400 series GPUs are almost ready to start shipping to customers worldwide at the end of April
According to latest news Lenovo going to launch brand new Windows 10 YOGA laptops and tablets, some of laptops and tablets configurations are discovered with AMD Radeon 400 series graphics cards and will start shipping in April
AMD’s Radeon 400 Series Graphics Cards Are Almost Here
Lenovo’s brand new 15 inch and 14 inch YOGA 510 laptops which will sell under the Flex 4 name in the US. Both 15 inch and 14-inch version will be available with dedicated AMD Radeon 400 series graphics cards
510-14ISK 510-15ISK CPU Up to sixth generation Intel Core i7 Up to sixth generation Intel Core i7 GPU Up to AMD Radeon R5 M430 Up to AMD Radeon R7 M460 RAM Up to 8 GB Up to 8 GB Storage Up to 1 TB HDD or up to 256 GB SSD Up to 1 TB HDD or up to 256 GB SSD Display 14-inch IPS touchscreen 1080p 15-inch IPS touchscreen 1080p Camera 1 MP fixed focus CMOS 720p 1 MP fixed |
inker with. Under this system, new and unique decks are far more likely to appear, and it's our goal to foster that creativity and innovation rather than stifle it.
Over the past six months, we've had extensive conversations about what we can do to improve the experience of playing Magic, examining everything from our process to our design philosophies to the way we communicate and remain engaged with our players. There's no one answer to making Magic the most fun it can be, but this is one of many steps we're taking under the belief that it makes for a more fun game overall.
Sincerely,
Magic R&DJeb Bush is going to nail his Koch audition.
Yesterday, Nicholas Confessore reported that David Koch, the extremely influential Republican donor, told other Republican donors that he and his brother Charles would support Scott Walker for the Republican nomination. The Kochs’ support in a Republican primary is potentially transformative, because they are known to write powerfully argued op-eds and deliver compelling speeches that marshal unimpeachable logic on behalf of their ideals. But the comment, which was not intended for public consumption, was quickly disputed by the Kochs, who don’t want to forfeit their chance to make other candidates compete for their blessing. “Let me be clear, I am not endorsing or supporting any candidate for president at this point in time,” Mr. Koch declared for the record.
The Koch damage control continues this morning, in the form of a Mike Allen report that, per an unnamed “top Koch aide,” the brothers remain uncommitted. Indeed, reports Allen, “Jeb Bush will be given a chance to audition for the brothers’ support.” The Kochs seem to be hoping for a lead character who can play the role a little less patrician and a little more Middle America, but Jeb will be given an opportunity to show that he can stretch. So for anybody concerned that the democratic process might be short-circuited by the Kochs precipitously anointing a front man, rest assured. All the candidates will have the chance to curry their favor.Winnipeg comedian Lara Rae was out for a morning walk with a friend on Tuesday when they noticed a series of nearly a dozen graffiti messages left along Wellington Crescent and on a trail in Omand Park, across the Assiniboine River.
"To look down on the ground and see this horrible, horrible racist anti-Semitic garbage, it's just so distressing," said Rae, who lives in Wolseley.
This bench on Wellington Crescent was marked with just one of many messages referencing George Soros, a philanthropist, investor and author who's become a target of neo-Nazi groups. (Holly Caruk/CBC) Messages such as "Lost white civilizations" and "White extinction?" were scrawled on pavement and at least one bench along Wellington Crescent.
They were also found in the West Broadway area near the Granite Curling Club.
Rae said the graffiti wasn't there on Saturday morning when she walked the same route, and only noticed them for the first time on Tuesday morning.
Other people on the trail told a reporter they first noticed the graffiti as early as Sunday morning.
"I don't think it's irresponsible to suggest that people were inspired, if that's the right word, by the garbage that went on in the United States on Saturday. They've been emboldened and we have to un-embolden them," Rae said.
A car plowed into a crowd of people protesting a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring nearly three dozen people.
Lara Rae wants to see the graffit removed immediately. (Holly Caruk/CBC) Rae said her friend posted pictures of the graffiti on Facebook, and at least one person made a complaint to 311.
She wants the city to remove the graffiti.
"They should remove it instantaneously. It should be a priority."
Mayor 'personally sickened' by graffiti
In a statement Mayor Brian Bowman said he was "personally sickened" by the incident, and called on "Winnipeggers of all backgrounds to join [him] in denouncing acts of hate like this."
Bowman said crews have been sent out to remove the graffiti, and he personally reached out to the Winnipeg Jewish Federation to offer his support.
"These intolerant acts of hate are reprehensible and offensive to our community and will not deter our ongoing efforts towards strengthening inclusiveness in our city," Bowman's statement went on to say.
Winnipeg police said they received one complaint about graffiti at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Winnipeg at 603 Wellington Cres. on Sunday.
Part of the church sign had white paper taped over it on Tuesday evening. Church representatives could not immediately be reached for comment. This sign at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Winnipeg on Wellington Crescent has paper taped over a portion of the sign that appears to have been vandalized. (Holly Caruk/CBC)
Representatives from Shaarey Zedek Synagogue said while no grafitti has shown up near the synagogue, they are being vigilant given the current political climate.
Who is Soros?
Aidan Fishman, interim national director of the League for Human Rights for B'nai Brith Canada, said the graffiti, while cryptic, is anti-Semitic.
It included phrases like "Soros?" and "Soros wants you dead."
"'Soros' is a reference to George Soros, who is a billionaire Jewish-American-Hungarian philanthropist who gives money to lots of left-wing causes," Fishman said.
"It's perfectly legitimate to criticize George Soros and his politics … but the words under 'Soros' in the graffiti are 'white extinction,' and this refers to a conspiracy theory that is common on the far right. One might even say on the alt-right, and among white supremacists and neo-Nazis, that George Soros is the frontman for some sort of Jewish plot to exterminate the white race." George Soros is an investor and philanthropist with Jewish heritage who donates to liberal and progressive causes in the U.S. He is also a target of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists. (Holly Caruk/CBC)
Graffiti is often used by neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers to lure people into reading propaganda, Fishman said.
"They'll write graffiti, or messages that are sort of cryptic … and then what they count on people to do is go and Google these terms," said Fishman.
"The first hits you would find are links to this [Soros] conspiracy theory."
Similar theories can be traced throughout history as a means of vilifying Jews, Fishman said.
"This is a sort of insidious and clever tactic by neo-Nazis to get people to read their theories without throwing out all of the really outrageous material all at once, because perhaps they know in that case people wouldn't even read it."
The timing of the graffiti is alarming, he said.
"It doesn't seem like a coincidence, and it's not surprising. When we see acts of hatred, whether in Canada or elsewhere in the world, that have a really high profile and that gets lots of attention, it tends to prompt sort of copycat incidents in other places." This message was found near the Granite Curling Club on Granite Way in the West Broadway area. (Submitted by David Jaspar)
Fishman first learned about the graffiti on Tuesday and said B'nai Brith will investigate. They also received a report of similar graffiti on Aug. 6, on what they believe is a light post near St. Mary Avenue and Balmoral Street.
"The individuals are doing this … with the intent of building a base of support that would eventually lead to much more serious attacks on people and property," he said.
Not the first anti-Semitic act
Rae said the graffiti goes beyond free speech and more people should be alarmed.
"We have to remember that … this multicultural phenomenon that we've established in this country needs to be protected and fought for, or it can disappear just as quickly as it seems to be doing in the United States," she said.
"This is not speech, this is threatening behaviour … the desire is to make people unsettled and uncomfortable."
Fishman said despite other anti-Semitic acts in Winnipeg in the past few years, he believes the vast majority of Winnipeggers will reject this kind of behaviour.
"The most important thing is that residents who live in the community, and who live across Winnipeg from a variety of backgrounds, come together and reject this form of hatred."European tournament organizer DreamHack announced today that it will host a $450,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive DreamHack Masters tournament in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Feb. 15-19. The tournament will host 16 of the world's best Counter-Strike teams as they compete for their cut of the prize pool. Editor's Picks ELeague's Moses: 'Cloud9 is the best hope [for NA] right now' ELeague caster and analyst Moses, formerly a CS:GO pro player, sounds off on Season 2's groups, NA's strength as a region and oversaturation in the tournament circuit.
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DreamHack has hosted numerous previous DreamHack Masters events, which are all exclusive to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. One of its most successful and popular tournaments, DreamHack Masters Malmö, took place in April earlier this year.
DreamHack Masters Vegas comes as the second first person shooter (FPS) event to be announced for Las Vegas this week. Earlier this week, Major League Gaming announced it will host a Call of Duty and Overwatch event at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas in December, with $100,000 prize pools for each game.
The announcement comes as Vegas continues to rise in popularity for esports investment. Earlier this year, both the Evolution Championship Series and the League of Legends Championship Series hosted events at the Las Vegas Convention Center and Mandalay Bay respectively.Contrary to popular belief, both Democrats AND Republicans have had a long history of ensuring that Americans have access to coverage for preexisting conditions. In fact, a bipartisan piece of federal legislation requiring coverage for preexisting conditions existed long before the implementation of the ACA – Affordable Care Act, known colloquially as “Obamacare”. Public law 104-191 also known as HIPPA – Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act – of 1996 outlined in sections 2741, 2742 and 2744 the role that both health insurers and state regulators must play in ensuring coverage for those with preexisting conditions. That law was supported by both Democrats AND Republicans for more than a decade before Obamacare.
Not long after HIPAA was signed into law, states began developing one or more state run risk mitigation mechanisms to ensure that those in the individual health insurance marketplace were ensured access to coverage for preexisting conditions. 35 states decided to develop High Risk health insurance pools. In Illinois, our High Risk health insurance pool was called ICHIP – Illinois Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan. The existence of ICHIP ensured that Illinois residents who purchase their own individual health insurance were guaranteed coverage for preexisting conditions long before Obamacare. In order to qualify for ICHIP coverage one would have to have been denied coverage from a health insurer in the individual marketplace due to a preexisting condition or have exhausted COBRA continuation coverage from a former employer. If that individual applicant had kept consistent health insurance coverage without a lapse of more than 63 days, they were guaranteed immediate coverage from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois via ICHIP. If they had a lapse in coverage of more than 63 days, they would have to wait up to 6 months before preexisting conditions would be covered. These regulations provided a strong impetus for consumers to keep consistent health insurance coverage in place. This prevented applicants from ‘gaming the system’ by waiting until they were sick to purchase health insurance coverage.
10 other states chose to implement an “Individual market guaranteed issue mandate.” Under this state run risk mitigation system, residents of those states were guaranteed coverage for preexisting conditions from a variety of health insurers operating in that state. For example, in the state of Ohio, there were multiple health insurance carriers that had to “guarantee issue” 4% of their block of business to people with preexisting conditions during an annual ‘open enrollment’ period. During this annual open enrollment period, each health insurance carrier had to report to the Ohio Department of Insurance as to whether or not they “met their 4% guarantee issue quota”. Once one health insurer met their 4% quota, all future applicants with preexisting conditions were then referred to one of the other health insurers operating in Ohio who had not met their 4% quota and those remaining applicants would then be guaranteed coverage from that carrier. Under this innovative and intelligent state run risk mitigation system, all health insurers in the state shared the risk and everyone had access to coverage for preexisting conditions. Again, long before Obamacare. See page 10 of the Ohio “Guide to Health Insurance”
To learn more more about consumer protections under HIPAA law, download
“Protecting Your Health Insurance Coverage” from CMS –
Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services.
There is nothing new under the sun.
You probably noticed something familiar about how Ohio’s annual “open enrollment” period. You should, because that is how risk in the individual health insurance marketplace is managed today under the ACA. We now have a national ACA open enrollment period which begins on November 1st and ends on December 15th of each calendar year. During this 45 day window, all Americans can purchase individual health insurance regardless of their health history and preexisting conditions are not excluded from coverage.
Why though is this annual open enrollment window only 45 days long? Why can’t we just buy health insurance whenever we want? Why do we have to wait until November each year? The reason you cannot do so is because if you were allowed to buy health insurance whenever you want, no matter how sick you may be, you would simply wait until you were sick to buy it and you would have no impetus to keep that coverage after you received whatever medical treatment you were seeking at the time. This is akin to buying home owner’s insurance after your home burns down or car insurance after you wreck your vehicle. Allowing such behavior would rapidly bankrupt all health insurers in a very short time.
The purpose of “insurance” is to manage future risk if and when it may occur. It is not to absorb all risk as it occurs. It is the consistent payment of monthly premiums by multiple policy holders which allows insurers to build the necessary financial reserves from which to pay your claims if and when they may occur. This is why the annual ACA open enrollment period is restricted to a 45 day window once a year. It forces Americans to keep their health insurance coverage in place throughout the year to ensure they keep consistent coverage for preexisting conditions between open enrollment periods. Consistent payment of those premiums allows the health insurers to build the necessary financial reserves to pay your claims if and when they may occur.
Republicans allocated $100 billion plus to ensure coverage for preexisting conditions
The aforementioned preexisting solutions to preexisting conditions were only two of the types of protections that could have been implemented had the House Republican’s “American Health Care Act” survived Senate scrutiny or, if the Senate “Better Care Reconciliation Act” had survived John McCain’s 2 a.m. thumbs down vote. Both bills provided solid protection for consumers with preexisting conditions. Page 45 of the American Health Care Act created the “Patient and State stability fund” which outlined on page 51 more than $100 billion over the first 8 years for states to re-establish state run High Risk health insurance pools or other state and federally run risk mitigation systems. This is nothing new. In fact, our Illinois health insurance exchange is a state/federal partnership exchange. Both entities working together to ensure coverage for preexisting conditions.
So, the evidence proves that Republicans not only want to ensure preexisting conditions are covered but they are also willing to allocate many hundreds of billions of dollars to ensure that they are. The evidence also proves that we did not need Obamacare to ensure coverage for preexisting conditions. The states already had risk mitigation systems in place long before Obamacare and those systems or similar systems could be implemented once again.
The question is not if Republicans want to cover preexisting conditions. The question is how they are to be covered going forward. Mandating that health insurers cover preexisting conditions is fruitless if there are no health insurers left to provide said coverage for preexisting conditions. So many health insurers have exited the individual health insurance marketplace since Obamacare, including the nation’s largest health insurers, United Healthcare, Aetna, Humana, Anthem Blue Cross etc. This has left states like Indiana with only one health insurer left for those who purchase individual health insurance and that carrier only offers a small HMO option.
State based risk mitigation systems currently employed via ACA waivers granted by the Trump administration.
Alaska applied for and was (finally) granted a 1332 waiver from CMS on July 11, 2017. That waiver allowed Alaska to separate the most expensive consumers from the rest of that state’s risk pool and as a result health insurance premiums dropped significantly this year. They will drop even more next year.
Wisconsin applied for and received an ACA waiver allowing them to create a state based reinsurance program sponsored in part by the Federal government. The “Wisconsin Health Care Stability Plan” will pay 50% of insurers’ claims between $50,000 and $250,000. The state projects it will spend $34 million of its own funds for these claims next year, with the rest coming from the federal government. The feds, however, aren’t expected to shell out any new money because reinsurance also helps the federal government. The lower rates mean it will spend less on premium subsidies for those who qualify. Those savings will be redirected to the stability plan.
These are just two examples of how state’s can better manage risk at the local level by being granted waivers from the “one size does NOT fit all” government take over of the American health care system known as “Obamacare”. There will be more to come thanks ONLY to the leeway allotted to state’s by the election of President Donald J. Trump.
The truth about Trump not defending the latest legal challenge to Obamacare
President Trump’s D.O.J. has chosen not to defend Obamacare against the latest legal challenge to it led by Texas and 19 other states. That case argues (legitimately) that since the SCOTUS found the “Individual Mandate” constitutional in 2012 by defining it as a “tax” and later Republicans passed tax reform which included repeal of the Individual Mandate. The Individual Mandate can no longer be constitutional because there will be no more penalties assessed for not buying health insurance as of January 1, 2019. The D.O.J. is also arguing that two other Obamacare provisions should be struck down — one requiring insurers to cover those with preexisting conditions AT THE SAME PRICE AS THOSE WITHOUT PREEXISTING CONDITIONS. The Leftist media cabal reporting on this case conveniently leaves that last part out. That does mean that if the state led case against Obamacare succeeds, that preexisting conditions would not be covered. It simply means that those with certain preexisting conditions could pay more than those without preexisting conditions which is how the system worked prior to Obamacare.
I discussed this issue in greater detail with Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson on Chicago’s Morning Answer on WIND. Click below for to watch the replay:A new documentary on "Stuxnet", the joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear program, reveals it was just a small part of a much bigger cyber operation against the nation's military and civilian infrastructure under the code name "NITRO ZEUS".
Jigsaw Productions Stuxnet was the name security researchers gave to the computer worm used by the U.S. and Israel to attack Iran's nuclear facilities.
The United States hacked into critical civilian and military infrastructure in Iran to allow its operatives to disable the country with a devastating series of cyberattacks at a moment's notice, a documentary will claim this week. The targets of the U.S. hacking operations, covered by the code name "NITRO ZEUS," include power plants, transport infrastructure, and air defenses, the film will state, with agents entering these protected systems nightly to make sure the attacks were still deployable. The film, Zero Days, by Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney, which is set to premiere at the Berlin film festival on Wednesday, will claim that the U.S.-Israel "Stuxnet" worm — which destroyed around 1 in 5 of the centrifuges used in Iran's nuclear program — was just a small part of a much larger set of offensive capabilities developed against the nation. Citing at least five confidential U.S. military or intelligence sources with direct knowledge of the programs, the film claims: • U.S. hackers working from the Remote Operations Center (ROC) in Fort Meade, Maryland, have penetrated huge swaths of Iran's critical infrastructure, and were ready to launch disabling attacks alongside any military operation; • Some within the State Department and the National Security Agency (NSA) expressed concern around the legality and ethics of some of these operations, which risked disabling civilian as well as military infrastructure; • Israel modified the Stuxnet worm, targeted at Iranian nuclear facilities, making it far more aggressive, then unilaterally launched the new version. This was the one discovered by security researchers, who eventually traced it back to the two nations' intelligence agencies; • Intelligence from the UK's GCHQ agency was used in deploying Stuxnet against Iranian facilities. BuzzFeed News received an advance viewing of Gibney's film, and was given access to additional reporting material and research notes used for its production. These materials have been supplemented by independent reporting, including from previously published NSA documents from the cache leaked by Edward Snowden.
Jigsaw Productions Iran's nuclear facility in Natanz was the primary target of "Olympic Games", the official code name for the Stuxnet program.
"Stuxnet" was the name given to an unusually sophisticated computer worm when it was discovered by security researchers in 2010. The code was unprecedentedly complex, and included four "zero days" — previously unknown vulnerabilities that guarantee an attack's success and trade for hundreds of thousands of dollars a time on the black market. Researchers quickly concluded that due to its complexity and use of valuable, previously unknown vulnerabilities, it was almost certainly the work of one or more state actors. Eventually, it was revealed the Stuxnet worm was the product of a long collaboration between the U.S. and Israel, code-named "Olympic Games", to tackle Iran's nuclear program without resorting to airstrikes or assassinations, both of which Israel had previously deployed or considered in its bid to stall Iran's progress. The worm worked by changing the programming of the computers controlling the centrifuges used to enrich uranium, reporting back normal behaviors to the facility's operators while actually implanting a series of destructive actions, including even causing the centrifuges to speed up until the pressure on the system's delicate components caused them to explode. Both nations, the film reports, had full and independent access to the source code of the worm, which in its earlier versions did not spread aggressively, helping keep it contained and undiscoverable. When a version infected numerous unintended targets in 2009, the workers in the ROC switched almost full-time to silently cleaning up infected computers to prevent the worm's discovery — for fears this would lead to researchers determining who was behind it, potentially prompting retaliatory measures.
Jigsaw Productions
This was, Gibney reports, a significant source of anger when several months later Israel reportedly unilaterally released its modified version of the worm. This version traveled far more easily across many more systems, eventually infecting hundreds of thousands of computers in more than 115 countries, inevitably leading to the worm being analysed in detail by security researchers. This in turn led to the public revelation that the U.S. and Israel were behind the attack, despite neither country publicly acknowledging responsibility. "The secrecy of the operation has been blown," a U.S. source told the filmmakers. "Our friends in Israel took a weapon that we jointly developed — in part to keep Israel from doing something crazy — and then used it on their own in a way that blew the cover of the operation and could've led to war." In the months following the publication of a New York Times article identifying the nations behind Stuxnet, U.S. banks suffered a series of crippling cyberattacks publicly ascribed to Iran. State-sponsored cyberattacks have risen in frequency and severity since, with the U.S. openly accusing China of engaging in operations against American companies and public bodies on multiple occasions. However, the Zero Days film reveals that the "Olympic Games" attack on Iran's nuclear program was a virtual sideshow when compared with a much wider range of operations against Iranian infrastructure, all covered by the code name "NITRO ZEUS."
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza U.S. President Barack Obama with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pictured at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv in 2013.
NITRO ZEUS was formally a "caveat" to Sensitive Compartmentalized Information, more commonly referred to as a "read-on." In practice this refers to some of the most sensitive information held by the NSA and other U.S. intelligence agencies, meaning a controlled list of named individuals were aware of the term and its scope. The program was run out of U.S. Cyber Command and the NSA, with operations conducted out of the ROC in Fort Meade (motto: "Your data is our data, your equipment is our equipment — anytime, any place, by any legal means") with a mixture of civilian and military staff. The operations under NITRO ZEUS included Iran's industrial facilities, command-and-control, electrical grid, air defense, and transportation. Gibney describes the operations as "likely the largest and most complex cyber war plan the U.S. has ever created." The film's sources said NITRO ZEUS involved hundreds of personnel over several years, and cost "hundreds of millions" of dollars — building programs ready to "disrupt, degrade, and destroy" Iranian infrastructure with code intended to leave no direct clues as to who was responsible for the attacks. NITRO ZEUS was not just some theoretical battle plan, Gibney reports. Operatives had already gained access to all the relevant systems to execute the attacks if the order was given, and checked back on a near-nightly basis to ensure all the access points were still live and operational, and that the attack code wouldn't interfere with any other code on the systems, to reduce the risk of discovery — or accidental triggering. The number of implants in Iranian targets was reportedly in the hundreds of thousands. The film's supporting research material also reveals an array of concerns about such capabilities within the U.S. government and agencies. The State Department was seen by those in other agencies as a "wet blanket" when it came to operations for expressing concerns about violating the sovereignty of third-party nations' cyberspace, or about operations that could have significant impact on civilians.
Jigsaw Productions The film's confidential U.S. sources are represented onscreen by digitally generated characters.
The legality around cyberattacks that disable real-world infrastructure is complex and not yet established under international law, though targets such as power stations would often count as legitimate targets in conventional warfare. However, one confidential source expressed concerns to Gibney about the extent of NITRO ZEUS, saying some planners had "no fucking clue" as to the consequences of some of the proposed attacks. "You take down part of a grid," they told him, "you can accidentally take down electricity in the entire country." Other U.S. cyberattacks are believed to have already had such inadvertent side effects, albeit on a less dramatic scale. In November 2012, almost the entirety of the Syrian internet suddenly went offline, in what was believed at the time to be a deliberate act by the Syrian government to thwart opposition groups. However, in August 2014, Edward Snowden told Wired magazine the outage had actually been caused accidentally by NSA hackers attempting to gain access to the routers providing the backbone of the country's networks. Even those who are usually among U.S. intelligence's staunchest defenders have expressed concerns about the country's cyber capabilities and doctrine for using them. Michael Hayden, a former director of both the CIA and the NSA, told Gibney the U.S. action risks creating new international norms of cyber warfare. "I know no operational details and don't know what anyone did or didn't do before someone decided to use the weapon, all right," he said. "I do know this: If we go out and do something, most of the rest of the world now thinks that's a new standard, and it's something they now feel legitimated to do as well. "But the rules of engagement, international norms, treaty standards, they don't exist right now." In public remarks, Hayden once noted of Stuxnet "this has the whiff of 1945. Someone just used a new weapon." He also said the secrecy around the U.S.'s cyber programs was stifling the ability to have a public debate about their consequences. "This stuff is hideously overclassified and it gets into the way of a mature public discussion as to what it is we as a democracy want our nation to be doing up here in the cyber domain," Hayden said. "Now, this is a former director of NSA and CIA saying this stuff is overclassified. One of the reasons it's as highly classified as it is… This is a peculiar weapon system. This is a weapon system that's come out of the espionage community, and so those people have a habit of secrecy."
Jigsaw Productions General Michael Hayden, who has held some of the most senior roles in U.S. intelligence.This article is over 1 year old
Exclusive: Secret papers seen by Guardian reveal intensive monitoring of refugees and asylum seekers, and an all-pervasive fear about outside eyes looking in
Within the Manus Island detention centre, everything is watched.
Guards stand over public and private spaces, CCTV monitors corridors and staircases, while roving patrols detail in incident reports where refugees are gathered and who is talking with whom.
Despite the move to an ostensibly “open” centre, the level of surveillance inside the detention centre remains, according to those held within it, oppressively high.
“Everywhere we can go they are watching,” said one refugee, who declined to give his name because he feared it could jeopardise his application to be resettled in the US. “Even outside the camp, they are following, monitoring us.
“We have no freedom, no peace. We have no life.”
Revealed: year-long campaign to make conditions harsher for Manus refugees Read more
Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal how in detention, refugees and asylum seekers are forensically monitored by staff, who report back to central databases on issues such as their appearance (“Well-groomed/dishevelled”); their manner (“Engaged with a warm manner”, “Unstable and incoherent”); and associations (“Seen talking to X and Y”).
All refugees and asylum seekers are given “risk ratings” based on their past behaviour, risk of suicide or self-harm, behaviour towards others, and history of refusing to eat or drink. Any change in demeanour, even in something as simple as failing to say hello to a caseworker or guard, is noted and categorised.
Daily the camp “mood” is rated, and a “threat level” assessed, considering the likelihood of disturbance, violence or mass protest.
Despite the move to an “open” centre on Manus, and permission being given for refugees to have mobile phones, camp managers maintain a close watch on communications.
Computer use is comprehensively monitored and landline phone calls inside the detention centre are all listened in on.
But while everything inside detention is scrutinised, of perhaps even greater concern is an all-pervasive fear over outside eyes looking in.
Prime among the Australian camp manager’s concerns about the Manus immigration detention centre is the risk of “reputational damage”.
Its planning documents reveal repeated concern about “adverse media” and the release of information “causing reputational damage to PNG/Australian governments”.
Several refugee advocates seeking to visit Manus have been turned around at Papua New Guinean immigration in recent weeks, while others have been arrested, removed from Manus Island, and deported from the country. Journalists have had their pictures plastered on posters around the camp with warnings – Toksave – that they should not be spoken to.
Free reportage has been the bete noire of the detention regime on Manus. The “media handling” directions for the centre tell staff “the department has an interest in the management of publicity and media”.
“No member of staff employed by any service provider in any capacity will make unauthorised statements or comments to the media at any time.”
Under the Border Force Act, detention centre workers who speak publicly about conditions inside or treatment of refugees face up to two years’ jail.
A media inquiry at the detention centre, or “anything likely to cause major media interest”, is ranked as a “critical incident”, the same rank as somebody murdering someone or killing themselves, an escape, a fire in the detention centre or large-scale protests.
• Crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day: Lifeline 13 11 14; Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467; Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800; MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78. In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. Hotlines in other countries can be found here10PM: Provo picks first female mayor; Dolan out after 24 years in Sandy
SALT LAKE CITY — Incumbent mayors in Sandy, Riverton, Taylorsville and West Jordan were lagging behind in votes Tuesday, on track to lose their seats to their challengers.
That included Tom Dolan, the longest-serving mayor in Sandy's history at 24 years.
Meanwhile, Provo elected its first female mayor in its 157-year history.
Leading was Provo School Board member Michelle Kaufusi with 44 percent of the vote to UTA board Vice Chairwoman Sherrie Hall Everett's 33 percent.
Kaufusi is on track to replace outgoing Mayor John Curtis, who exited office to run for Congress.
"I am thankful for the trust placed in me by Provo voters," Kaufusi said in a statement, adding that she's "humbled" to be leading in votes to be Provo's first female mayor. "While I never ran on my gender, I'm grateful that no female in Provo ever has to wonder if they can be mayor."
Everett was not ready to concede to the race late Tuesday night, saying the early results were "completely in line with the early vote model that we projected."
"We will see the gap dramatically close for a very close finish," she said.
Dolan done in Sandy
In an unexpected turn after Dolan lead in the primary, the six-term Sandy mayor trailed challenger Kurt Bradburn, a state attorney, who was leading with 56 percent of the vote.
"I think it represents a lot of people were ready for a change," Bradburn said, adding that he knew his campaign was gaining traction, but he was "surprised" to win by such a large margin.
Bradburn pointed out that Dolan outspent him on the campaign roughly 10 to 1 — $300,000 to his $30,000.
Dolan did not immediately return requests for comment Tuesday.
In a recent interview with the Deseret News, Dolan promised that if he were to win this year's election, it would be his last term — though he acknowledged he's said that in past election years but still ended up running.
Dolan said he wanted four more years to finish work on Sandy's 30-year master plan, among other projects.
Bradburn said he ran because he believes 24 years is far too long to be mayor, and Sandy needs new blood and better representation on open space and high-density issues, he said.
"For a long time, (Dolan) had one focus: development, development, development," Bradburn said. "But Sandy has had so many other issues percolating — our traffic, our parking, our finances, and our conflicts of interests. … This is about Sandy being so much more than just development."
Earlier this year, Bradburn accused Dolan of failing to disclose $180,000 in past donations from lobbyists and real-estate developers.
Dolan said Bradburn was grasping at straws, noting that the city recorder only required listing donations from the beginning of the year, but Dolan amended the form to show all contributions since 2013.
Unsuccessful incumbents
In West Jordan, longtime city employee Jim Riding was leading with 62 percent of the vote to Mayor Kim Rolfe's 38 percent.
West Jordan has become known in recent years for infighting between City Council members and Rolfe, who at one point sued for a temporary restraining order when the council attempted to lower his salary.
Controversy also followed West Jordan after Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams criticized a rich tax incentive to lure a Facebook data center to the city.
Riding, who has worked for West Jordan in various roles for 15 years, said he was "elated" and "a little surprised" by the results.
"I think the people in West Jordan wanted change," he said. "There's been a lot of bad publicity in the last few years, and so I think the people wanted something different."
Rolfe did not immediately return requests for comment.
In Riverton, City Councilman Trent Staggs was leading with 59 percent of the vote to Mayor Bill Applegarth's 41 percent.
"It appears to me that the people have spoken," Applegarth said, offering well-wishes to Staggs.
Staggs said he was "humbled" by his lead.
"It's one of the ultimate forms of trust that somebody can bestow upon you," he said.
In Taylorsville, City Councilwoman Kristie Steadman Overson was leading with 58 percent of the vote to Mayor Larry Johnson's 42 percent.
"I'm thrilled," Overson said, attributing her success to time she spent knocking on doors. "It was really important for me to talk to residents to find out what was important to them, and I think I made a personal connection with a lot of them."
Johnson saw some controversy last year after he vetoed an ordinance passed by the City Council to require all elected officials and candidates to file campaign finance statements on a yearly basis, in addition to what's required by state law.
In his veto statement, Johnson argued the ordinance sought "to correct a nonexistent problem within the city."
Johnson did not return a request for comment.
New mayors
Cottonwood Heights, South Jordan, Midvale and Murray will also be seeing new leadership with incumbents who have stepped aside, or in Murray's case, have passed away.
Related:
Salt Lake City Council candidate withdraws from race, solidifying 2nd term for Rogers James Rogers is guaranteed to win a second term |
WASHINGTON -- If there's a winner from the militarized police aggression in Ferguson, Missouri, it would have to be the tear gas industry.
Officers bombarded city streets with tear gas for hours on Wednesday night, bathing Ferguson in a noxious cloud. At times, the police assault appeared to target journalists. Citizens have protested for days over Saturday's fatal shooting of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown by a police officer, who authorities have refused to name.
It's boom time for the tear gas industry, as law enforcement agencies turn to chemical weapon to combat political unrest abroad and protest movements at home. As Sarah Kliff detailed for Vox, the use of tear gas in international warfare is banned by the Geneva Convention -- but it is increasingly a weapon of choice for governments to deploy against their own people.
A June report from Visiongain, a business intelligence consultant, valued the global market for "non-lethal" weapons at $1.6 billion, which it predicted would increase over the next decade. "Our research indicates that non-lethal anti-personnel weapons are becoming increasingly high in demand particularly from law enforcement agencies," Visiongain said in a press release.
The domestic tear gas industry is dominated by three companies -- Jamestown, Pennsylvania-based Combined Systems Inc., Homer City, Pennsylvania-based NonLethal Technologies Inc., and Defense Technology, a Casper, Wyoming-based brand owned by the Safariland law enforcement supply company.
Safariland's Defense Technology appears to be the brand in Ferguson, based on photographs of canisters found on the scene taken by journalists from The Guardian and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Guardian photographer Jon Swaine has also documented explosives in Ferguson that were manufactured by Combined Systems. Ferguson police were not available to comment.
"In the U.S., most police departments maintain stockpiles of tear gas munitions and launchers for riot control," said Sven-Erik Jordt, a professor in the Duke University School of Medicine anesthesiology department. "Defense Technology cartridges were used by police to clear the Occupy protesters in Oakland, for example."
Safariland tear gas has also been deployed in Bahrain, Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia and other countries, according to the War Resisters League, a nonprofit group that promotes nonviolence. HuffPost's Joshua Hersh reported from Cairo in 2011 that the use of U.S.-manufactured tear gas weapons against protesters in Egypt had fueled anti-American sentiment.
Neither Safariland nor the other tear gas manufacturers would comment for this article. They tout their products as humane alternatives to more violent force, though some experts have attributed deaths to tear gas. Safariland has trademarked the Orwellian phrase "Together, we save lives."
The companies aggressively promote their wares to U.S. police departments. The War Resisters League has levied particular criticism at Urban Shield, an annual weapons expo in California that caters to law enforcement agencies.
"The targets are always communities of color and poor people, especially when they are actively struggling for justice. We feel that community's very ability to build movements is on the line," said Ali Issa, a national field organizer with the War Resisters League. "Tear gas and the police militarization that always comes with it do not appear in Ferguson and nationwide in a vacuum." Issa noted that the Department of Defense has been supplying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of "excess" military equipment to law enforcement agencies in recent years.
There are three general types of tear gas. The most common is 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile, or CS. Other varieties include phenacyl chloride, or CN gas, which Jordt described as more toxic than CS, and oleoresin capsicum, or OC, derived from hot peppers. All make people feel awful.RAPID CITY, SD—E;mployees at Reynolds Business Machines are dying to tell sales representative Mark Tendulkar that he is about to be fired, sources reported Tuesday.
"I was out with [sales manager] Frank Lascowicz last Thursday, and he let slip that Tendulkar's cubicle would be free. It took some free rounds, but I got it out of him: Mark's out on Feb. 15," sales representative Jeff Wildner said. "Mark is such a total dick, and so incompetent, I don't know how I'm going to be able to keep it from him that long."
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Wildner said it's not his place to break the news to Tendulkar, no matter how much he would love to.
"I'm just going to have to wait until the boss axes him," Wildner said. "But the writing's definitely on the wall for ol' Tendulkar."
Tendulkar has worked at Reynolds since 1999, but according to fellow employees, he has failed to meet his weekly sales quota for the past four months.
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"Mark ought to know it's coming," sales representative Cory Fontaine said. "You'd have to be a deaf mute to have trouble selling a Canon 3200 after the price reduction, but he hasn't closed on one. Not one."
"He's totally unaware he's about to be thrown over!" Fontaine added. "I even heard him talking about needing a bigger desk yesterday. I'm dying!"
Since word of the firing spread, a sense of excitement has filled the office.
"I don't even want to go meet a client, in case the shit goes down while I'm out," Fontaine said. "It's all I can do to not tell him myself. Still, though, a small part of me wants it to be a total surprise when the ax comes down. The look on his face will be priceless!"
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Several coworkers have nearly told Tendulkar what's about to happen, only to check themselves at the last second.
"Just today, Mark came in blaming me for something about some keyboard he ordered," secretary Gina Haney said. "I almost said, 'Unless you're taking that keyboard with you when you go, I wouldn't worry about it.'"
"Sayonara, sucker!" Haney added.
In spite of the wide circulation of the news, coworkers described Tendulkar as "blissfully ignorant."
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Sitting in the sales pit, surrounded by his busy coworkers Tuesday, Tendulkar casually shelled pistachios as he circled loungewear items in a J. Crew catalog and browsed vacation packages on Orbitz.com.
Even Tendulkar's immediate supervisor said he's had a hard time keeping quiet.
"Mark came in all smug after selling a MultiPASS MP360," floor supervisor Andrew Miller said. "He said something like, 'Put another one in the win column for the Marksman.' I wanted to tell him that one $140 sale wasn't going to be enough to save his job, but protocol must be observed. I can't wait until Lascowicz sends him up the river."
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As the firing approaches, Tendulkar's coworkers have been exchanging glances and trading jokes behind his back.
"Cory had a good one yesterday," Wildner said. "He threw Mark's coffee cup in the garbage and said, 'I don't think they have coffee in the unemployment line.' It was almost as good as when Tina [Lewis] walked in with two empty boxes and said she was going to go ask Mark if he needed them to pack."
When Tendulkar was late for work Tuesday, several of his colleagues reportedly gathered in his cubicle, appraised its contents, and made claims on his chair and desk lamp.
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Not everyone is burning to tell Tendulkar the bad news.
"Mark's an okay guy," coworker Bill Davies said. "He's got some rough edges, but once you get to know him, he's all right. He just got married last summer, and he's still paying off the wedding. I hate to see anyone in that situation."
Tendulkar does not seem to be aware of Davies' comments.
"My sales have been pretty slow lately," Tendulkar said. "But with the economy as bad as it is, that's to be expected. I should be back on my feet by the end of March. Then, the Marksman will be back on top, looking down on all the little people. It kills me to be pulling in less than that bald little Davies runt."A Snohomish family is questioning how the police handled an intervention after a mentally ill man died following the use of police force.
For the past decade, Alex Dold battled schizophrenia. He kept it in check, more or less, until things started recently unraveling.
"He was upset about money," said his sister Jen Dold. "We managed money for him, and he wanted more control."
Last Tuesday, the 29-year-old had a physical confrontation with his mom over the issue at their Snohomish home. Jen and her mother tried to get a mental health provider to help involuntarily commit Alex, but he wasn't deemed enough of a threat.
Reluctantly, they called 911.
"I was always so, so, so scared to call the police to get help," said Jen. "This is why."
Jen said dispatchers were told Alex needed a calm and quiet intervention at the house. When Alex tried to close the door on two Snohomish County deputies, Jen said they pushed their way inside and started shouting commands.
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In his mental state, Alex was unable to comply and ran into his mother's bedroom.
Jen said officers escalated things quickly.
"They were tasing him, kicking him, punching him, and hitting him with batons,” she said. “He was just yelling for my mom to help him."
By the time Alex was adequately restrained, police noticed he had stopped breathing. They performed CPR for an hour, but their efforts were unsuccessful.
A police spokesman refused to comment on the case, saying it is still an open, active investigation.
The Snohomish County Medical Examiner is still trying to determine the exact cause and manner of Alex's death.
The executive director for the Seattle chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Ashley Fontaine, said Washington ranks 48th in terms of mental health care in the U.S. She sympathized with police but said they need more than the eight hours of crisis intervention training currently mandated by the state.
"For a family to do all the things they are supposed to do and still have it end up like this is horrifying," said Fontaine.
Jen also works with NAMI. She was inspired by her brother's plight to get involved.
Over the past ten years, she learned exactly what to do in situations like the one her brother found himself in.
At least, she thought she did.
Jen is now pushing for additional mental health and de-escalation training for police officers. She would ultimately like to see a mental health team within each department, much like a hostage negotiator or a bomb squad.
"You have to defuse these situations," she said. "It just goes to show you it can and will happen to anybody."
If you, or someone you know need help with mental health issue contact the 24-hour crisis line at 866-4CRISIS (866-427-4747). For additional resources contact NAMI at namiseattle.org.
Copyright 2017 KINGWest Bromwich Albion goalkeeper Ben Foster has made himself available for England selection again, potentially ending a two-year absence from the national team.
Foster, 29, announced in 2011 that he was taking a break from international football for an indefinite period.
Ben Foster facts Age: 29
29 Position: Goalkeeper
Goalkeeper Clubs: Racing Club Warwick, Stoke City, Manchester United, Birmingham City, West Bromwich Albion
Racing Club Warwick, Stoke City, Manchester United, Birmingham City, West Bromwich Albion Loan clubs: Bristol City, Tiverton Town, Stafford Rangers, Kidderminster Harriers, Wrexham, Watford, West Bromwich Albion
Bristol City, Tiverton Town, Stafford Rangers, Kidderminster Harriers, Wrexham, Watford, West Bromwich Albion Full England caps: 5
But the Albion man is now available for next month's World Cup qualifiers in San Marino and Montenegro.
The last of Foster's five England caps came three years ago.
The former Manchester United and Birmingham keeper has been in good form recently and impressed in the 2-0 win at Liverpool, where he produced a brilliant penalty save to deny Steven Gerrard.
England coach Roy Hodgson, who managed Foster at West Brom, tried to persuade the Baggies keeper to perform a U-turn last summer so that he could be included in the squad for Euro 2012, but the player declined.
Manchester City's Joe Hart is the current England number one, but his form has come under scrutiny in recent weeks.
Norwich's John Ruddy is injured, having also missed Euro 2012 with a broken finger, while Stoke's Jack Butland might be called up to the England Under-21 squad by manager Stuart Pearce for this summer European Championship.
Celtic's Fraser Forster was in the squad for the qualifiers against San Marino and Poland and the friendly against Sweden, but recently conceded three goals to Juventus in front of Hodgson, who was in the crowd.At this year’s Comic Con it was my goal to explore other artists — go beyond my favorites and find something new. It didn’t take long. I knew Mondo was going to have a booth, so that was one of my first stops and there they were — ‘Pacific Rim.’ ‘Predator.’
I didn’t recognize the artist. The style wasn’t from a regular Mondo artist, but just as amazing as they’ve become known for but still, these were different.
The posters were liquid — you felt the sweat and rain of the jungle in ‘Predator.’ In the ‘Pacific Rim’ design, there is a thud of the warring beasts. You hear it. It’s there. They were alive, full of movement.
The artist was at the Mondo booth signing each poster, all smiles and gratitude — friendly and full of joy. This was my introduction to the work of Ash Thorp.
There’s a technical and graphic prowess to Thorp’s work — a storyteller’s treatment of composition. In the ‘Pacific Rim’ posters there is a continuity, the posters — they’re twins, conjoined. The story propels from one poster to the next in violent and graceful upheaval.
The menace of the alien in Thorp’s ‘Predator’ is there. A monster ready to move forward. There’s something about his treatment of the shapes — there are very few hard lines in his drawings, just a flood of color and tone making the rain and sweat course across the paper.
Thorp is an illustrator — a designer. These are vague terms until you’ve see what he’s done. ‘Design’ is all encompassing, but so is his ability. When Ash was asked by Design Feast his preferred tools he responded, ‘Literally anything and everything, computers, sketchbooks, napkins — everything.’
When you find out that he works in the film industry you understand. His visual effects designs are incredible feats — a mixture of patience, diligence, and creative inspiration.
When I was talking to Ash there’s an enthusiasm to him that is exciting. Thorp is a workhorse. Doing what all great artists, what all great people should do — challenge themselves to advance and grow. His work in the poster world is fresh. The posters for Mondo were his first, and they’re brilliant. Unique.
I reached out to Ash to chat about his work in film and his first round of posters for Mondo and he was totally game for playing along. I’m grateful for that and hopefully his enthusiasm is as contagious to the reader as it was for me.
Here he is, Ash Thorp.
ET: I was at Comic Con this year and saw both your ‘Predator’ and ‘Pacific Rim’ posters at the Mondo booth. Those are incredible pieces and from what I heard you got an amazing response from them. What was your Comic Con experience like? Was it your first time attending?
AT: Thank you so much for your kind words! I would like to thank everyone at Mondo for having me out and for making this year’s Comic Con experience one of my all time most memorable moments in my creative career. It was a really special few days for me seeing all my hard work and efforts coming together.
I have actually been attending Comic Con since I was a little boy (about age 10). I would bring my drawings and sketches to the editors and art director’s portfolio review. It was incredibly nerve racking but such a fun and intense part of my childhood, as I was completely enamored and surrounded by all the things I loved so much growing up.
To be at this year’s Comic Con signing my own work as a creative professional… it was immensely rewarding to say the least.
That’s so great! It’d be awesome to see what ten year-old Ash was drawing.
Both films ‘Predator’ and ‘Pacific Rim’ have massive unknown beasts. Your work history definitely suggests you could tackle these stories, but were these two films your choice? Was it a coincidence that they would work together so perfectly thematically?
The team at Mondo have select projects that they obtain the rights for, and then try to see who is interested in what and how they can connect emotionally and creatively with each project to bring the best out of themselves.
They asked if I enjoyed ‘Predator’, and that was my first offer. I jumped on it without hesitation. ‘Predator’ is one of the films that I would watch on repeat growing up. It’s a classic in my book and in some ways is untouchable.
The offer to work on ‘Pacific Rim’ came shortly after ‘Predator.’ I am a big fan of Del Toro as I feel he understands things on a fan based level and does his best with his projects to push those things forward. Del Toro and the team at Mondo where amazing to work with.
I think the coincidence was due to timing and what Mondo was able to get the rights to and share. Both are thematically about mankind against an alien evil and play out in similar fashion but on different size scales of course.
Your film and television work is crazy involved – there’s visual depth and movement to the projects you’ve done. In something like your work on ‘Iron Man III,’ you have a million moving parts going along together, ratcheting in sync – plus with film you have the benefit of sound and time lapse, which you don’t get in a static poster.
Both of your Mondo posters have an immense velocity to them, you can feel the speed and weight of the creatures in ‘Pacific Rim’ and the cold downpour of ‘Predator.’ How aware were you of trying to capture that cinematic movement in your posters? What was your design process like for those compositions?
You know, I think it just comes down to what is in my mind when I sit down to draw or build ideas for a project.
I don’t really sit and think about those key things so to speak, but I do focus on the shot or ideas in my head. Things just manifest as I translate the rough ideas from my mind to the computer and away they go.
It’s an interesting process but I try to see the piece finished or close to in my mind and then I attempt to translate those ideas from within my mind.
In a film like ‘Total Recall’ where technology weighs in heavily in the character’s everyday lives, what guidance were you given in that design? How do you manage the balance between having design that appears functional and design that looks cool? Would you sacrifice designing something that might not seem practical if it were visually awesome?
I had a good meeting and talk with Patrick Tatopoulos (the films production designer) about what he had envisioned for the technological aspects on the film. I took those notes and built upon them while designing the assets to present to Patrick and Len Wiseman (the director of the film).
As far as functionality in the real world vs. movie graphics they are two totally different concepts in my mind.
For films like ‘Minority Report’ you have a lot of attention and time focused on realities of our soon to be future. For a film like ‘Total Recall’, it’s all about fantasy and a made up hyper real world.
The graphics and how they play a role in the film are tailored to suit the story and world. Keeping all this in mind, I had all these thoughts and ideas mulling around in my mind while constructing the assets for the film.
It’s interesting to think about something like the work you did for ‘After Earth’ or one of my recent favorite title sequences, ‘Sherlock Holmes’ – there are teams of people behind those sequences.
From those that made the film and have input on that level, to whoever heads the team that creates the sequences – it’s a load of artists with creative input to reach one singular thing. How do you navigate your role in that world? What do you see your function as? Are you there to see your creative vision to the end or to guide each person toward a collective goal?
AH! This is a big subject and is very complicated to explain. Each project poses its different creative hurdles.
I always try to make my function keen on building as many things as I can with proper quality to support the thesis or task at hand. From then I try to break down what are the winning elements and apply them to the final.
Depending on the team and who I am working with or for I work accordingly, but my main objective is to provide the client with a result or solution to their requests.
In a perfect situation, I aim to build a concept that eventually wins the acceptance of the client and see it through to the final with various stages of notes and changes. It can be a grueling yet rewarding journey at times.
How did you translate your workflow from the complex world of the digital film work you do to the world of screenprinted posters for Mondo? Your end products for Mondo are insanely alive, liquid – I won’t pretend to be smart to enough know what you did and why they seem so fresh and new, but they do.
It would almost seem it must have been an easy shift – a few colors of ink on a 24 x 36 inch sheet of paper, but I shouldn’t assume that.
I have a process I try to work with when translating ideas as complex as a still image to the medium that I use. I try and start with an incredibly rough and small thumbnail. I come from a world of design principles, and to me if a design can read as a small thumbnail it can read well at any size variation.
I think these are the things you are touching on when you describe them as being alive and liquid. When I roughly sketch out the ideas I try to capture as much energy and flow as I can and do my best to keep that within the final. It’s a very hard balancing act as the piece takes shape and gains focus.
It’s easy to lose that core energy and flow and I often times am left unsatisfied with what I end up with at the end, but I must let things go and move on to the next challenge and grow / learn from my past experiences. As a creative person I am never satisfied with the results and I’m always striving for a better result.
The process of screen printing is incredibly challenging due to its limitations, but living within those limitations and embracing them can be an amazing challenge in itself, which leads to me pushing my comfort zones and trying new things.
I have a tendency to collect things – posters, books. DVDs. VHS. Just stuff. For the work that you’ve done in the past there was nothing apparent; physical, for someone to collect. A DVD would only contain a fraction of your work, but a poster – that is 100% you. Are you a collector of anything? This might seem like a strange question, but do your posters excite you? Having something that you created, that’s your work alone?
I LOVE BOOKS! I got a big wall of all my favorite books that I pull inspiration from daily. It’s a wall of muse that I cherish greatly.
I have a little collection of comics I have had since I was a little kid and have recently started collecting more high end toys but I have to limit that obsession as the price points get a bit out of control, haha!
I am a bit of a neat freak and like to keep my creative space and house in order as I feel it reflects my internal dialog. I would collect more things but I am running out of space now and will have to figure out another solution, haha.
I know! Space is always going to be an issue for any collector. It all has to go somewhere. With so much of your work being in the world of Hollywood, do you take time to work on your own projects, away from client influence?
I have recently been trying to just draw my own things, my own worlds, my own creations. I feel like a kid again, nothing else matters other then what is in my mind and what is coming out of its translation to my hand. It’s incredibly rewarding.
I am also working on stories and films with my close friend Anthony Burns who is an insanely talented and driven filmmaker up in Toronto. The projects and things we build are what help keep me inspired and creatively fresh. I can’t wait to show everyone what we have been constructing. I have a big bucket list and I can’t wait to start checking off some of these life goals!
In an interview with Motionographer.com you discussed your intense time at Prologue Films, your ‘Year of Complete Potential’ — an inspired concept to just work and push yourself, taking on as many projects during the year as you can in order to grow.
My wife is pregnant and I’ll be a first time dad in a few months and what you were talking about really hits home. The idea of having a full life with family and career, about deciding what kind of father and husband you want to be and then doing what it takes to make it happen.
Now that you’ve moved on from Prologue and that hectic schedule, what’s your work day like? How have you managed to still push yourself and maintain the family life you want?
Congratulations to you both! That’s a big, big, big deal. I am just now recently trying to take control over my life. It’s very, very difficult doing so as a freelance creative as there are not set schedules, no guaranteed work or income.
It’s nearly impossible to try and control. That being said, I don’t think I can work for any one at this point other then my clients. I love having that dynamic flow and creative connection with my clients directly. A lot gets lost in communication from a client to a boss, to a secretary, to a producer, to the producer’s secretary, then to an email. I have a hard time working in those restraints as I feel important things get lost in the flow.
I recently read a few powerful books that have been helping me create habits and pillars to rebuild myself upon that have been helping. Manage your day to day is one of them that I highly recommend.
You’ve worked on some of the biggest films in the past few years and the first posters you’ve done for Mondo sold out in minutes. Where do you want to see your work take you? What’s next?
I am just so lucky and thankful to be on this wave of success. It comes with great sacrifice and honest hard work, but I am thankful for everyone and everything that has gotten me to this point as I remind myself daily.
I am wanting to focus more on my internal creative dialog these days. I have lots of ideas and visuals I aim to start releasing of my own intellectual properties. I feel like each day is a new start and I am just now getting started. The day I stop thinking like that will be the day I hang up my hat and do something else. The future is bright and I feel blessed to live the wonderful life that I live.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This interview was done over a few weeks, and even after it’s over I still find myself peppering Ash with questions. He’s a totally kind and down to earth artist, oh, and also incredibly generous with his time. In the upcoming months we’ll be seeing more of his work in the film ‘Ender’s Game‘ and hopefully a few more posters. Like I said, I am a collector.
If you didn’t follow the link above, you should check out Ash’s interview with Motionographer.com about his work / life balance. Interesting take on the whole thing. Check it out HERE.
Ash Thorp on Twitter
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Ash Thorp’s ‘The Collective Podcast’ on Soundcloud
Ash Thorp on the ‘The Creative Circle Podcast’
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RedditBuilding on the most recent upgrade to the 13-inch XPS laptop, it looks like Dell is about to make a 2-in-1 version. First spotted by Windows Central, a convertible XPS 13 with what looks like an Infinity Edge display has appeared on Dell’s website. There are no other details yet, but if Dell builds on everything it got right with last year’s impressive model it should be a contender if it appears at CES 2017.
The XPS 13 that Dell introduced in 2015 was a great look at the future of laptops. Since then, Microsoft has given manufacturers even more reasons to build modular touch-friendly machines with its Surface Studio tech (the Surface Dial should be open to other manufacturers to use, as well as any innovations that flow from it in Windows apps). And there’s good reason to think convertible laptops are the reference for what makes a good Windows laptop in 2017 and beyond — the best Windows laptop we saw last year was a convertible from HP.
Stay tuned as we see what else is in store for the future of Windows this week at CES 2017!Technicolor greens, brilliant saris, ancient temples: these are my clearest memories of riding India’s South Eastern Railway many years ago. I still recall the rickshaws and rivers full of locals bathing, as the tropical landscape passed in a constant, captivating blur.
My vivid memories speak to the power and allure of train travel. After all, a railway itinerary allows travelers the opportunity to experience a destination in a way that’s just not possible from the air. Above the clouds, it’s hard to tell the difference between a Mexican canyon and a Norwegian fjord. From a train window, the passing vistas are completely distinct.
Sure enough, says Mark Smith, founder of the train travel website Seat 61, many travelers are frustrated with the airlines. “People want to cut their carbon footprint, and they want to avoid the hassle,” he says. “They’re looking for a more relaxing alternative.”
But let’s be clear: some train routes serve up more scenery than others—a lot more. The ride from Calcutta was mesmerizing, but India’s natural beauty shines in its northern mountains as well. There, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway takes riders on an eight-hour ride through jungle and tea gardens to the base of the Himalayas, all from a 19th-century steam locomotive.
Closer to home, the Rocky Mountaineer traverses the dramatic Canadian Rockies from Vancouver to Calgary. The two-day route passes the snowcapped peaks of the Coast Mountain range, the rushing Fraser River, and down over the Continental Divide to Banff National Park.
Best of all, even the most spectacular train ride offers riders something many travelers crave these days: authenticity. “A flight across Vietnam is an identical experience to a plane ride in India, Canada, or Australia,” says Smith. “But a train trip gives insight into the culture of a country. The journey becomes part of the experience.”
See some of the world's most beautiful train rides below:
Other articles from Travel + Leisure:An appellate court Thursday upheld a penalty against Oregon bakery owners who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding almost five years ago.
The owners of the since-closed Gresham bakery - Aaron and Melissa Klein - argued that state Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian violated state and federal laws by forcing them to pay emotional-distress damages of $135,000 to the lesbian couple Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer.
Their lawyers said Avakian and the state Bureau of Labor and Industries violated the Kleins' rights as artists to free speech, their rights to religious freedom and their rights as defendants to a due process.
In 2013 the Kleins refused to make a cake for Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer when they discovered the wedding was for a same-sex couple (Melissa Klein, left, and Aaron Klein, right)
Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer (pictured) are protected by a 2007 Oregon law that prevents discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender peopl
But the Oregon Court of Appeals sided with the state Thursday, saying the Kleins failed to show the state targeted them for their religious beliefs.
The judges also found public statements made by Avakian before deciding the case did not establish a lack of impartiality.
'Today's ruling sends a strong signal that Oregon remains open to all,' Avakian said after the 62-page opinion was released Thursday.
The decision comes weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the high-profile case of a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.
That baker, Jack Phillips, claims his First Amendment claims of artistic freedom were being violated - a similar issue raised by the Kleins.
The Oregon court said the Kleins' argument that their cakes entail an artistic expression is 'entitled to be taken seriously,' but it's not enough for the couple to assert their cakes are pieces of art - they must show others perceive their creations like a sculpture or painting.
An appellate court Thursday upheld a penalty against the bakery owners (pictured) who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding almost five years ago
In this February 5, 2013, file photo, Melissa Klein, co-owner of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, in Gresham tells a customer that the bakery has sold out of baked goods for the day. The bakery has since closed
'Although we accept that the Kleins imbue each wedding cake with their own aesthetic choices, they have made no showing that other people will necessarily experience any wedding cake that the Kleins create predominantly as 'expression' rather than as food,' the opinion says.
First Liberty Institute, the legal organization that represents the Kleins, disagreed with the ruling.
'The Oregon Court of Appeals decided that Aaron and Melissa Klein are not entitled to the Constitution's promises of religious liberty and free speech,' said Kelly Shackelford, the firm's president. 'In a diverse and pluralistic society, people of good will should be able to peacefully coexist with different beliefs.'
The case began when Rachel Bowman-Cryer went to the suburban Portland bakery with her mother in January 2013. The bakery has since closed
The state fined the bakers after determining they violated a 2007 Oregon law that protects the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people in employment, housing and public accommodations. The law provides an exemption for religious organizations but does not allow private businesses to discriminate based on sexual orientation.
The case began when Rachel Bowman-Cryer went to the suburban Portland bakery with her mother in January 2013.
They met with Aaron Klein, who asked for the date of the ceremony and the names of the bride and groom.
When told there was no groom, Klein said he was sorry but the bakery did not make cakes for same-sex weddings. According to documents from the case, Rachel and her mother left the shop, but returned a short time later.
As Rachel remained in the car, in tears, her mother went in to speak with Klein.
The mother told Klein she had once thought like him, but her 'truth had changed' when she had two gay children. Klein responded by quoting Leviticus: 'You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.'
Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer praised the ruling in a statement released through their attorney: 'It does not matter how you were born or who you love. All of us are equal under the law and should be treated equally. Oregon will not allow a 'Straight Couples Only' sign to be hung in bakeries or other stores.'February 18, 2014 at 6:17 PM
Sean Miller, the Arizona basketball coach, noted wryly on Tuesday’s Pac-12 teleconference that the Wildcats had lost two games this year (at Cal and Arizona State) and been the victim of four court-stormings. True story. In both instances, students flooded the floor with a fraction of a second on the clock, and after they were herded back off the floor, they returned in earnest when it was actually over.
Now comes a report by Andy Katz on ESPN that Arizona is leading a push for the Pac-12 to legislate against court-storming in the off-season. Katz said it wasn’t likely to include the SEC’s system of escalating fines when fans storm the floor, but perhaps something along the lines of a technical foul.
Two apparent problems with that, however. In most cases, storming comes at a “proper” time — as in, when the game’s over. And second, when I broached the question to Pac-12 media-relations director Dave Hirsch, about whether a conference can slap its own playing rule onto already existing NCAA rules, he e-mailed back that he didn’t believe it could.
Arizona wasn’t saying a whole lot about the report Tuesday. Athletic director Greg Byrne didn’t return my text message, and Miller was taciturn on the subject when asked, saying, “I’m sure our conference will take a long look at how to improve it, and will take the next step.”
It’s obvious the crazy end of the Arizona State-Arizona game Friday night was mishandled on a couple of fronts, not the least of which was the ASU students rushing the floor prematurely. After Jahii Carson got a breakaway dunk to push ASU ahead by three, they came onto the floor with a fraction of a second left. The Pac-12 acknowledged later that ASU should have been assessed a technical foul for hanging on the rim, and there’s no question it should have. (I wonder whether officials were also thinking the game was over, and by the time they realized it wasn’t, it was too late to slap Carson with a T.)
“It really was a blur,” said ASU coach Herb Sendek. “You’re talking about a second or less than a second. It’s hard to process that. When Jahii scored, I thought the game was over. I think a lot of people did.”
Asked about the prospect of a change in court-storming policy, Cal coach Mike Montgomery said he doesn’t like the idea of fining schools but noted that if that led to tighter security, there might be an argument for it.
But Montgomery hinted that he likes the collegiate thing about court-storming — obviously only if it’s done safely — saying, “The spontaneity of it makes college basketball what it is.”
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of luck. Not only that, but you will be up against the law if you use or build anything that can be used to get around those restrictions.
The 2014 law creates a sliver of an opportunity to get around this - but it requires you, first, to seek agreement with the rights holder and, if that fails, to complain to the secretary of state for business. Good luck with that.
If this seems draconian, it just got worse: consumers may have to pay extra for this dismal private copying privilege too.
To fairly compensate rights holders for the dubious “harm”, other European countries have extracted a private copying levy for things like blank CDs, MP3s, printers and smartphones. The amounts vary from a few cents to several euros.
This is not compensation to make up for unauthorised downloads, or for the theoretical lost sale of your sister reading a book or MP3 you lent her, instead of buying her own. It is for whatever is lost when you make a personal backup of your lawfully purchased content.
When it introduced its 2014 private copying exception, the UK government considered the harm to rights holders so minimal that it would not impose a levy (though it did say that the price could be incorporated into the sale of creative works).
In a challenge made last November, representatives of the ever-litigious UK music industry claimed this was unlawful and that the law should be struck out.
Hammer drops on levies
The high court has found in favour of the music lobby as it ruled that the government did not have sufficient evidence to show that the harm to rights holders from the new private copying exception was minimal or zero.
Although the court accepted that there is an element of art and judgment, as well as science, in the exercise of quantifying potential harm, it found that the government had not gone far enough to prove that the way that the industry already prices in the cost of private copying left harm at a minimal or non-existent level.
To a large extent, the court’s hands were tied by law that requires a levy to compensate for plausible harm, as well as a recent ruling of a European court, finding that the exception should be read extremely narrowly.
That means British consumers are required to respect digital rights management restrictions, and could have to pay extra for fewer rights than we have had as audiences before.
It is clearly unsatisfactory that our freedoms over the use, sharing and transfer of digital media should be narrower than with physical media. By chasing levies on legal content, the real issues about copyright in the digital age are being overlooked.Today marks the last day of “Love Your Body Week,” and the blogosphere has been actively posting useful tips on how to love one’s own body even if it does not live up to the marketed ideal. Of course many women find it hard to love their bodies when they’re “overweight,” even though the fashion-model body used as a standard of beauty is possessed naturally by less than five percent of women. Indeed, “overweight” is a term rejected by the fat-acceptance movement, especially since some studies have shown that women who are slightly “overweight” actually tend to live longer than people with a “normal weight” or who are underweight.
If we look at those fashion models through a different lens, instead of seeing only ideal beauty we can also see the reflection of starvation and ill health. Consider this:
An estimated 8 million people in the U.S.–mainly women–suffer from an eating disorder, and the mortality rate for anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate from all causes for young women ages 15 through 24. While it is true that not everyone who is exposed to these images will develop an eating disorder, studies have shown that exposure to ads featuring idealized models lead to negative body image, which can factor into the development of eating disorders.
We shouldn’t forget the empowering message of this past week: “You Are Beautiful as You Are.” Instead of seeing eating disorders as something that can only be confronted on a personal level (i.e., love your body more), we should also see the problem as a public health issue that can be confronted through collective action. Other nations have already taken steps, at least in monitoring the images promoted by fashion models. It’s time the U.S. joined them.
Photo from Flickr.com user kelsey_lovefusionphoto through Creative Commons License 2.0“I love the game and I give this game all I have,” Brown said. “Right now, I’m a rookie trying to learn everything as much as I can. That involves studying as much as I can so I can be comfortable out here on the field like I once was in college.”
Like any rookie, Brown said he’s been focused more than anything on learning the playbook. One of his teammates equates him to a “sponge” saying his work ethic is second to none.
“He takes all the information in and does a great job transferring it to the field,” mentioned Manti Te’o. “Every check that I was giving him, he could process it and he was responding very well and (I’m) very pleased with what he’s been doing so far.”
But while studying is key, reps are invaluable. Brown has been seeing action with the first team for portions of the opening week of camp, and has shown flashes of why he was the 2015 MAC Defensive Player of the Year.
“(He) loves to play the game of football,” McCoy added. “He’s going to have a big role on this team whether it’s on the kicking team (or) on defense. He’s just going to get better every day. He’s going to make some mistakes, but when he makes them, he’s going full speed. I love his work ethic and his attitude and the way he approaches the game.”
Like any rookie, Brown is using camp as a way to learn from his peers. He’s soaking in everything he can from Te’o and his other linebackers knowing that the knowledge he can gain will make his transition to pro football smoother.
“Having those guys who have been here a couple years has been great. (Them) knowing the system and knowing it better than me (helps). Anything I can learn from those guys, I’ll be willing to learn. If I can have that information in the back of my head whenever I need it is amazing.”
Brown has been making an impression on “those guys”. Part of why his teammates respect his game is because of his confidence. Coming from a small school like Akron doesn’t matter to Brown because he knows that “if you’re here, they feel like you can play”. What does matter is having the assurance to step out onto the field and perform at his best from training camp through the regular season and he’s looking to continue being diligent throughout the rest of the offseason.Big news! That’s for sure! Texas? Maybe Maine and Florida?
From Michael Patrick Leahy writing at Breitbart a few hours ago!
Gov. Sam Brownback’s recent decision to withdraw the state of Kansas from the federal refugee resettlement program may be just the first step in a full-fledged battle with the Obama administration over state sovereignty issues.
“We are aware of the legal argument and watching for developments,” Gov. Brownback’s spokesperson Eileen Hawley tells Breitbart News about the lawsuit the Tennessee General Assembly has declared it will file on Tenth Amendment grounds against the federal refugee resettlement program.
Hawley’s comment is just the latest indication of growing state resistance to the Obama administration’s efforts to increase the resettlement of Syrian refugees, even in states that have made clear they do not want them.
[….]
Several states currently participating in the program may be considering withdrawing as well.
“Our contract is up in one month and we are currently evaluating our options,” a spokesperson for Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas tells Breitbart News.
The spokesperson was referring to the contracts*** between the State of Texas and local resettlement agencies, or VOLAGs, for the operation of the federal refugee resettlement program in the state.
“The Governor in conjunction with the refugee coordinator ” were identified by the spokesperson as the responsible parties evaluating current options. [One option is to opt-out!—ed]
[….]
Sources tell Breitbart News that Maine and Florida are two additional states that may be considering withdrawal from the federal refugee resettlement program.
Remember readers, the feds argue that if states opt-out as provided for in the original 1980 Act, the feds can simply assign a non-profit group to run the program in the state. The Thomas More Law Center claims that such action is not constitutional according to the Tenth Amendment. Additionally, it appears to critics that the Wilson-Fish* amendments do not contain the authority for the federal government to pass on to an unelected, non-governmental entity the right to make decisions which expend state and local tax dollars.
This is a two step process and in order to possibly succeed, the state must withdraw, become a so-called Wilson-Fish state, and then file a lawsuit described in the Breitbart story, continue reading here.
Maybe if the whole system is thrown into legal chaos, Obama won’t get all of his Syrians in by September 30th.
Our coverage of Kansas and New Jersey is here. And, the most recent post on Tennessee is here.
*Is yours a Wilson Fish state: Alaska, Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, South Dakota, North Dakota, Tennessee and Vermont.
*** This makes me laugh, I’m told that Anne Richard, the Asst. Sec. of State for Population, Refugees and Migration claims they don’t have contracts with the non-profit groups.A 24-year-old woman who works at a Washington, D.C. firm that did business with Nevada Rep. Ruben Kihuen’s campaign said the freshman congressman made unwanted overtures and asked overly personal questions of her this fall while his campaign was a client of her firm.
The woman, who asked not to be identified because she fears it could jeopardize her future career prospects, is the fourth to come forward with accounts of unwanted advances from the 37-year-old Democratic lawmaker and the first to publicly describe interactions that happened after he was elected to Congress. The House Ethics Committee announced Friday that it would open an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment against Kihuen; the congressman said he welcomed a chance to clear his name, although he announced on Saturday that he would not seek re-election because he claimed allegations would distract from running a campaign.
The woman described to The Nevada Independent conduct that she said made her feel flustered and uncomfortable, including Kihuen asking at the office why she didn’t have a boyfriend, asking if she lived alone and offering to help her move up in her career — something she interpreted as a possible suggestion for sexual favors.
At one fundraiser, she said, he rubbed her lower back and kissed her face several times.
“He was notorious. We work with [numerous members of Congress] and none of them have texted people in the office or kissed or done anything suggestive,” the woman said in a phone interview on Thursday. “He just hasn’t grown with the responsibility that’s grown. He still thinks he can act the way that he did when he was younger even though now he’s older and he’s in a position of power that requires a different level of personal ethics.”
She said the culture on Capitol Hill was to joke about Kihuen, who is unmarried, as flirtatious and confident.
When provided with a detailed list of interactions described in this report, Kihuen provided a statement to The Nevada Independent:
“I adamantly deny these unsubstantiated allegations. My interactions with this woman were limited and always professional. As I’ve said previously, I welcome the opportunity to clear my name before the House Ethics Committee.”
Fifteen minutes after responding to the Independent, the Las Vegas Review-Journal published a story in which Kihuen announced he will not seek re-election.
“Congressman Kihuen’s decision not to run for re-election speaks for itself. We deserve better from our members of Congress,” the woman said Saturday afternoon, after learning of the decision.
Kihuen and the woman knew each other from general interactions when Kihuen came to her firm — she said he had asked her in the past if she was an intern — as well as a brief conversation in an elevator and instances when Kihuen tried to start conversations with her through his personal email and cellphone (she showed a reporter images of the email and texts he sent; she said she tried to communicate a lack of interest or not respond). But things took a more personal turn when she and the congressman, 13 years her elder, both attended a karaoke-themed fundraiser at a bar on Oct. 25.
A 24-year-old friend who also attended the fundraiser and spoke to The Nevada Independent by phone on Friday recalled Kihuen arriving and talking to a larger group, but then “he drifted [the woman] away from us.”
As the woman put it, “he walks in, walks straight up to me, puts his arm around me, kissed me on the cheek and then spent the whole night talking to me.”
“He kissed me three times. He asked me if I live by myself, he asked me about my roommate, he told me he lives by himself, he asked where my apartment is, he asked me again how old I am, he asked me again if I don’t have a boyfriend and then he told me I’m one of the most beautiful girls he’s ever seen in D.C., and I said ‘that’s a low bar,’” she said. “I was trying to make it really clear I wasn’t really — he asked me why I didn’t have a boyfriend and I said ‘they’re more trouble than they’re worth that I’m just not looking for that.’ He looked me up and down and said ‘you’re really athletic, did you play any sports while you were in college?’”
The friend said she witnessed Kihuen getting close to the woman, touching her shoulder and lower back, and said it “looked inappropriate to us because we knew the context” — the woman had told her friend that she found prior interactions with Kihuen to be uncomfortable. To an onlooker, the friend said, it probably looked “borderline inappropriate.”
The woman said Kihuen asked how she stayed so fit, and when she said she runs, he asked if she wanted a running buddy or a bodyguard.
“And so this whole time he’s got his arm around me, rubbing my lower back, kissing the side of my face, and then the thing that upset me the most is when he said, ‘what do you want to do because I know you can’t want to [do this job] forever’ and I told him that I actually do want to work on the Hill one day and he said ‘Let me help you,’” she recalled. “He doesn’t know me, he doesn’t know the quality of my work. There’s no reason he would help me other than the fact that he would want something in return so it just sort of — it was upsetting.”
The friend said she thinks Kihuen could write the situation off as flirting, but she believes it was inappropriate because of the way he’s leveraged his role in Congress.
“I think that he is very aware of the charisma and power that he has and I think that he utilizes it for his advantage,” the friend said. “I guess he can say, yeah, I was flirting with [the woman] …
But he also keeps it back in his back pocket that he’s a member of Congress. And he does flirt with people in spaces where it’s not appropriate.”
The woman said she tried to discreetly seek opportunities to get away from Kihuen during the event, and tried to offer responses that indicated she was not interested, but he kept returning to talk to her.
She said some of her friends have asked why she didn’t reject him, outright.
“I’m not in a place to yell at a member of Congress and say ‘stop touching me’ because I just started my career,” she said. “He’s a member of Congress and a client of my firm and some of my friends were like, why didn’t you just shut him down? Tell him to stop talking to you? And it’s because there’s just such a power dynamic that makes it so you can’t, really.”
Other women who have made accusations against Kihuen said his behavior persisted in spite of their protests. A Kihuen campaign finance director identified as Samantha described how she reacted when Kihuen allegedly suggested the two get a hotel room together.
“I said ‘no’ very firmly and he just laughed at me. It was humiliating,” she told BuzzFeed News.
Samantha, who has asked to keep her last name anonymous, told The Nevada Independent Saturday via text message that it’s “insulting” Kihuen continues to deny the harassment allegations.
“The tone of his apology after the Buzzfeed article on December 1 was basically ‘I’m sorry if I did anything to make her uncomfortable’ as though I’m the problem for being upset by his behavior,” she wrote.
A lobbyist who told the Independent about instances of unwanted touching from Kihuen and said that she received hundreds of suggestive texts from him in the 2013 and 2015 Nevada legislative session said she tried a number of different tactics after receiving the messages, including brushing off the remarks as a joke, ignoring him and directly telling him “no.” A third woman, who worked as the front desk attendant at Kihuen’s Las Vegas condo in 2014 and 2015, told Buzzfeed that he would text her “creepy and nasty” comments at odd hours, forcing her to eventually block his number after he ignored her requests to stop.
The woman who works in Washington D.C. said she debated whether to come forward with her story after the first Buzzfeed article earlier this month. But she said she wanted to offer more nuance to the discussion and insight into interactions that aren’t as extreme as, for example, when Arizona Rep. Trent Franks asked a female employee to be a surrogate.
“I just really want these women to know they’re not alone, and I think there’s something to be said for this type of like — you know, it’s not subtle, but it’s a form of harassment,” she said. “I think I’ve kept moving my bar of what I would consider inappropriate, because I just want to do my job. You know, I just want to go to work everyday and do my job. But he just keeps pushing the line so you keep moving the goalposts between what would ordinarily be the line because it’s so much easier to just not.”
The woman said the interactions with Kihuen started in October when they took an elevator together.
“He said ‘Hey, I know you,’ and I said, ‘Hi congressman,’ and he said ‘Are you married?’” the woman recalled. “And I said, ‘No, are you married?’ knowing full well that he’s not, and he said ‘Well, do you have a boyfriend?’ And I said ‘no.’ And he said, ‘Well, a beautiful young girl like you — I can’t believe you don’t have a boyfriend,’ and it was really sort of off-putting.”
She said she tried to brush it off with a joke.
Also during the elevator ride, she said, Kihuen asked how old she was and when she said 24, “he said I still have time.” A screenshot of a text message exchange she provided to The Nevada Independent shows she referenced the question about her age while talking with a friend about Kihuen.
The woman said some people viewed the advances as amusing and a joke, and she said she received encouragement to pursue a fling with Kihuen when he started showing interest in her because it could advance her career. But she said she was troubled by the situation, seeing it as potentially damaging to her reputation and something that “delegitimizes” her as a professional.
“I want to be taken seriously, and it’s just an insult to all the work that I’ve done and to my intelligence to look me up and down and ask me how tall I am and if I play any sports because I look really athletic,” she said.
A second encounter came about two weeks later, she said, when she ran into Kihuen in a hallway. When he struck up a brief conversation, she told him she was headed to a lunch event but said there would probably be leftovers if he wanted some. Leftovers were commonly made available to people in the office after events.
Shortly after that, on the afternoon of Oct. 11, Kihuen sent a message from his personal Gmail account. (The woman hadn’t provided him her email address, but said she believes he figured it out based on a common format the firm uses for its addresses.)
“Hi [name redacted]. I hope this is your email address. Just wanted to say thank you for offering to bring me lunch today. Not sure if I said thanks. You’re so sweet. :) Ruben.”
She said she replied with a polite response that also had her email signature attached, which included her work cell phone number. The following evening, he texted her work cellphone with a smiley face emoji, and followed with a text that read: “Btw…this is Ruben K. Very kind of you to offer to bring me lunch yesterday.😊”
The Nevada Independent verified that the text came from Kihuen’s cell phone number. She said she ignored it, but said Kihuen brought up the leftovers at least one other time — something she said bothered her because it seemed to suggest there was deeper meaning to a statement she felt was mundane.
“The reception to me seemed more manageable than when it happened in my office because I think every woman knows how to fend off a guy at a bar,” she said. “But in the fluorescent lighting of my office when I’m running in between meetings — it’s just so off-putting, to have someone who you know what, you hold them to a higher standard and I think for good reason and then — it’s just disappointing when they don’t live up to it.”
She said one of the Nevada lobbyist’s statements in a Nevada Independent article earlier this week — that perhaps Kihuen doesn’t know that some of his behavior is wrong — resonated with her.
“Part of me wants to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that women have generally responded positively to him interacting like this and he just hasn’t grown with the responsibility that he’s been given over the past few years,” she said. “And then part of me, you know, the less generous part of me, thinks he just serially does not respect women, doesn’t listen to us, views us as sex objects, as conquests. And so I don’t know if it’s somewhere between not knowing that people don’t like it and really just being a shitty person.”
Note: Editor Jon Ralston explains our decision to publish here.Looking for news you can trust?
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Eleven cities and counties across the United States announced on Thursday that they will provide free legal representation to immigrants facing deportation, part of a new initiative called the Safety and Fairness for Everyone (SAFE) Cities Network. The initiative, launched in collaboration with the Vera Institute of Justice, a national nonprofit and research organization, helps cities with funding and resources to help train legal service providers and share best practices.
Unlike in criminal court cases, immigrants generally do not have the right to a free court-appointed attorney during removal proceedings, and often have to bear the costs on their own. Nationally, only 37 percent of immigrants facing deportation proceedings get access to a lawyer, and only 14 percent of immigrants in detention do, according to a report from the American Immigration Council, a nonprofit and advocacy group. As Mother Jones has reported previously, studies have shown that access to legal representation can drastically improve an immigrant’s chances of winning relief from deportation or release from detention. Without it, often immigrants and families are quickly deported.
Vera started soliciting competitive applications from cities and counties to be part of the network earlier this summer. Local governments had to commit some public cash, which Vera would then supplement with additional funding. Atlanta, GA, Austin and San Antonio, TX, Baltimore and Prince George’s County, MD; Chicago, IL; Columbus, OH; Dane County, WI, and Oakland/Alameda County, Sacramento, and Santa Ana, CA were selected.
Vera’s project comes at a time when cities and states are ramping up their efforts to protect undocumented immigrants against a potential crackdown. A Reuters analysis found that arrests of undocumented immigrants with no criminal history increased by more than 200 percent in the first half of the year. Though deportations have slowed, ICE agents have made 43 percent more arrests since Trump has been in office, compared to the same time last year, according to the Washington Post. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has also attempted to speed up deportations and reduce immigration court backlogs, though to seemingly little effect.
For cities like Atlanta, it will be the first time the city has ever provided legal defense for those facing deportation. “This support is needed now more than ever,” Mayor Kasim Reed said.
“Immigrants are our friends, neighbors, and co-workers, but new enforcement tactics are breaking up families and weakening our neighborhoods and our city,” Elizabeth Brown, council member for the City of Columbus, stated in a press release. The city will provide $185,000 to three groups, and received $100,000 in additional funding from Vera.
Providing universal representation is an approach that Vera has tested before. In 2013, the group helped start a pilot project called the New York Immigrant Family Unit Project (NYIFUP) that provided free legal defense services to immigrants detained at the Varick Street Immigration Court. A new report evaluating the program found that immigrants who participated were able to able improve their chances of remaining in the US. Before the project began, only 4 percent of immigrants who had no legal representation at the court were able to win their cases. With the help of the free legal defense, NYIFUP estimates that 48 percent of its cases will end successfully. The program has represented more than 1,770 people and also helped reunite more than 750 people with their families, according to the report.
Outside of the SAFE Cities Network, other cities have taken on their own efforts to provide funds for legal defense. In April, Seattle’s city council unanimously passed a resolution to allocate $1 million to a defense fund for immigrants and refugees, and increased that fund to $1.5 million with the inclusion of King County in August. Earlier this summer, Los Angeles city and county officials also approved an L.A. Justice Fund that, with help from outside donors, would provide up to $10 million for legal defense to immigrants.
“It’s inhumane for people to go to court with no lawyer,” Omar Siagha, a green card holder who was able to win his case through the NYIFP, said in a press release. “Everyone deserves a chance to explain their case to the judge.”Pinellas County Sheriff's Office Authorities released this photo of a woman reportedly riding a manatee.
A woman who police said was seen touching and riding a manatee in Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas, Fla., over the weekend turned herself in to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, Tampa Bay Times reported.
Ana Gloria Garcia Gutierrez, 52, told police Tuesday that she wasn't aware what she did was against the law, the report said.
Witnesses gave authorities her description and photos of her riding the sea cow, which is a second-degree misdemeanor. She was seen riding the manatee at 1 p.m. Sunday in the water north of Gulf Pier, authorities said.
Also on NBCMiami.com: 3 hospitalized after wrong-way crash on I-95
Gutierrez was not arrested or charged, but the charges were referred to the state attorney's office, according to the Times.
The Florida Manatee Sanctuary Acts states that: "It is unlawful for any person at any time, by any means, or in any manner intentionally or negligently to annoy, molest, harass, or disturb or attempt to molest, harass, or disturb any manatee."
For more visit NBCMiami.com
Authorities say the penalty for the woman could be up to 60 days in jail and a possible fine of $500.
Authorities don't believe any manatees were injured.
"It's a wild animal. It's not something to be ridden," Susan Butler, a manatee expert with the U.S. Geological Survey in Gainesville, told the Times. "I can't say that as a biologist I would ever, ever condone that, or say that (the manatee) wanted them to do that."
This article includes reporting by Lisa Orkin Emmanuel, NBCMiami.com, and NBC News staff.
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Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and FacebookSpraynard are back. It’s not an April Fool’s Day joke, either. The band is working on a new album and will also be playing Fest in October. Check out a statement from the band below!
WE ARE A BAND AGAIN.
we were really tempted to announce the end of our hiatus tomorrow so everyone would think it was an April Fool’s joke… but we decided it’s probably more kind to just be honest with everyone.
we have started writing new music and hope to release an LP at some point in the next year or so.
oh, and we’re playing THE FEST. i think that gets announced tomorrow? seriously, this is not an April Fool’s joke. we’re really doing stuff again.
maybe we’ll go on tour soon? who cares? we can do whatever we want now.
thanks everyone. <!3Though Aquaman will have been thoroughly introduced in Justice League, Jason Momoa promises the DC hero's standalone film is very much an origin film.
During an exclusive interview with ComicBook.com during a Justice League event in London, the actor opened up about his next endeavor as the Atlantean hero which comes in the form of the self-titled Aquaman film in December of 2018. "Zack [Snyder] brought me in," Momoa said. "He definitely wanted this Outlaw Josey Wales. He wanted someone that wasn't accepted in Atlantis, wasn't accepted on land."
"He really was this outsider and lived on the fringes of society. We talked about him just being raised with his father, this blue collar worker. His father was a lighthouse keeper, but I probably worked on oil rigs. I'd be underwater and I could just rip the rig off and just weld."
The Aquaman seen in Justice League is really just "a weekend in his life" according to Momoa, as the true evolution of the character is to be seen.
"And that was when I was alone," Momoa said. "There's people that I would save, that I could save, and there's people that I couldn't. The human side of me is that heartbreak of he couldn't save someone. Not knowing what to with these powers, he was a drinker. He'd just down that emotion. He couldn't ever get that out.
"You're going to see that I really wanted him to be that gruff thing, because he has to become king. If Justice League is like seeing him at his lowest, and not just his lowest, but this loneliness that I wanted about him, so when we get to Aquaman you know why he became that, and how he had been put in that lonely spot.
"And how he has to bring these two worlds together. Because you're going to see this ocean world, which we just pollute, and how do these people feel underwater with what the land does to the ocean. And this war that is going to come between the two, and I'm the only one that can link the two. He has to do it. He doesn't want to do it."
In regards to the tone of the Aquaman movie, Momoa described it as a combination of an origin, an epic battle, and a big road movie.
"In the story, we're going to see a couple different younger versions of me. And even before I was born, so you'll know where my mother came from, Atlantis. We've got to establish seven different kingdoms and the threat," said Momoa.
"Surpassing Justice League, this moment in time is his call to become king. The only thing that can save Atlantis is me fighting my own brother. There's a big battle, and there's an epic [fight]. It's also a big road movie, because we travel all over the world. It's got that Star Wars quality of gigantic ships and guys riding sharks. It's going to be this whole world you've never seen before. You're going to see him start as this guy who probably rides bikes, works on cars. You get to see him this one way as kind of a dirty, dark, drunkard, and then turn into this regal king."
Aquaman stars Jason Momoa and is directed by James Wan. Aquaman is scheduled to be released in movie theaters on December 21, 2018. Momoa's first outing comes in the form of Justice League on November 17, 2017.An art piece protected by a plexiglass pane by British artist Banksy, seen on a beach in Calais, northern France (AFP Photo/Philippe Huguen)
Paris (AFP) - "I love being famous," the black US comedian Chris Rock once quipped. "It's almost like being white."
But a growing number of artists would rather have success without the encumbrance of fame.
From the street artist Banksy to the Italian literary phenomenon Elena Ferrante, a new brand of creator is actively rejecting the limelight and doing everything they can to avoid it.
Even first-time novelists, whose publishers are often desperate for them to go out and promote their work, are thumbing their noses at celebrity.
One young French novelist, who writes under the pseudonym of Joseph Andras, rejected the country's top prize for a first book last year because it threatened his anonymity.
Like Ferrante, whose Naples quartet has become a huge international bestseller, Andras refuses to be photographed and only does interviews via email.
"A baker makes bread, a plumber unblocks pipes and writers write," he declared in his only interview, granted to the Communist newspaper L'Humanite. "Everything is in the book, I don't really see what more I have to add."
- Ferrante feels 'liberated' -
Ferrante's motivation was similar. "I simply decided once and for all, over 20 years ago, to liberate myself from the anxiety of notoriety and the urge to be a part of that circle of successful people," she told Vanity Fair magazine.
"Thanks to this decision I have gained a space of my own, a space that is free, where I feel active and present.... for those who love literature, the books are enough," she added.
But that hasn't stopped her real identity becoming an almost obsessional focus of media attention, with an Italian investigative journalist claiming last year to have unmasked her through following the banking trail from her publishers.
The secrecy around the British artist Banksy has also spawned numerous theories about who he really is, with the latest positing that he was a member of the trip hop group Massive Attack, which, like him, emerged from the English city of Bristol.
While Ferrante's editors continue to refuse to confirm whether she is, as reports claim, the Roman translator Anita Raja, they condemned the methods used to name her, telling AFP they were similar to those used to trace Mafia bosses.
"It was as if she hadn't the right to success without playing the game," said her French editor Vincent Raynaud, of Gallimard.
- Act of resistance -
US literature professor Philip Auslander, of the Georgia Institute of Technology, said that, by insisting on anonymity, Banksy and Ferrante were in some ways laying down the gauntlet to journalists "to take up the challenge to try to discover their identity.
"In literature, especially, we have the sense that... authors of fiction are somehow expressing themselves, which makes us want to know something about the person who produced the fiction," he said.
And Auslander drew a distinction between Ferrante and the late reclusive American writer J.D. Salinger and the pop band Daft Punk, who are never seen in public without their robot helmets.
Salinger and Ferrante "are reclusive artists who wanted to create but didn't want the visibility and publicity that comes with creative success," he said.
"Performers who disguise themselves are protecting their privacy too, but I think they're also suggesting that it's their personae as performers that are important, not their private identities," he said.
But sociologist Stephane Hugon, of the Sorbonne university in Paris, argued that for artists to hide their true identity was a real "act of resistance" in an era obsessed with celebrity and transparency.
And Banksy's demand for privacy chimes with his political stance calling for an end to wholesale eavesdropping on the internet.
"When we finally know who Elena Ferrante is, we will be disappointed," Hugon added. "Secrecy reinjects a little bit of mystery into a time which really needs a bit of fiction," he added.Oliver Berg/dpa/Corbis
Facebook has more in common with McDonald's than you might think.
Both are at the top of their respective fields, so widely used and recognized that they're the icons of the industries they dominate. It took the fast-food chain eight years to serve up a billion burgers; it took the social network eight years to sign up a billion people.
Now it seems they've taken similar strategies to get more attention and win over more customers.
McDonald's looked beyond its staples of Big Macs and fries and added the Filet-O-Fish, Chicken McNugget and Egg McMuffin to its menu over a few decades, along with salads and gourmet coffees.
Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg is pushing his company beyond its bread and butter of the profile, photos and News Feed, all as part of a plan to connect even more people around the world. Instead of McNuggets and coffee, Facebook has added photo sharing, virtual reality goggles and a messaging app to broaden its menu.
But is it enough?
Nathan Eagle, head of a connectivity startup called Jana, said the challenge for Facebook is the sheer scale of its user base. "It gets harder and harder the next billion you have," he said.
There aren't that many companies in the world that think about their next billion customers. Even fewer of them are tech companies. Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce giant counts its Prime-subscription memberships in the millions. Apple's seemingly prolific iTunes Store had 800 million accounts on file last year.
Then there's Facebook. About half the world's online population uses its service each month. That's more than 1.5 billion people, or one out of five people on Earth.
What is it going to take to get the other nearly 6 billion people onto its service? It's going to have be a whole lot more appetizing.
The Quarter Pounder
To keep current customers happy, Facebook expanded its app catalog. Two years ago, it launched Paper, an app that focuses on displaying large photos and news articles from people's posts. The design of Paper inspired other efforts, including partnering with news services (such as CNET parent |
that have allowed people to unpack and rebuild the latest hi-tech innovations.
While such kits may look like simple hobbyist tinkering toys to some, their makers claim that they help to fuel a cycle of innovation that leads to some of society’s greatest technological breakthroughs. Is this really the case – are there truly broader social benefits to self-build kits? And if so, what technologies or industries might we see being “hacked” next?
Modern build-it-yourself technology kits date back to at least the early-20th Century. In 1926, The Heath Company began producing a kit-aircraft called the Heath Parasol, and in 1947, introduced its first electronic kit, the 01 oscilloscope (which measures electricity). Twelve years later, it introduced the EC-1, a desktop computer kit for under $200, with self-assemble vacuum tubes, sockets, capacitors, resistors and other components.
These early kits succeeded in making cutting edge technology available at a cost that enthusiasts could afford. They also picked up fans that would go on to create world-changing innovations. In an interview with Computer World, Steve Jobs once described what appealed about Heathkits. “It gave a tremendous level of self-confidence, that through exploration and learning one could understand seemingly very complex things in one's environment.” You might look at a TV set, Jobs explained, and with Heathkit experience, you might feel confident enough to try and build one.
In the mid-1970s, computer kits began to take off. In 1974, the cover of Popular Electronics, the world’s largest electronics magazine of the time, unveiled the $400 MITS Altair 8800 microcomputer (see gallery). It was at least a thousand dollars cheaper than rivals.
While the company hoped to sell a few hundred kits to hobbyists, they ended up shipping thousands in the first few months. The Altair helped to launch the personal computer revolution – Paul Allen and Bill Gates of Microsoft even wrote their first software for the microcomputer.
The first personal computers also followed in this tradition – even the Apple II computer came in kit form. And in the 1980s, the BBC’s Micro computer inspired many successful entrepreneurs and engineers today. The device was part of a BBC TV series on computing, and would allow people to practice at home or in schools. It sold millions. “I owe my career to the BBC Micro. I bought it 1989, for just £220,” explains Eben Upton, CEO of Raspberry Pi, the open-source mini-computer launched in 2012, which is the technology at the heart of a Kano kit.
DIY returns
Fast forward to the present day, and DIY kits are once again experiencing something of a resurgence, a spike in both popularity and availability. “There’s a lot of excitement now”, explains David Mellis, co-founder of the Arduino platform, an open-source electronics prototyping kit. “More people are interested in how to make technology interesting and accessible to new people.”
And some, such as Kano, are pitching the kits to a broader mass market. “The goal of Kano is to do something for the majority… a generation of innovators. We want to be a part of this massive upwelling,” says Klein.
So what might be attracting people’s interest today? For children at least, it might be a reaction against growing up in a digitally-dominated culture. “I don’t think most kids find digital creation very interesting,” argues Upton. “The existence of a physical thing you can own and put in your pocket still seems to be a motivator today.”
Klein agrees. “A kit is an experience, as opposed to just a consumable. It’s physical, you plug and play, lights come on, sounds activate. It’s real,” he says.
As has been the case throughout recent history, self-build kits still allow people access and hack technology they might not be able to otherwise. Many of these kits are becoming tied to a broader educational mission- the growth in a notion of “universal access” to technology.
“We’re not saying everyone needs to be computer programming,” explains Upton. “But what you’ve got to do is make sure everyone has an opportunity to discover. That’s the important thing of very low cost, the motivation of universal access.”
In fact, some argue that allowing each new generation to access technology in such a way has broader societal benefits further down the track, serving as training for future innovators – like the Altair did for Bill Gates.
“Every industrial revolution that’s happened recently has been triggered by when the underlying technology became ‘kit-ized’,” argues Antony Evans, founder of Glowing Plants, a DIY-Biology kit which uses software and DNA printers to install glowing genes from bacteria of fireflies into the DNA of plants to make them glow.
“We’ve seen it in industry after industry, and it catalyzes enormous growth. Steam engines, radios, computers, the internet.”
This raises an intriguing question: after computing, what will the next big DIY kit trend be? What cutting-edge technology today will hobbyists soon want to pull apart and build themselves?
One candidate already in the running is DIY biology, or “biohacking”. As the costs drop for high-tech equipment – like a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) machine, which copies short strands of DNA – the barriers of entry to tinkering with biology are coming down. Already many DIY biology labs are popping up worldwide.
Costs are also falling in synthetic biology – the practice of extracting genes from one organism, or even building them from scratch, and inserting them into others to make organism do things not found in nature.
For example, 10 years ago, it cost around $100 million to make a new organism. “Today, we’re doing it for half a million,” says Evans. Decades ago, it took years to clone and sequence a gene. Today, with kits, you can three days.
It is essentially the “democratisation” of biotech, and it paints a future where people will be building biological applications as easy as mobile applications, from medicine to food. Groups like DIYbio.org are already advocating making biotechnology available to everyone.
It’s impossible to predict what people will make with biotech as the tools become more widely available, yet if the pattern follows build-it-yourself computing, it could inspire all sorts of creations, from new medicines to food. Such activity will surely raise questions about safety and the need for regulation. Indeed, Evans’ Glowing Plant project has already sparked debate about whether lawmakers need stricter controls on synthetic biology kits.
On the other hand, advocates point out that there’s much to be gained by allowing a large number of people to pull apart and rebuild new things with the latest technology. Without these tinkerers, they say, we may not have had some of society’s biggest innovations. History suggests that modern computers owe at least part of their origins to the kits of the past – and in turn, today’s DIY kits could end up sparking the next big thing too.
If you would like to comment on this, or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook or Google+ page, or message us on Twitter.2016 Sync in review
2016 was an incredible year at Sync. In our quest to make cloud storage more secure for everyone we launched an extraordinary number of new products and features, we expanded our datacenter infrastructure, and we grew our community of users to over 236,000 businesses and individuals, in over 150 countries. Sync users have been busy as well – securely storing over half a billion files in the cloud, and securely sharing millions of files per day.
Here’s a look back at 2016, and what you helped us accomplish.
Growth
First off, we’d like to extend a sincere thank you, to each and every one of our users for choosing Sync. We’re committed to building a file storage and sharing platform that provides better security and better data privacy compliance in the cloud, and we’re delighted that so many of you are now keeping your data safe with Sync. You’ve made it a super-busy year for us!
Global
2016 was the year Sync became a global phenomena, with more and more businesses looking for secure cloud storage that meets EU, US, and Canadian data privacy regulations and legislation. Of course, we’ve got your global data privacy compliance covered.
File storage
If there’s one thing Sync users love doing, it’s uploading petabytes of data to the cloud, and if there’s one thing we love doing here at Sync, it’s adding capacity to meet demand! This symbiotic relationship has kept our engineering team busy with significant investments and upgrades to our infrastructure in 2016 to keep pace.
Sharing and collaboration
It’s official, Sync users love sharing files! Sharing is one of our most popular features, and in 2016 we launched a number of improvements to make sharing even better. Upload enabled links allow you to easily request files from anyone, and enhanced privacy and compatibility options make sharing large files even easier. We also launched an events timeline, improved desktop app notifications, and an improved share invite process to make collaboration easier as well.
Customer support
Your feedback is really important to us. In fact, it’s how we prioritize new features and learn how to make Sync the best it can be. We’re proud to have delivered happiness to over 80% of you, and by all means, feel free to contact us – we’re here to help!
Free gigabytes for everybody
Not only does Sync offer 5 GB of cloud storage absolutely free, but you can also earn additional free gigabytes for every referral, as part of our rewards program. And if that’s not enough, you can redeem free GBs through special promo codes. Our rewards program is open to anyone, and you can get started right here.
New products and pricing
2016 will go down as the year we lowered pricing on 2 TB of secure cloud storage from $98 to $96 / year. Call us crazy, but we love octagonal, refactorable numbers. Best of all, if you’re already on a 2 TB plan, you’ll automatically get the lower price at renewal.
We’ve also been putting the finishing touches on our new Business Pro product. With Business Pro you can consolidate multiple Sync accounts under one roof, with centralized billing and user management for all user accounts. Business Pro is already available for purchase on our website, or upgrade. We’ll be making an official announcement shortly.
More highlights from 2016
Our most visited Blog post from 2016:
Top 10 Sync.com features you should start using right now
Events timeline:
Keep tabs on your files with Sync’s new events timeline
Upload enabled links:
Request files easily with upload enabled links
Introducing Sync Vault:
One-time cloud-only file storage archive
New desktop apps for 2017, and more …
Hot on the heels of a happy new year we just launched significant updates to our desktop apps. If you’re already running Sync, click the Sync icon in your OS X menu bar or Windows system tray and the upgrade option should be visible. Otherwise, you can upgrade by downloading and installing the app directly.
And that’s not all. We’ve got plenty of surprises in store for 2017, including even more desktop app updates, an extreme mobile app makeover for iOS and Android, and even more awesome new productivity features, all based on feedback from you. We really do want cloud storage, file sharing and collaboration to be more secure for everyone, and with your help we’re making that happen.
Thanks again for an incredible 2016.
New user? Click here to create a new account.0 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
Republicans have been talking for months as if at least a partial takeover of Congress is a virtual certainty, but a new survey and analysis released by Democracy Corps today not only shows the election tightening, but also a growing possibility that Republicans may yet snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
The Democracy Corps survey showed a 6 point movement towards the Democrats. This is in line with the recently released NBC News/Wall Street Journal and ABC News/Washington Post poll which both revealed a movement towards the Democrats. As they pointed out in their analysis, there is recent historical precedent for elections shifting in the final month, “This is not a fool’s errand. In the 1998 election, we conducted national polls starting in September to see if Democrats could push back against the Republican overreach on Ken Starr and impeachment, as Democrats faced the prospect of historic losses in both the House and Senate. Only two weeks before the election did the plates shift and a Democratic counter-message on impeachment became effective in our polls. In the end, Democrats lost no net seats in Senate, gained five House seats and Newt Gingrich resigned.”
However they also cautioned that the political climate is still terrible for Democrats as 60% of those surveyed believe the country is on the wrong track, and President Obama’s disapproval rating is stuck at 52%. It is clear that Democrats are making gains as we head towards November. The Republican lead has dropped by 4% on the generic ballot. Democrats have made strong gains with women under age 50 (+ 9 points), unmarried women (+ 8 points), in the Western and Northeast parts of the country, (+7 points), and surprisingly with seniors and older women (+6 points).
Democracy Corps suggested that Democrats hammer home two message in the run up to Election Day. The first focuses on the middle class, and “changing Washington to work for the middle class and American jobs, not corporations and Wall Street. It is strengthened by attacks on Social Security and Medicare, critical for the middle class.”
The second hits Republicans on outsourcing and jobs, “made in America, creating American jobs and opposing Republicans who support trade agreements and tax breaks for companies that export American jobs.” Some may be surprised to senior citizens returning to the Democratic Party, after the way they supported John McCain in 2008, but they shouldn’t be. Republicans, especially the Tea Party Republicans running for Senate, made a colossal blunder when they openly talked about privatizing or doing away with entitlement programs for seniors like Medicare and Social Security.
If there is there is one issue that might be giving women pause about voting Republican, more than any other, it might be choice. Sarah Jones recently detailed the GOP’s war against a woman’s right to choose. There are women on both sides of the abortion issue, but the radical position of no abortion, no exceptions of the 2010 crop of GOP candidates, undoubtedly caught the attention of many pro choice women, who might have been disinterested and ready to sit this election out.
The one thing that keeps candidates and campaign managers up all night is the dreaded October Surprise. Sometimes the surprise is an earth shaking revelation about a candidate that destroys a campaign and turns a race upside down. Other times it is an unexpected electoral shift that turns a bleak forecast for a candidate or party into an unexpected victory. If the electorate shifts and the Democrats maintain their majorities, it will be remarkable turn around, but not necessarily a surprising one, due to the fact that the GOP is running a slate of candidates that is too far right for the majority of America.
The Republicans have tried mightily to push their controversial candidates underground by using a national media blackout strategy, but in the day and age of the Internet, nothing can stay hidden for very long. From talk of John Boehner measuring the drapes in Pelosi’s office to Joe Miller’s future colleagues tweets, Republicans sure seem to be getting overconfident, but while the polls are tightening, they keep celebrating, and the Democrats’ October Surprise is catching up to them.
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:IANS By
NEW DELHI: In a first, the Indian and Russian Air Forces are holding a joint drill with fighter aircraft in a step which is expected to boost defence ties between the two nations.
The Aviva Indra-2014 exercise which started Monday at Astrakhan region, near the Caspian Sea in Russia, and will continue till Sep 5, an Indian Air Force (IAF) statement said.
"Ex Avia Indra-2014 which has commenced today is the first exercise of its kind between the two air forces and is seen as a major milestone in military relations," the statement added.
The two countries conduct the Indra-series war games between their armies and navies.
During the exercise, fighter and helicopter pilots of IAF will participate in missions alongside Russian pilots in aircraft of the Russian Air Force Su-30SM fighter aircraft, Mi-17 and Mi-35 helicopters.
"This involves participation of fighter pilots, helicopter pilots, missile combat crew, as well as engineers from the Indian Air Force (IAF) along with their counterparts of the Russian Federation Air Force (RFAF)," said the statement.
Missile combat crew will interact with their counterparts from the RFAF and participate in air defence exercises.
"It will also provide an opportunity to both the forces for exchange of best practices and will cement the foundation for a more professional interaction and growth in the future," the statement added.
Defence ties between India and the Russian Federation have a historical perspective as the former Soviet Union was an important supplier of defence equipment to India for several decades.
Russian-origin aircraft such as the Su-30MKI and MiG-series continue to be the mainstay of India's air power.RANGERS could face competition from England for Tottenham Hotspur's Dominic Ball as the Premier League club consider his future.
The centre-back spent last season on loan at Ibrox, making 21 league appearances as the Gers secured the Championship title.
However, the 20-year-old has been told to return to the London club for pre-season to be considered by manager Mauricio Pochettino.
Read more: Niko Kranjcar could still make a move to Rangers, says his father Zlatko
The Argentinian will evaluate Ball before making a decision on whether to include him in plans for the upcoming Premier League season or send him out on loan again.
The Ibrox club are believed to be keen on taking the defender back for another season, while Ball himself has previously said he would be happy to continue with the Gers.
But a source close to the player told Press Association Sport that they could face competition.
Read more: Joey Barton can turn Rangers from a top-five club into title contenders, says Dougie Freedman
"Dom's going back to do pre-season with Spurs, if he comes back to Scotland on loan it will be with Rangers," he said.
"I'm sure Rangers would take him back but Pochettino is going to have a look at him during pre-season and then discuss his options from there.
"However, it's not certain he will come back to Scotland as there are a few clubs in England who would be interested in taking him next year."
Ball came through the youth ranks at Spurs and has played international football at youth level for both Northern Ireland and England.Krzysztof Ulaczyk/University of Warwick
A cottage industry of small observatories is springing up around the globe to take advantage of astronomers' new ability to capture the gravitational waves from major cosmic events. These new facilities will enable researchers to match up those gravitational waves with electromagnetic signals and perhaps one day even particles of matter from some of the cataclysms that send measurable ripples through space-time.
The main goal is to look for flares of light originating from the same spot as any gravitational waves detected by the US-based Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), or the Virgo observatory near Pisa, Italy. These smaller telescopes, often built on a shoestring budget, will serve as first-line responders, filling the gap between gravitational-wave detectors and the major facilities of conventional astronomy. “Once you know where to look, you can swing the whole world’s telescopes at it,” says Danny Steeghs, an astronomer at the University of Warwick, UK.
Moving quickly is key. It’s tricky to pinpoint the source of gravitational waves — astronomers can typically narrow it down to a region of the Universe that could contain thousands of galaxies — and observatories may have only a few days before any promising flares of light dissipate. “You need to look at a lot of sky,” says Steeghs, “and you don’t have a lot of time for it.”
Robots of the sky
Steeghs leads a small UK–Australian collaboration that built the Gravitational wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) in La Palma, Spain. It is an array of four small robotic telescopes that will eventually grow to 8 telescopes, and perhaps 16. So far, it has cost just £800,000 (around US$1 million).
Alan Watson and William Lee of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City and his collaborators spent even less. They built the Deca-Degree Optical Transient Imager (DDOTI), currently consisting of a pair of robotic telescopes at Sierra San Pedro Martir, Mexico, for a mere US$350,000, largely by using off-the-shelf components, he says. They plan eventually to have six telescopes, perhaps followed by more facilities in France and Australia.
Some of the facilities, including GOTO, are being designed and built specifically to follow up on gravitational-wave signals. Most of these will be robotic, using machine-learning algorithms to alert each other to point at particular regions of sky and search for interesting flares without the need for human intervention.
Other projects have grown out of existing collaborations that are familiar with looking for visible-light counterparts to the γ-ray bursts spotted by space observatories, or tracking other transient phenomena, such as supernovae explosions or asteroids that are potentially Earth-bound. And some venerable telescopes, including one of those once used by Edwin Hubble in Palomar, California, have been retrofitted. The 1.2-metre telescope is now part of GROWTH (Global Relay of Observatories Watching Transients Happen), a network of 17 facilities around the globe that can track an object seamlessly as the Earth spins. “The idea is, basically, to beat sunrise,” says Mansi Kasliwal, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, who leads GROWTH.
Twan Bekkers
Astrophysicist Paul Groot of Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, whose group is part of the Virgo collaboration itself, is leading a Dutch-funded project called BlackGEM. It will initially consist of three telescopes in La Silla, Chile, costing about €6 million (US$7.1 million), that will continuously map the southern sky to build up a database of archived images. If news of a gravitational-wave detection arrives, BlackGEM will scan the relevant patch of sky within hours, and automatically compare that to its archived images to search for anything new.
Neutrino chasers
Similar efforts are already following up on detections of notable particles from space, such as unusually energetic neutrinos or cosmic rays. The Astrophysical Multimessenger Observatory Network (AMON), started in 2016, got its first interesting hint on 22 September, when it responded to a high-energy neutrino detected by IceCube, the world’s largest neutrino observatory, at the South Pole.
When AMON researchers looked towards the source of the neutrino, they saw that a known quasar — an entity consisting of heated matter orbiting a supermassive black hole at the centre of a distant galaxy — was flaring up. This is the type of heightened activity that theorists think could produce an excess of neutrinos, but so far, no high-energy neutrinos have been traced conclusively back to their sources.
In the future, researchers hope that they might detect all three types of emission together: electromagnetic radiation, gravitational waves and particles of matter. Some compare that to seeing, hearing and tasting an astrophysical event at once.There are a lot of cows in the US. The headcount at the beginning of 2014 was about 87.7 million, which is a notable decline from ten years earlier, when it was close to 95 million. Still, it’s an impressive number – approximately one cow for every 3.6 people, or 0.278 cows per capita. These data include both cattle and calves.
For this graphic, I’ve mapped the cattle per capita values by state. No surprises here: the states in the middle of the country, which are generally less populated and home to many farms, have the highest values. South Dakota leads the pack, with 4.32 cows per person, followed by Nebraska at 3.29. I also graphed the population values on a scatter plot for those interested in the raw data. From this, you can see that Texas has the most cattle at 10.9 million.
Data source: http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/current/Catt/Catt-01-31-2014.txtMr Katter said he believed it was the only way to "uphold Queensland's law and transport regulation system for those who have done the right thing". "Our taxi drivers are small business owners and hard workers who have followed each and every one of the regulations that have been set out by the state government," Mr Katter said in a statement. "These measures are put in place to ensure safety and access for all. The other services don't offer that, yet take the cream from the top. "The industry is staring down the barrel of a multinational monopoly. I will not see another industry slaughtered by deregulation." The bill will create another headache for the government as it attempts to negotiate the state's taxi strategy, which is due to expire at the end of this year.
Both the Taxi Council and Uber have stepped up their campaigns in recent months, with both lobbying the government and the public, one to keep the status quo and have Uber adhere to the same regulations as the heritage industry, the other to allow for competition in the market without paying the same fees as the existing industry. A spokesman for Uber said the Katter MPs were yet to hear their side of the argument. "We're surprised and disappointed that Mr Katter has refused to meet with us to discuss his concerns, many of which seem to be based on misinformation peddled by a taxi industry seeking to protect its monopoly," he said. "... Prior to introducing his Bill, we hope Mr Katter will give us the opportunity to help him understand why over 200,000 Queenslanders are choosing Uber as a safe, reliable and affordable alternative to existing transportation options, in addition to 4,000 locals who are enjoying well paid and flexible work on the Uber platform." Taxi Council CEO Benjamin Wash said the council "strongly endorsed" the bill and called on Labor and the LNP to do the same.
He also called on the media to "play a more responsible role". "The media are continually giving Uber credibility even though they are operating illegally," he said in a statement. "This is unheard of and outrageous and would never happen with any other person or company that breaks the law." "Uber are an illegal taxi service, and are spawning copycats across Queensland. "Right now anyone, anywhere, can start to drive their private cars and transport the public and the government is letting it happen.
"This will become a nightmare. "We've already seen assaults with no camera evidence by Uber drivers across Australia, and without enforcement of regulations nothing will be able to stop any sexual predator or person with the wrong motives starting their own illegal taxi service." Uber, which was fined $1.7 million in 12 months in Queensland, has begun including the Premier's email address with each booking, to encourage its customers to lobby on behalf of the service. Deputy Premier Jackie Trad is expected to announce the new taxi strategy within months. Stay informed. Like the Brisbane Times Facebook pageThe Pope Said WHAT about Condoms???
Pope Benedict’s new book, Light of the World: The Pope, The Church and The Signs Of The Times, isn’t even officially out yet but is already at the center of an online media controversy.
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The controversy erupted Saturday morning when L’Osservatore Romano unilaterally violated the embargo on the book by publishing Italian-language extracts of various papal statements, much to the chagrin of publishers around the world, who had been working on a carefully orchestrated launch for the book on Tuesday.
Among the extracts was one dealing with the use of condoms in trying to prevent the spread of AIDS, and the press immediately seized on this (e.g., Reuters, Associated Press, BBC online).
And so we were treated to headlines like:
* Pope says condoms sometimes permissible to stop AIDS
* Pope: condoms can be justified in some cases
* Pope says condoms can be used in the fight against Aids
Particularly egregious is this statement by William Crawley of the BBC:
Pope Benedict appears to have changed the Vatican’s official stance on the use of condoms to a moral position that many Catholic theologians have been recommending for quite some time.
GAH!
Okay, first of all, this is an interview book. The pope is being interviewed. He is not engaging his official teaching capacity. This book is not an encyclical, an apostolic constitution, a papal bull, or anything of the kind. It is not published by the Church. It is an interview conducted by a German-language journalist. Consequently, the book does not represent an act of the Church’s Magisterium and does not have the capacity to “change[] the Vatican’s official stance” on anything. It does not carry dogmatic or canonical force. The book (which is fascinating and unprecedented, though that’s a subject for another post) constitutes the Pope’s personal opinions on the questions he is asked by interviewer Peter Seewald.
And, as Pope Benedict himself notes in the book:
It goes without saying that the Pope can have private opinions that are wrong.
I don’t point this out to suggest that what Pope Benedict says regarding condoms is wrong (we’ll get to that in a moment) but to point out the status of private papal opinions. They are just that: private opinions. Not official Church teaching. So let’s get that straight.
Among the disservices L’Osservatore Romano performed by breaking the book’s embargo in the way it did was the fact that it only published a small part of the section in which Pope Benedict discussed condoms. As a result, the reader could not see the context of his remarks, giving the reader no way to see the context and guaranteeing that the secular press would take the Pope’s remarks out of context (which they would have anyway, but perhaps not this much). Especially egregious is the fact that L’Osservatore Romano omits material in which Benedict clarified his statement on condoms in a follow-up question.
So L’Osservatore Romano has performed a great disservice to both the Catholic and non-Catholic communities.
Fortunately, now you can read the full text of the Pope’s remarks.
Also, in anticipation of the controversy that these statement would produce, Dr. Janet Smith has prepared a helpful guide to what the Pope did and did not say.
Let’s look at the Pope’s remarks and see what he actually said.
Seewald:... In Africa you stated that the Church’s traditional teaching has proven to be the only sure way to stop the spread of HIV. Critics, including critics from the Church’s own ranks, object that it is madness to forbid a high-risk population to use condoms. Benedict:... In my remarks I was not making a general statement about the condom issue, but merely said, and this is what caused such great offense, that we cannot solve the problem by distributing condoms. [EMPHASIS ADDED] Much more needs to be done. We must stand close to the people, we must guide and help them; and we must do this both before and after they contract the disease. As a matter of fact, you know, people can get condoms when they want them anyway. But this just goes to show that condoms alone do not resolve the question itself. More needs to happen. Meanwhile, the secular realm itself has developed the so-called ABC Theory: Abstinence-Be Faithful-Condom, where the condom is understood only as a last resort, when the other two points fail to work. This means that the sheer fixation on the condom implies a banalization of sexuality, which, after all, is precisely the dangerous source of the attitude of no longer seeing sexuality as the expression of love, but only a sort of drug that people administer to themselves. This is why the fight against the banalization of sexuality is also a part of the struggle to ensure that sexuality is treated as a positive value and to enable it to have a positive effect on the whole of man’s being.
Note that the Pope’s overall argument is that condoms will not solve the problem of AIDS. In support of this, he makes several arguments:
1) People can already get condoms, yet it clearly hasn’t solved the problem.
2) The secular realm has proposed the ABC program, where a condom is used only if the first two, truly effective procedures (abstinence and fidelity) have been rejected. Thus even the secular ABC proposal recognizes that condoms are not the unique solution. They don’t work as well as abstinence and fidelity. The first two are better.
3) The fixation on condom use represents a banalization (trivialization) of sexuality that turns the act from being one of love to one of selfishness. For sex to have the positive role it is meant to play, this trivialization of sex—and thus the fixation on condoms—needs to be resisted.
So that’s the background to the statement that the press seized on:
There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants. But it is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection. That can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality. [EMPHASIS ADDED]
There are several things to note here: First, note that the Pope says that “there may be a basis in the case of some individuals,” not that there is a basis. This is the language of speculation. But what is the Pope speculating about? That condom use is morally justified? No, that’s not what he’s said: that there may be cases “where this [condom use] can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way to recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed.”
In other words, as Janet Smith puts it,
The Holy Father is simply observing that for some homosexual prostitutes the use of a condom may indicate an awakening of a moral sense; an awakening that sexual pleasure is not the highest value, but that we must take care that we harm no one with our choices. He is not speaking to the morality of the use of a condom, but to something that may be true about the psychological state of those who use them. If such individuals are using condoms to avoid harming another, they may eventually realize that sexual acts between members of the same sex are inherently harmful since they are not in accord with human nature.
At least this is the most one can reasonably infer from the Pope’s remarks, which could be phrased more clearly (and I expect the Vatican will be issuing a clarification quite soon).
Second, note that the Pope immediately follows his statement regarding homosexual prostitutes using condoms with the statement, “But it is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection. That can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality.”
By “a humanization of sexuality,” the Pope means recognizing the truth about human sexuality—that it must be exercised in a loving, faithful way between a man and a woman united in matrimony. That is the real solution, not putting on a condom and engaging in promiscuous sex with those infected with a deadly virus.
At this point in the interview, Seewald asks a follow-up question, and it is truly criminal that L’Osservatore Romano did not print this part:
Seewald: Are you saying, then, that the Catholic Church is actually not opposed in principle to the use of condoms? Benedict: She of course does not regard it as a real or moral solution, but, in this or that case, there can be nonetheless, in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality.
So Benedict reiterates that this is not a real (practical) solution to the AIDS crisis, nor is it a moral solution. Nevertheless, in some cases the use of a condom displays “the intention of reducing the risk of infection” which is “a first step in a movement toward... a more human way of living sexuality.”
He thus isn’t saying that the use of condoms is justified but that they can display a particular intent and that this intent is a step in the right direction.
Janet Smith provides a helpful analogy:
If someone was going to rob a bank and was determined to use a gun, it would better for that person to use a gun that had no bullets in it. It would reduce the likelihood of fatal injuries. But it is not the task of the Church to instruct potential bank robbers how to rob banks more safely and certainly not the task of the Church to support programs of providing potential bank robbers with guns that could not use bullets. Nonetheless, the intent of a bank robber to rob a bank in a way that is safer for the employees and customers of the bank may indicate an element of moral responsibility that could be a step towards eventual understanding of the immorality of bank robbing.
There is more that can be said about all this, but what we’ve already seen makes it clear that the Pope’s remarks must be read carefully and that they do not constitute the kind of license for condom use that the media would wish.
More to come.
PART TWO OF THE SERIES: UNDERSTANDING THE POPE’S DILEMMA ON CONDOMS
PART THREE: NEW DEVELOPMENTS ON THE POPE AND CONDOMSChina had denounced the Indian move as a direct infringement of its sovereignty, demanded an immediate and unconditional withdrawal, and warned that conflict was a real possibility if that didn't happen.
Related: [China and India are dangerously close to military conflict in the Himalayas]
On Monday, the two sides announced they had reached an agreement, with India saying its troops were disengaging and China saying it would redeploy forces in response. By the evening, India said both sides had almost completed their withdrawals.
China said it would continue to patrol and garrison the area, and to exercise its sovereign rights.
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Neither side was willing to admit to having backed down.
"We remind India to learn the lessons from this incident, tangibly abide by the historical treaties and the basic principles of international law, and to meet China halfway, jointly guard the peace and tranquility of the border areas, and promote a healthy development of bilateral military relations," Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said in a statement.
India said it had insisted on resolving the dispute through diplomatic channels. "Our principled position is that agreements and understandings reached on |
Ops" momentum shows no signs of slowing down. The total number of registered users for the game, Activision said, is more than the audience for the series finale of "Lost" or the 2010 World Series, as well as the combined audiences for late night TV chat shows for the entire week of December 6.
Some major musical acts had trouble filling seats this summer; perhaps they should've been featuring "Call of Duty"-related material. Activision says its players have turned out in numbers that could fill the 83 largest stadiums in the world, every day. Most players spend about 87 minutes per day playing online; trumping the 55 minutes most people spend on Facebook.
"Media is evolving and today the social aspects of technology are more important to the overall entertainment experience than ever before," Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, said in a statement. "Call of Duty creates a shared sense of identify for its community and is as integral to their social lives as any other form of digital communication."
Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, said "Call of Duty has in many ways become one of the world's most engaged social networks."
The game made its debut on November 9 and sold $650 million worth of games in its first five days, exceeding the previous top earner, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," which brought in $550 million during its first five days. By month's end it sold 8.4 million units.
For more details, see PCMag's full review of "Call of Duty: Black Ops" and the slideshow below.Jeffrey Dahmer is one of America’s most notorious serial killers, claiming 17 victims, some of whom he ate or preserved. But two men, who say Dahmer raped them during his military service, are now speaking out about the murderer who they call a “sociopath.”
Preston Davis and Billy Capshaw appear on Oxygen’s “Dahmer on Dahmer: A Serial Killer Speaks,” a special airing Nov. 11 and Nov. 12 that features an interview between journalist Nancy Glass and Dahmer during his time behind bars. In it, Dahmer himself recounts the gruesome murders that took place between 1978 and 1991.
Davis was 20 years old when he met “Jeff Dahmer,” he told TheWrap. He had eight months left on his military stint in Germany when Dahmer was stationed in Baumholder, West Germany (Davis’ father urged him to join the U.S. army after dropping out of college).
Also Read: 'My Friend Dahmer' Review: Portrait of a Future Serial Killer Never Comes Into Focus
“I didn’t care for him because of his racial overtures,” Davis, who is an African-American man, told TheWrap. “He was a very racist individual, and once he started drinking, he became a very obnoxious individual.”
Indeed, Dahmer is known to have had a drinking problem. In “Dahmer on Dahmer,” the convicted killer’s former classmates remember him bringing alcohol to school, hiding it in his locker and telling onlookers it was his “medicine.” Davis told TheWrap Dahmer would repeatedly drink in the barracks during his military service — and would tell the other soldiers about his first murder victim, Steven Hicks, whom he killed just a year before.
“Jeffrey had killed his first victim a year before joining the military, and he would get drunk in the barracks and say, ‘I killed the guy in Ohio,’ and we’d say, ‘you didn’t kill nobody!'”
“He became a monster once he started drinking,” Davis added. “Alcohol is what turned him into a monster.”
Davis, who is now 58, said he was taking part in a field exercise in Belgium with Dahmer in October of 1979 when their vehicle broke down with three days to go in the mission. It was towed to a train station. “Somewhere in that time frame, I was drugged and assaulted,” said Davis of the incident, one Dahmer has never admitted to. “The reason he didn’t kill me — he said after I left, ‘I should’ve killed that n—– when I had the chance’ — but that was the reason he couldn’t kill me: We were out in the middle of Belgium. He had no idea how to get back to Germany.”
Davis said that his brain blocked out what had happened until about 2009, when he was 50 years old. When his memory about the incident started coming back to him, he went to treatment and saw a therapist who specializes in military sexual trauma. He said he also only later remembered — when he saw Dahmer’s name online — that he had an altercation with him and put him out in a blizzard during their shared stint in the military.
“My mind had shut down that whole time,” he added.
After Davis left the military, Billy Capshaw joined the unit in Germany and stayed from 1979 to 1981. He was 17 years old when he met Dahmer, when he says similar abuse started.
“Jeff Dahmer was a sociopath, a psychopath, a narcissist – he was insane,” Capshaw told TheWrap. “It took a long time to cope with what happened, and I only came out with my experience when my father died. It was too horrible, too embarrassing, and I didn’t want my dad to know.”
Capshaw told TheWrap that he was Dahmer’s roommate during his time in the military, and he was tortured, beaten and tied to the bed many times over those two years. The website for “Surviving Jeffrey Dahmer” outlines Capshaw’s account: “Dahmer seemed like a likable person and had a certain amount of charisma, but within a few days Billy became frightened as Dahmer began his process of completely controlling Billy by various means. He physically beat him. When Billy complained to those in authority, he was told that he was a ‘p—-‘ and was not taken seriously. The severity of the physical abuse increased, and Dahmer used an iron bar, which was part of the apparatus for the bed, to hit Billy across the joints.”
Capshaw said Dahmer made sure he didn’t get regular assignments, and Dahmer controlled the only key to the room and would often lock Capshaw inside. He also arranged that his mail from his family did not reach him. At one point he was listed AWOL even though he had not left the base.
“It was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” Capshaw told TheWrap. “I was in a room I was scared to come out of. I would steal Jeff’s money thinking that if he didn’t have any money, that he wouldn’t drink anymore and therefore wouldn’t hurt me anymore. He beat me so badly for that, and to stop me from screaming, he hit me harder.”
Capshaw said he would often try to escape through the window or the fire escape but would eventually be brought right back to Dahmer. He said he is certain other people knew about the abuse.
Also Read: Jeffrey Dahmer's House for Rent During GOP Convention
Capshaw said his thoughts went to the extreme.
“I thought about killing him, and I thought about killing myself,” Capshaw told TheWrap.
Due to his alcohol abuse, Dahmer was later discharged from the military and returned to Ohio, and his killing spree started in 1987 when he woke up to find one of his sexual partners beaten to death in his bed. Dahmer said he didn’t remember killing the man he had met at a bar. He dismembered the body and put it in the trash, and following the murder, he began to actively seek out victims at gay bars. An attempted murder in 1991, where the victim escaped and brought cops back to Dahmer’s apartment where they found skulls, human hearts and other body parts, led to Dahmer’s arrest. His victim count had gone up to 17 at that point. A total of 74 Polaroid pictures were found detailing the dismemberment of Dahmer’s victims. Dahmer pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 16 terms of life imprisonment in 1992 because the death penalty had not been an option in the state of Wisconsin.
In November of 1994, Dahmer was bludgeoned to death by a fellow inmate.
“I didn’t find out about his death until years later,” said Davis. “The only thing I can say is karma…. I don’t consider myself a victim. I’m a survivor.”
“Dahmer on Dahmer” premieres on Nov. 11 and features interviews with Dahmer’s parents, Lionel and Shari Dahmer, as well as psychologists and former classmates. The two-day special concludes on Nov. 12.Barry Carter looks at the recent Mike Matusow vs Ted Forrest debate and asks if going public about a poker debt makes it more or less likely you will get paid?
Ted Forrest & Mike Matusow after the bet
This month the normally quite shy Ted Forrest took to Twitter to publicly call out Mike Matusow on not paying over $1.7 million owed to him from a prop bet. Ted famously lost an extreme amount of weight in 2010 to win the prop bet.
Mike agreed to pay Ted in monthly $5,000 instalments but according to Ted, has thus far only paid $70,000 of the bet. This has sparked a very public debate between the two about what terms were agreed at the time, and Matusow is blaming the decline of Full Tilt for his none payment.
I don’t want to get into the specifics of Ted and Mike’s situation because it is highly subjective and contextual between the two. It does make me consider an interesting wider point, however – should we go public when someone welches on a poker debt?
Name and shame
Mike blames Full Tilt
The short answer is yes. The poker community has for a long time been vulnerable to scammers, and I for one am happy to see we have adopted a culture of naming and shaming wrong doers. The frequency that this happens perhaps paints poker to be a lot shadier than it is (Just like any news channel paints the world to be a lot more tragic than it actually is), but if that helps to put off potential scammers, then it is a necessary evil.
Poker is still very much a handshake industry and one’s reputation is highly important in a game where money passes around so freely. So publicly outing someone for none payment of debts is going to add a lot of pressure on that player to do the right thing, when otherwise they may have happily swept it under the carpet.
The threat of going public
Nobody wanted to out Erick Lindgren
However, there comes with it a risk. The biggest tool you have in your arsenal when trying to get back money you are owed is the threat of going public. Once you do go public, the damage is mostly done to the player’s reputation. The fear thereafter is that they will be less incentivised to pay you back, or you will at least be further behind in the queue of creditors.
This is probably why Ted Forrest waited four years before he broke his silence on the subject. This was also the main reason cited by a lot of players whom are owed money by Erick Lindgren for not reporting his debts publicly sooner. He had a solid reputation at the time, and they were fearful that being the person who dented his reputation would cause him to not pay out of spite.
Sadly, I know all to well what this feeling is like. Several years ago a magazine called Gambling Exclusive owed me €7,000 and it took me a very long time to admit to myself I wasn’t getting paid. Not only did I hold off from going public about it, I actually worked for them for way too long without payment. I was so fearful that a misstep on my part would result in not getting paid. In the end I went ballistic (I made a member of staff there cry, which I am secretly proud of) and I later discovered they were actually shady from the start, and went out of business. I never got paid, and in hindsight, I was never going to.
The longer you wait, the worse it gets
It took Ted four years to go public
I understand completely why anyone would want to avoid going public when they are owed money. It really sucks having to put extra effort into getting that money back when it was yours to begin with. It would be pretty stupid to name and shame someone if it has only been a couple of weeks or even months, because there can be genuine reasons for none payment.
However, the longer you leave it, the more frustrating it gets. The longer you leave it, the clearer it becomes the other person has no respect for what they owe you. The longer you leave it, the less your threat of exposing them publicly holds weight. And finally, the longer you leave it, the more you will wish you had gone public sooner.
How should the poker community police people who don’t pay debts? What is a reasonable amount of time to wait before going public on a debt? Let me know in the comments box.There is nothing new, except only that we aren’t tired to repeat for the hundred and fifty-first time :
“St. Petersburg is an amazing city!”
Sometimes we walk along the same streets in the center, seemingly, for an eternity and stop noticing much, getting deeper into your thoughts and worries. But it is worth at some point cross a road to the other side, just raise your head and “wow!” – all problems for a moment evaporate, because an absolutely marvelous view in front of us.
There is a feeling that the facades of houses hide their true beauty, saving it for a special occasion. And at some moment when the light falls at a certain angle, or the sky ceases to be gray and will be reflected in the dark windows with a deep blue color, or simply a state of mind that is ready to perceive only the beautiful, but then the buildings are transformed in a completely fantastic way. The city suddenly changes, the rapture overflows, and we begin to understand, Saint Petersburg is strange, mystical, magnificent, and it is the best.
And only in St. Petersburg and a little bit in Vyborg you can get acquainted with the harsh elegance of such a phenomenon in the history of architecture, like “The North Art Nouveau”.
House of Lidval (Kamennoostrovsky prospect, 1/3), architect Friedrich Lidval.
This style appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century, to a certain extent, under the influence of the architecture of Finland and Sweden, where national romanticism, with its interest to the stories of ancient tales, appealed to its culture, traditions and history and at that time it was one of the main trends in the art of these countries.
Pohjola, building, architects Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren and Eliel Saarinen, Helsinki
The culture of its “northern neighbors” got famous for Russia owing to Sergei Diaghilev. This man is truly the titanic figure in Russian culture, the scope of his activities, his taste and passion for art was amazing.
In 1897, Diaghilev organized an exhibition of Scandinavian artists in the technical school of Baron AL Stieglitz. Perhaps this, he opened to the architects the harsh poetry of a new trend for that time, and at the beginning of the century, houses in the style of the “Northern Art Nouveau” began to be built in St. Petersburg.
House of Lidval (Kamennoostrovsky prospect, 1/3), architect Friedrich Lidval. Photo of Reshetov.
One of the first and architects of this style was the representative of the Swedish diaspora of Petersburg Fedor (Friedrich) Lidval.
Its construction of the period from 1901 to 1907, including the residential complex of the family Lidval (Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt, 1/3), became the classics of the Northern Art Nouveau.
House of Lidval (Kamennoostrovsky prospect, 1/3), architect Friedrich Lidval. Photo of Reshetov.
In 1898 the site on Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt was bought by the mother of the architect Fyodor Lidval Ida Baltаzarovna. This building was the first self-employed work of the architect.
House of Lidval (Kamennoostrovsky prospect, 1/3), architect Friedrich Lidval.
The architect erected a complex of buildings of different number of storeys. But despite the asymmetry, the architectural structure, in general, seems to be a single harmonious composition.
He also was the author of the innovation, previously not seen in the architecture of St. Petersburg. He designed a large front yard facing the street. Thanks to that, the apartments got a lot of daylight. It was a completely unconventional variant of a profitable house. In the main buildings of St. Petersburg had “yard-wells.” Small internal spaces, in which every sound was heard even on the highest floor.
The decor of the facade bears all the features of the style Art Nouveau. The relief inscription “1902” adorns the central portal, the year of construction. On the sides of the inscription and then begins the most interesting, inherent only in the northern branch of this architectural style are almost fabulous images of nature. The bird that arrived and sat on the pine is next to a hare, and behind it another one runs out of the forest.
In this house the 3rd floor was occupied until 1915 by the owner herself – Ida Lidval, and her sons Eduard Lidval and Fedor Lidval lived in the neighboring apartments on the same floor Of the famous tenants therewas the artist Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin.
The building of the insurance company “Russia” on Bolshaya Morskaya Street, 1907, architect G. Gimpel
If you once have walked around street Bolshaya Morskaya and enjoyed by the beginning of the White Nights season, have breathed in the damp air of the cold St. Petersburg summer, you could raise your head and you would find that the gray building (number 35), at the bottom covered with a rough stone that rushed upwards with clean and elongated shapes ending in three gables. The frieze of the building is decorated with fabulous panels, on which the knights are slender rows running along the cornice to harsh hikes.
One of the features of the Northern Art Nouveau is the variety of facing textures. The walls of the building are covered with light gray granite. The first floor of the house is faced with blocks of red Gangut’s granite. Smoke-pink granite from the Kovantsari deposit is the facing material of the upper floors. The combination of black, red and light grayish-pink stone creates an elegant appearance. But the most effective element of the decor is majolica compositions on the theme “Russian North”, made according to the drawings of N. K. Roerich. The upper majolica mosaic frieze was lost during the siege of Leningrad. Only three small episode have been preserved above the windows of the second floor.
The majolica frieze was recreated by specialists of the firm “Poliform-R”, under the direction of A. V. Oleinik in 2009.
House with owls, Putilova’s house on the Bolshoy prospect of the Petrograd side, 1907, architect Ippolit Pretro
Bolshoy Prospect PS (Petrograd side), 44
Owls crown the portal of the building from it, that’s why it was nicknamed among the people “House with owls”. Architect Ippolit Pretro is one of the main representatives of the Northern Art Nouveau in St. Petersburg, built this house for merchant-woman Putilova, who owned a store on Vasilievsky Island.
At first the building attracts attention with that artistic disorder, in which the windows are made in different forms: here they are wider, and there, on the contrary, it is longer. Following this, the gaze falls on the various rhytm of the bays windows and the abundance of ornaments, that was created by the architect under inspiration of images of northern folklore, flora and fauna.
The house became one of the brightest examples of the Northern Art Nouveau, which began to make its first steps in St. Petersburg and the architects were in some search.
In 1912, Pretro was awarded a silver medal at the city’s competition of the best facades, that at that time was the highest award for the architect.
House of Bubyr
Stremyannaya street 11
At the beginning of the 20th century, St. Petersburg architect Alexei Bubyr purchased a site for a building on Stremyannaya Street and he and other architect Nikolai Vasilyev built a profitable house. Bubyr planned to live with his family, and leasing out the rest of the rooms and apartments to townspeople. This building had become a new attraction because of the curious decors that abundantly adorn the facade of the facility. What kinds of creatures descend through its walls: crows, fish, plants, obscure creatures from legends and fairy tales. One of the major place of the decorative design is taken by the image of the sun, which compensates the main part of the facade, turned to the north.
Building of the new house lasted two years. 1907 is the end date for constructing. At the last, Bubyr and his family began to live on the sixth floor,.
Architect owned the house until 1919, but soon after the revolution he was forced to leave for Ukraine, where his life ended in a tragic way.
The facade of the house on Stremyannaya is filled with images of stylized snakes, fish, human heads, symbols of the sun. The front porch is guarded by cut stone birds. This bizarre decor is combined with the darkened walls of this asymmetrical building. The house at Stremyannaya 11 is considered one of the best examples of Northern Art Nouveau in St. Petersburg. All the decor is thought out to the smallest detail, including the forged gate and the railing of stair flights.
The tenants were respectable in this dwelling. At one time next to Bubyr lived another of his partner in architectural projects, Lev Ilyin, after the revolution became the chief architect of Leningrad and died in the blockadeof the city during WWII. Nikolai Vasilyev had also lived briefly under this roof till 1917, but then went to the Crimea, from there – to Constantinople, and then to America.
Soon Bubyr, who had lost all private orders, left his house. The route led to Ukraine, but was cut off halfway. There were reports that the architect was shot by bandits. According to one of the legends, the widow of Bubyr (the daughter of the owner of the piano factory Diederichs Freres) discovered a family’s suitcase at a priest. He admitted that he found him next to two corpses that had been robbed. It’s common for the Civil War.
Profitable house A. L. Sagalova
Architect AL Lishnevsky, 1900-1910
Ligovsky pr., 2 / Svechnoy per., 27
This building is one of the most interesting and latest monuments of the Northern Art Nouveau in St. Petersburg. The apartment house was built by the architect A. L. Lishnevsky, with the participation of the architect A. L. Berlin and the civil engineer N. N. Aistov, at the request of the doctor AL Sagalov, the director of the private maternity hospital.
Some believe that much of the composition and decor was borrowed from another architectural object – the house of Pietinen in Vyborg, at the railway station’s square, built in 1908 by the architects Jung, Beaumanson and Lindgren, (which will be discussed below).
The surface of the walls is decorated very sparingly, only the pylons of the lower floors are plastered as stone slips. The greater role is played by the reliefs decorating the house. The central element of the facade overlooking Ligovsky Prospekt is a staircase, marked out by a giant frame with an attic. This element is quite rare for St. Petersburg. Usually the stairwells tried to orient themselves in the yard. The facade facing Svechnaya Lane is noticeably longer, and decorated more diversely. On it there are two bay windows, loggias, the central place is occupied by three spectacular lion masks.
Features of the “Northern Art Nouveau” manifested themselves in a number of works far from it. For example, severe northern modernity prevails over the oriental motifs in the building of the Cathedral Mosque.
Vyborg
Opposite the railway station you can see a large building in the style of national romanticism. This is the former home of Pietinen.
The house was built in 1906-1908 by order of furniture manufacturer Matti Pietinen.
The project of the house was designed by architects Bertel Jung and Oscar Bomansson.
The Northern Art Nouveau is a unique phenomenon in Russian architecture. Combining austerity and elegance, an asymmetrical composition, a restrained color spectrum, a combination of textures, a game of light and shadows of relief decors, and sometimes bright inserts in the form of mosaic panels. Incredible style sets a unique atmosphere for the city. These buildings of St. Petersburg as dressed in gray suede dandies are always kept and are filled in with subtle chic.Written by
You hear a lot about how to lose weight. Not so many of us are trying to gain it.
This article would be so much cooler if it had a headline like, “How I Gained 20 Pounds of Muscle in 30 Days (On a Vegan Diet).” And if it included dazzling before and after photos, it would probably do a lot to show people it’s possible.
That’s what I had in mind when, earlier this summer, I took a look at myself in the mirror, realized I had gotten too thin, and decided it was time to hit the gym.
Actually, even for a small guy like me (I was all the way down to 132 lbs when I decided it was time to start putting weight back on) a goal like 20 pounds in 30 days wasn’t as crazy as it sounds.
Twice in my life, once in college and once shortly after, I’ve gone from 140 to 160 pounds very quickly, drastically increasing my strength and staying fairly lean at the same time. The only difference now, with a vegan diet, would be the absence of chicken breasts and milk — two foods I absolutely relied on during any rapid muscle gain diets I did the past.
I knew that adding weight wouldn’t be any help to me as a runner, but that was okay. I needed a break and a change of pace, and I didn’t like being so skinny. And if in the process I could show a bunch of people that it is possible to put on a ton of muscle really quickly on a vegan diet, then all the better.
How it really turned out
I didn’t gain 20 pounds in 30 days.
I did, however, gain 17 pounds in about 6 weeks, topping out at 149. Not exactly a strike-fear-in-the-hearts-of-enemies number, I know, but it’s a lot more than 132, and a total weight increase of almost 13%. And although the point wasn’t to gain strength but to gain mass, I got a lot stronger too, increasing my chest press from 130 to 195 pounds for a 7-rep set.
But my results could have been a lot better if not for two interruptions to my regimen:
I traveled a lot and was not able to maintain the volume of eating I could do at home. This killed my momentum on three separate weekends. I suppose I could have been more disciplined with my eating, but a large portion of my calories came from a “fat shake” that I just couldn’t make on the road (more on the fat shake later). I got injured when I made a careless mistake in the gym. Six weeks after I had started, I tore a disc in my back when I inadvertently loaded more weight on one side of the barbell than the other for a deadlift and tried to lift the unbalanced load. When I learned this would keep me out for three weeks, I decided I was done with muscle gain.
Still, 17 pounds is nothing to shake a carrot at, especially for a skinny guy who has always found it harder to gain weight than to lose it. So here’s what I did, the vegan-adapted version of what I found success with the other two times I’ve succeeded at quickly putting on a bunch of muscle.
If you can’t gain weight, you’re probably making this mistake
Shortly after I got interested in fitness in college, I wanted desperately to get bigger. I drank all these Myoplex shakes, ate six meals a day, and lifted like crazy. And yet I just couldn’t get past 140 pounds.
After every trip to the gym, I’d eagerly weigh in, feeling all puffed up from my lift and sure I’d tip the scales. And every time, I’d see 140. F’ing 140.
So I did some research, and came across Anthony Ellis, a guy who went from 135 to 180, and finally discovered what was wrong:
Trying to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time is completely counterproductive.
Prior to learning this, I thought the road to muscle gain was more lean protein along with more lifting, and of course some cardio to keep the fat off. Wrong.
I made three big changes as a result, and experienced drastic, immediate muscle gain.
I stopped running and all other forms of cardio. I started lifting fewer times each week, training each muscle group only once per week. I started eating more fat. Way more fat. Like, getting up in the middle of the night to make a peanut butter sandwich.
And I gained weight. I went from 140 to 160 pretty quickly. I don’t remember exactly how long it took, but I figure it was about six weeks.
My approach this time
Really, putting on weight is about only two things. Lifting, which is important. And eating, which is more important. I’ll explain what I did for each.
The lifting
For the lifting, I decided to try out Tim Ferriss’ methods from The 4-Hour Body, specifically the chapter “Occam’s Protocol I: A Minimalist Approach to Mass.”
Here, Tim proposes a lifting regimen that requires less than half an hour a week of gym time per week: just two sets of exercise each session (one each of two different lifts), performed at extremely slow cadence (5 seconds up, 5 seconds down), until utter and painful failure is reached.
And not just “I can’t get this next rep, so I’ll quit” failure, but really putting every bit of effort you have into pushing that last rep up, and then lowering it as slowly as possible. (Tim quotes a funny line from Arthur Jones: “If you’ve never vomited from doing a set of barbell curls, then you’ve never experienced outright hard work.”)
There are way more details you should know about Tim’s plan before you try it, especially about how frequently to work out and how to increase the weights. And since I don’t want to get sued for plagiarism, you’ll have to check out The 4-Hour Body to learn about that stuff.
I must admit, this was fun. An unexpected benefit was what knowing that my gym time was precious helped me get amped up for it –knowing, for example, that this one set of 7 or 8 reps is my only chance all week to do chest press certainly made it easy, almost fun, to keep going until I reached that point of true failure.
And it worked. I followed Tim’s plan to the letter for about three weeks, gaining 3-4 pounds per week, until I decided I wanted to alter the plan to include some lifts I really liked, like squats and deadlifts (in hindsight, not my best idea). But I followed the same cadence, rep scheme, and frequency of workouts, and kept getting results.
As it turns out, Tim’s approach isn’t all that different from what I had done to put on weight before. Infrequent workouts, heavy weight, and sets to all-out failure. So I knew going in it would work. The diet, however, I wasn’t so sure about.
The eating
As I wrote before: The major difference between this time and previous ones was my diet. I wasn’t vegan then, or even vegetarian. When I wanted to bulk up in the past, I just ate tons of cheese, milk, steak, and chicken breasts, and it was pretty easy.
Not that I doubted it was possible for people to get big on a vegan diet. Look at Robert Cheeke or Derek Tresize. But for me, a guy whose equilibrium size is more sapling than mature oak, I wasn’t so sure.
In looking at my diet, it was pretty clear that it was lower in both protein and fat than what had worked for me in the past. So I focused on adding those two nutrients to my current diet, without reducing carbohydrates, hence increasing total calories.
I also tried to eat larger portion sizes in general, and found that after just a few days this became comfortable. I did eat fewer salads and raw vegetables, since they take up a lot of room without providing many calories. (That’s just one reason why I would never stick with diet like the one described here long-term, nor recommend it for all-around health.)
Looking back at the journal I kept of my meals, I see that the protein and fat increases came primarily from protein powder, almond butter, flax and coconut oil.
Here’s what a typical day looked like (I don’t have calorie counts, because I just hate counting calories, even with mass-gaining):
Smoothie, with an extra scoop of protein powder (11 additional grams protein) and an extra 2 tablespoons of almond butter
12 ounces coffee
Orange
1 cup brown rice with 1.5 cups yellow lentils and zucchini
Whole wheat bagel with almond butter
Banana
Vega Sport Performance Optimizer before workout
Apple juice immediately after workout
Vegan Fat Shake (see recipe below)
Handful of snacks, like Mary’s Gone Crackers sticks
2 servings of millet with kidney beans, carrots, and collard greens
Glass of red wine
Clif Mojo Bar, peanut butter pretzel flavor
Not a crazy amount of food, really. But way more than I usually eat, and definitely higher in fat, thanks to the “fat shake.”
The vegan fat shake
The fat shake is something else I got from 4-Hour Body. Tim’s version is about as far from vegan as a shake could be, with raw milk and raw eggs as key ingredients. My vegan version was obviously lacking in the raw animal protein category, but I found it did a nice job of providing a lot of protein and fat among its roughly 1000 calories. I drank it about two hours after each workout, and also the first day after each workout.
Here’s the recipe:
12 ounces raw, homemade almond milk
2-3 tablespoons raw, homemade almond butter
1 tablespoon ground flax seed
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 tablespoon flax seed oil
2 tablespoons chia seeds
2 scoops soy-free veggie protein powder (about 22 grams of protein)
1 teaspoon maca powder
1 banana
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon wheat grass powder, just to be a granola-crunching hippie badass
Blend all ingredients together in a blender.
Supplements
I also added a few supplements, in addition to the multivitamin I usually take. Each day, I added to one of my smoothies:
5 grams creatine
5 grams glutamine
1000 IU tablet of Vitamin D3
And right before I got hurt, I realized that I was missing one thing from my earlier mass-gaining days, which was a proper post-workout carbohydrate drink. I had been using apple juice, but in hindsight I wish I would have used something that was designed to deliver quick, post-workout carbs.
Conclusion
It worked. Maybe with not staggering results, although if I didn’t have any experience with gaining muscle from the past, then perhaps I would have found a 17-pound gain to be staggering. I did start to gain some fat towards the end: my overall body fat increased by 1-2% throughout the process (that’s as accurate as I can get with my cheap body fat scale), so I probably would have stopped within a few more weeks anyway had I not gotten injured.
Just to restate, I wouldn’t recommend a diet like this long-term. I’m sure consuming that many calories (and that much fat) isn’t healthy. If you’re looking to gain weight on a vegan diet, then sure, you can look at my experience as one example, but I highly recommend checking out Robert Cheeke’s book, Vegan Bodybuilding and Fitness, for diet advice from someone more experienced than I am, and Tim Ferris’ book 4-Hour Body for the details of the lifting regimen (which I have nothing but good things to say about, with the results I got in so little gym time).
And now, three weeks after my injury, I’m happy to say that the torn disc in my back is healed. I probably won’t do deadlifts for a little while, and I’m done with weight gain for the foreseeable future. But I’ve got lots more planned, and I’m excited about what’s next.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Huge crowds packed central Moscow for one of the biggest protests in years
Tens of thousands of people have rallied in central Moscow in a show of anger at alleged electoral fraud.
They passed a resolution "not to give a single vote to (PM) Vladimir Putin" at next year's presidential elections.
Protest leader Alexei Navalny told the crowd to loud applause that Russians would no longer tolerate corruption.
"I see enough people here to take the Kremlin and [Government House] right now but we are peaceful people and won't do that just yet," he said.
Demonstrators say parliamentary elections on 4 December, which were won by Mr Putin's party, were rigged. The government denies the accusation.
A spokesman for Mr Putin, currently Russian prime minister, later said that "the majority of the population" supported him, describing the protesters as a minority.
In a BBC interview, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was confident that Mr Putin would win the presidential elections in March, saying he was "beyond the competition".
'We're the power'
On Saturday, a sea of demonstrators stretched along Sakharov Avenue, a few miles from the Kremlin, in sub-zero temperatures.
Rallies were taking place across Russia, with the first big protest in the far eastern city of Vladivostok.
Image copyright Reuters We are peaceful people but we can't put up with this forever Alexei Navalny, Protest leader
At least 28,000 people turned out in the capital, according to the Russian interior ministry, but rally organisers said the true number was around 120 |
close proximity to other options like Wayah Road, the Cherohala Skyway, Moonshiner 28, Devil’s Triangle TN, Six Gap in Georgia, and Diamondback 226A means endless hours and days of driving bliss.
Why? Miata, MX-5, Eunos Roadster, whatever you call it, the Mazda Miata is the most popular sports car ever made. With more than 1,000,000 built since 1989 and fans and enthusiasts the world over love to come together to enjoy great driving roads, make lasting friendships, and enjoy being a part of the greatest group of car enthusiasts around.This inaugural provincial food report card was launched at The Conference Board of Canada’s 5th Canadian Food and Drink Summit, held in Toronto, Ontario, November 28–29, 2016. It compares 63 food performance metrics across Canada’s 10 provinces. The report card organizes these metrics around the Canadian Food Strategy’s five elements: industry prosperity, healthy food and diets, food safety, household food security, and environmental sustainability. It strives to offer clear comprehensive evidence of provincial food system and food sector performance toward enhancing public and private awareness and commitment to action.
This provincial food report card is the second in a series of annual Canadian food report cards that explore and monitor Canada’s food performance. Canada’s Food Report Card 2015 compared Canada’s international food performance to 16 OECD countries. This 2016 food report card is the first to compare Canada’s domestic food performance across all 10 provinces (and territories where data permit). The comparison shows Saskatchewan leading Canada’s provincial food performances, followed by British Columbia and Quebec. In contrast, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador lag their provincial peers in food performance, on average, across the Canadian Food Strategy’s five elements.Despite a weak schedule, the Seminoles have earned the top spot
Following a 37-7 victory over rival Florida on Saturday that was coupled with a dramatic loss by top-ranked Alabama to arch-rival Auburn, Florida State is the nation’s #1 team for the first time since 2000 in the human polls and 1999 in the BCS.
Thanks to over 300 yards passing from quarterback Jameis Winston on Saturday that included three touchdown tosses to Kelvin Benjamin and a defensive effort that held the once-potent Florida offense to under 200 yards, the Seminoles tied a school record with their 12th victory of the season. Now, only Duke stands between Florida State and the BCS National Championship.
The schedule for Florida State has not been great. The Seminoles have not played a bowl-eligible, non-conference opponent and the ACC is improved, but once again, a less than stellar conference. Despite that, Florida State has made the most of the opportunities that it has had while others have not.
In the BCS era, style points have certainly become important and more often than not, the team with the best overall resume gets the nod in the Bowl Championship Series standings. A handful of teams would likely sit ahead of the Seminoles had they simply done what Florida State has all year and that’s take care of business.
Entering the weekend, the matchup anticipated in the national title game was pitting Alabama against Florida State. The Crimson Tide, the nation’s two-time defending national champions, entered the week as the nation’s #1 ranked team in virtually every poll. Had it not been for four missed field goals on Saturday, Alabama would still be the top team in the country. For that, there is no blame to be placed on FSU.
After Auburn’s victory over Alabama on Saturday, the Tigers will face fifth-ranked Missouri in the SEC Championship. Missouri is 11-1 while playing in the nation’s best conference, but Mizzou let a 17-point lead evaporate in 12 minutes at home against South Carolina earlier this season. Had it not been for that loss, the Missouri Tigers may be ahead of Florida State at this point. For that loss to the Gamecocks however, the Seminoles bear no blame.
Less than a month ago, there was much debate as to whether Florida State could ever jump an Oregon team that seemed untouchable. The Ducks were 8-0 and had not played a game decided by fewer than three touchdowns. On November 7th, Oregon was pushed around to the tune of 274 rushing yards in a 26-20 loss to Stanford. The Ducks failed to even show up more than two weeks later in a 42-16 loss at Arizona to fall to 9-2 on the year. Once thought to be a favorite to play in the national championship, Oregon can no longer even win the Pac-12. For that, Florida State cannot be blamed.
At 10-1, Oklahoma State has won seven straight games, has handed Baylor its only loss and can win the Big XII Conference for the second time in three years with a victory at home over rival Oklahoma on Saturday. The Cowboys’ loss however came in Morgantown to a West Virginia team that finished with just four wins.
On September 28th, the Mountaineers beat Oklahoma State with a redshirt junior quarterback named Clint Trickett, who was at Florida State last season. Trickett appeared to see the writing on the wall that the starting job in Tallahassee would never be his and transferred to West Virginia. Trickett passed for over 300 yards that day in a 30-21 victory over Oklahoma State. For that, you can’t blame the Seminoles.
What Florida State should take responsibility for is the fact that the Seminoles have shown up and dominated virtually every week. While Winston, a redshirt freshman, has become the face of the program, the Seminoles are a very veteran team on both sides of the football. With a balanced offense that averages better than 525 yards-per-game and ranks second nationally in scoring, FSU has scored at least 37 points in every contest this season.
Florida State has scored at least 50 points seven times and has broke 60 on three occasions including a school-record 80 points against Idaho just over a week ago. With a defense led by seniors Christian Jones, Lamarcus Joyner and Telvin Smith, FSU is allowing the fewest points per game this season with 11 per contest. Six of Florida State’s 12 opponents have failed to hit double digits and only Boston College back in September managed to crack 20.
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While Florida State’s schedule has been weak, the Seminoles have had three matchups against ranked opponents including two against teams in the top 10 at the time of the contest. The Seminoles’ non-conference schedule was also supposed to contain West Virginia, the same school that handed Oklahoma State its only loss, and Florida, who was a BCS at-large a season ago. West Virginia backed out of what was agreed to be a home-and-home series after joining the Big XII while Florida is in the midst of its worst season in three decades. For that, don’t blame Florida State.
What the Seminoles have done is beat three ranked teams by a combined 155-28 margin. While FSU’s 63-0 victory over then #25 Maryland is no longer as impressive, the Terrapins at the time, were 4-0 and coming off of a 37-0 win over West Virginia. Yes, that same West Virginia who is the only team to beat Oklahoma State.
Against a Clemson team and at a place where the Tigers had topped a healthy top 10 SEC team in Georgia earlier in the season, Florida State routed then third-ranked Clemson by a 51-14 score while putting up the most points ever by a visitor at a place called Death Valley. Two weeks later, Florida State handed a 7-0 Miami team that was ranked seventh in the country, a 41-14 loss by shutting out the rival Hurricanes in the second half.
It is also worth mentioning that since their losses to Florida State, both Miami and Maryland have lost its best offensive players during the late season slides for both of those teams. Miami running back Duke Johnson and Maryland wide receiver Stefon Diggs are two of the more dynamic playmakers in the ACC and arguably the country. Not to make excuses, but Miami and Maryland are definitely better teams with those guys in the lineup and both have been lost to season-ending injuries. For those unfortunate losses for the Hurricanes and Terrapins, you can’t blame the Seminoles.
While Florida State has certainly not played the nation’s toughest schedule, the Seminoles have taken care of what was in front of them every week. Aside from a 48-34 victory over a Boston College team on September 28th, no team has scored more than 17 points against Florida State and only Miami has lost by fewer than 30 points to the Seminoles.
In the days of the BCS where style points of utmost importance, Florida State is putting up ridiculous numbers often with the second team in for most of and in some cases, the entire second half. While the ACC is not the SEC or Pac-12, it has more bowl-eligible teams than any other conference in America and FSU is winning by an average margin of victory of more than six touchdowns. For that, you can blame the Seminoles.
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FSU Football: Gators, ‘Noles heading in opposite directionsNEW DELHI: The Haryana government aspires to take its growth in GDP terms to 25 per cent from the present 8 per cent, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said today.Currently, the GDP of Haryana is 8 per cent and "we are thinking of ways to take it further. Haryana has immense potential. We have the target of taking our GDP to 25 per cent and have started working on it," an official statement quoted Khattar as saying while talking to students of Sri Ram College of Commerce here.The CM also mentioned that though India today is an emerging economy, yet it has a share of about 2.65 per cent in the world's GDP.Referring to Haryana, he said the state, despite 2 per cent population of the country, contributes 10 per cent of the soldiers in Indian army and its hard working farmers are pride of the nation.He added that the share of Haryana in India's GDP is 3.5 per cent which is a big share compared to its area.Khattar also said that a start-up weekend camp for girls and women will be organised in Kurukshetra University from 26th to 28th February.The women and girls excelling in this camp will be honored on 8th March in 'Happening Haryana Global Investor's Summit-2016' at Gurgaon, he added.TransUnion's Latest Industry Insights Report Finds Credit Unions Performing Exceptionally Well
TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - November 10, 2016) - Non-mortgage debt balances rose to $21,686 at the conclusion of the third quarter of 2016, according to TransUnion's ( NYSE : TRU) latest Canada Industry Insights Report, and TransUnion forecasts they will likely continue to rise over the next two years.
Canadian consumers saw average non-mortgage debt balances rise by 2.3% between Q3 2015 ($21,195) and Q3 2016 ($21,686). The provinces of Ontario (+2.6%) and Quebec (+3.6%) led the yearly increases in debt. TransUnion is forecasting a marginal increase of non-mortgage debt levels to $21,747 by the end of 2017; with an improved economic outlook, that reading may reach $22,000 by the end of 2018.
"Canadians continued to add debt in the third quarter, with balances increasing across most loan types," said Jason Wang, TransUnion's director of research and analysis in Canada. "The recent government outlook of weak economic conditions may have led some consumers to believe low interest rates will be here for a long time, which could result in pushing balances even higher due to low expected borrowing costs. With the latest data in hand, we think it's especially important for lenders to continue monitoring and stress testing their portfolios to ensure they can maintain stable performance when interest rates do eventually rise."
Stress testing is critical, because a recent TransUnion study found that 700,000 Canadians may not be able to absorb even a ¼-point interest rate hike. Up to one million consumers could be impacted by a full one percentage point rate hike.
Q3 2016 Regional Credit Performance
Geography Average Consumer Non-Mortgage Debt Levels Yearly Debt Level Pct. Change 90+ Day Delinquency (DQ) Rates Yearly DQ Change Canada $21,686 2.31% 2.70% 3.04% Alberta $27,663 0.46% 3.13% 13.39% British Columbia $23,363 1.25% 2.59% -0.41% Ontario $21,620 2.64% 2.73% -1.18% Quebec $17,969 3.57% 2.12% 4.94% Saskatchewan $24,217 1.92% 3.46% 11.92%
While debt levels have increased, serious delinquency rates (90 days or more past due) have only risen slightly, from 2.62% in Q3 2015 to 2.70% in Q3 2016. Delinquency rates still remain below the average Q3 delinquency rate observed between 2012 and 2014 (2.85%).
The largest yearly delinquency gains have been in Alberta (+13.4%) and Saskatchewan (+11.9%), while Ontario (-1.2%) and British Columbia (-0.4%) have seen modest declines. TransUnion forecasts the overall Canada delinquency rate will improve to approximately 2.63% by the end of 2017, a 2.2% decline.
TransUnion Forecasts Gradually Increasing Debt Levels and Improving Delinquencies Q4 2016 Q4 2017 Q4 2018 Average Balance Per Consumer
$21,729
$21,747
$21,985 90+ Day Delinquency (DQ) Rates 2.69% 2.63% 2.56%
From a product perspective, average credit card balances per consumer have risen slightly to $3,954 (+2.0%) in the last year, while delinquency rates have risen 24 basis points to 2.26%. Installment loans continue to be a popular credit product, with balances rising 6.8% in the last year to $24,782 as of Q3 2016. This is a $2,200 increase from just two years ago. In that same time, serious delinquency rates for installment loans have dropped from 3.76% in Q3 2014 to 3.30% in Q3 2016.
"Delinquencies remain low on an overall basis, and that is a critical component for the larger Canadian credit picture," said Wang. "It's a sign that Canadians are largely able to manage their debts and make their payments on time every month. However, we will continue to monitor the trend for any potential signs consumers are having more difficulties managing their debt levels."
Credit Unions Exhibit Strong Performance
TransUnion's latest report also examined the credit union market and how consumer loans issued by credit unions are performing against the rest of the lending industry. As of Q3 2016, credit union loans exhibited much lower delinquency rates across the board.
Credit Union Loans Have Lower Delinquency Rates than Those Underwritten By Other Lenders 90+ Days Past Due in Q3 2016 Underwritten By All Lenders Underwritten By Credit Unions Difference Credit Cards 2.26% 1.92% - 15% Lines of Credit 0.81% 0.25% - 69% Installment Loans 3.30% 0.70% - 79%
"With an overall market share in the 7% to 11% range, credit unions play an important role in consumer lending, and help provide Canadians an important source of liquidity. These lower delinquency readings clearly demonstrate prudent lending practices by credit unions and the value of the strong relationships and close community ties they have with their members," said Wang. "At the same time, credit unions may want to review the balance between their risk appetite and growth goals, as these low delinquency rates may indicate opportunities to expand their lending activities while maintaining acceptable overall risk levels."
Credit Unions' Share of the Overall Lending Market Consumer Loan Balances in Q3 2016 All Lenders Credit Unions Credit Unions' Share Credit Cards $89.6 billion $6.2 billion 7.0% Lines of Credit $197.0 billion $22.2 billion 11.0% Installment Loans $132.0 billion $13.0 billion 10.2%
More information about the Q3 2016 TransUnion Canada Industry Insights Report can be found here.
About TransUnion Canada Industry Insights Report
TransUnion's Canada Industry Insights Report is an in-depth, full population-based solution that provides statistical information every quarter from TransUnion's national consumer credit database, aggregated across virtually every active credit file on record. Each file contains hundreds of credit variables that illustrate consumer credit usage and performance. By leveraging the Industry Insights Report, institutions across a variety of industries can analyze market dynamics over an entire business cycle, helping to understand consumer behaviour over time and across different geographic locations throughout Canada. Businesses can access more details about and subscribe to the Industry Insights Report at http://www.transunioninsights.ca/IIR/.By Asaf Romirowsky
When one looks at Israeli history, the two wars that changed and defined the country the most were the Six Day War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973. The Six Day War put Israel on the map as a true military force in the Middle East, and gave it the respect it needed in the eyes of the Arab world and in the eyes of the U.S. The Yom Kippur War in 1973 was a different story altogether; it was Israel’s Pearl Harbor. Israel would eventually overcome the Syrian and Egyptians forces on the battlefield, but it was a frightfully close affair, and ultimately cost the lives of 2,688 soldiers.
In retrospect, the events that came prior to attack on one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar could have been avoided and Israel should have been far more prepared. Every year since 1973 reminds Israel of that fatal period.
In the aftermath of 1973, and for years to come, Israel’s Chief of Staff at the time - David Elazar (‘Dado’)- was painted as the one responsible for the war. The Agranat Commission which investigated the events that led to the war's outbreak recommended Elazar’s dismissal, and absolved both the Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan and Prime Minister Golda Meir of responsibility. But reporter Abraham Rabinovich in his book The Yom Kippur War dispels the myth the Elazar was at fault. Dado wanted to call up reserves in preparation for a full-scale military attack on the eve of the war. It was the head of AMAN (Israeli military Intelligence) Eli Zeira who minimized the significance of military maneuvers across the Southern and Northern borders, and managed to belittle the threat by arguing that it was nothing more than Egyptian and Syrian annual military drills. Zeira avowed that there was ‘low probability’ for a war on both Northern and Southern fronts. Prime Minister Golda Meir, not being a specialist, relied on her military advisors, especially Dayan and accepted Zeira’s prognosis.
Of late, recently declassified documents by the IDF archives validate many of these failures, including the breakdown in communication regarding the passing of the warning by Mossad handler Ashraf Marwan – the son-in-law of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser – who allegedly spied on behalf of Israel.
In Israel’s military doctrinal history, there are two types of wars: wars of choice and wars of compulsion. The late Dan Horowitz of Hebrew University of Jerusalem explained that, “in [late Prime Minister Menachem] Begin’s opinion, only wars initiated by Arabs— the War of Independence and the Yom Kippur War — were wars of no choice. All the rest, without distinction between a preemptive strike, preventive war, war in response to violation of predetermined rule defined as casus belli, or war for attainment of political objectives— all are ‘wars of choice.’”
Consequently, Israeli Wars became a subject of great interest in the area of international affairs. The victory of the Six Day War was the beginning of a euphoric era for Israeli society. Much of the world, helped by various Christian sentiments, saw the Jewish State as invincible, and the Israeli public and military felt matchless. For the first time in the fledgling democracy’s short life, Israel saw impressive economic growth. It was suddenly trendy to be an Israeli and to live in Israel, and a large wave of American Jews flocked there. Israel had conquered more than triple the size of the area it previously controlled, from 8,000 to 26,000 square miles, the defense of which would prove a staggering (and ultimately forfeited) task. But in the afterglow of victory, many in the Israeli military high command were more focused on renovating their quarters, and the soldiers who were assigned to the Sinai were improving their fishing skills on the Suez Canal.
Israel’s victory left the Arab world – especially Egypt – deeply wounded, and not only militarily but psychologically as well. It was inconceivable to the Egyptian psyche that a nation (and a nation of Jews no less) as small as Israel would so swiftly and effectively demolish their military might, and above all the Egyptian air force. Following the defeat, a steady acceleration of anti-Semitism began in Egypt. Books such as The End of Israel and Human Sacrifices in the Talmud, and of course, the long-in-print The Protocols of the Elders of Zion became best sellers. News media, films and even monuments commemorated what the ‘Zionist entity’ had done to Egypt. All of this was done in order to instill a motivation for restoring Egyptian pride, to focus the blame for the defeat outward away from the Egyptian government, and to increase the hatred and dehumanization of Israel.
It is true the 1973 war is seen as one of the few diplomatic and military failures Israel has experienced. Yet, one cannot understand Israel today 39 years later and the Israeli mindset - especially with regard to Iran - without understanding the events that took place from 1967-1973. This period surely shaped Israeli society in so many ways, especially the IDF’s military doctrine.
Israel is still attempting to deal with the “what ifs” of the tragedy of October 1973. It was most definitely not Dado’s sole responsibility, though he took most of the blame. Israel cannot afford to make any mistakes regarding Iran because “do overs” are not an option, and the cost of non-conventional warfare is far greater than conventional warfare. As attempts to marginalize the nuclear threat of Iran continue to grow while isolating Israel in tandem, it is clear that the lessons of 1973 continue to drive Israeli policymakers as they lay a course for ensuring Israel’s survival for the next 39 years.
Asaf Romirowsky PhD is a Philadelphia-based Middle East analyst, an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Forum and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.ALAMEDA, Calif. – Three Oakland Raiders players entering their contract years with the team have already been signed to extensions, and Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie said Wednesday he has reached out to the agents left tackle Jared Veldheer and defensive end Lamarr Houston.
“Make no bones about it, we want to sign as many of our good players as we can,” McKenzie said. “With the cap is the way it is this year, we won’t have a chance to do a whole lot with big-money guys like those two guys. It’d be highly unlikely we could do two, but at least we’re in a situation next year to retain some of our high-dollar guys.”
Veldheer is on the partial-season injured reserve list after undergoing surgery on a torn left triceps during the preseason. He has not had any setbacks and has yet to perform football-related activities, though he is a constant observer at practice.
McKenzie, who held a half-hour roundtable meeting with seven Bay Area-based reporters, signed long-snapper Jon Condo and place-kicker Sebastian Janikowski to extensions in training camp and announced a three-year extension for fullback Marcel Reece on Friday.
“We’re working diligently to keep our own,” McKenzie said.
Another player in his contract year who has much to prove as he has yet to play more than 13 games in a season: sixth-year running back Darren McFadden.
Then how important is it for McFadden to stay healthy this season to be considered a player McKenzie wants back in 2014?
“He knows it’s important,” McKenzie said. “He wants to be out there, he wants to show what he can do for the year. It’s important because contracts are important to players.
“Definitely not going to take that outlook away from him or any other player. Everybody wants to play well so they can get that contract.”Jonathan Coachman discusses the impact of WWE Hall of Famer Roddy Piper on the professional wrestling world and what the reaction is around the community to his death. (2:54)
Wrestling legend "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, the kilt-wearing trash-talker who headlined the first WrestleMania and later found movie stardom, has died at the age of 61, WWE announced Friday.
Piper suffered a heart attack at his home in Hollywood, California, according to Variety.
The WWE confirmed the death but provided no additional details.
"Roddy Piper was one of the most entertaining, controversial and bombastic performers ever in WWE, beloved by millions of fans around the world," WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon said. "I extend my deepest condolences to his family."
Roddy Piper was added to the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005. John Shearer/WireImage for BWR Public Relations
Piper, born Roderick Toombs in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, is the second WWE Hall of Famer to die this summer, following the June death of Dusty Rhodes.
Piper was best known for his lengthy career with the World Wrestling Federation, now the WWE. He had more than 30 titles to his name and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005.
Piper and fellow wrestling star Hulk Hogan battled for years and headlined some of the biggest matches during the 1980s. Hogan and Mr. T beat Piper and Paul Orndorff on March 31, 1985, at the first WrestleMania at Madison Square Garden.
Piper was a villain for the early portion of his career, once cracking a coconut over the skull of Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. He hosted a popular WWF talk show segment called "Piper's Pit" in the 1980s and later starred in the movie "They Live."
Piper also went by the nickname "Hot Rod'' during his career. Although he was Canadian, he often appeared in a kilt and came to the ring blowing bagpipes in a nod to his Scottish heritage.
Ronda Rousey, the UFC women's bantamweight champion who also goes by the nickname "Rowdy," paid tribute to Piper on her Instagram account Friday, dedicating Saturday's title bout against Bethe Correia to him.
"Thank you for the name.... And so much more," she wrote. "Will do it justice and do you proud tomorrow.... This one's for you Roddy."
Paul "Triple H" Levesque, a wrestler and top WWE executive, tweeted about Piper's death Friday night.
Saddened about the passing of "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. He was truly a legend and icon, and will never be forgotten... #ThankYouRoddy #RIP — Triple H (@TripleH) July 31, 2015
Piper's son, Colt Toombs, also posted about his father's death on Twitter.
My father @R_Roddy_Piper was a great man and my best friend I will miss him forever and will alway try to be the man he raised me to be — Colt Toombs (@ColtToombs) July 31, 2015
Piper became a household name because of his rivalry with Hogan and the involvement of pop star Cyndi Lauper and her friend Captain Lou Albano, also a wrestler. The feud led to an MTV special "The War to Settle the Score" in 1985. Piper was cast as the villain, and his disqualification led to Hogan claiming the WWF championship.
A brawl at the end of that fight would lead to the first WrestleMania.
Piper also had well-known rivalries with Rick Rude and Adrian Adonis, among others.
In addition to his celebrity in the ring, Piper appeared in John Carpenter's 1988 cult classic "They Live."
"He was a great wrestler. He was an underrated actor and just a marvelous entertainer, and I feel like I've just lost one of my close friends," Carpenter told The Associated Press.
Carpenter said when he last saw him, Piper had just had shoulder surgery but was doing well.
"His outlook was very good," he said. "Roddy will always be loved because of his wrestling career. He really became a legend in pro wrestling. He will not be forgotten."
Former "Survivor" star Jonny Fairplay started work in 2001 as Piper's personal assistant.
"I would wake him up in the morning and yell at him from the door of his bedroom," he said. "I'd say, 'Hailing from Glasgow, Scotland, the guy who never beat Hulk Hogan.'"
Fairplay named his daughter Piper in honor of the wrestler.
"Rowdy Piper should be remembered as the greatest bad guy of all time," he said.
More recently, Piper appeared on the show "Celebrity Wife Swap," trading wives with fellow former wrestler Ric Flair.
Piper battled Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2006, but later said he had beaten the cancer.
In recent months, Piper was active in the charity Stand For The Silent, an organization aimed at honoring the victims of bullying and bringing awareness to the issue.
Piper is survived by his wife, Kitty, and their four children.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.A rare daytime fireball lit up the sky over much of the eastern United States yesterday (Feb. 14), causing necks to crane and jaws to drop from Maryland to Massachusetts.
The fireball burned bright at around 12:35 p.m. EST (1735 GMT) or so, according to news reports. The wide region of visibility and its unmistakeable brightness make the fireball a unique event for lucky skywatchers, experts say.
"Not very common," said Joe Rao, SPACE.com's skywatching columnist. "Indeed, this was a very rare event."
Rao said he could only remember one other event like yesterday's, when a daytime meteor was widely seen across a broad swathe of land — and that happened in 1972, over the central U.S. and Canada.
The cause of yesterday's fireball was most likely a meteor, rather than a satellite or falling piece of space debris, researchers said.
"When you see something that bright streaking across the daytime sky, it's definitely a meteor," said Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
Other clues beside brightness implicate a space rock.
"If it were a re-entering satellite, we certainly would have heard from NORAD [the North American Aerospace Defense Command] by now indicating that," Rao said. "Besides, all the observations we have received suggest that this object was visible for only a few seconds at most. A re-entering satellite would have traveled on a much longer and much slower trajectory across the sky."
Cooke estimates that the meteor was probably about 5 feet (1.5 meters) across and weighed several tons, with a striking power equivalent to about 10 tons of TNT.
"It was a fairly big hunk of rock hitting the atmosphere," Cooke told SPACE.com.
Radar and other observations suggest that the space rock broke up over the Atlantic, Cooke said, probably off the coast of New York or New Jersey. While most pieces likely burned up in the atmosphere, some may have survived to splash down in the ocean — but we'll probably never know.
Daytime fireballs like this one are relatively rare events, with about one reported per month all around the world, Cooke said.
Cooke, for all his long experience observing and studying meteors and meteoroids, said he's still never seen a daytime fireball.
Plenty of space rocks hit Earth during the day, but most don't create a fireball bright enough to be seen over the glare of the sun.
And this one was bright.
"To be so readily visible in the daytime, the meteor has to rival the full moon in brightness," Rao said. "In fact, not a few of the reports from yesterday indicated it had a magnitude of -26 — or as bright as the sun!"
So yesterday's fireball was pretty special, and all those who got to see that streaking flash of light should count themselves lucky.
You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall.MUMBAI: Reserve Bank of India has identified 150 truant corporate borrowers whose accounts banks have been told not to sweep under the carpet.The instruction comes within days of RBI governor Raghuram Rajan setting a deadline of March 31, 2017, for banks to clean up their balance sheet with stressed loans crossing double digit in most banks.This is the first formal dialogue initiated by the regulator to drive home the point that banks should not disguise sticky loans as standard loans to shore up their profits.The list of 150 companies comprise accounts where the corporate debt restructuring has failed and where there is a divergence in the way different banks have classified the loan – with some categorising them as non-performing assets while others continuing to recognise them as well-behaved, standard accounts."We have received a letter from RBI listing close to 150 troubled corporates accounts which it thinks must be downgraded," a senior banker told ET, requesting anonymity.Bankers are worried their performance may suffer in the coming quarter as they make higher provisions on accounts pointed out by the central bank. In connection with the list circulated to banks, RBI officials are also meeting each bank separately to discuss possible measures that banks could take in improving their books and raising capital.Every year, after auditing a bank’s books, RBI draws up a list of accounts which needs to be downgraded following which there are informal discussions between the regulator and bank. "This time, RBI has formally prepared a list of stressed accounts to ensure there is uniformity in treatment of accounts across banks.As of now, different banks treat same account differently even when structure of loan is identical among all lenders… RBI is aiming to remove differences in treatment of loans," said another RBI official.In the letter, RBI has also told banks they can present their argument to statutory auditors if they wish to retain any of the loans (on the list) as a standard account. But, bankers fear that since auditors would prefer to be regulators’ good books, they would end up endorsing RBI’s views. "RBI does not appear to be in any mood to negotiate on the classification of bad loans The meeting was called to understand banks’ strategy because bad loans could cause some banks to bleed and make it tough for them to raise capital," said a senior banker.Data compiled by ETIG shows bad loans have jumped sharply to Rs 3.11 lakh crore in 2014-15 from Rs 92,515 crore in 2010-11.Our good friend Jim Pezzetti of Unicorn Soup has been there, done that on the Linux gaming scene. He shares his thoughts on how to get in on it, and what SteamOS means for the future of the DIYers. This is the first entry in our State of the User series, exploring where gamers are now in terms of hardware, and where they plan to go this next generation.
Consoles offer a relatively worry-free solution to gaming; however, this ease of use comes with a cost. Indie games, mods, custom and fan-made maps, alternative distribution methods, backwards-compatibility and unusual or highly customized control schemes are all off the table, as well as reasonable pricing.
PC gaming has all of those things at the cost of requiring the user to learn how her system works (to a small degree), so that he can modify it to run a recalcitrant game. The less the user knows about tinkering under the hood, the more he will have to shell out to upgrade hardware to keep his frames flowing smoothly.
In the console world, you either have the console that will run the game, or you don’t. In the PC world, it’s a bit more of a continuum. Tweaks and tinkering can make a game run on a machine that doesn’t quite fit the recommended specs. Games can be run flawlessly, or run with some number of sacrifices at varying levels of quality, if the hardware or software is not exactly supported.
Linux gaming has the same spectrum as PC gaming, only with a greater number of titles that might require tinkering, because most AAA titles aren’t released for Linux. This doesn’t mean they’re off limits. It means you fire up Wine and emulate Windows. Users should also be a little more careful purchasing hardware for Linux machines – it’s not going to say on the box whether your new treasure will run smoothly with Linux. The vast majority of equipment out there will be fine – but not everything will run at peak performance in a non-Windows environment.
Windows isn’t the only environment that can be emulated. I’ve recently been experimenting with running my old PS2 games on my Linux box, now that my console isn’t performing properly. NES, Super NES, Genesis – pretty much all the old consoles can be emulated in Linux, as well as older operating systems, MS-DOS included.
I switched to Linux years ago because I was sick of Windows breaking and bogging down constantly, and unwilling to continue upgrading hardware – not because the old component was broken, but because Windows considered it obsolete (in other words, Microsoft’s sloppy “one size fits all” approach was increasing their demands on hardware performance exponentially). Linux systems can be tailored to do exactly what you want them to, thus avoiding bloatware, with the result of hardware performing smoothly well beyond its Windows freshness date.
This doesn’t mean you have to become some sort of guru or power user to run Linux. If you’ve got an internet connection, all the help you need to make your game run is a Google search away. Linux sports several thriving communities dedicated to helping each other. Advice |
Cotton had just written a controversial open letter to Iranian leaders, and the deteriorating situation in Syria remained front and center, and any communications professional would have advised his or her boss against going out to do a round of interviews,” she said.
In the email in question, Psaki added, she is advising that Kerry “not do Sunday shows at all.”
White House officials have acknowledged repeatedly that they have coordinated at times with Clinton and her aides on responding to media inquiries related to her activities as secretary of state.
“For years now, my boss Josh Earnest from the podium in the White House briefing room has acknowledged that our staff in the communications office in the White House will be in touch with Secretary Clinton’s team about stories that pertain to Secretary Clinton’s service to the Obama administration,” White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday. “The documents that were printed only seem to back up what Josh has been acknowledging for a while.”
The coordination appears to fall within federal rules for the kind of limited political activity White House officials can conduct.
[FBI releases Hillary Clinton email probe documents]
The question about Clinton’s email did not come up in the Kerry interview CBS aired that Sunday; instead, it focused on the administration’s nuclear deal with Iran and Syria’s ongoing civil war.
CBS spokeswoman Caitlin Conant said the network did not negotiate with administration officials over what questions its State Department correspondent Margaret Brennan could ask Kerry.
“No subject was off limits when this interview was arranged, as is the CBS News standard,” Conant said. “CBS News’s State Department correspondent was in Egypt with Secretary John Kerry in the home stretch of the Iran nuclear deal negotiations and discussed policy issues of the day with him on this official trip.”
Asked whether the administration sought to influence CBS’s coverage of the email controversy, Schultz said, “That’s not my understanding. You’ll have to talk to the State Department about any engagements they had with media outlets.”
The Clinton campaign declined to comment on the matter, referring reporters to the State Department. “It is common practice for State Department and White House staffers to be in touch when agency officials are potentially conducting television interviews,” the agency said in a statement.
On Friday, the State Department released 273 pages of Clinton’s email that had been gathered by the FBI during the course of the investigation into her use of a private server during her time as secretary of state. Clinton has said that in December 2014, she returned to the State Department all emails she had in her possession that dealt with her work during her time as secretary. FBI Director James B. Comey has said the FBI recovered thousands of additional work-related emails, which have been turned over to the State Department for review. He said, however, that the agency found no evidence the emails had been purposely concealed.
The State Department is processing and releasing the emails in response to a court order from a lawsuit over a public-records request for Clinton’s correspondence. The judge’s order requires that the State Department release additional batches of emails on Oct. 21, Nov. 3 and Nov. 4 and then on a monthly basis after the election. Republicans have hoped the new material will result in damaging revelations about Clinton on the eve of the election.
Rosalind S. Helderman, Anne Gearan and Mike DeBonis contributed to this report.GREEN BAY — With Brett Favre considered a lock for first-ballot induction, the Green Bay Packers are a strong candidate to play in the 2016 Pro Football Hall of Fame game.
And the franchise’s current quarterback isn’t thrilled about it — or much of the preseason in general.
Aaron Rodgers went so far as to say that fans are likely unaware how watered down preseason games really are when he expressed his thoughts Tuesday on why he believes changes are needed in an exclusive interview inside Lambeau Field.
Article continues below...
(The complete Q&A will run Thursday on FOXSports.com.)
"There are a lot of things that need to get looked at. The number of games is obviously one of them," Rodgers said. "I don’t think we need four. Two teams have to play five. That’s tough on everybody. Obviously, it’s important for young players to show what they can do. But a lot of times there’s agreements between coaches to maybe not pressure the (quarterback) during a game or do a certain type of coverage, or there are agreements within organizations in game plans that you’re not going to show different plays.
"How much of a real game are you really simulating? I’d say a lot less than people think."
Still, Rodgers is happy about Favre’s impending selection but not the likelihood the Packers will be asked to play a fifth preseason game next year. Rodgers was outspoken about his displeasure with what he described as "meaningless" exhibition contests when Green Bay’s top wide receiver Jordy Nelson suffered a season-ending knee injury in a Week 2 preseason matchup at Pittsburgh.
"We hope we don’t get it," said Rodgers, who would almost certainly be held out of the Hall of Fame Game as a precautionary measure if Green Bay were booked. "But we know it’s going to be tough because No. 4 (Favre) is going to be going in."eLearning Stock Library Tour
I’m sure you have heard, we added an eLearning Stock Asset Library to our offering. Over 500,000+ photos, vectors, videos, and audio clips, ready to download.
One of the most impressive things about the Stock Library license is that these assets are royalty-free. You can edit them, adjust them, tweak them, add your logo to them, and show them to as many people as you would like. Want to tear apart one of the video loops in After Effects? No problem. Want to add an additional drum line to an audio clip? Have at it. As long as you are using them for eLearning, it’s covered by the user agreement.
Watch the video below for a quick tour of the search features, and see how to get started using the Stock Library in your next project.
Take a Tour of the eLearning Stock Library
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Want to become a member of the eLearning Stock Asset Library? Click the button below to learn more.
eLearning StockStory highlights Pakistan is one of three countries in the world where polio has yet to be eradicated.
The Taliban announced a ban on polio vaccinations in June
Pakistanis have viewed polio vaccination campaigns with suspicion
Gunmen fired on two female health workers administering polio vaccines in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, killing one and wounding the other.
The shooting on the outskirts of Peshawar was the latest in a series of deadly attacks against those giving out the vaccine.
Two men on a motorbike opened fire on the two women while they were going house to house in the village of Bedh Der, said local police official Shafi Ullah.
One woman died at the scene; the other was critically injured, Ullah said.
Pakistan is one of three countries in the world where polio has yet to be eradicated.
JUST WATCHED Polio aid workers killed in Pakistan Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Polio aid workers killed in Pakistan 03:02
JUST WATCHED Bin Laden raid hurts polio campaign Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Bin Laden raid hurts polio campaign 02:46
Pakistanis have viewed polio vaccination campaigns with suspicion after the CIA's use of a fake vaccination program in 2011 to collect DNA samples from residents of Osama bin Laden's compound to verify the al Qaeda leader's presence there.
Bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in May 2011.
In June, a Taliban commander in northwest Pakistan announced a ban on polio vaccines for children in the region as long as the United States continues its campaign of drone strikes in the region, the Taliban said.
It wasn't immediately clear if the Taliban played a role in Tuesday's attacks.
Polio, a highly infectious viral disease that can cause permanent paralysis in a matter of hours, has been eradicated around the world except for three countries where it is endemic: Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan.
After the number of cases spiked sharply last year, Pakistan stepped up its eradication efforts. The numbers fell from 173 in 2011 to 58 in 2012, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.Witsel snubs Juventus for China
By Football Italia staff
According to multiple reports, Zenit midfielder Axel Witsel decided to snub Juventus for the €18m salary at Shanghai SIPG or Tianjin Quanjian.
The Belgium international had suggested he was heading to Turin either in January or as a free agent at the end of the season after Zenit pulled the plug on transfer deadline day this summer.
However, he was swayed by the promise of wages worth €18m per year over a four-season contract in China.
Now several Italian sources, including Calciomercato.it, Tuttosport and the Corriere dello Sport, claim Witsel is ready to snub Champions League football at Juventus in order to pick up a massive pay packet in Asia.
Even then the situation isn’t over, as serial transfer saga protagonist Witsel is considering offers from both Shanghai SIPG and Fabio Cannavaro’s Tianjin Quanjian.
Zenit are simply content to pocket €20m for the 27-year-old, whose contract is due to expire in June, rather than the €6m Juventus were prepared to offer.Formerpolice officer Bryan Johnson - Millis PD
A former Massachusetts police officer who was fired after faking an attack on his police cruiser — launching a massive manhunt — has been found dead in his apartment, reports WCVB.
The body of Bryan Johnson, 24, was discovered in his home early Thursday morning after a roommate called investigators.
According to police, there were no signs of foul play and Johnson’s death has been initially ruled a suicide.
The former police officer was recently indicted for filing the false reports and for calling in a fake bomb threat to a local school.
In September of this year, Johnson claimed that someone driving a red or maroon pickup truck fired upon him, causing him to crash into a tree, after which he said his police cruiser caught fire.
The alleged incident led to a manhunt by local SWAT team members, state police and federal officials, with officers going door-to-door, as schools in the community were closed after a bomb threat was called in — which was also linked to Johnson.
Investigators later concluded that Johnson had made the story up, with a police spokesperson stating, “We have determined that the officer’s story was fabricated. Specifically, that he fired shots at his own cruiser as a plan to concoct a story that he was fired upon.”
Johnson was subsequently fired.
A Norfolk County grand jury recently issued six indictments against Johnson, including charges stemming from the false bomb threat at Millis High School.
A court date had yet to be set for the former officer.Simple as LEGO, powered by Pi. The Raspberry techie kind, not the 3.14Infinity kind. Or the fruit kind for that matter, but a DIY mini computer powered by flaky-crusted dessert might be the one element to rocket launch Kano's popularity even farther into the cosmos. As it stands, the all-ages computing and coding kit has already surpassed its Kickstarter funding goal more than 8 times over. At printing, it still had 19 days left in its campaign.
Kano's overriding goal is to serve as a computer for all ages, all over the world. Small, easy to assemble and use, and relatively inexpensive, the London-based company envisions sending batches of Kanos to school kids everywhere in an effort to further their thriving in a world that they describe as 99% designed for a tech-literate 1%. With Kano, anyone can make games, gain experience in code, and--again according to the makers--"create the future."
Each Kano kit includes all of the tools and components needed to build:
A computer, powered by Raspberry Pi
Games such as Pong and Snake
Music and sounds
HD video
A speaker
Towers of dynamite...in Minecraft
A wireless server
A custom case, with stickers, decals, or any printed design
Most Debian Linux packages
A clone of Chuck Norris or Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman or pretty much anything else, because Kano is open source.
Kano will direct kids, adults, and your grandma how to assemble its parts--ranging from Kano OS and Levels on an 8GB SD card, a Raspberry Pi Model B, a Kano keyboard, and WiFi powerup--and begin building cool schtuff with both illustrated and intuitive Kano instruction and game books.
Pledge for your Kano on Kickstarter through December 19, 2013, and find further information on the company's Website below thereafter.CLOSE For the first time, the Pentagon says the U.S. military intercepted a long-range missile. This test was done amid heightening tensions with North Korea. USA TODAY
People watch a ground based interceptor missile take off at Vandenberg Air Force base, California on May 30, 3017. (Photo11: Gene Blevins, AFP/Getty Images)
The U.S. military on Tuesday successfully intercepted an intercontinental-range missile for the first time, a key test of its missile-defense system amid heightening tensions with North Korea.
The successful test represented a "critical milestone" for the Pentagon's defensive missile system, said Navy Vice Adm. Jim Syring, director of the Missile Defense Agency.
The interceptor was launched from a silo at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and hit the test missile fired from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific, the Missile Defense Agency said.
The test was a major challenge because an intercontinental ballistic missile flies faster than a shorter-range missile.
Prior to Tuesday, the U.S. military had conducted 17 tests of its missile-defense system and nine were successful.
North Korea’s nuclear ambitions have injected a new sense of urgency to building an effective defense against the country and actions of its unpredictable leader, Kim Jong Un, who is trying to develop a long-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and reaching the U.S. mainland. President Trump has vowed to prevent that from happening and has leaned on China, North Korea's closest ally, to use political and economic leverage to persuade Kim to halt his weapons program.
On Monday, North Korea tested a short-range missile that flew about 280 miles before landing in the Sea of Japan.
It was the latest in a recent string of North Korean missile tests, including two that exploded shortly after launch. The country hasn’t yet developed a missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, but the U.S. government believes the continual testing is bringing North Korea closer to that goal. “We always assume that with a testing program they get better with each test,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told CBS News on Sunday.
During the U.S.-Soviet Cold War era, President Ronald Reagan vowed to develop a missile defense that became known as "Star Wars," because it involved a satellite-based system. But technological progress was slow and opponents warned that an effective defense against the Soviets' massive intercontinental missile arsenal might invite a first-strike before a system was perfected.
A defensive system "is not something we had developed on par with our offensive capabilities,” said David Maxwell, associate director of the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University. “It’s much easier to launch a missile than it is to shoot one down.”
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2sidf1wIt has given a voice to a generation, and helped unite people and communities far and wide. But social media is not always used as a force for good. In recent years, the misuse of social media has resulted in children and young people becoming both the perpetrators and victims of crime. As can been seen in the recent case of Felix Alexander – a teenager who took his own life after being bullied online.
Cyber-bullying is not, currently, a specific crime. But depending on the circumstances, and the age of the defendant, it can potentially be tried in a Crown Court – with a maximum sentence of two years’ imprisonment.
Online mob-type behaviour has also been the target of recent Crown Prosecution Service guidance – whereby inciting people to harass others online, known as virtual mobbing, could result in individuals being charged with encouraging an offence. If found guilty, they could be sent to prison.
Have a voice?
As predicated by US supreme court Judge Justice John Paul Stevens back in 1997, social media has allowed anyone to become a “town crier, with a voice that resonates further than it would from a soap box”. But social media users are not subject to the same “filters” as the traditional media – meaning there is often little, or no editorial control over what is published.
This can mean that what was once a casual comment or expression of emotion – shared with friends or family – can now become formalised and permanent, blurring the boundaries of online and offline life.
Employers now routinely “screen” applicants’ online profiles before deciding to hire candidates. So for young people, who have grown up with social media and a “life online”, this can mean their childhood activity could influence a future employer’s recruitment decision. Despite this, it is clear that social media users are increasingly oblivious to the risks generated by their relationship with it.
Shutterstock
This is illustrated by the case of Paris Brown. Aged 17, Paris was the first Youth Police Crime Commissioner. But after just six days on the job, she resigned from her role over comments she had posted on twitter when she was as young as 14 which critics claimed could have been interpreted as homophobic and racist.
In an interview, she admitted to having “fallen into a trap of behaving with bravado on social networking sites”, but denied she held these views. A Google search for “Paris Brown” today still lists, within the top five results, a Daily Mail article from 2013 calling her “foul-mouthed” and “offensive”. This could follow Paris for the rest of her career.
Socially aware
Given all of this, it is my belief that social media education should be treated with the same level of importance as sex education. And as adults, educators, and employers, we need to take some responsibility in educating our children on the “birds and the bees” of social media use – because it has the potential to do serious damage to young people’s future’s and prospects.
Shutterstock
Children today engage with social media at a young age, so the responsible use of it needs to be built into the curriculum at primary school level. As children progress through their education – what they are taught can evolve.
This means that from being made aware of issues such as their personal security and safety, they can move on to learning about how they could find themselves on the wrong side of the criminal and civil law for what they post or tweet. And how their online profiles can influence their job prospects – both negatively and positively.
Because in this modern age we live and work in today, this type of training could make a real difference to the futures of children and young people – both online and off.A Swedish football hooligan has revealed how gangs including a 'Neo-Nazi firm' joined together to launch Friday's vicious attack on migrants.
Up to 50 black-clad masked men stormed Stockholm's main train station around 9pm and targeted unaccompanied children who did not look ethnically 'Swedish'.
They handed out leaflets with the slogan 'enough now' emblazoned across them and incited people to attack the migrants before beating several 'foreign' people and fleeing.
Scroll down for video
A Swedish football hooligan has revealed how gangs including a 'Neo-Nazi firm' joined together to launch Friday's vicious attack on migrants. Above, a man is searched following the night's attacks
Up to 50 black-clad masked men stormed Stockholm's main train station around 9pm and targeted unaccompanied children who did not look ethnically 'Swedish'. Above, a man with a hat and hood covering his face is spotted in Stockholm
A member of one of the city's football 'firms' has now admitted to MailOnline that his group, DFG, was responsible for the attack.
He revealed a handful of men from the club teamed up with others from their usual rivals AIK, as well as being joined by several Polish hooligans.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said: 'This is something that we have talked about for a long time.
'We feel the police are not doing their job. Our wives, girlfriends and daughters cannot feel safe in the centre parts of Stockholm during the night.
'We feel that this is shameful for a country like Sweden and wanted to make a statement that it is not OK.'
Members from DFG - or Djurgårdens IF - and AIK are typically rivals and have only joined together once before, the man, who was not part of the attacks, also revealed.
Video footage had emerged showing the mob sprinting through the station as children ran away screaming
Before the attack, a group of people started handing out xenophobic leaflets with the message 'Enough now'
Authorities had said the mob was linked to the Swedish football hooligan scene
They usually clash with each other in relation to sporting events and last fought each other in a bloody six-minute battle following a hockey game just 17 days before Friday's attacks.
The man added: 'The only time that we have seen something like this [Friday night] was in the Euros in 1992, when they [the firms] teamed up to fight English hooligans under the banner "defend Stockholm".'
Friday night's surprise attacks shocked station workers and migrants who had congregated at the station for the evening.
Witnesses reported seeing groups of up to 50 men storming through the station as groups of youths attempted to hide.
Johanna Brixander, who supervises volunteers working to try and prevent crime at the station, said she saw children screaming as they ran down the escalators in a desperate bid to get away from the men.
She said: 'A few seconds later a group of masked men came running towards us. They were screaming chants I have never heard before in Swedish.
Two police officers stand guard following the attacks. Johanna Brixander, who supervises volunteers working to try and prevent crime at the station, said she saw children screaming as they ran down the escalators in a desperate bid to get away from the men
They group were said to hand out leaflets with the slogan 'enough now' emblazoned across them and incited people to attack the migrants before beating several 'foreign' people and fleeing. Above, dozens of police gather at the station following the attacks
A member of one of the city's football 'firms' has now admitted to MailOnline that his group, DFG, was responsible for the attack. Above, police officers talk to a man waiting at the station
Two officers could then be seen leading the man, who was wearing a green coat with fur trim and jeans, away
'People got beaten really bad before our own eyes. Big groups of youths tried to hide everywhere. It was very chaotic and I was really afraid when it happened.
'Most of the kids who got beaten were just ordinary people born and raised in Sweden,' she added. 'Their hair colour just happened to not be blonde.'
Assam, who was born in Sweden, was pushed to the ground by a masked man but did not get injured. He said the men did not care whether they were attacking boys or girls - their only focus was colour.
My friend's girlfriend was badly beaten, they kicked her while she was laying on the ground Assam, a witness to Friday's attacks
'I did [not] really understand what was happening until I was laying on the ground,' Assam said. 'It was totally insane.
'My friend's girlfriend was badly beaten, they kicked her while she was laying on the ground.
'[It] did not make a difference if they were beating girls or boys. Everyone who had dark hair or skin was their targets.'
One gang member was arrested for punching an officer in the face and several others were detained for public order offences - but the majority of the group managed to escape.
Police are currently battling to control the 'firms' with officers claiming the rivalry often affects the entire Swedish capital.
Video footage shows the groups mauling each other in the street as police attempt to contain them ahead of one match.
Previous reports also suggest an entire restaurant in Stockholm was destroyed when one of the 'firms' held a Christmas party.
Police are now battling to control the 'firms' with officers claiming the rivalry often affects the entire Swedish capital. Above, a football stand went up in flames after the rival 'firms' set off several firecrackers
Around 50 men who attended the event started a fight using the restaurant's furniture and glassware before throwing stones at officers when they arrived to calm the situation down.
Fredrik Gårdare, director of the country's special action force against the firms, previously told Aftonbladet: 'If we look at recruitment and those who join these gangs they are all quite young.
'It is, of course, some who are interested in football, but we also see those who are not.'
He added to MailOnline: 'It has become somewhat fashionable for the established criminal environment to look towards [the firms] and examine whether the grass is greener inside [them].
'[The firms have] the same kind of standards and regulations as criminal gangs.
'It is essentially the same quest for communion with family, friends and then to do things together - partying, fighting and... various crimes - that makes them feel like they are in a brotherhood.'
The attacks, however, do not appear to have put everyone off from going out in Stockholm.
Assam said he was not scared enough by Friday's attacks to stop meeting his friends at the station.Oregon Governor, AG, Judges Promote “Sanctuary State” Bill For Illegal Aliens
Oregon governor Kate Brown, Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, and Multnomah County circuit court judge Nan G Waller were all on hand last week to testify in favor of HB 3464, which would codify Oregon as a “sanctuary state” for illegal aliens. This comes after Governor Brown issued an executive order on the matter back in February, in response to Trumpism.
Governor Brown’s testimony included the following quotes:
“Thank you, madame attorney general, for working with me to make Oregon a more welcoming and inclusive state” says Brown. She went to on to laud a bill from 1964 that “made it illegal for Oregon law enforcement agencies from treating Oregonians as criminals on the basis of their immigration status”….”At a time when resources are scarce, we should not be spending state resources doing the federal government’s bidding”… “In February, I extend the protections of Oregon’s Sanctuary statute by executive order. Under the law, law enforcement agencies were precluded from treating Oregonians as criminals, solely on the basis of immigration status. My executive order extended that policy to all state agencies and our employees”…“(this bill) directs all state and local jurisdictions to NOT gather information about Oregonian citizenship or immigration status when they are not required to by state or federal law. When agencies do have to gather citizen or immigration information, the bill authorizes agencies to keep that information confidential where disclosure isn’t required by law. We don’t want private information about people that we do not need. Second, the bill directs public bodies not to disclose private information, like addresses or work places, for the purpose of enforcing federal immigration laws. For example, if an ‘undocumented immigrant’ witnesses a crime, she can disclose her personal contact information to the police without fear of the officer passing her personal information onto an I.C.E. agent. Third, the bill directs the Attorney General to develop model policies that state agencies and local governments can adopt. State and local agencies are clamoring for resources on this subject, this bill directs the Attorney General satisfy that need. I appreciate the Attorney General for already working with the Department of Education, along with the Latino network, to make sure families with school age children have the forms and access to the information they need to keep their families safe. I am deeply concerned and very alarmed by recent anti immigrant measures undertaken by the federal government. History teaches us not to follow the federal government into public policy that betrays Oregon values. Just upstairs in the gallery, an exhibition documents our state’s regrettable participation in the federal government’s incarceration of Japanese Americans… Oregon should stay true to our values. I respectfully suggest that House Bill 3464 is a step toward realizing Oregon’s aspiration as a welcoming and inclusive place to all who call our state home.”
Ellen Rosenblum is the state’s Attorney General chimes in next, in support of the bill, and basically complains that her office is unable to help people blatantly violate laws.
“Over the course of the last 6 months, my phones have been ringing. I have received call after call, many making the same request. My office has heard from school districts, courthouses, mayors, asking, and in some cases pleading, for help in dealing with federal immigration authorities. As attorney general, I can tell you that the rules that apply to immigration enforcement are not simple or self evident. When ICE comes, they don’t come with a manual. Our communities have no consistent source for guidance in dealing with federal authorities, so often times they turn to us, the Oregon department of justice, and we turn them away. We turn them away because we are the lawyers for the state, and in the absence of other direction from our legislature, we have no basis for providing assistance to our cities, our counties, or our school districts, no matter how badly it is needed. And so we leave them to their own devices, to negotiate on their own the ambiguities of federal law. And in the lack of certainty or ability to tell Oregon residents what they should expect, fear and rumor hold sway and our communities crumble. This uncertainty damages our businesses, the fear of immigration authorities has emptied the downtown corridors of cities across Oregon. Representative Alonso-Leon will share with you the story of downtown Woodburn, and of community gripped by a fear essential enough to grind their economy to a halt. But this is not the only city or county so damaged. This uncertainty damages our budget, as our schools, courthouses, and other public accommodations are left to wrestle with these questions on their own, they are forced to draw on even more limited resources. This diverts from other budgets and priorities and allows our state resources to be funneled away and commandeered for federal purposes. This uncertainty damages our public safety. A 2013 study conducted by the University Of Illinois found that 44% of Latinos considered themselves less likely to contact police if they are the victim of crime, because they fear that police officers will ask them about their immigration status. A person who is forced to worry first about immigration will not only fail to call to report a crime they experience, they will fail to report a crime that they witnessed. This uncertainty damages our public health. Confusion about immigration enforcement separates people from the services they need. It can separate the suffering person from the mental and physical health services they need, and it can convince the probationer that it makes more sense to disappear into the underground than to comply with the terms of their probation and to receive the treatment, counseling, and guidance needed to bring them back into the society. This uncertainty damages our public education. In our increasing diverse schools, fear of immigration enforcement makes children anxious and unfocused if they come to school at all. This fear can also keep a student from applying to college or financial aid, ending their education career and wasting their potential. Perhaps most of all, this uncertainty hurts our communities, paralyzing community members who have no idea what to expect when they send their children off to school or when they visit their doctor, when they drive off to work in the morning. This paralysis invades every aspect of the lives of these diverse and vibrant communities in our state, shattering their ability to provide their important and valuable contributions to their neighborhoods, their economies, and their households. House bill 3464 aims to end this uncertainty. At its broadest it aims to accomplish two objectives; First, it aims to provide our schools, courthouses, and other public accommodations with needed guidance in dealing with federal immigration authorities. This advice, which will be developed collaboratively, between the public accommodations and my office, looks to provide simple guidance in understanding the rights and obligations we all possess in this area. This is offered with the intent of full compliance with all federal and state laws. Our job is to follow the letter of the law, but to understand that we need go no further.”
Nan Waller is the Presiding Judge for Multnomah County. Here is what she had to say:
“I thought it would be helpful to you to hear a little bit about the impact of immigration activities in and around our courthouses, and why it is important,in fact imperative, that we take steps to preserve the neutrality of the courts in the eyes of all members of the public. The commitment courts make to the public is that we will provide a neutral for the resolution of disputes and in doing so access to all who seek justice. Every day hundreds of people stream into our courthouses, victims of domestic violence, seeking protection orders, landlords and tenants, criminal defendants, parents trying to resolve custody and parenting issues, witnesses and litigants in complex civil matters. It is fundamental to our justice system that the doors are open to all, we do not ask immigration status or for documentation when we open our doors…. However, since the executive order on deportation was signed in late January, we’ve had consistent reports from lawyers, community organizations, victims’ advocates, and public inquiries to the court, that some members of our community are afraid to come to our courthouses because of the practice of ICE activities in and around our courthouses. We have no authority to prevent ICE from being in the courthouse, we have no authority to prevent anyone, our courts are, by tradition and by the Oregon Constitution, open to all. However, we are very concerned that there’s been an significant, chilling effect of I.C.E.’s actions in and around our courthouses, and that this will deter and has deterred members of our community from seeking redress in our courts. Given the impact of ICE activities in our courthouses across Oregon, Chief Justice Thomas Balmer wrote to Attorney General Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary Kelly in April asking them to not make arrests inside courthouses, or at least to include courthouses in their definition of ‘sensitive locations’ so that our courts can preserve their mandated impartial and neutral role…. I don’t have data to share with you on how many people ICE activities in and around our courthouses have dissuaded from accessing the courts, and it would be indeed hard to measure how many people have not come to the court for a restraining order, how many people have not shown up to testify in a case, how many people have let their matter go and been defaulted….”
She goes on to complain that the only Hispanic person who showed up to an immigration forum was a judge, and that everyone else in the Hispanic community was too afraid to show up, fearing ICE would nab them. Judge Waller then complains about ICE arresting someone in the courthouse.
You may recall one of Waller’s underlings, Judge Monica Herranz, who made national news a few months for assisting an illegal immigrant elude ICE agents by giving him use of her private entrance and exit way out of a courtroom.
Two years ago the Oregon legislature passed a bill that gives “free” college to illegal aliens.
Yes, that’s right, you have Oregon’s governor, attorney general, judges, elected state officials, and elected city officials all blatantly encouraging people to violate laws and offering protection and taxpayer funded “public assistance” to such people.
You can reach Governor Kate Brown at 503-378-4582
Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum can be reached at 503-378-4400
And judge Nan G Waller can be reached at 503-988-3846
(H/T 2A News.us)Correspondent of Оtkrytaya Rossiya Denis Shekhanin witnessed not only the arrival of the bikers, but also an outside broadcast by a female reporter for Russia 24 TV channel. His report shows how the reality looks like and how it is represented by the Russian state media, Censor.NET reports.
About 50 "patriotic bikers" carry out the motocross, dedicated to the Victory Day, across Europe, while the people and governments of the corresponding countries do all their best to stop them. The "wolves" came to Prague almost accidentally: the permission for the motocross was given by a regular employee of the city administration who did not know they were pro-Putin activists. Prague Mayor Adriana Krnacova and her deputy Petr Dolinek disagreed with the passing of Night Wolves through the city at the last moment, but it was too late to cancel the event.
Read more: Pro-Putin Bikers Held a Torchlight Procession and Formed Giant Swastika in Sevastopol. VIDEO
The bikers traveled through the very center of Prague, but on Wenceslas Square, one of the main tourist spots of the city, they were met not with applause and carnations, but with middle fingers.
Read more: Putin Awarded Bikers, Criminals, and Defilers of the Church for the Seizure of Crimea. PHOTOSAt the base of a mountain in Tanzania’s Gregory Rift, Lake Natron burns bright red, surrounded by the calcified remains of animals that were unfortunate enough to fall into the salty water. Bats, swallows and more are chemically preserved in the pose in which they perished; deposits of sodium carbonate in the water (a chemical once used in Egyptian mummification) seal the creatures in their watery tomb. The lake's landscape is surreal and deadly—and made even more bizarre by the fact that it's the place where nearly 75 percent of the world's lesser flamingos are born.
The water is oversaturated with salt, can reach temperatures of 140 degrees and has a pH between 9 and 10.5—so corrosive that it can calcify those remains, strip ink off printed materials and burn the skin and eyes of unadapted animals. The unique color comes from cyanobacteria that photosynthesize into bright red and orange hues as the water evaporates and salinity rises; before that process occurs during the dry season, the lake is blue.
But one species actually makes life among all that death—flamingos. Once every three or four years, when conditions are right, the lake is covered with the pink birds as they stop flight to breed. Three-quarters of the world’s lesser flamingos fly over from other saline lakes in the Rift Valley and nest on salt crystal islands that appear when the water is at a very specific level—too high and the birds can’t build their nests, too low and predators can waltz across the lake bed and attack. When the water hits the right level, the baby birds are kept safe from predators by a caustic moat.
“Flamingos have evolved very leathery skin on their legs so they can tolerate the |
debris that had swallowed the External Tank, were her aft compartment—with main engines, briefly, still firing—together with one wing and a fuzzy, roughly triangular blob: the forward fuselage, containing the crew cabin, trailing a jumble of umbilical lines ripped from beneath the payload bay floor. It continued, for a time, on an upward trajectory on a ballistic arc that reached a maximum altitude of around 11 miles (18 km), before gravity inexorably pulled it down at close to 250 mph (400 km/h), toward an Atlantic grave.
The loss of Challenger, played out as it was in the most devastatingly public fashion, would bring the shuttle program and NASA to its knees for far longer than the 32 months needed to return the reusable vehicles to flight. As described in a previous AmericaSpace history article, investigators would uncover a range of technical, managerial, and other human factors behind the tragedy, and in September 1988 a safer—though still intrinsically unsafe—shuttle would return to flight. And with each and every launch that followed, right up to the very end of the shuttle’s 30-year history, the launch phase remained arguably the most critical. For each mission, the 73-second psychological barrier was a powerful hurdle for each crew to overcome. Even as Atlantis rocketed aloft for the shuttle program’s finale on 8 July 2011, many hearts (including mine) still missed a beat as STS-135 Commander Chris Ferguson called “Roger, Go at throttle up.”
For this author, two lessons emerged from the loss of Challenger, all those years ago. One is that the exploration of space with humans, married to the cutting edge of high technology, can never be wholly routine. The second is that the seven souls who laid down their lives on 28 January 1986 did so because they believed—as did the crews of Apollo 1 and Columbia, before and after them—that the scientific advancement of our species into the heavens was a worthwhile risk.
Such is the power of the lesson that Challenger and her crew taught us all.
This is part of a series of articles over the coming days to commemorate the losses of America’s human space program in Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia. On Sunday, 1 February, AmericaSpace will reflect upon the 12th anniversary of the STS-107 tragedy.
Want to keep up-to-date with all things space? Be sure to “Like” AmericaSpace on Facebook and follow us on Twitter: @AmericaSpacePrimitive technology is a hobby where you make things in the wild completely from scratch using no modern tools or materials. This is the strict rule. If you want a fire- use fire sticks, an axe- pick up a stone and shape it, a hut- build one from trees, mud, rocks etc. The challenge is seeing how far you can go without modern technology. If this hobby interests you then this blog might be what you are looking for.
Also It should be noted that I don’t live in the wild but just practice this as a hobby. I live in a modern house and eat modern food. I just like to see how people in ancient times built and made things. It is a good hobby that keeps you fit and doesn’t cost anything apart from time and effort.
IMPORTANT: This WordPress site, my Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2945881&u=2945881&ty=h) and my YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/c/PrimitiveTechnology) are my only online presence at this stage. I do not have a Facebook page and if you see any they are fake.
FAQ:
Q. Where is this?
A. Far North Queensland, Australia.
Q.What stops the rain from washing the mud off the hut walls?
A. The roof. You’ll notice the eves of the roof extend out from the walls- this keeps the walls dry.
Q. What dangerous animals are there?
A. Only venomous snakes and I need to watch where I step. Crocodiles don’t live where I build these huts and there are no large land predators in the bush here (that I’m aware of).
Q. How do I know what good clay is?
A. Look in creek banks and under top soil. Wet some and roll it into a coil as thick as a pencil then wrap it round a finger. If it doesn’t completely break apart then it’s suitable.
Q. How do you keep mosquitoes away?
A. Smokey fire tends to keep them away especially inside a dwelling.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
JACKSON TOWNSHIP, Ohio-- Almost 24 hours after a 5-year-old girl was last seen inside her family's restaurant, Ang's Asian Cuisine on Portage Street NW in Jackson Township, she was found dead inside.
According to a press release from Jackson Township police, it was determined that the child, Ashley Zhao, was found "deceased and concealed inside the building" on Tuesday.
Sources originally confirmed the very sad news to FOX 8 I-Team's Peggy Gallek.
Police, with the assistance of the FBI and Ohio BCI in cooperation with the Stark County Coroner’s Office continue to investigate her death.
Ashley was last seen at around 4:30 p.m. on Monday. Jackson Township police had said they believed she wandered out the back door of the restaurant.
The Ohio Attorney General's Office issued a missing child alert for Ashley just before noon Tuesday.
Earlier Tuesday, officers used dogs to search a wooded area behind the restaurant from Portage Street to Mega Street. The Jackson Township Fire Department used a drone and a ladder truck to help with the search.
Stay with FOX 8 News and fox8.com for the latest.
Read more, here.A space selfie is a selfie (self-portrait photograph typically posted on social media sites[2]) that is taken in space. This include selfies taken by astronauts[3] (also known as astronaut selfies[4]), machines[5] (also known as space robot selfies[6] and rover selfies[7]) and by an indirect method.[8]
Astronauts [ edit ]
The first known space selfie (during an EVA - an earlier shot inside the capsule was taken on Gemini 10 by Michael Collins) was taken by Buzz Aldrin during the Gemini 12 mission.[9]
The extra-vehicular activity (EVA) equipment used by astronauts during spacewalks contains a specially designed camera for photography in outer space. The main purpose of the EVA camera is to take pictures of the subjects related to the missions.[10]
There have been many space selfies, some of which use the visor of another astronaut's helmet as the mirror. Early space selfies after the word "selfie" was first used in 2002[2] without assistance from another astronaut included Donald Pettit and Stephen Robinson. Pettit took one during the Expedition 6 in January 2003.[11] Robinson took his during the repair of the Space Shuttle Discovery[12] on August 3, 2005, as part of the STS-114 mission.[13]
Another notable space selfie was taken by Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide during the six-hour, 28-minute spacewalk on September 5, 2012.[14][15] Hoshide's photo became a viral phenomenon after Commander Chris Hadfield uploaded the photo to his Twitter account on September 30, 2013.[16] Coincidentally, Oxford University Press, the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, announced in November 2013 that "selfie" was the word of the year for 2013.[17] The picture topped many selfie lists of the year.[18][19] Another space selfie of Hoshide also showed up on Instagram and appeared on a list of top selfies of 2013.[20]
Machines [ edit ]
The raw image of the first space selfie taken by the Curiosity rover
Space selfies can be dated back to 1976 when the lander of the Viking 2 mission took the photo of its deck after landing on Mars; however they were not considered by Discovery News as true selfies in its list of top 10 space robot selfies.
In 1989 the Galileo spacecraft took a selfie using its near-infrared mapping spectrometer (NIMS).[21] The image was taken in order to judge how parts of the spacecraft would block the insument's view. The resulting image was fuzzy and warped by Galileo's spin. [21]
An unusual approach was taken in 2010 by IKAROS, launched by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) it included two wireless cameras that were ejected out of the spacecraft for the sole purpose of taking "hand free" space selfies. A blog entry about the photos was posted in 2010 and the link was posted on Twitter in 2013.[6]
Curiosity rover [ edit ]
Curiosity, which landed on Mars in 2012, was equipped with the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera. It can maneuver its robotic arm and turn the attached camera around to take its head shots.[22] Discovery News described the maneuver as the way to take a truly authentic selfie and gave it the title King of Selfies in 2013.[6]
The first ever space selfie on another planet was taken by the Curiosity rover[23][24] on September 7, 2012 based on the local time at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the base of the operations in Pasadena, California. It was taken while the clear dust cover of the lens was closed giving a blurry image.[25] The image was slightly modified and posted on its Facebook account on September 8, 2012 with the message:[26]
Hello, Gorgeous! Snapped this self portrait while inspecting my MAHLI camera with its dust cover intentionally left on. This was a test to make sure the cover, its hinge the area it sweeps when it opens are clear of debris. NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover, https://www.facebook.com/MarsCuriosity
On November 19, 2013,[27] one day after Oxford announced that "selfie" was the word of the year,[2] the @MarsCuriosity Twitter account posted a space selfie with the message:[28]
Oh, @OxfordWords... Need an illustration for #WOTYselfie? For your consideration. pic.twitter.com/EKNafzYsyp @MarsCuriosity, https://www.twitter.com/MarsCuriosity
Opportunity rover [ edit ]
Space selfie of Opportunity rover
In February 2018 the Opportunity rover used its MER Microscopic Imager to take a selfie to mark 5000 sols on Mars.[29] The MER Microscopic Imager has a fixed focus and a fairly narrow field of view resulting in the sefie having to be made up of a series of stitched, out of focus shots.[29] In order to reduce the amount of data that needed to be transmitted the images were scaled down in size and compressed before being transmitted from the rover.[29] This was the first time images from the MER Microscopic Imager had been scaled down by the rover.[29]
Orbital Express [ edit ]
Autonomous robot space selfie of Orbital Express spacecraft
On June 22, 2007, DARPA's Orbital Express spacecraft captured perhaps the first space selfie by an autonomous robot[30]. Taken near the end of mission on July 22, 2007, the selfie was intended to capture a family portrait of the two spacecraft in a mated configuration[30]. The selfie shows the ASTRO "servicing satellite" at left, and the NEXTSat "client satellite" at right[31]. The robot arm used to capture the selfie can be seen in white at the bottom of the frame. The photo has a dark, high-contrast quality to it due to the use of the arm-mounted camera, not intended for general photography, but used to autonomously track and acquire the NEXTSat[30].
Indirect methods [ edit ]
During a brief period, an alternative method was presented as available by which a person could, without being in outer space, indirectly take space selfies. This was promoted as part of the crowdfunding efforts for the Planetary Resources's ARKYD mission. The ARKYD "space selfie" method would have allowed donors to upload their own photos to the telescope orbiting the Earth; the telescope would have had a robotic arm equipped with a camera and a small screen to display the picture of the donor on one surface of the telescope, and the on-screen image of the donor was to be visible to the lower part of the camera (with the Earth as the background) allowing a space selfie to be taken.[32][33][34]
A similar service was launched in 2014 by Belgian startup SpaceBooth.[35] The SpaceBooth Low Earth Orbit pico-satellite will project uploaded images in front of a transparent window and then take a picture of the projection with space in the background. The space selfie will then be sent back to the Earth.[36]
SpaceFab.US, a U.S. startup, is currently offering space selfies on their Waypoint-1 satellite launch, scheduled for late 2019.[37]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Fair warning that I’m not a lawyer and I may not fully understand the contract. It’s included inline for your reference.
TL, DR; #hack4detroit requires a contract be signed on the day of the event that was not previously mentioned before registration fees. The contract states that participants are liable (unlimited personal liability) to pay for any lawyer fees and lawsuit damages if the City of Detroit is ever sued for the submitted software [clause 17]. The contract also states that all IP is transferred to ownership of the City of Detroit (which I am okay with) and the City is granted a perpetual, royalty-free license to “use” any derivative software. Wired aptly elaborates on the hackathon “indemnification” liability situation perfectly here (great read).
(Update 4:39 PM – jonasrosland on HN mentioned that it would be better for the hacker to maintain IP and grant a licence to the City to use the software for purposes stated. This makes a lot more sense than the IP transfer which I was originally okay with.)
This weekend Automation Alley from Troy, Michigan pulled a quick one on a lot of software developers that were just trying to have fun making some cool apps for Michigan. I wanted to take part, but I ended up signing up for the 24-hour hackathon, paying $20, donating my weekend for the event, driving 40-minutes downtown, parking, walking to the event, and then leaving after an hour to drive home.
#hack4detroit is a hackathon where participants can come to make cool software to help Detroit and possibly win a $5K prize. Pretty cool, right? I thought so, because when I heard of the event I signed up right away! It’s fun to get together with other software developers at hackathons and I’ve been in the Code Michigan events before and that is always a blast.
My problem arose when I entered the 4th floor of Grand Circus (Detroit’s tech epicenter) and there was a registration table. The registration table is where you get your t-shirt and sign some documents – harmless. The first document was a 1-page release form for allowing the event to use pictures of you so when they take pictures of the event they can publish them freely – cool.
But then then the second document was an 8-page contract between Automation Alley, the City of Detroit, and the Participant. When I took a look at the contract I thought to myself “Hm, why am I seeing this for the first time at the registration table on the day of the event, 10 minutes before the event starts?” They could have had this on their website before I’d even signed up weeks ago. If it was on the online registration page I would have had a chance to go over it in detail without time-pressure.
I let the greeter know that that I’ll need some time to read over the 8-page document and she replies “Alright, just bring it back when you want to sign it because I need to witness you sign it”. It seems to be a serious document.
Now here’s the problem. I’m not a lawyer, and neither are any of the other participants in this event (I’m assuming). And we’ve been given 30 minutes to review a document that may include unknown liabilities (which this contract does).
It made me wonder who organizes an event to put participants in this situation, and do I really want to sign a contract that they’ve pressured me into? I was especially surprised because my expectations for Automation Alley were high, as it is self-advertised goal is “[…] enhancing the region’s reputation around the world“.
Here is the contract in its entirety. The most important part is page 3, clause 17: Indemnification: it states in “non-legalese” that I agree to take responsibility for claims against the City’s use of hackathon code.
What if I accidentally infringed on a patent? I’m liable. What if there’s a bug that causes somebody harm? I’m liable. What if anything? I’m liable. Liable in the sense that they can clear out my bank account and take everything I own.
It took me 40 minutes to read and re-read this document four times and afterward, I was faced with a dilemma: This is going to be a fun event with really smart, fun people, do I want to be the only person that is a stick-in-the-mud about a contract? Everybody else signed the document, am I silly for even taking this so seriously? I consulted with an event organizer Beth Niblock (CIO of Detroit) and she informed us that “You’re probably thinking about it too hard”. Yikes! That made me even more concerned.
I’ve been taught the hard way to never sign anything I don’t fully understand, and the Indemnification clause alone made the $5K prize money seem tiny compared to the unlimited liability I’d be exposing myself to.
So after I spent an hour reading the contract and thinking, I decided not to submit an app to the City of Detroit.
I packed up my things and left. What a shame.
I wanted to make an awesome app.
How could they fix this in the future?
Most importantly, put the contract online before registration so that we can read it before we register for the event. Take out the one-way indemnification clause from the contract or limit total cost to Participant to Participant’s prize winnings. Remove the perpetual, royalty-free license for derivative work from the contract. (Updated) Replace the IP transfer with a perpetual, royalty-free license to the City to use the software for purposes stated. Remove the waiver of jury trial. Remove the waiver of right to sue (is this even enforcable? I suspect no) Include reasoning for each clause so that the non-lawyer participants can understand why clauses have been included.
So I’m still not sure if I made the right decision, but I couldn’t sign that document and feel good about it. Was I taking the indemnification clause too seriously or was I right to go with my gut?In a report published in the journal Lancet, scientists led by Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer at Advanced Cell Technology, provide the first evidence that stem cells from human embryos can be a safe and effective source of therapies for two types of eye diseases—age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of vision loss in people over age 60, and Stargardt’s macular dystrophy, a rarer, inherited condition that can leave patients legally blind and only able to sense hand motions.
In the study, 18 patients with either disorder received transplants of retinal epithelial cells (RPE) made from stem cells that came from human embryos. The embryos were from IVF procedures and donated for research. Lanza and his team devised a process of treating the stem cells so they could turn into the RPE cells. In patients with macular degeneration, these are the cells responsible for their vision loss; normally they help to keep the nerve cells that sense light in the retina healthy and functioning properly, but in those with macular degeneration or Stargardt’s, they start to deteriorate. Without RPE cells, the nerves then start to die, leading to gradual vision loss.
MORE: Stem Cell Miracle? New Therapies May Cure Chronic Conditions Like Alzheimer’s
The transplants of RPE cells were injected directly into the space in front of the retina of each patient’s most damaged eye. The new RPE cells can’t force the formation of new nerve cells, but they can help the ones that are still there to keep functioning and doing their job to process light and help the patient to see. “Only one RPE can maintain the health of a thousand photoreceptors,” says Lanza.
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The trial is the only one approved by the Food and Drug Administration involving human embryonic stem cells as a treatment. (Another, the first to gain the agency’s approval, involved using human embryonic stem cells to treat spinal cord injury, but was stopped by the company.) Because the stem cells come from unrelated donors, and because they can grow into any of the body’s many cells types, experts have been concerned about their risks, including the possibility of tumors and immune rejection.
MORE: Early Success in a Human Embryonic Stem Cell Trial to Treat Blindness
But Lanza says the retinal space in the eye is the ideal place to test such cells, since the body’s immune cells don’t enter this space. Even so, just to be safe, the patients were all given drugs to suppress their immune system for one week before the transplant and for 12 weeks following the surgery.
While the trial was only supposed to evaluate the safety of the therapy, it also provided valuable information about the technology’s potential effectiveness. The patients have been followed for more than three years, and half of the 18 were able to read three more lines on the eye chart. That translated to critical improvements in their daily lives as well—some were able to read their watch and use computers again.
“Our goal was to prevent further progression of the disease, not reverse it and see visual improvement,” says Lanza. “But seeing the improvement in vision was frosting on the cake.”
Contact us at editors@time.com.By Jake Donovan
All fighters have made weight for Friday's installment of Golden Boy Promotions 'Boxeo Estelar' series live from Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California.
Headlining the show, unbeaten featherweight Joseph 'JoJo' Diaz faces Ruben Tamayo. Both fighters weighed 125.6 lbs for the scheduled 10 round bout.
Diaz (17-0, 10KOs) looks to pick up his fourth win of 2015. The unbeaten southoaw from Downey, Calif. - who served on the U.S. Olympic Boxing team in the 2012 London Olympics - is coming off of a 10 rounds win over featherweight gatekeeper Rene Alvarado in July.
Tamayo (25-6-4, 17KOs) looks to turn around a two-fight skid. The veteran boxer from Mexico has fought just once in 2015, dropping a unanimous decision to Oscar Valdez this past June.
Also on the card, unbeaten prospect Frankie 'Pitbull' Gomez faces Mexico's Jorge Silva in a scheduled 10-round affair just above the welterweight limit.
Gomez (18-0, 13KOs) tipped the scales at 150 lbs. as he ventures into a career in the welterweight division. The undefeated 23-year old from East L.A. has been out of the ring all year, though his own fault after having missed weight by more than a full division for his scheduled crossroads bout with Humberto Soto in May.
It was the latest in a series of hiccups for the talented but troubled boxer, who hopes to end an otherwise forgettable 2015 on a high note.
Silva (21-9-2, 17KOs), also 23, is just 2-7-1 in his last 10 starts, but coming off of a confidence-rebuilding win in July.
The show will air live on Estrella TV, also streaming live on RingTVLive.com.
Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBoxMurder spree in Yamaguchi followed disputes with residents
It was seven years ago, remembers a woman living in the small village of Mitake, located within the city of Shunan in Yamaguchi Prefecture. That was when Kosei Homi asked if he could take ownership of a golden retriever “whose eyes resemble that of my dad.”
He later named it Olive and sent photos to the woman after he took ownership.
On July 27, police turned Homi, a former construction worker, over to prosecutors on suspicion of murdering five people — whose ages ranged between 71 and 80 — and burning two residences.
Though a motive has not been divulged, weekly tabloid Friday (Aug. 16) says the 63-year-old engaged in disputes with the residents of the village, many of which centered on Olive.
“On the evening of July 21, two houses were completely burned. The bodies of Miyako Yamamoto, Makoto Sadamori and his spouse were found inside one,” says a local news reporter. “On the next day, the bodies of Satoko Kawamura and Fumito Ishimura were discovered inside another. The heads of all five appeared to have been injured with a wood stick.”
When officers visited the home of Homi, he was nowhere to be found. Five days later, police took him into custody on a mountain trail, roughly one kilometer from the burned structures. He had scratches on his face and was attired in an undershirt.
Homi moved to this community 13 years ago from Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture to take of his parents. According to local residents, Homi was known for having an abrasive and threatening personality. But he was endearing and sweet when interacting with his dog, which passed away due to a stroke immediately after Homi was arrested.
According to friends of the suspect, he had engaged in a number of arguments with neighbors over a rice paddy and the dog waste of Olive. Other news reports said that upon his return to the area the residents demanded that he share his retirement money.
“After deaths of his parents, he became isolated,” says the aforementioned local reporter. “A number of locals opposed him. In a bar, one guy poked him with a stick. He also apparently shared a story with a another member of the community detailing how a tractor he rented to groom public areas was destroyed in an arson fire.”
It was around this time that he posted a message in the form of a haiku poem on a window saying that people from the countryside enjoy smoke after something has been set on fire.
Friday says that a resident of the community was later seen laughing and pointing: “Hey, look at that window. There’s a funny message on it.”
Few people are laughing now. (K.N.)
Source: “Yamaguchi bokusatsu hoka han 63sai, migara kakuho 1pun ato ni aiken ga shinda,” Friday (Aug. 16, page 83)We actually don't know anything concrete about the supposedly large iPad, which the internet is calling the "iPad Pro" or "iPad Air Plus." In fact, it might not even exist at all.
It's being touted as a business productivity tablet to compete with the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 and the Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.1, and Tim Cook hinted that earlier this year. But it looks like it could have a little something for everybody, including artists and anyone who wished the iPad had a bigger screen.
For now, here's what we know so far about the fabled "iPad Pro."
Dimensions and screen size
Most rumors allegedly coming from Apple's own screen manufacturers in Korea and industrial renderings suggest that the large iPad's screen could have a 12.9-inch display. That's 3.2 inches bigger than the iPad Air 2's 9.7-inch display, which is huge. In fact, if you're reading this on a laptop with a 13-inch screen, you can use it to get some perspective of how big the "iPad Air Plus" could be.
The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 has a 12-inch display, but it's also a fully-featured Windows computer.
Force Touch
Korean publication Korea IT News obtained information from its sources that Apple requested samples of pressure-sensitive screens with silver nano wire technology from companies like LG, Samsung, and Japan Display.
This means Apple could be adding Force Touch to its large iPad, which is a new input option for bringing up useful information or actions without needing to go to a new window or menu. For example, you can bring up link previews or quickly change an app's settings in a popup menu by adding a little pressure to your tap.
With a larger pressure sensitive display, rumors about a stylus for the "iPad Pro" might not be too outlandish for note takers who prefer hand-writing notes, or doodlers and artists who could bring an entire internet-connected art studio (in the form of an art app) around wherever they go.
Although, a stylus would probably be offered as an extra accessory rather than come included with the large iPad.
Often accompanying new mobile device rumors are "leaked" images of protective cases. They can reveal new ports for different types on connectors. We've seen a few case leaks for the big iPad with a rectangular port hole on the left side, and if Apple's recent MacBook is anything to go by, the logical connector that Apple would add to an iPad, if any, is USB-C. Then again, OnLeak's leaked profile images of the "iPad Pro's" dimensions above don't show any new ports.
Several Lightning cable adapters already exist for the iPad, but USB-C is an industry standard and will be cheaper to manufacture.
USB-C is a new universal standard that can be used for pretty much anything you plug into a computer, like HDMI for a display, audio jacks, power, and any USB.
It's not yet clear if the USB-C would replace or accompany Apple's Lightning port that's currently used for charging, or if it will exist at all.
NFC
Apple added NFC to its latest iPhone 6 and 6 Plus so they can make Apple Pay mobile payments, but we seriously doubt anyone will bring along a huge tablet to make mobile payments. Instead, large iPads could be used as payment terminals to receive mobile payments.
It could also be used to quickly pair wireless devices to the big iPad instead of going through the cumbersome Bluetooth pairing process.
Multitasking
Reports of more RAM coincide with Cult of Mac's discovery of potential plans for multitasking in an iOS 8 beta. That means we may be able to use two apps on one screen, which would be useful on such a large iPad as some apps don't necessarily need to take up all 12.9 inches of the display.
Processor
Some rumors point to the A8x processors found in iPad Air 2, others say it'll have an A9. Either way, it'll need to be powerful enough to run two or more multitasking apps smoothly. That is, if the big iPad will support multitasking. We may see the next iPhone don the A9 and the large iPad with an A9x, but now we're just adding spin to the rumor mill.
Release
The last three iPads were announced and launched in the Fall, so we may see Apple's new behemoth this Fall, too. But we've also seen some rumors of a 2016 release due to Apple focusing on meeting iPhone 6 and Apple Watch demands.
If Apple is aiming for business and enterprise, it's not entirely clear how it plans to compete with Windows tablets running full versiosn of Windows 8.1 and eventually Windows 10. iOS and iPad touchscreens are simply too simple and cumbersome to used for business-style productivity purposes.
Surface tablets offer a fully functioning Windows experience. That may be something Apple cannot compete with anytime soon in the iOS ecosystem.
Make what you will with these rumors, and as always, none of this is confirmed until we hear and see it from Apple itself.Strain Name: White Rhino
Grade: A
Type: Indica Dominant Hybrid 90% Indica, 10% Sativa (Brazilian Sativa x South Indian Indica x Afghani)
Looks: This phenotype of the Rhino produced large very dense, extremely crystalline monster buds. Colors ranged from light olive green to some leaves that actually appeared white, but the overall appearance is that of flowers covered in frost and ice after an early snow. Enough to strike fear in the heart of the inexperienced smoker by looks alone!
Smell: Very deep, dank, and pungent. A very complex, almost overwhelming aroma (actually most aspects of this strain, true to its namesake, were quite overwhelming). When sniffed lightly you definitely get deep berry tones mixed with a spicy anise aroma. Then, when you really stick the ol’ snoz in and start huffin’ deeply, it starts smelling like sour, peppery, baby poo, for lack of a better term! Hummmm, maybe we’ll just leave it at deeply punjent, spicey and sour! A strong 9/10 if you’re into to that sorta thing.
Taste: Very delightful, yet deceiving taste. On the inhale it is like sour patch candy with hints of anise and clove, very sweet and tangy. As you exhale it is very peppery in the throat, not unpleasant at all though, and leaves the tongue and lips slightly numb with a distinct,uber-sweet, anise aftertaste. I give a solid 8 in flavor ( I would go higher, but I personally prefer a more citrus – fuel thing goin’ on). That being said, I would add that this medicine almost taste toooo good for the potency. Taste so great that it’s easy to get in over your head and end up in another dimension for 4 solid hours!!!
Effects: As we all know by now, Rhino can end up in the 20% and above THC range, when grown with lots a tender lovin’ care, and this batch is clearly a good example of the higher end of that spectrum. I say this here because effects vary greatly according to dosage levels. Even 1 good hit, in a nice glass, can have very pronounced effect for a good hour or more. In smaller doses I seem to feel the sativa effects more, hits right behind the eyes immediately and the psychoactive stuff starts flying all around, I feel energy coursing throughout my body and my brain is flooded with brilliant lucid thought patterns. Even at this dose, I get numb at the extremities with great muscle relaxation, and pain relief, but can still motor-vate. However the higher dosages are a totally different story all together. When this medicine was perfectly cured (three months in large mason jars down in the catacombs) I rolled a nice 2 gram fatty and smoked it up out on the porch swing, on the veranda. WOW, ZAAAANGGG, it hit me like a steaming locomotive, running late for an important date, uhhh so to speak. Half way through the fatty my whole body heated up, sweaty forehead and all, and I began to loose all feeling in my body (should a stopped there, but I had some extreme lower back things goin on that day). Before I knew it my whole body was completely paralyzed, way beyond the usual Indica couch lock, and my brain was into a full on psychedelic experience. All I could do was watch pleasant colors, clouds, and glowing aspen leaves float past my vibrating eye sockets. I spent the next 4-5 hour in this paralyzed psychedelic state, being astutely observed by a very jealous, bored, Chihuahua. Well after that experience I learned respect for strong medicine and could truly say I had “Rode the Rhino train!!” As far as severe pain goes this is a very effective medicine, as I felt no pain for a good 6 hours, but you better be ready for the psychoactive effects, as well as having a whole day to spend on the porch, not doing much. 10/10 for medicinal effects.
Potency: Extremely strong medicine! Not for beginners. This batch was especially made to work well as a strong narcotic pain reliever. I feel that it faired well in potency smell and taste from fully organic dirt grow. All aspects of environment were strictly controlled and the plants listened to Jazz,G.D., Ween, Phish, and other forms of appropriate music throughout the grow. I love my babies.
Reviewed by: MoMoFire
Good Strain For: Intermediate to severe pain, very effective for depression as well, maybe a bit overwhelming for some forms anxiety, works well for OCD.Mortys become Ricks.
I’ve been a fan of the show since I watched the pilot on Youtube on its release. Since then Rick and Morty has been my favorite animated series of all time. Somewhere around the end of season 1 I started to form a theory as to the nature of the characters actions and motives. As the show pogressed my theory only started to make more sense, and now that we are again in the gap between seasons, I want to present an Idea to you guys, an Idea that may have already been suggested mind you, but still.
What if Mortys grow to become Ricks, and Rick knows and wants to end the cycle.
I see a timeline being laid out for us, one that as the show goes on furthers to support this theory.
Morty is born
Morty becomes 14 (old enough to adventure)
Rick shows up and starts taking Morty on adventures, slowing teaching him about the universe while also jading his mind in the process.
At some point Rick dies (either self inflicted, or as a consequence of his actions/vices), both leaving Morty devastated and goalless.
In an attempt to honor Rick’s name he takes it up, and tries to live the normal Life Rick never could. He likely winds up marring Jessica, and at some point they have Beth. *Morty named his child after his mother for similar reasons to taking Ricks name.
After a number of years Morty *(now Rick) notices that his child and himself are starting to share similarities to his mother and Rick. Not being an dult Rick understands that this likely means he has been caught again in the same cycle his predecessor was in and falls into a depression and leaves to find himself in the universe to no avail.
Time passes and Rick returns to a 14 year old Morty a reflection of himself, and a universally drawn companion *(Rick and Morty are Universal Constants ever Rick eventually finds a Morty and they always go on adventures). Rick takes Morty on adventures as it is already to late for him, so the only option he has left is to influance the next generations |
age on the health of much of the nation. Many, though, will argue that such programs have wasted vast sums of money, undermined longstanding patterns of local and personal self-governance, and damaged the fabric of our society by fostering a culture of dependency on government, and disincentives to productive and responsible behavior. One would hope that all such claims will be contested and assessed in the light of honest empirical inquiry.
What I propose to do here is, however, something a little different. I begin with the speech itself, delivered at the University of Michigan on May 22, 1964, almost exactly six months after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, six months into Johnson’s presidency, in the midst of Johnson’s campaign to be elected President in his own right.
Clearly this speech, although an ordinary commencement address, offered an opportunity for Johnson to transcend his crass, horse-trading, wheeler-dealer reputation, and begin to present a more statesmanlike image of himself that could rival or even surpass the mythic transports of the Kennedy presidency. And he took the opportunity. He had already successfully test-driven the term “Great Society” a few weeks before in a speech at Ohio University, and at Ann Arbor, he went full throttle with it, making it the centerpiece of an oration whose rhetoric, high as it flew, barely touched upon the ambitious political program it introduced. At a time of unequaled prosperity, an American Icarus was on the rise, and the sun itself seemed ripe for his colonization.
To get a sense of just how audaciously Texas-sized Johnson’s vision was, and the extent to which it offered itself as a conscious departure from the relatively timid immediate past, consider how it contrasts with these remarkably un-soaring words of President John F. Kennedy, just two years before, in his 1962 Yale commencement speech:
What is at stake in our economic decisions today is not some grand warfare of rival ideologies which will sweep the country with passion, but the practical management of a modern economy. What we need is [sic] not labels and cliches but more basic discussion of the sophisticated and technical questions involved in keeping a great economic machinery moving ahead.
Kennedy had offered not Icarian uplift but sober advice: The graduates should take their part “in the solution of the problems that pour upon us, requiring the most sophisticated and technical judgment.”
Kennedy’s faith in elite technical expertise is by no means missing from Johnson’s speech, but in the latter context it finds itself in the company of some strikingly populist and communitarian imagery, along with touches of bombast and sheer therapeutic psychobabble. Johnson was not merely concerned with the size of the Gross National Product, but with the quality of aspirations and longings in the hearts of the nation’s citizens. He wanted to inspire the American people with an animating, soul-renewing sense of national purpose, and call them to the pursuit of the higher things in life. But, contrary to much of what you will read about the Ann Arbor speech, it is surprisingly guarded, to the point of coyness, about how much of this cultural renewal would be the work of a vastly expanded federal apparatus. That part of it would not become evident until after the election.
Bill Voegeli’s Liberty Forum essay captures some of the remarkable scope of Johnson’s speech, and there is no need to repeat or multiply examples of its range. But it’s important to ask: How adequate was the speech in putting forward a coherent vision of the actual reforms that would be advanced in a duly elected Johnson administration? If we want to understand what “the Great Society” really was, is the Ann Arbor speech the right place to begin? Or should we begin somewhere else? What would an administration that concerned itself with “the desire for beauty,” or “the hunger for community,” or the “honoring of creation,” or the “quality of our goals” or the “meaning of our lives”—what would such an administration actually do to advance these causes? What could it do?
Voegeli hits the nail on the head, then, when he calls these objectives little more than “gauzy aspirations” whose vagueness made it difficult “to say what [the Great Society] was about or be sure what it was not about.” This remains enduringly true. We should be wary of those who would ask us either to affirm or reject the Great Society in toto, as if it were a coherent thing. But the same can be said of the New Deal. This absence of clarity was not incidental to what Johnson was doing. It perfectly reflected, and continues to reflect, liberalism’s tendency to confuse the political and the spiritual realms, and to invoke the latter in ways that merely serve to anoint the former, and wrap it up in mystifying robes. When Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., began talking about things like “qualitative liberalism” and “spiritual unemployment” in 1956, nearly a decade before Johnson’s speech, he was vividly illustrating that tendency. But he was only following in the footsteps of William James, whose search for “the moral equivalent of war” as an energizing source of national solidarity was the inspiration for the War on Poverty, and the innumerable other such domestic “wars” that have come since. Bold as Johnson’s speech was, the rhetorical ground for it had been well-prepared.
The text was said to be primarily the work of Richard Goodwin, an old Kennedy speechwriter and Democratic operative who specialized in blowsy rhetorical excess and muddy inspirational thinking, and had great influence in formulating some of the administration’s signature rallying cries—not only the Great Society, but also the War on Poverty, and the Alliance for Progress. To get a vivid sense of Goodwin’s mind, one can hardly do better than to consult James Q. Wilson’s review of his 1974 book The American Condition. Writes Wilson:
The argument of the book is not easily restated because... there is not in a strict sense an argument being made at all: words are not defined, evidence is not adduced, logical connections are not established, contrary cases are not explained.... The major themes seem to be these: Americans have suffered a great but unnoticed diminution of freedom because they have lost the capacity to fulfill their humanity to the “outer limits fixed by the material conditions and capacity of the time.” The gap between our true human fulfillment and our present condition is a measure of our oppression....
Sounds very much like the Great Society address, doesn’t it? And Wilson’s review concludes with this mordant observation:
Its tone suggests that it was written at two o’clock in the morning when the darkest hours of the night produce the deepest intellectual reveries but not the clearest insight; when phrases, snatches of ideas, and hastily-scribbled quotations take on an enlarged meaning as they are pondered through a false sense of heightened awareness and a sweet existential anguish. Many of us have written down our ideas during these hours but we usually throw them away the next day when they are seen to be as vaporous as the night airs that produced them. Richard Goodwin kept his, and published them.
In other words, Goodwin’s book, and his speechwriting, were exercises in intellectual mood music. There was a lot of slinging around of abstractions like community and alienation and individualism and “shared values” and fulfillment and oppression. But there was no coherent structure of analysis, no set of concrete goals, no reasonable framework of policy objectives that could be seen to flow from the speech. Nor was there any sense of the conflict between expertise and democracy, between bureaucracy and creativity, between a vast expansion of federal power and what Johnson called “creative federalism.”
Though we think of it as ground-breaking, the speech at Ann Arbor was, in more than one sense, generic. It conformed to the typical commencement address, with its atmospherics of vague uplift and ever-unfolding purpose. It quoted Aristotle, to the effect that men live in cities because they wish to pursue “the good life,” but it offered no insight into the nature of that “good life,” or the nature of the human person meant to live it. Then, too, the speech made perfect sense as a campaign address, delivered by a titanically ambitious, but also deeply insecure, candidate eager to prove his reformist bona fides and leave his martyred predecessor in the dust. What it did not even remotely resemble was a policy road map. It lacked even a clue as to what specific policies could be drawn from it. The disconnect should be familiar, since we have just lived through a repetition of it, with an Obama administration that promised us the moon and instead has given us a stagnant economy and an ever-expanding IRS.
As to its rallying cry—there, too, there were antecedents. Goodwin was drawing from earlier figures on the political and intellectual Left, though he wisely chose not to allude to them. The term “Great Society” appeared importantly in the turn-of-the-century writings of Graham Wallas, the British Fabian, who shared with the younger Walter Lippmann a belief that modern life had demolished older forms of human association, leaving society incapable of self-governance, and therefore in need of a “propaganda-managed democracy” to keep alive the tenuous myth of representative democratic governance. Such well-meant redirection of citizens’ interests and energies, which now goes by the grandmotherly euphemism of “nudging,” is always a part of the liberal agenda: a government for the people, but not necessarily of or by them, a government that knows better than we do about the deepest desires of our hearts, and knows better how we might fulfill those desires.
Johnson’s speech does not nudge. But what especially marks it at the remove of half a century is the extent to which we can now see it as a prime example of the politics of vision, or the politics of meaning—perhaps the first such example from the mouth of a sitting American President. In that sense, the speech seems strikingly, and depressingly, contemporary. Politics, in this view, is not merely the question of how resources are best allocated and a general peace is kept. It is not even a question of what Michael Oakeshott would call a telocratic order, a society disciplined to the pursuit of particular ends or goals or purposes. It is about something even bigger. In its fullest sense, politics is about self-fulfillment, about helping men and women to rise above a stunted world of moral self-indulgence, degraded work, and despoiled landscapes to find richer and deeper meaning in their lives. Politics is a thing of the spirit. The Great Society speech offers us what might be called a pneumacratic view of politics. That this windy politics was being served up by a ruthless man of legendary personal ambition, a man who would have made Frank Underwood of House of Cards look like an effete wallflower by comparison, is perhaps not the least of its ironies.
We all know how the 1964 election came out, with Johnson receiving over 61 percent of the popular vote, and producing Democratic super-majorities in both houses of Congress, ensuring that he would have a free hand in passing virtually any legislation he pleased. Accordingly, he laid out a staggering agenda in his first post-electoral State of the Union message on January 8, 1965, again invoking the shimmering goals of the Great Society, and the Congress proceeded to pass nearly all of it: Medicare and Medicaid, the Voting Rights Act, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Higher Education Act, and a slew of urban, environmental, housing, transportation, arts, cultural, and anti-poverty programs, all in pursuit of “the Great Society,” understood as “a summit where freedom from the wants of the body can help fulfill the needs of the spirit.”
Yet who would argue that those acts have produced spiritual growth, or clarity about the “meaning of our lives,” along the lines envisioned 50 years ago at Ann Arbor? They certainly produced exponential growth in large administrative bureaucracies, generally housed in buildings of epic ugliness, such as the headquarters of the Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington. They produced vast federal expenditures on primary and secondary education that have not made much more than a dent in the problems Johnson identified, and may have made things far worse. Their permanent effects upon the problems of poverty were negligible at best. And the spiritualism behind them came on the cheap, for, as Voegeli observes, this was a liberalism of economically flush times, one that took prosperity for granted, even to the point of disdaining it as a lesser god, and crediting it only to the extent that it provided a basis for fulfilling “the needs of the spirit.” This liberalism assumed that a government that has presided successfully over a great growth of national wealth is a government that can do anything else that it sets its mind to.
When government takes on more than its appointed tasks, though, it risks failing not only in its new ventures, but in its basic ones. That’s a point Voegeli made particularly well. Just as the endless proliferation of laws is actually a sign of an increasingly lawless society, so the proliferation of legislation and administrative bureaucracy eventually becomes a sign of government’s waning legitimacy and its waning power to effect good. Hence, the 1970s became a demoralized decade in which the conviction took hold that government was incapable of accomplishing anything useful; hence we are already facing, in the wake of the Obama administration’s many failures, a similar diminution in the citizenry’s confidence in government’s basic competency. What Ronald Reagan did in patiently defeating inflation, and restoring by deeds the very faith in government that the party of government itself had shattered, will have to be done again, against even more entrenched foes and forces.
The legislative history made during these brief but “productive” paroxysms of liberal legislative activity, such as 1933-37, 1965-67, and 2009-10, can be hard to change. We will never be rid of Social Security, no matter how flawed it may be, unless and until it collapses with catastrophic effects that no one wants. We will never be rid of Medicare, no matter how onerous and poorly designed, unless something similar happens. The Reagan tax cuts, the Bush tax cuts, these were initiatives that could come and go. But liberal “experiments” are nearly always grand impositions on the future, designed to be too big and too entrenched to be allowed to fail. The only experimental element in the process is seeing whether or not we can survive and thrive in spite of them.
At the 1936 Democratic convention, toward the end of an eloquent and memorable speech, Franklin Roosevelt declared: “There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.” A mysterious cycle is, by definition, an unpredictable one. But it seems likely that the next such rendezvous will have something to do with the destiny prepared for us by several generations of mounting and unsustainable growth in public spending and commitments—the legacy of postwar generations to whom much was given, and from whom not very much was demanded. Arriving at that destined place will put our spiritual life to the test far more than did the romantic entreaties of Johnson’s great commencement speech.In 2008, Pitchfork’s Mark Richardson asked three members of Animal Collective if they’d consider performing one of their albums in their entirety at a Pitchfork event. Geologist was blunt: “No. For a lot of records I think it would be impossible, because a lot of things have been stolen or lost or recorded over… if we did it we’d probably do it the way we do old songs now where it’s reworked, and I don’t think that’s the point of that concert series.”
Nine years later, Avey Tare and Panda Bear played their 2004 acoustic masterpiece Sung Tongs in its entirety plus two period B-sides to a rapturous crowd at the Knockdown Center in Queens. The event was ostensibly a 21st birthday party for Pitchfork, started by Ryan Schreiber in his Minnesota basement in 1996. Topaz Jones, Moses Sumney, and (Sandy) Alex G opened, but I’d say 90 percent of the crowd were hardcore Animal Collective fans—many who drove several hours or flew out from all over the country to see them play Sung Tongs front-to-back with the same setup they had on those 2003 tours, when they were performing to empty bars and playing Golden Tee whenever they weren’t on stage.
Avey and Panda walked out, two acoustic guitars each, with a single floor tom between them, sitting in folding chairs. Just before they started playing “Leaf House,” Avey grinned and whispered “sunnnng tonnnngs” and the madness began.
It was a holy set. I’ve seen AC eight times now, and while I’ve written in the past imploring fans past and present not to take them for granted while they’re still around making music and playing shows, there was no cynicism or couched feelings at the Knockdown Center on Saturday night. I was smoking a cigarette outside earlier in the night and talked to someone who’d flown out from Austin, Texas, and we had a blast going through the most geeky shit: best live era, best boots, which records surprised us after knowing the songs live, the new Panda Bear EP coming out next month (he hadn’t listened to Panda’s recent Desert Daze set of all new material and was waiting to hear the record).
These are common conversations at an Animal Collective show, an excitement without any of the cultish nonsense associated with The Grateful Dead. Except for the one dude who peaked during “Leaf House” and fell down in front of me, I didn’t see many people obviously on drugs, but who knows, it was hard to tell—the night put everyone in a natural trance. I ran into so many people from Baltimore, friends and acquaintances, and we all had that familiar conversation about Pitchfork: hate the reviews, hate the pose, hate the politics, yet we read it every day. Moses Sumney had the quote of the night: “Happy birthday, Pitchfork. 21 years of making dreams and destroying lives.”
Nine years ago a set like this might’ve felt antithetical to the AC’s entire ethos of ceaselessly moving forward and never looking back, but central to that philosophy is always trying something new. Just as they recorded and released a record nearly two years ago before playing any of it live for the first time, the Sung Tongs set was another experiment, another successful highwire act. Many of the songs on that record haven’t been played live since 2003: “The Softest Voice,” “Visiting Friends,” “College,” “Whaddit I Done.” Others had only been played live in radically-altered arrangements, like "Who Could Win a Rabbit," “Kids on Holiday,” “Sweet Road,” and “Good Lovin’ Outside.”
I don’t think Panda Bear has played an acoustic guitar on stage since 2004. Everyone was in tune, screaming every single word of the record in harmony with the band. The night’s best surprise was the inclusion of “Covered in Frogs,” a Sung Tongs era song that was never properly recorded or released. And after the record’s blissed-out denouement “Whaddit I Done,” usually soaked in auto-wah vocals but sang straight for once, Avey and Panda played one more “sung tong, just one that’s not on that record”: “Prospect Hummer.”
Earlier in the set I saw someone propose to their spouse during “Winters Love,” and dozens of people weeping, cheering and singing along when needed and remaining dead silent during “The Softest Voice” and “Visiting Friends,” the 12-minute electro-acoustic epic meant to recreate the drone and “wall of hums” of Wolfgang Voigt’s electronic work as Gas.
I closed my eyes, held onto my Tascam Zoom recorder, and put my hands to my heart. When I did take a look around the room during the song, I saw many people openly weeping. I love Animal Collective and Sung Tongs, but what made this show so special was how excited and in tune the crowd were: a thousand people moving and swaying and singing in unison, a single organism. All of the logistical nonsense of getting there, going through security, body aches, sitting through a dull opener (loved Moses Sumney, but Alex G just ain’t my bag)—it all evaporated for 80 magical minutes.
—Follow Nicky Smith on Twitter: @MUGGER1992Three years ago today, I met and interviewed Jason David Frank (Tommy Oliver, MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS) and Jason Mewes (Jay, MALLRATS; CLERKS; DOGMA). #powerrangers #jasondavidfrank #jasonmewes #clerks #mallrats #geraldbiggerstaffphotography
Diamond Kites onstage at Musica in Akron, Ohio on January 26, 2019. More photos on my blog. Link in bio. #diamondkites #localbands #geraldbiggerstaffphotography
Nathan Doutt of Diamond Kites onstage at Musica in Akron, Ohio on January 26, 2019. #nathandoutt #diamondkites #geraldbiggerstaff
Diamond Kites at Musica in Akron, Ohio on January 26, 2019. #diamondkites #localbands #geraldbiggerstaffphotography
Ian Minnick, guitarist for Chil, at Musica in Akron, Ohio on January 26, 2019. #ianminnick #chilrockband #guitarist #geraldbiggerstaffphotography
Chil at Musica in Akron, Ohio on January 26, 2019 in support of their new single, "Beautiful Mess." More pictures up on blog. Link in bio. #chilrockband #concertphotography #beautifulmess #geraldbiggerstaffphotography
Nicholas Batton, lead singer of Chil, rocks out onstage at Musica in Akron, Ohio on January 26, 2019 in support of the release of their new single, "Beautiful Mess." #nicholasbatton #chilrockband #geraldbiggerstaffphotographyCLEVELAND, Ohio - Adam Plutko was at his friend's wedding in California when Carter Hawkins, the Indians' director of player personnel, called him and told him to get to Cleveland.
"I had a pair of baseball pants with me, so I just threw them on right away," said Plutko on Monday at Progressive Field.
Plutko was kidding, but only about the baseball pants.
"They had literally just got done saying I do and taking pictures and everything," said Plutko, who joined the Indians on Sunday. "I was in the middle of the wedding.'"
Plutko's wife, parents and several high school friends were at the wedding to share the news of his first trip to the big leagues.
"It was pretty awesome to have that moment in person," said Plutko, drafted by the Indians in the 11th round on 2013. "There was crying and hugging. I'm pretty sure everyone was crying, including myself. It was a moment I'll remember for a long time."
Left-hander TJ House was designated for assignment to make room for Plutko on the 40-man roster.
Plutko, 24, split the season between Class AAA Columbus and Class AA Akron. He went a combined 9-8 with a 3.73 ERA in 28 starts. He was promoted to Columbus on June 18.
Manager Terry Francona said the earliest Plutko would pitch would be Saturday against the White Sox. Cody Anderson will start in what is expected to be another bullpen game.
"We had talked about bringing Adam up originally when Columbus was done with its season," said Francona. "But we didn't want to bring guys that we didn't think we're going to pitch.
"Now with (Carlos) Carrasco down, I think it's a lot more realistic that he will pitch. He won't be just sitting around. He'd been home a week, but hadn't done a lot of throwing. He'll throw a bullpen and get his legs back under him. It shouldn't take that long."
Carrasco is out for the year with a broken right hand after getting hit by a line drive Saturday against Detroit.
Plutko is sharing a locker with Perci Garner, a teammate from Columbus. Trevor Bauer is in the next locker. Plutko and Bauer pitched at UCLA together.
"We only saw him a couple of times in relief in spring training," said Francona. "One day he came in blowing about 96 mph. That's not him. He's a lot like Tomlin - he needs to command.
"He's not scared. He'll be a guy who gets every bit out of what he is because of his competitiveness. He's pitched at UCLA. He was a high-profile guy in college. There was a reason we called him up."
The Indians are carrying 37 players, including 14 relievers.
Testing, testing: Danny Salazar, who strained the flexor muscle in his right forearm on Sept. 9 against the Twins, played catch at 60 feet Tuesday. It's the first time he's played catch since being shut down for 10 days and receiving a PRP (platelet rich plasma) injection.
If the Indians make the postseason, pitching coach Mickey Callaway said, "There is a small chance he could be in our bullpen."
Tribe's Salazar long shot to pitch again this season
The diagnosis for Salazar's injury called for 10 days of rest and three or four weeks of throwing before he could pitch in games again.
"This was just to shake the cobwebs off," said Francona. "He'll do roughly the same thing on Wednesday. Then we'll see how he feels."
Asked about the possibility of Salazar being able to pitch "down the road," Francona said, "You're always hoping for the best. I know the No.1 priority is to get him healthy and feeling good. If it ends up being more than that, boy, that would be wonderful."
Finally: Ray 'Boom, Boom' Mancini, the pride of Youngstown and former WBA lightweight champion of the world, threw out the first pitch Tuesday night. Mancini threw a strike from the rubber.... Ayanna "AJ' Andrews of the Akron Racers received a Rawlings Gold Glove award before Tuesday's game. Andrews is the first woman to receive a Gold Glove. This is the first year Rawlings has honored a female fastpitch softball player.OTTAWA–Prime Minister Stephen Harper's opponents say a closed-door speech in which he says a majority is within Conservatives' reach and laments the possibility of left-wing ideologues in federal courts and agencies reveals his true colours. "There have always been two Harpers," Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said yesterday. "The real Harper always comes out when he thinks he can't be heard."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper during a visit to Kitchener on Aug. 13, 2009. ( DAVE CHIDLEY / THE CANADIAN PRESS )
Ignatieff said a video of Harper speaking to a Tory audience last week shows him as "contemptuous of other political parties" and "spiteful" toward the "institutions that guarantee our freedoms." "He treats every adversary as a public enemy who has to be destroyed, and so you wonder why it's difficult for me to continue to support him?" Ignatieff told a Montreal news conference. While Harper's language in the Sept. 2 meeting with Conservative supporters is blunt, his message about a majority is one internal party polls suggest has resonance after five years of minority governments, sources say.
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His political rivals say the tape is proof Harper never intended to make Parliament work. Ignatieff said a student taped the Sept. 2 speech in Sault Ste. Marie, was "shocked by what he saw," and gave it to the Liberals who gave a copy to CBC. "He's got a public discourse where he says he's trying to work with the other parties," said deputy New Democrat leader Thomas Mulcair. "But then in private we find out he's the same sectarian, narrow-minded, venom-spewing Stephen Harper that we've always known." On the tape, which runs 9 1/2 minutes, Harper says the coming election is a clear choice between a tax-and-spend Liberal government "propped up by the socialists and the separatists" and a Conservative government that will produce a balanced budget without raising taxes. If the Liberals were still in power, "imagine how many left-wing ideologues they would be putting in the courts, federal institutions, agencies, the Senate – I should say how many more they would be putting in," he says.
Harper made similar comments – and was widely panned for it – near the end of the 2004 election campaign, and this spring in a speech to a Conservative think-tank. "They will deny this till they're blue in the face in an election campaign," Harper said last week.
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"But I guarantee it, if we do not win a majority, this country will have a Liberal government propped up by the socialists and the separatists. That government may not last long but every day it's in office it will do long-term, real damage to this country. This country cannot afford a government like that. "If they get together and force us to the polls, we have to teach them a lesson and get back there with a majority and make sure their little coalition never happens to this country," Harper said to applause from the partisan crowd. When Harper first mused aloud about a majority in the 2004 campaign, his party sank in the polls. In the 2006 and 2008 campaigns, he sidestepped any mention of a majority, saying only he wanted a "strong mandate" from Canadians. Harper says he's confident about the 143 ridings held by Tories. To form a majority, a party needs 155 of the 308 Commons seats. Asked by reporters if he rules out forming a governing coalition with the NDP and the Bloc Québécois, Ignatieff said he has already been "very clear" on that. He said he "already refused a coalition" last January because he didn't think it was "in the national interest," and he does not believe he has to revisit that question.
Read more about:Senators Susan Collins and Angus King announced today that the Aroostook Band of Micmacs, the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, the Penobscot Indian Nation, the Passamaquoddy Tribe of Pleasant Point Reservation, and the Passamaquoddy Tribe of Indian Township received a total of $2,302,764 through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) program.
“Indian Housing Block Grants provide important assistance to tribal communities working to maintain and improve affordable housing on their lands,” said Senators Collins and King in a joint statement. “This funding will help support projects that provide safe, affordable housing for members of Maine’s tribes.”
The funding is awarded as follows:
- Aroostook Band of Micmacs: $268,183
- Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians Housing Authority: $264,621
- Penobscot Indian Nation: $404,635
- Pleasant Point Reservation Housing Authority: $395,950
- Indian Township Passamaquoddy Housing Authority: $969,375
The IHBG program assists grant recipients with affordable housing activities in safe and healthy environments on Indian reservations, in Indian communities, and in Native Alaskan villages.The death toll in the Gaza-Israel conflict
By Lazaro Gamio and Richard Johnson,
Statistics on death tolls during active conflict are often difficult to track accurately. A note on our sourcing:
For death toll numbers from within Gaza, we receive daily or sometimes twice daily updates from the head of the Information Management Unit in the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories field office in the West Bank. The field office gets updates from multiple sources within Gaza, including U.N. agencies and the Palestinian Medical Authorities. They then create and continually update a spreadsheet of all available data. These numbers are often not complete, but represent the best available data and do tend to clarify over time. Israel disputes the numbers provided by the United Nations, saying that a large number of those killed, particularly males over 18, were armed terrorists and not civilians.
For death toll numbers of Israeli soldiers, we rely on Israel Defense Forces press releases and their Twitter account. For Israeli civilian deaths, we rely on news reports and our reporters in Israel and Gaza. These numbers are similarly tentative initially but clarify over time.
Related articles: Reporters grapple with politics, erratic sources in reporting Israeli/Gaza death toll (Washington Post) | Caution needed with Gaza casualty figures (BBC) | Civilian or Not? New Fight in Tallying the Dead From the Gaza Conflict (New York Times)
Deaths up to
SOURCE: U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Israel Defense Forces.ROCKY POINT – A 25-year-old substitute teacher was arrested Thursday and charged with sexually abusing a 16-year-old student at Rocky Point High School, Suffolk Police said.
Aimee Otero, of Coram, "inappropriately touched" the male student in a classroom at the high school on April 7, police said.
Special Victims Section detectives began an investigation into Otero's conduct after being contacted by Rocky Point school administrators, police said.
Otero is charged with third degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. She was issued a desk appearance ticket and will be arraigned on a later date.
Otero began working as a substitute in Rocky Point in November 2015. She "passed all mandatory New York State background checks prior to employment," Rocky Point Superintendent Michael Ring said in a letter sent home to parents Thursday.Thousands of building permits issued by the city of Toronto remain open with no final inspection to show the work was performed properly or safely, according to a city auditor's report.
The report by Auditor General Jeff Griffiths says more than 146,000 building permits remain open — some stretching back as far as 1975 — for construction and renovation jobs around the city.
Read the report You can click here to read the city auditor general's report into problems with the city's building permit process.
Building permits are issued by the city for construction and renovation work. The permit process requires that a city inspector sign off on the work at various stages to ensure it has been performed correctly and in compliance with building codes. A permit remains open until the work receives a final inspection.
Griffiths's office found that more than two thirds of Toronto's 146,000 active permits have not been inspected for more than a year, including thousands linked to fire and security upgrades. The report also found that in 70 per cent of cases where inspectors flagged a violation, there was no follow up inspection within a year to ensure the problem was addressed.
Coun. Peter Milczyn, chair of the city's planning and growth committee, said he is alarmed by the findings.
"To see that number of inspections simply not performed is really shocking," he said. "It means the extent of the problem is far greater than simply delays. It leads you to believe there are whole projects that aren't getting inspected properly," he said.
Coun. Josh Colle said he's heard from homeowners who've pointed to lax oversight in the permit process.
"What you'll hear from residents is an inspector went out and then what, nothing? Nothing seemed to come out of it," he said. "That kind of follow is key to the whole thing. There's no point in pointing out that there's some kind a flaw if there's no compliance follow up."
To see that number of inspections simply not performed is really shocking. - Coun. Peter Milczyn
In 2012 the city issued 39,670 building permits and closed 27,960. Toronto Building, the office that oversees building inspections, has 161 staff members, 131 of them are building inspectors.
The auditor's report also found that extra fees were often not applied in situations where work was started without a permit. Also, many inspections lack the detail required by the building code.
The report also warns that errors in the inspection activity could leave the city liable for lawsuits for negligence.
City councillors will address the problem at Friday's audit committee.Image caption Mr Vlahos helped perfect the ability to superimpose actors on separately filmed backgrounds
The visual effects industry has paid tribute to Petro Vlahos - the pioneer of blue- and green-screen systems.
The techniques allow filmmakers to superimpose actors and other objects against separately filmed backgrounds.
He developed the procedure for 1959's Ben-Hur and then went on to win an Oscar in 1964 after creating a related process for Disney's Mary Poppins.
The death of the 96-year-old was announced by the company he founded, Ultimatte.
His innovations continue to be used and developed by the television, film, computer games and advertising industries.
"Our industry has lost a giant," Everett Burrell, senior visual effects supervisor at Los Angeles-based studio Look Effects. told the BBC.
"It's hard to even conceive of how we would do what we do without the amazing number of processes and techniques he pioneered. All visual effects professionals and movie fans owe him a debt of gratitude."
Look Effects has built on Mr Vlahos' achievements to create work for the movies Avatar, The Life of Pi and the upcoming Superman film, Man of Steel.
Image caption Mr Vlahos's techniques were used in dozens of Disney movies
Six-month idea
Mr Vlahos was not the first to use a blue-screens - earlier versions of the technique can be seen in films including The Thief of Bagdad, and The Ten Commandments.
But he is credited with developing a way to use it that minimised some objects appearing to have a strange looking glow as a side-effect.
He called his invention the colour-difference travelling matte scheme.
Like pre-existing blue-screen techniques it involves filming a scene against an aquamarine blue-coloured background.
This is used to generate a matte - which is transparent wherever the blue-colour features on the original film, and opaque elsewhere. This can then be used to superimpose a separately filmed scene or visual effects to create a composite.
Mr Vlahos's breakthrough was to create a complicated laboratory process which involved separating the blue, green and red parts of each frame before combining them back together in a certain order.
He also noted in a patent filing that the process allowed the blue-screen procedure to cope with glassware, cigarette smoke, blowing hair and motion blur which had all caused problems for earlier efforts.
Movie studio MGM had commissioned him to invent it. Mr Vlahos later noted that it had taken him six months of thought to come up with the idea, much of |
you can just see how wrongheaded our traditional approach has been. And I could say, ‘Let’s do this’ and get reelected and start looking at the next office, or I can say, ‘How can I fundamentally change a bad policy?’ That’s not a small order. That’s a long haul.
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PinterestA white dwarf star in the Constellation Virgo turns out to be a "death star" worthy of "Star Wars."
Astronomers announced Wednesday that they have discovered a rocky object coming apart in a death spiral around this distant star. They used NASA's exoplanet-hunting Kepler spacecraft to make the discovery, then followed up with ground observations.
"This is something no human has seen before," said Andrew Vanderburg of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the lead author.
"We're watching a solar system get destroyed," he said in a statement.
The data show the object in an orbit 520,000 miles from the white dwarf. That's the approximate distance from the Earth to the moon, and back. Vanderburg and his team also found several additional chunks of orbiting material.
Scientists believe the original object may have been a planet whose orbit became unstable, and was kicked inward. The pieces already are being vaporized by the white dwarf, located about 570 light-years from Earth, and will eventually be ripped apart.
The fictional Death Star of "Star Wars" fame was the Empire's monstrously big space arsenal capable of destroying an entire planet.
The findings are being published this week in the journal Nature.All across the Internet, headlines are screaming Buzzkill and Marijuana Makes Young Brains Go to Pot. But a new study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, does not in any way prove that casual marijuana use is bad for your brain.
In order to understand why, all you need to do is actually read the research—and be able to think a bit critically. You don’t need to know anything particular about fMRI or any other scary acronyms and you don’t need to know your amygdala from your Shatner’s Bassoon. You don’t even need to know any statistics.
Here’s the first big problem. The 20 marijuana-smoking participants, who took the drug at least once a week, were deliberately selected to be healthy. If they had any marijuana-related problems—or any psychiatric problems or other issues—they were excluded from participating.
Are you beginning to see what’s wrong? Although the pot-smoking participants showed brain differences in comparison to the controls who were also selected to be normal—both groups were normal! If the smokers had any marijuana-related problems or any type of impairment, they would not have been included in the first place. Therefore, the brain changes that the researchers found were—by definition—not associated with any cognitive, emotional, or mental problems or differences.
“I’m disappointed that scientists are still able to publish high-profile papers that only look at neuroimaging without a behavioral endpoint,” says Carl Hart, an associate professor of psychology at Columbia University who was not associated with the research (Disclosure: he and I worked on a book project together). Hart compares the findings to brain differences found between the genders. “There are structural differences between men and women in certain areas,” he says, but they don’t predict differences in ability. “We don’t say this means women are impaired,” he adds.
The authors claim that the differences they saw could mean that these participants are at risk of future problems—but we know that 35 percent of young adults 18-20 have smoked marijuana in the past year, with a full 1 in 5 reporting smoking at least once in the past month.
Once they reach age 26, however, less than 1 percent have marijuana problems serious enough to be classified as addiction. What that means is that whatever brain changes are seen in casual users, they don’t predict addiction, otherwise, all casual users would become addicted—or at least, a much larger proportion than actually do. We’ve already had several generations of American adults who survived far higher rates of marijuana use than we see now—without encountering a major epidemic of cognitive impairment, schizophrenia, or lack of motivation.
Sadly, this isn’t even the only issue with the study. “Just casual use appears to create changes in the brain in areas you don’t want to change,” lead author Hans Breiter, professor of psychiatry at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told USA Today. But note that Breiter hedges by saying “appears to create,” rather than “creates.” That’s because this type of study cannot determine cause and effect: while it did show that the heavier users in the sample seemed to have more extreme changes than the lighter users, this does not prove that higher doses cause greater brain changes. That’s because pre-existing differences in people’s brains may lead them to use more or less marijuana— and the scans may simply be picking up on these differences.
Does this imply that marijuana is completely benign and everyone should smoke all day, every day? Of course not! But what it does mean is that, as we consider policy changes like legalization, we need a far more skeptical and intelligent press. Marijuana itself may or may not impair cognition— but discussions of marijuana policy clearly do so, in a way that is detrimental to our political health.Laurie Kerr:
http://www.slate.com/id/2060207: The Mosque to Commerce:Bin Laden's special complaint with the World Trade Center: We all know the basic reasons why Osama Bin Laden chose to attack the World Trade Center, out of all the buildings in New York. Its towers were the two tallest in the city, synonymous with its skyline. They were richly stocked with potential victims. And as the complex's name declared, it was designed to be a center of American and global commerce. But Bin Laden may have had another, more personal motivation. The World Trade Center's architect, Minoru Yamasaki, was a favorite designer of the Binladin family's patrons—the Saudi royal family—and a leading practitioner of an architectural style that merged modernism with Islamic influences.
The story starts in the late 1950s, when Yamasaki, a second-generation Japanese-American, won the commission to design the King Fahd Dhahran Air Terminal in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. His design had a rectilinear, modular plan with pointed arches, interweaving tracery of prefabricated concrete, and even a minaret of a flight tower. In other words, it was an impressive melding of modern technology and traditional Islamic form. The Saudis admired it so much that they put a picture of it on one of their banknotes.
For Yamasaki, an architect with a keen mathematical mind and a taste for ornamental pattern-work, this brush with the intricate geometries of Islamic architecture was inspiring, and he began to incorporate arabesques and arches into his work. For the next 12 to 15 years he played with Islamic forms in projects as diverse as the Federal Science Pavilion at the Seattle World's Fair, the Eastern Airlines Terminal at Logan Airport, and even the North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe, Ill.
Yamasaki received the World Trade Center commission the year after the Dhahran Airport was completed. Yamasaki described its plaza as "a mecca, a great relief from the narrow streets and sidewalks of the surrounding Wall Street area." True to his word, Yamasaki replicated the plan of Mecca's courtyard by creating a vast delineated square, isolated from the city's bustle by low colonnaded structures and capped by two enormous, perfectly square towers—minarets, really. Yamasaki's courtyard mimicked Mecca's assemblage of holy sites—the Qa'ba (a cube) containing the sacred stone, what some believe is the burial site of Hagar and Ishmael, and the holy spring—by including several sculptural features, including a fountain, and he anchored the composition in a radial circular pattern, similar to Mecca's.
At the base of the towers, Yamasaki used implied pointed arches—derived from the characteristically pointed arches of Islam—as a transition between the wide column spacing below and the dense structural mesh above. (Europe imported pointed arches from Islam during the Middle Ages, and so non-Muslims have come to think of them as innovations of the Gothic period.) Above soared the pure geometry of the towers, swathed in a shimmering skin, which doubled as a structural web—a giant truss. Here Yamasaki was following the Islamic tradition of wrapping a powerful geometric form in a dense filigree, as in the inlaid marble pattern work of the Taj Mahal or the ornate carvings of the courtyard and domes of the Alhambra.
The shimmering filigree is the mark of the holy. According to Oleg Grabar, the great American scholar of Islamic art and architecture, the dense filigree of complex geometries alludes to a higher spiritual reality in Islam, and the shimmering quality of Islamic patterning relates to the veil that wraps the Qa'ba at Mecca. After the attack, Grabar spoke of how these towers related to the architecture of Islam, where "the entire surface is meaningful" and "every part is both construction and ornament." A number of designers from the Middle East agreed, describing the entire façade as a giant "mashrabiya," the tracery that fills the windows of mosques.
In the early '70s, as the trade towers were nearing completion, Saudi Arabia was awash in oil revenues, and the state embarked on a massive modernization and building campaign. Yamasaki was premier among the many foreign architects hired during this period. Unwilling to take on too much work, Yamasaki decided to accept just three choice projects in Saudi Arabia: the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency head office, the Eastern Province International Airport, and the King Fahd Royal Reception Pavilion at Jeddah Airport. In all three projects he continued his explorations in melding traditional Islamic form with modern materials, methods, and functions.
As a scion of the Binladin contracting firm, destined to inherit some portion of its vast operations, Osama Bin Laden would certainly have been aware of Yamasaki's Saudi Arabian projects. Indeed, his family may have built them. (Minoru Yamasaki Associates won't say, but the Binladens were involved with almost all royal construction.) While Osama was in college in the mid-'70s, Yamasaki was designing his second generation of Saudi work, and the World Trade Center—then the tallest building in the world times two—came to completion in New York. This period was the high-water mark both for Yamasaki's world reputation and for the Saudis' national construction plan—which in Saudi Arabia must have brought a heightened sense of importance to the World Trade Center.
Having rejected modernism and the Saudi royal family, it's no surprise that Bin Laden would turn against Yamasaki's work in particular. He must have seen how Yamasaki had clothed the World Trade Center, a monument of Western capitalism, in the raiment of Islamic spirituality. Such mixing of the sacred and the profane is old hat to us—after all, Cass Gilbert's classic Woolworth Building, dubbed the Cathedral to Commerce, is decked out in extravagant Gothic regalia. But to someone who wants to purify Islam from commercialism, Yamasaki's implicit Mosque to Commerce would be anathema. To Bin Laden, the World Trade Center was probably not only an international landmark but also a false idol.Democratic presidential candidate Lincoln Chafee, the former Rhode Island governor, just gave one of the worst answers in presidential debate history.
It happened after CNN moderator Anderson Cooper questioned Chafee — who has attacked Hillary Clinton for backing Wall Street — about his vote for the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999. Glass-Steagall was a financial-regulation bill that separated commercial banks and securities firms.
Chafee's answer? "The Glass-Steagall was my very first vote, I'd just arrived, my dad had died in office," Chafee said. "I just arrived to Senate. I think we get some takeovers and that was one. It was my very first vote, and it was 95, 90 to 5. The record."
Cooper didn't think the answer was satisfactory. "With all due respect though, sir, what does that say about you that you cast a vote for something you weren't really sure about?" he said, implying that Chafee didn't understand the bill before voting on it.
Chafee replied that he thought Cooper was being a little rough, but essentially acknowledged he had no idea what he was voting for.
Story by Allan Smith and editing by Kristen GriffinBy George Obulutsa
DAR ES SALAAM, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Tanzanian albinos are living in terror following 30 murders in the east African nation by people apparently seeking their body parts for witchcraft, a campaigner said on Monday.
The government says most of the killings happened in the last 10 months. The latest three occurred just after a rally held in Dar es Salaam last month to denounce the practice.
"Our biggest fear right now is the fear of living. If you leave work at night as an albino, you are unsure of reaching home safely. When you sleep, you are unsure of waking up in one piece," Zihada Msembo, secretary general of the Tanzania Albino Society, told Reuters in an interview.
"We marched, the president (Jakaya Kikwete) received us and we said ‘now we can have some peace’ and slept soundly that night. Next morning, we hear yet another albino was killed that very night."
The government says most of the murders occurred in western Tanzania. Police have arrested 53 suspects.
The killers sell body parts such as arms, legs, hair, skin and genitals, according to police and albino groups.
Those involved in witchcraft, especially in mining and fishing industries, believe these will enrich them, President Kikwete said last month, calling it a "stupid belief."
Local media have reported several incidents of victims left to bleed to death.
"They are cutting us up like chickens," Msembo said, while pointing to a picture on a wall in her cramped office of a limbless body with the skin on its face peeled off from an incident in 2007.
Albinos lack pigment in their eyes, skin or hair, making their life difficult in Tanzania where there is plenty of sunshine and they are more susceptible to skin cancer and sun burns.
Tanzania has more than 200,000 albinos in its 40 million population.
Traditionally, midwives were known to kill albino babies, declare them stillborn and bury them secretly.
An increased number of deliveries in health centres has helped reduce the murders of albino babies, the government says.
Many other African societies shun albinos and treat them as if they bring misfortune or accuse them of being involved in witchcraft.
The latest killings have brought Tanzania — reputed for its relative stability in the region — unwanted international attention. It was the subject of a September resolution in the European Union parliament condemning the murders.
Showing the traffickers’ ruthlessness, a reporter who produced an undercover story on the albino body parts trade in late July went into hiding after receiving death threats.
Msembo said many albino children were dropping out of school for fear of being kidnapped. Many albinos have sought refuge in urban centres, which are relatively safer.
ATTACKERS IN BURUNDI
Three albino murders have occurred in neighbouring Burundi this year. Officials say the assailants were killing at the behest of people in Tanzania.
Officials in eastern Burundi said that 24 albinos have fled their villages and gone into towns for fear of slaughter.
Nicodeme Gahimbare, a public prosecutor, said the government had arrested two suspects over the murders.
"The two who were arrested confessed to the crime and said they got 1 million Burundian francs ($840) from a Tanzanian seeking albino body parts," Gahimbare told Reuters.
Police also arrested two elderly men. Gahimbare said they confessed to being in touch with a Tanzanian who had promised them three million francs for albino hair.
Kazungu Kassim, head of Burundi’s albino association, appealed to the government to boost their security.
"We are human beings like others, we have a right to live," Msemgo said, adding they had been turned into a commodity.
"Our country has earned a reputation that it is doing business with albino body parts, so people in other countries can kill and cross into Tanzania where there is a ready market." (Additional reporting by Patrick Nduwimana in Bujumbura)While some are fighting with the exact definitions of what exactly constitutes Big Data, there’s little doubt that what we work with at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN is BIG data.
From an analytics perspective, what we do at the LHC is large scale pattern recognition and hypothesis testing.
The experiments are the size of apartment buildings and are cramped with state of the art electronics. The largest of these experiments called ATLAS hosts 100,000,000 read-out channels. Most of them are silicon pixels like in a digital camera. But others are very different technologies, designed to trace the small elusive particles emanating from the collisions of protons. The game is to put all these secondary measurements together and deduce what went on right after the original collision.
To put this in perspective: we are looking through a 90 megapixel 3D camera, reconstructing particle trajectories, the particle types and their speeds. Piecing this information together requires a tremendous amount of processing in itself.
The only problem is that we have protons colliding 600 million times every second. That leaves us with 60 PB/s if we assume that each channel is 8 bit in size. 60 PB/s corresponds to the entire planets accumulation of data every 83 minutes.
Think hard about what you really want to store before you design your infrastructure
Since the world wasn’t swallowed in an information black hole at the start of the LHC we obviously don’t store all this data. Instead dedicated systems for preliminary data analysis and rejection is selecting collisions that are of interest to modern physics. This trigger architecture is based on FPGAs and close-to-the-experiment computer clusters that take decisions on whether to save of discard collision data within nanoseconds.
Discarding data is dangerous if anything is concluded based on statistics afterwards. To avoid bias in our conclusions (to be or not to be a Higgs particle) we do extensive studies on what to expect in general from physics that is already known.
The lesson is that designing a big data collection system to collect both trivially known information events and new potentially rare events is a sure way to overwhelm your analysis pipeline while decreasing any chance of finding the rare and valuable insights.
Know what you know and make sure you are aware of what you don’t.
Computer simulation works (statistically speaking)
One of the perhaps biggest positive surprises at the LHC was how fantastically well the predictions of physics actually fitted the observed collisions.
High energy particle collisions are predicted by quantum field theory. the quantum part means that every time two protons collide they only by a certain chance turn into something new and interesting. Most of the time they don’t. How often a new type of particle is created is indeed the main result from this branch of science.
The reason we need 600 million collisions per second is to create enough chances that a rare particle such as the Higgs particle or a dark matter particle is created.
When looking at particle data we usually look at histograms with many collisions forming a picture of the rate of a particle with a specific distribution in say speed, mass or some other quantity. When a discovery is made, it is because a histogram of a certain type (typically particle mass) deviates significantly from a histogram filled by simulated collisions. The simulated data only contains the particles we already know of from previous experiments.
We use Monte Carlo simulation of particle collisions to fill this histogram of expected particles. In the simulation physics theory, how secondary particles form the collision loses energy in the huge detectors, to how the readout electronics will form the final signal is simulated for millions of virtual collisions.
One such simulated collision takes around 1 hour to fully simulate. After that it is reconstructed by the same patten recognition algorithms as the actual collision data from the LHC. This brings the virtual and the real collision events on equal footing and we can compare them. The surprise is that the virtual version of the collisions matches so well. Decades of effort have been poured into writing realistic simulations, but we were all taken by surprise still. This is definitely one of the major achievements that is rarely sung when taking about the impressive results of the LHC. Without good simulation we would not have discovered the Higgs particle as early as 2012.
The lesson is that complex simulations is well worth the effort. If the work is started early in the design process it can be instrumental in the design of the infrastructure. Simulations is truly the glasses with which we look into the future (and fantasy) world of modern physics. Without simulation it would be impossible to search for exotic new physics such as supersymmetry, dark matter and magnetic monopoles.
Independent information is best stored in files
Having worked with large databases before I became a particle physicist, I was surprised by the use of container files as storage for collisions. Querying a large database with everything in it would have been much easier right?
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM collisions WHERE mass = 126 GeV
What databases are (relatively) good at is relationships, for independent entries the advantage of a centralized database is less visible. All collisions are independent from each other in the LHC. So we instead store collisions in binary files where C types and C++ structures can be saved and accessed in an efficient manner.
This means that it it important to keep track of all files in a dataset otherwise the statistical results would be wrong. It also mean that computations happening on multiple computers at simultaneously can write to their fast local storage and cache input files for fast access.
Computations on the LHC data is done through the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid consisting of more than 150 computing centers around the world. These centers are connected through high speed connections (at least 10 Gbits) and also serve as storage sites for the 25 PB/yr of data generated at the LHC.
Using files allows a complex system with many heterogeneous resources to scale in a simple manner. It also fits well with the LHC computing policy of running the analysis where the data is located rather than transferring the data to your local data center. versioning of data that is analyzed by thousands of physicists is handled by a DNS-like service that handles naming and routing of datasets to physical resources.
An added advantage is that we can change the schema ad-hoc from file to file, allowing us to sieve collisions that takes 2 MB each down to a few kilobytes. This changes the scale from supercomputers to laptops, and radically lessens the turnaround time of the most expensive part of the analysis, the physicist.
The lesson is that fragmented data structures not only makes distributed computing scalable, allows loosely coupled schema evolution and faster turnaround time for analysts.
Nature (and analysts) always finds a way
When the first analyses of collision data began in the ATLAS collaboration in 2009 the client tools for processing data on the grid were unintuitive, slow and exposed many of the different design decisions of each of the computer centers involved. That quickly meant that computing centers were blacklisted by users with a few bad experiences, and that even more users gave up and ran jobs around the grid on their local resources at their institutes.
These reactions were possible at the beginning of the experiment due to the relatively manageable data sizes at that time, but it was clear that it wouldn’t scale when the collision rate began to climb the year after.
As a result a small internal competition on client tools took place. The end result was a tool called Panda that evolved into a quite usable web site that job statistics, resource quotas and the ability to share information with fellow analysts on which datasets to use. It also allowed the analysts to submit jobs to the grid with nearly the same command as a local computation would require.
The lesson is that power-users have little sympathy when it comes to inefficient access models. Early acceptance of the fact that they likely know more about the domain problem than the system architects reverted a disaster. A disaster that could have slowed the discovery of new physics.
The last conclusion…
The most amazing thing of all is that the LHC was conceived in the mid-eighties and designed in the nineties. All with the full knowledge of how much data would be generated. One thing they didn’t know was that another CERN creation, the World Wide Web would foster the likes of Google, Facebook and Amazon and the introduction of commercial Big Data. Today commodity software such as Hadoop and cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services serve as a commercial version of the Grid. Who knows how the LHC computing model would look like if we designed it today!
That said, there are many big data lessons still to be learned from the LHC experiments, it is indeed no just a physics experiment but as much a computing experiment.Kotaku East East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.
Pikmin 3 is already out in Japan. It's headed to the U.S. on August 4. The game is the same, but the Pikmin 3 commercials couldn't be more different.
Let's have a look.
Here is the Japanese commercial for Pikmin 3. In the ad, actress Juri Ueno watches a Red Pikmin carry a cherry. She then tells the Pikmin to stop and comments on how cute the little character is.
(You can also watch the second and third ad in this series. Note that there are also gameplay commercials that feature a soothing voice.)
This is the U.S. commercial. It's certainly different from the Japanese ad.
Recently, the difference between these commercials has become a topic on 2ch, Japan's largest bulletin board. What were the reactions? Some liked the U.S. ad, while others preferred the Japanese one.
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People have been quick to point out how the commercials vary and what that says about how Pikmin 3 is sold in each region. "They want to sell to different segments," wrote one 2ch commenter. That doesn't just mean different regions, but rather, different target groups within each area.
Some 2ch users pointed out how the Japanese commercial is focused more more on the atmosphere, while Nintendo of America is trying to sell the game to kids, pushing the strategy element.
"I felt like the American version was more interesting," wrote one commenter. It seemed like the Japanese version didn't really offer much of an explanation of what Pikmin 3 was, the commenter continued. "C'mon, the Japanese commercial was better," a commenter countered.
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"So much was implied that I didn't know what was going on," wrote one commenter. The commercial is so focused on the mood and avoids stating things outright that it "feels Japanese". In Japanese language and culture, much is often implied and inferred, with much going unspoken.
Another commenter pointed out that there are gameplay-only commercials (mentioned above) that provide good explanations. Wrote on commenter, "Perhaps this style of commercials works best for Japan." There were also opinions that the Japanese commercial seems more confident—like, I guess, Nintendo knows the game will sell in Japan.
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Here, however, there also might be an appeal of what's different: Some 2ch commenters might prefer the American Pikmin 3 commercial because it's direct and to the point. They also might have liked it because it was so different. By that same token, some Westerners might prefer the Japanese spot because it's different!
"This is definitely an interesting comparison," wrote one 2ch commenter, perhaps summing this up the best. It definitely is.
日本とアメリカでこんなにも違うピクミンCM [2ch]
To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft.
AdvertisementSTONERS will want to buy a ticket to California immediately.
A company in California has create a chocolatey spread similar to Nutella that is laced with medical marijuana, food blog Foodbeast reported. The product, Nugtella, was the creation of Organicares, who specialise in "medical edibles". The magical spread is infused with 320mg of hash oil, giving a whole new meaning to a special treat. Unfortunately it is only available to purchase from medical marijuana dispensaries so you'll need to know a friend with a prescription. The spread comes just a week after Nutella announced that it would be launching its official cookbook, which teaches people how to make all kinds of yummy desserts. News.com.au would never recommend substituting Nutella with Nugtella, but we suspect we won't have to. ###Everlasting gift to political media and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has found a new target: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
In Trump’s first policy paper — yes, an actual policy paper — the real estate mogul criticizes Zuckerberg and GOP rival Sen. Marco Rubio for their support for more open immigration.
Zuckerberg, through his immigration reform lobbying group Fwd.Us, and Rubio have both supported increasing the cap on H-1B visas, which allow U.S. employers to recruit and temporarily employ foreign workers.
But in the paper, Trump said he wants to increase the minimum wage paid to H-1B workers to force U.S. companies to hire domestically and to increase diverse hiring in Silicon Valley. He also took a jab at Zuckerberg and Rubio:
Raising the prevailing wage paid to H-1Bs will force companies to give these coveted entry-level jobs to the existing domestic pool of unemployed native and immigrant workers in the U.S., instead of flying in cheaper workers from overseas. This will improve the number of black, Hispanic and female workers in Silicon Valley who have been passed over in favor of the H-1B program. Mark Zuckerberg’s personal Senator, Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would decimate women and minorities.
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Rubio is a co-sponsor of a Senate bill, the Immigration Innovation “I-Squared’’ Act of 2015, which proposes to increase the annual H-1B visa cap from 65,000 to 115,00, or up to 195,00 “depending upon market conditions and existing demand.’’
In his immigration paper, however, Trump argues that only half of American college graduates with science, technology, engineering, and math degrees find degrees in their field. He also refered to a 2013 study by the Economic Policy Institute — a nonprofit labor think tank that advocates for low- and middle-income workers — that found two-thirds of new college-educated IT job holders under the age of 30 were hired through the H-1B guestworker program.
Surprisingly, Trump’s skepticism of the H-1B program is shared by fellow presidential candidate and self-described democratic socialist Bernie Sanders, who has said guestworker programs have been used by companies to attract cheap unskilled labor — though he has acknowledged that areas of the high-tech industry needs foreign labor.
Trump appeared to specify his position on the H-1B guestworker program to that degree Tuesday afternoon on Twitter.
I want talented people to come into this country—to work hard and to become citizens. Silicon Valley needs engineers, etc. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2015
When foreigners attend our great colleges & want to stay in the U.S., they should not be thrown out of our country. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2015
My H-1B reform plan will transform program so it delivers for country, not lobbyists, & will have bipartisan support: http://t.co/xDay480qfv — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2015
Facebook declined to comment on this story and Fwd.Us did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a Washington Post op-ed, Zuckerberg argued that increasing current annual caps on H-1B visas would create more American jobs in return:
To lead the world in this new economy, we need the most talented and hardest-working people. We need to train and attract the best. Given all this, why do we kick out the more than 40 percent of math and science graduate students who are not U.S. citizens after educating them? Why do we offer so few H-1B visas for talented specialists that the supply runs out within days of becoming available each year, even though we know each of these jobs will create two or three more American jobs in return?
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Zuckerberg’s argument is backed by the American Immigration Council, which stated high-skill foreign workers “complement their native-born peers; they do not substitute for them,’’ citing lower-than-average unemployment in the occupations H-1B visas are routinely requested.
The nonprofit immigration advocacy group also said the guestworker program contributes to the multiplier effect, in which “the impact and success of innovative industries’’ produce more local jobs in other industries.
But the Economic Policy Institute disputes those claims. They cite an eight-year academic study published in 2015, which compares employers who applied and received H-1B visas and those who applied but did not receive them. The authors concluded that “H-1Bs replace other workers to some extent, are paid less than alternative workers, and increase the firm’s profits.’’
So maybe Donald Trump has actually done his homework.
Here’s who’s running for president in 2016Fashion designer Sophie Theallet made news when she released an open letter to other fashion designers calling on them to refuse to design clothes for incoming First Lady Melania Trump. Even though the French designer had not been asked to make outfits for Mrs. Trump, Theallet’s call garnered a lot of favorable media attention.
Now other designers are following suit, while others say they would be happy to work with the incoming First Lady.
Designer Tom Ford told The View, “I was asked to dress her quite a few years ago and I declined; she’s not necessarily my image.” Ford went on to explain, “even had Hillary won she shouldn’t be wearing my clothes, they’re too expensive. They’re not artificially expensive, it’s how much it costs to make these things. I think the first lady has to relate to anybody.”
Joseph Altuzarra said unequivocally, “I don’t want to not dress people I disagree with.”
Marc Jacobs echoed Altuzarra’s sentiment, saying, “I have no interest whatsoever in dressing Melania Trump. I didn’t see [Sophie Theallet’s] letter. Personally, I’d rather put my energy into helping out those who will be hurt by [Donald] Trump and his supporters.”
Both Jacobs and Altuzarra were among the many designers who designed shirts which were sold to raise money for Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Designer Humberto Leon wrote on his Facebook page, “No one should and if she buys your clothes, tell people you don’t support it. You know who you are!”
This doesn’t mean Mrs. Trump will be without fashionable clothing for the next 4 to 8 years. Even anti-Trump designers acknowledge she can purchase and wear their designs and there’s nothing they can do about it.
However, there are some top designers who buck the trend and say they’d be happy to dress the former model.
Diane von Furstenberg said, “Donald Trump was elected and he will be our president. Melania deserves the respect of any first lady before her. Our role as part of the fashion industry is to promote beauty, inclusiveness, diversity. We should each be the best we can be and influence by our example.”
Tommy Hilfiger said he’d be more than happy to work with Mrs. Trump. “I think Melania is a very beautiful woman and I think any designer should be proud to dress her. Ivanka is equally as beautiful and smart, although she wears her own clothes. I don’t think people should become political about it. Everyone was very happy to dress Michelle [Obama] as well. I think they look great in the clothes. You’re not gonna get much more beautiful than Ivanka or Melania,” he said.
“Out of respect for the position of the first lady of our United States, I would be honored to be considered to design for any first lady of the United States,” said designer Thom Browne
Expressing a hopeful tone, designer Carolina Herrera thinks everyone will eventually come around. “I think that in two or three months they’ll reach out, because it’s fashion. You’ll see everyone dressing Melania. She’s representing the United States,” she said.The new €300 million facility “will finance investments in electricity generation from renewable sources and in electricity distribution and transmission capacity to improve efficiency, reduce losses and enable the integration of renewables into the grid,” said the bank.
The EBRD also added that its new framework builds upon Greece’s new renewable energies support scheme, which passed into law last year. Greece’s new renewable energy policy adopts competitive tenders and feed-in premiums, replacing fixed-price, expensive feed-in tariffs.
Asked whether the bank has any specific plans to fund solar PV plants, an EBRD spokesperson told pv magazine that there is a strong pipeline of projects that the bank is currently looking at, and is therefore “confident that we [the bank] will be able to attract investment in all renewables which are viable in Greece.”
Similarly, when asked by pv magazine whether the bank has any particular scheme in mind, the same spokesperson said “at this stage it is simply too early for us to go into any detail.”
The EBRD has been instrumental in supporting solar PV deployment in various countries, most crucially in neighboring Turkey, where it has set up financing schemes encouraging businesses to install PV systems up to 1 MW. A great chunk of Turkey’s PV installations are financed by EBRD funds.
Greece installed only 4.2 MW in 2016 via its net-metering scheme. In 2017, the Greek solar PV sector’s hopes will center upon the net-metering scheme and the recently awarded 40 MW of ground-mounted PV plants via the country’s inaugural renewable energy tender.
The country’s electricity sector is in turmoil too. Greece has committed to the European Union to open its retail electricity market to competition. Currently, about 90% of the market is dominated by the state utility PPC. To date, the government has refused proposals to privatise parts of the PPC, and suggested alternative options to open the electricity market. Given that such options have failed, and the PPC has accumulated huge debts, it is now understood that the government is considering to sell off a portion of the utility.
Furthermore, the country faces an electricity supply gap, and relies heavily on foreign imports to meet its needs. The PPC has an outdated investment strategy, aimed at new coal plants. It is welcome that the EBRD is taking an active role in energy investments in the country aiming to promote the renewable energy sector.…they usually develop more problems.
Once a question has been answered, typically the answer reveals additional questions or additional problems |
have increased by 74.5% over the period between 2000 and 2016.
“From 2000 to 2016, the tuition-and-fees component of the Consumer Price Index rose 3.54% annually (74.5% over the entire period), adjusting for overall inflation. With sluggish business investment, a slowdown in income growth has aggravated the rising burden of paying for higher education. American families have taken on more than $1.3 trillion in student-loan debt—more than what they borrow with credit cards or to buy cars.” “The earnings advantage associated with a bachelor’s degree compared with a high school diploma is no longer growing like it once did. Census data show that the average annual earnings differential between high school and four-year college graduates rose sharply, to $32,900 in 2000 (expressed in 2015 dollars) from $19,776 in 1975—only to fall to $29,867 by 2015. In the late 20th century rising higher-education costs were offset by the increasing financial benefits associated with a bachelor’s degree. Since 2000 those benefits have declined, while costs have continued to rise.”
Rising costs have also spurred rising default rates for student borrowers. According to the Fed, delinquency rates for student loans – which cannot be discharged in bankruptcy - have surpassed auto and mortgage loans.
More high school graduates are also choosing trade schools, which require less time and tuition money, but graduates end up with a specific set of skills. Trade school graduates leave school prepared for the industry they enter, where they can earn much higher wages than many four-year degree-holders, according to Bloomberg.
The rise of identity politics and the intolerant left are transforming campuses into hostile environments, especially for young men, for whom dropout rates have soared. That’s unsurprising, considering many of them are increasingly being pre-judged by their female peers - and even in some cases faculty - as entitled burgeoning rapists. Over the past decade, 30% of male freshmen dropped out before starting a second year.
With all this focus on microaggressions and trigger warnings, its unsurprising that colleges are doing an increasingly poor job of educating their students.
Recent data show that, while the cost of college degrees rises, the quality of these degrees in terms of their impact on students’ critical-thinking skills is declining, especially at flagship public universities, according to the College Learning Assessment Plus test.
“At more than half of schools, at least a third of seniors were unable to make a cohesive argument, assess the quality of evidence in a document or interpret data in a table”. The outcomes were the worst in large, flagship schools: “At some of the most prestigious flagship universities, test results indicate the average graduate shows little or no improvement in critical thinking over four years."
Even President Donald Trump, who famously attended the University of Pennsylvania, is trying to help students find gainful employment without obtaining a degree.
This month, President Donald Trump issued an order doubling money for apprenticeships, saying they enabled students to secure “great jobs” without college. “Apprentices earn while they learn,” he said.Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh was pretty pleased about Donald Trump finally capturing the Republican nomination Wednesday, saying on his show that he expected a landslide victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“Let me give you one little thing: My instinctive feeling right now is that Trump is gonna win, beat Hillary badly, that it could be landslide proportions,” he told listeners.
“I still don’t think people understand why Trump won this,” he said. “I don’t think they understand at all the reason people support Trump. And the deeper people are entrenched in politics, and the more they are accustomed to the templates and the handbooks and the theories and the playbooks, the less they’re gonna understand it.”
Limbaugh pointed out that seventeen other candidates tried “any number of things” to blunt Trump’s momentum in the primary, and failed. “Hillary Clinton is next up, and we shall see,” he said.
If this prediction by Limbaugh sounds familiar, there’s a reason for that.
Listen above, via The Rush Limbaugh Show.
[Image via screengrab]
——
>>Follow Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) on Twitter
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comMany of our customers are building useful services using our webhook feature—but unfortunately, others are not. Often we hear that no one on their team is proficient enough to write a service that can ingest a webhook payload and do something with the data. That leaves them either hoping to get cycles from their development team (unlikely) or continuing to do without.
But what if you could write your own web services? How many routine tasks that involve taking data from system A and inputting it into system B could you automate?
Learning to code well enough can be a major skill in your tool chest and a major asset for optimizing security processes in your organization. In this post, I'm going to walk you through a tutorial that will get you started on the road to writing your own web services using Python Flask.
What we're building
Specifically, I'm going to walk through the creation of a simple Python Flask app that provides a RESTful web service. The service will provide an endpoint to:
Ingest a JSON formatted payload (webhook) from Threat Stack
Parse the payload for Threat Stack Alert IDs
Retrieve detailed alert data from Threat Stack
Archive the webhook and alert data to AWS S3
But before I jump in, keep a couple of things to keep in mind. First, I will not be bothering with any sort of frontend display functionality, so you don't need to worry about HTML or CSS. Second, my organization follows Flask's own suggested organization. I am going to skip the single module pattern and go straight to the Packages and Blueprints models.
There is a large range of Flask tutorials. On one hand, there are tutorials that explain how to build small, simple apps (where the entire app fits in a single file). On the other hand, there are tutorials that explain how to build much larger, complicated apps. This tutorial fills a sweet spot in the middle and demonstrates a structure that is simple, but which can immediately accommodate increasingly complex requirements.
Project structure
The structure of the project that I'm going to build, which comes from Explore Flask, is shown below:
Threatstack-to-s3
├── app
│ ├── __init__.py
│ ├── models
│ │ ├── __init__.py
│ │ ├── s3.py
│ │ └── threatstack.py
│ └── views
│ ├── __init__.py
│ └── s3.py
├── gunicorn.conf.py
├── requirements.osx.txt
├── requirements.txt
└── threatstack-to-s3.py
Top-level files
I'll start the discussion with the top-level files that are useful to me as I build the service:
Gunicorn.conf.py: This is a configuration file for the Gunicorn WSGI HTTP server that will serve up this app. While the application can run and accept connections on its own, Gunicorn is more efficient at handling multiple connections and allowing the app to scale with load.
Requirements.txt/requirements.osx.txt: The app's dependencies are listed in this file. It is used by the pip utility to install the needed Python packages. For information on installing dependencies, see the Setup section of this README.md.
Threatstack-to-s3.py: This is the application launcher. It can be run directly using "python" if you are doing local debugging, or it can be passed as an argument to "gunicorn" as the application entry point. For information on how to launch a service, see README.md.
App package (app/ directory)
The app package is my application package. The logic for the application is underneath this directory. As I mentioned earlier, I have chosen to break the app into a collection of smaller modules rather than use a single, monolithic module file.
The following four usable modules defined in this package are:
Note: app.views and app.models do not provide anything and their __init__.py files are empty.
App module
The app module has the job of creating the Flask application. It exports a single function, create_app(), that will create a Flask application object and configure it. Currently it initializes application blueprints that correspond to my application views. Eventually, create_app() will do other things such as initialize logging, but I'm skipping that now for clarity and simplicity.
App/__init__.py
from flask import Flask
def _initialize_blueprints ( application ) :
'''
Register Flask blueprints
'''
from app. views. s3 import s3
application. register_blueprint ( s3, url_prefix = '/api/v1/s3' )
def create_app ( ) :
'''
Create an app by initializing components.
'''
application = Flask ( __name__ )
_initialize_blueprints ( application )
# Do it!
return application
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This module is used by threatstack-to-s3.py to start the application. It imports create_app() and then uses it to create a Flask application instance.
Threatstack-to-s3.py
#!/usr/bin/env python
from app import create_app
# Gunicorn entry point.
application = create_app ( )
if __name__ == '__main__' :
# Entry point when run via Python interpreter.
print ( "== Running in debug mode ==" )
application. run ( host = 'localhost', port = 8080, debug = True )
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Views and Flask blueprints
Before discussing the remaining three modules, I'll talk about what views and Flask blueprints and then dive into the app.views.s3 module.
Views: Views are what the application consumer sees. There's no front end to this application, but there is a public API endpoint. Think of a view as what can and should be exposed to the person or thing (e.g., the consumer) who is using this application. The best practice is to keep views as simple as possible. If an endpoint's job is to take data in and copy it to S3, make it perform that function, but hide the details of how that was done in the application models. Views should mostly represent the actions a consumer wants to see happen, while the details (which consumers shouldn't care about) live in the application models (described later).
Flask Blueprints: Earlier I said that I am going to use a Packages and Blueprints layout instead of a single module application. Blueprints contain a portion of my API endpoint structure. This lets me logically group related portions of my API. In my case, each view module is its own blueprint.
Learn more
Modular Applications with Blueprints documentation on the Flask website.
Explore Flask is a book about best practices and patterns for developing web applications with Flask.
App.views.s3 module
The threatstack-to-s3 service takes Threat Stack webhook HTTP requests in and stores a copy of the alert data in S3. This is where I store the set of API endpoints that allow someone to do this. If you look back at app/__init__.py, you will see that I have rooted the set of endpoints at /api/v1/s3.
From app/__init__.py:
from views. s3 import s3
app. register_blueprint ( s3, url_prefix = '/api/v1/s3' )
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I used this path for a few reasons:
API: To note that this is an API and I should not expect a front end. Maybe one day I'll add a front end. Probably not, but I find this useful mentally and as a sign to others
To note that this is an API and I should not expect a front end. Maybe one day I'll add a front end. Probably not, but I find this useful mentally and as a sign to others V1: This is version 1 of the API. If I need to make breaking changes to accommodate new requirements, I can add a v2 so that two APIs exist as I migrate all consumers over to the new version
This is version 1 of the API. If I need to make breaking changes to accommodate new requirements, I can add a v2 so that two APIs exist as I migrate all consumers over to the new version S3: This is the service I'm connecting to and manipulating. I have some freedom here to name this portion of the path whatever I want, but I like to keep it descriptive. If the service was relaying data to HipChat, for example, I could name this portion of the path hipchat
In app.views.s3, I am providing a single endpoint for now, /alert, which represents the object I'm manipulating, and that responds only to the HTTP POST request method.
Remember: When building APIs, URL paths should represent nouns and HTTP request methods should represent verbs.
App/views/s3.py
'''
API to archive alerts from Threat Stack to S3
'''
from flask import Blueprint, jsonify, request
import app. models. s3 as s3_model
import app. models. threatstack as threatstack_model
s3 = Blueprint ('s3', __name__ )
@ s3. route ( '/alert', methods = [ 'POST' ] )
def put_alert ( ) :
'''
Archive Threat Stack alerts to S3.
'''
webhook_data = request. get_json ( )
for alert in webhook_data. get ( 'alerts' ) :
alert_full = threatstack_model. get_alert_by_id ( alert. get ( 'id' ) )
s3_model. put_webhook_data ( alert )
s3_model. put_alert_data ( alert_full )
status_code = 200
success = True
response = {'success' : success }
return jsonify ( response ), status_code
Copy Now I'll walk through some key parts of the module. If you're familiar enough with Python, you can skip the next few lines on imports, but if you're wondering why I rename what I import, then follow along.
from flask import Blueprint, jsonify, request
import app. models. s3 as s3_model
import app. models. threatstack as threatstack_model
Copy
I'm a fan of typing brevity and consistency. I could have done this the following way to import the model modules:
import app. models. s3
import app. models. threatstack
Copy
But that would mean I'd be using functions like:
app. models. s3. put_webhook_alert ( alert )
Copy
I could have done this as well:
from app. models import s3, threatstack
Copy
However, this would break when I create the s3 Blueprint object a few lines later because I'd overwrite the s3 model module.
s3 = Blueprint ('s3', __name__ ) # We've just overwritten the s3 module we imported.
Copy For these reasons, importing the model modules and renaming them slightly is just easier.
Now I'll walk through the app endpoint and function associated with it.
@ s3. route ( '/alert', methods = [ 'POST' ] )
def put_alert ( ) :
'''
Archive Threat Stack alerts to S3.
'''
Copy
The first line is called a decorator. I'm adding a route to the s3 Blueprint called /alert (which expands to /api/v1/s3/alert) that when an HTTP POST request is made to it will cause put_alert() to be called.
The body of the function is pretty simple:
Get the request's JSON data
Iterate over the array in the alerts key
For each alert: Retrieve the alert detail from Threat Stack Store the alert info in the request in S3 Store the alert detail in S3
webhook_data = request. get_json ( )
for alert in webhook_data. get ( 'alerts' ) :
alert_full = threatstack_model. get_alert_by_id ( alert. get ( 'id' ) )
s3_model. put_webhook_data ( alert )
s3_model. put_alert_data ( alert_full )
Copy
Once that's done, I return a simple JSON doc back, indicating the success or failure of the transaction. (Note: There's no error handling in place, so of course I've hardcoded the success response and HTTP status code. I'll change that when error handling is added at a later date.)
status_code = 200
success = True
response = {'success' : success }
return jsonify ( response ), status_code
Copy
At this point, I've satisfied my request and done what the consumer requested. Notice that I haven't included any code demonstrating how I fulfilled the request. What did I have to do to get the alert's detail? What actions did I perform to store the alert? How are the alerts stored and named in S3? The consumer doesn't really care about those details. This is a good way to think about organizing your code in your own service: What the consumer needs to know about should live in your view. The details the consumer doesn't need to know should live in your model, which I am about to cover.
Before discussing the remaining modules, I'll talk about models, which are how to talk to the services I'm using, such as Threat Stack and S3.
Models
Models describe "things," and these "things" are what I want to perform actions on. Typically, when you search for help on Flask models, blogs and documentation like to use databases in their examples. While what I'm doing right now isn't far off, I'm just storing data in an object store instead of a database. It's not the only sort of thing I might do in the future with the data received from Threat Stack.
Additionally, I've chosen to skip an object-oriented approach in favor of a procedural style. In more advanced Python, I would model an alert object and provide a means of manipulating it. But this introduces more complexity than is needed for the given task of storing data in S3 and also makes the code more complicated for demonstrating a simple task. I've chosen brevity and clarity over technical correctness for this.
App.models.threatstack Module
The app.models.threatstack module, as you can guess, handles communication with Threat Stack.
'''
Communicate with Threat Stack
'''
import os
import requests
THREATSTACK_BASE_URL = os. environ. get ( 'THREATSTACK_BASE_URL', 'https://app.threatstack.com/api/v1' )
THREATSTACK_API_KEY = os. environ. get ( 'THREATSTACK_API_KEY' )
def get_alert_by_id ( alert_id ) :
'''
Retrieve an alert from Threat Stack by alert ID.
'''
alerts_url = '{}/alerts/{}'. format ( THREATSTACK_BASE_URL, alert_id )
resp = requests. get (
alerts_url,
headers = { 'Authorization' : THREATSTACK_API_KEY }
)
return resp. json ( )
Copy
Just a quick run through of a few spots of note:
THREATSTACK_BASE_URL = os. environ. get ( 'THREATSTACK_BASE_URL', 'https://app.threatstack.com/api/v1' )
THREATSTACK_API_KEY = os. environ. get ( 'THREATSTACK_API_KEY' )
Copy
I don't want to keep the Threat Stack API in my code. This is just good clean code/security living. I'm going to get the API key from my environment for now because it's a quick and simple solution. At some point, I should centralize all configuration in a single file instead of hiding it here, so the code and setup are a little cleaner. That's a job for another time, and for now the setup is documented in README.md.
def get_alert_by_id ( alert_id ) :
'''
Retrieve an alert from Threat Stack by alert ID.
'''
alerts_url = '{}/alerts/{}'. format ( THREATSTACK_BASE_URL, alert_id )
resp = requests. get (
alerts_url,
headers = { 'Authorization' : THREATSTACK_API_KEY }
)
return resp. json ( )
Copy
The get_alert_by_id() function takes an alert ID, queries the Threat Stack platform for the alert data, and returns that data. I'm using the Python requests module to make an HTTP GET request to the Threat Stack API endpoint that returns alert info for the given alert.
Read the Threat Stack API documentation.
App.models.s3 Module
The app.models.s3 module handles connectivity to AWS S3.
'''
Manipulate objects in AWS S3.
'''
import boto3
import json
import os
import time
TS_AWS_S3_BUCKET = os. environ. get ( 'TS_AWS_S3_BUCKET' )
TS_AWS_S3_PREFIX = os. environ. get ( 'TS_AWS_S3_PREFIX', None )
def put_webhook_data ( alert ) :
'''
Put alert webhook data in S3 bucket.
'''
alert_time = time. gmtime ( alert. get ( 'created_at' ) / 1000 )
alert_time_path = time. strftime ( '%Y/%m/%d/%H/%M', alert_time )
alert_key = '/'. join ( [ alert_time_path, alert. get ( 'id' ) ] )
if TS_AWS_S3_PREFIX:
alert_key = '/'. join ( [ TS_AWS_S3_PREFIX, alert_key ] )
s3_client = boto3. client ('s3' )
s3_client. put_object (
Body = json. dumps ( alert ),
Bucket = TS_AWS_S3_BUCKET,
Key = alert_key
)
return None
def put_alert_data ( alert ) :
'''
Put alert data in S3.
'''
alert_id = alert. get ( 'id' )
alert_key = '/'. join ( [ 'alerts',
alert_id [ 0 : 2 ],
alert_id [ 2 : 4 ],
alert_id
] )
if TS_AWS_S3_PREFIX:
alert_key = '/'. join ( [ TS_AWS_S3_PREFIX, alert_key ] )
s3_client = boto3. client ('s3' )
s3_client. put_object (
Body = json. dumps ( alert ),
Bucket = TS_AWS_S3_BUCKET,
Key = alert_key
)
return None
Copy
I'll walk through the interesting parts:
TS_AWS_S3_BUCKET = os. environ. get ( 'TS_AWS_S3_BUCKET' )
TS_AWS_S3_PREFIX = os. environ. get ( 'TS_AWS_S3_PREFIX', None )
Copy
Again, there's no config file for this app, but I need to set an S3 bucket name and optional prefix. I should fix this eventually—the setup is documented in the README.md, which is good enough for now.
The functions put_webhook_data() and put_alert_data() have a lot of duplicate code. I haven't refactored them because it's easier to see the logic before refactoring. If you look closely, you'll realize that the only difference between them is how the alert_key is defined. I'll focus on put_webhook_data():
def put_webhook_data ( alert ) :
'''
Put alert webhook data in S3 bucket.
'''
alert_time = time. gmtime ( alert. get ( 'created_at' ) / 1000 )
alert_time_path = time. strftime ( '%Y/%m/%d/%H/%M', alert_time )
alert_key = '/'. join ( [ 'webhooks', alert_time_path, alert. get ( 'id' ) ] )
if TS_AWS_S3_PREFIX:
alert_key = '/'. join ( [ TS_AWS_S3_PREFIX, alert_key ] )
s3_client = boto3. client ('s3' )
s3_client. put_object (
Body = json. dumps ( alert ),
Bucket = TS_AWS_S3_BUCKET,
Key = alert_key
)
return None
Copy
This function takes in a single argument named alert. Looking back at app/views/s3.py, alert is just the JSON data that was sent to the endpoint. Webhook data is stored in S3 by date and time. The alert 587c0159a907346eccb84004 occurring at 2017-01-17 13:51 is stored in S3 as webhooks/2017/01/17/13/51/587c0159a907346eccb84004.
I start by getting the alert time. Threat Stack has sent the alert time in milliseconds since the Unix epoch, and that needs to be converted into seconds, which is how Python handles time. I take that time and parse it into a string that will be the directory path. I then join the top-level directory where I store webhook data, the time-based path, and finally the alert ID to form the path to the webhook data in S3.
Boto 3 is the primary module in Python for working with AWS resources. I initialize a boto3 client object so I can talk to S3 and put the object there. The s3_client.put_object() is fairly straightforward with its Bucket and Key arguments, which are the name of the S3 bucket and the path to the S3 object I want to store. The Body argument is my alert converted back to a string.
Wrapping up
What I have now is a functional Python Flask web service that can take a Threat Stack webhook request, get the alert's detail, and archive it in S3. It's a great start, but there's still more to be done for this to be production ready. Immediately you might be asking, "What happens if something goes wrong?" There's no exception handling to deal with issues such as communication failures with Threat Stack or S3. I intentionally omitted it to keep the code clear. There's also no authorization key checking. This means that anyone can send data to it. (And since I don't do any error checking or exception handling, they can crash the service.) There's also no TLS encryption handling. That's something I'd leave up to Nginx or Apache, which would be the webserver fronting this application. All these and more are issues you need to tackle before putting this web service into production. But for now this is a start that should help you become more comfortable as you start building your own services.
Resources
View the GitHub repository for Threat Stack to S3 service.
Because the application goes through revisions, review the version used in this article.
Check out Tom's new tutorial on exception handling in Python Flask.
This article originally appeared on the Threat Stack blog. Reposted with permission.WASHINGTON — Texas Rep. Ron Paul won the 2012 presidential straw poll of conservative activists at the Saturday windup of the 37th annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.
The announcement of Mr. Paul’s win was greeted with a mixture of loud jeers and equally loud cheers, illustrating the fragility — despite the conference’s three days of emphasized unity — of the coalition of economic, foreign policy and traditional values conservatives on which the Republican party relies for electoral success.
A libertarian Republican whose opposition to the nation-building foreign policy of the second President Bush and the GOP-controlled Congress, Mr. Paul, a one-time presidential hopeful, beat out other big-name Republicans, capturing 31 percent of the straw ballots cast by 2,395 registered CPAC attendees. Organizers said 10,000 people registered for CPAC this year, with exhibits, speeches and other events taking place on two floors of the huge hotel.
The informal poll’s results were released shortly after former House Speaker Newt Gingrich predicted in an appearance at CPAC that Republicans would win back control of both the Senate and the House this year and then the presidency in three years.
“I believe we are gong to control the House and Senate by the end of this year and of the White House in 2012,” Mr. Gingrich said.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who won the 2008 and 2009 CPAC presidential straw polls, this time placed second with 22 percent, and was followed far behind by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Indian Rep. Milke Pence and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, each in single digits.
Mr. Paul, whose unsuccessful 2008 GOP presidential nomination candidacy saw the largest one-day fundraising total on the Internet, was the choice of a plurality of conservative activists from around the country.
To the consternation of many conference attendees who favor a continuation of the Bush interventionist foreign policy, Mr. Paul drew a wildly cheering overflow — and mostly youthful — audience in a speech to more than 1,200 conservatives in the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel ballroom.
Mr. Gingrich, in his address on Saturday, became the first Republican of major stature to predict an electoral trifecta.
There seemed to be little correlation between the candidates’ straw poll standings and the audience they drew for speeches. Only Mr. Paul, Mr. Gingrich, television personality Glenn Beck and author-humorist Ann Coulter, the latter pair who are not considered potential presidential hopefuls, attracted standing-room-only crowds.
Glenn Beck, in a conference wrap-up speech that had flash-bulbs flickering throughout, drew an audience that filled the 1,000-person capacity ballroom and spilled out into the hallway.
When former Vice President Dick Cheney made a surprise appearance Thursday at the conference, he became the first high-profile Republican to predict that Mr. Obama was be a one-term president.
Mr. Gingrich, a successful GOP political strategist and intellectual who is also a favorite of center-right audiences, managed to win waves of applause on Saturday, including when he attributed a quotation in his speech to French existential philosopher and novelist Albert Camus.
Mr. Gingrich credited President Obama with creating at least three new jobs — the changing of the governorships in New Jersey and Virgina and of the Massachussetts Senate seat from Democratic to Republican hands.
In a question-and-answer session after her speech, Miss Coulter was asked if she ever has dated liberals. “They weren’t liberals for long,” she replied.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Sion, the capital of canton Valais, is close to ski resorts such as Zermatt, Crans Montana and Verbier (Keystone)
The Swiss Olympic committee's executive board has voted to back Sion's bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The joint proposal - “Sion 2026: The games in the heart of Switzerland” – comprising cantons Valais, Vaud, Bern and Fribourg was selected by the executive committee of Swiss Olympic on Tuesday as the Swiss bid for the Winter Games.
Swiss Olympic, Switzerland's umbrella organisation for the Olympic Games, said it supported the Sion project as it was based largely on existing infrastructure, which would enable a Winter Games ‘of human size’ and with a ‘reasonable’ budget. The plan to include different regions and areas of expertise to organize the sports competitions and the strategy to strengthen tourism were welcomed.
A Swiss Olympic task force suggests hosting the Winter Olympics and Paralympics could have a "significant economic impact" of up to CHF2.5 billion ($2.47 billion).
However, there are still several major hurdles to cross before the Sion organisers can celebrate.
Swiss Olympic’s Extraordinary Assembly must decide on April 11 whether to move forward with the bid. The organisation must then convince the Swiss government and prepare a feasibility study.
Referendums may also be held in the respective cantons, with the issue of the financing likely to take centre stage.
Calgary, Innsbruck
If it goes ahead, Switzerland must submit its official candidacy to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in spring 2018 before a final vote on the host city takes place in summer 2019. Other potential bidders are currently Innsbruck, Austria and Calgary, Canada.
Sion was the only Swiss option after voters in canton Graubünden last month rejected a possible bid by St Moritz and Davos. This was the second such refusal in recent years. In 2013, voters in Graubünden decided against a bid for the 2022 Winter Games.
Switzerland hosted the Olympic Winter Games in 1928 and 1948. Since then, it has submitted numerous unsuccessful bids, with Sion losing out three times: 1976, 2002 and 2006.
swissinfo.ch/sb
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SWI swissinfo.ch on Instagram SWI swissinfo.ch on InstagramLegislation to scrap the Clean Energy Finance Corporation was rejected by the Senate three months ago
The Abbott government is on track to get its first double dissolution trigger as it reintroduces legislation to scrap the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
The Senate rejected the CEFC abolition bill for the first time on 10 December last year, meaning the requisite three months have passed for a second rejection to create a double dissolution election trigger.
The bill is listed to be reintroduced into the House of Representatives again on Thursday.
The $10bn so-called green bank was set up as part of Labor’s carbon price package to support renewable energy projects through loans, guarantees and equity investments.
It recently made its first major investment since the election of the Abbott government, providing $20m towards a biogas project that will cut energy costs for farmers and manufacturers.
The CEFC is one of the few parts of the carbon pricing package which could survive the new Senate, which sits after 30 June, with both the independent senator Nick Xenophon and the DLP senator John Madigan supporting it.
The CEFC argues that far from being a drain on finances it will next year return money to the budget.
A double dissolution election requires all 12 senators from each state to face the voters and is used, under section 57 of the constitution, to resolve deadlocks between the upper and lower houses. The last was held in 1987. Many governments since that time have had double dissolution triggers but have chosen not to use them to call a full Senate election.
Constitutional experts have said that any double dissolution election called before the new Senate takes effect from July would be likely to be subject to a high court challenge, and double dissolution elections also give minor parties a greater chance of election because a lower quota is required.Wellington: New Zealand Prime Minister John Key on Wednesday said his government and intelligence agencies had no control over what data the US National Security Agency (NSA) collected from its citizens.
Key has been under pressure since NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden on Monday revealed that the NSA had unfettered access to all New Zealand electronic communications, aided by the country's Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), Xinhua reported.
In an interview with Radio New Zealand, Key refused again to discuss the NSA's XKeyscore mass surveillance tool, which Snowden had said was being used to gather New Zealand electronic communications.
While New Zealand would contribute to databases, it had no control over intelligence-gathering of its partners in the Five Eyes network: the US, Britain, Canada and Australia.
"We do not control what other agencies and other people collect. There might be a variety of reasons for that," Key said.
Key added that Snowden had incorrectly claimed New Zealand agencies were contributing metadata, as they do not have the capability for mass surveillance.
New Zealand's inspector-general of intelligence and security, Cheryl Gwyn on Tuesday issued a statement saying she was conducting an ongoing review of whether the GCSB complied with the restrictions on interception of New Zealanders' communications.
"I can advise that I have not identified any indiscriminate interception of New Zealanders' data in my work to date. I will continue to monitor these issues," Gwyn said.
US investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald also claimed that even if the GCSB "were just opening the door" for the NSA, it still meant the government was working on a system of mass surveillance.
"Not only are they collaborators in the collection of data, they then have access to that data through the XKeyscore system," Greenwald told Radio New Zealand Wednesday.
Greenwald said Gwyn should also be aware of the global pattern of intelligence organisations to keep the people in charge of them in the dark about their true role.
IANS
Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and billionaire businessman Donald Trump got into a heated exchange over eminent domain Saturday night, in which Trump was booed by the Manchester, New Hampshire crowd.
Josh McElveen, anchor and political director for WMUR, asked Trump if he supported a project known as Northern Pass, which would bring hydroelectric power from Canada into the northeastern grid. Completing Northern Pass would necessitate the use of eminent domain.
While Trump did not answer the question, he full-throatedly articulated his support for the process.
“Eminent domain is an absolute necessity for a country, for our country,” Trump said. “Without it, you wouldn’t have roads, You wouldn’t have hospitals. You wouldn’t have anything. You wouldn’t have schools. You wouldn’t have bridges. You need eminent domain.
“And a lot of the big conservatives that tell me how conservative they are, think I’m more they they are, they all tell me they want the Keystone pipeline,” Trump continued. “The Keystone pipeline, without eminent domain, it wouldn’t go ten feet. You need eminent domain, and eminent domain is a good thing, not a bad thing.”
After Trump concluded, McElveen attempted to press the real estate mogul on the Northern Pass when Bush chimed in.
The difference between eminent domain for public purpose as Donald said roads and infrastructure, pipelines and all that. That’s for public purpose. What Donald Trump did was use eminent domain to try to take the property of an elderly woman on the strip in Atlantic City. That is not public purpose. That is downright wrong. He wants to tear down the house, and the net result was he lost in the court.
Trump responded by calling Bush a “tough guy” and pointing out he “didn’t ultimately want to do that.” The New York billionaire told the former Florida governor to be quiet and gestured at him to ‘shush,” prompting the crowd to boo at him. Trump then stopped his response and pointed to the crowd.
“That’s all of his donors and special interests out there,” Trump said. “It’s what it is. And by the way let me just tell you, we needed tickets, you can’t get them. You know who has them? I’m talking about for the television audience. Donors, special interests. The people that are putting up the money.”
As the crowd continue to boo Trump, he affirmed, “It’s what it is. The RNC told us we have all donors in the audience. And the reason they’re not loving me is I don’t want their money. I’m gonna do the right thing for the American public. I don’t want their money. I don’t need their money, and I’m the only one up here that can say that.
“Eminent domain, the Keystone pipeline, do you consider that a private job?,” Trump asked, turning his attention to Bush.
“I consider it a public use,” Bush answered.
“Is it public or private?, ” Trump asked again, apparently not satisfied with the answer.
“It’s a public use,” Bush said.
“Public use? No, it’s a private job. It’s a private job,” Trump contended. “You wouldn’t have the Keystone pipeline you want so badly without eminent domain. You wouldn’t have |
chilly while you’re out. – Ponchos never seem to go out of style. It’s probably because they’re universally flattering, they can be worn with all sorts of outfits both casual and dressy, and they make you look uber chic. This cashmere one is especially nice because it’s incredibly soft, and can be packed compactly into your luggage and then into your daybag so you’ll always have it if you get chilly while you’re out. View on Amazon.com ➜
11) Packing Cubes – Packing cubes are a pretty universal obsession for frequent travelers, and for very good reason. They make organization an absolute breeze, they compress your items into neat cubes, and they can be moved from bag to bag without being unpacked. I’ve tried so many kinds of packing cubes and these ones from Shacke Pak are by far my favorites for function and price. – Packing cubes are a pretty universal obsession for frequent travelers, and for very good reason. They make organization an absolute breeze, they compress your items into neat cubes, and they can be moved from bag to bag without being unpacked. I’ve tried so many kinds of packing cubes and these ones from Shacke Pak are by far my favorites for function and price. View on Amazon.com ➜
12) Pea Coat: Women’s and Men’s – In the chillier months in New York, you will absolutely need a warm coat, and it should be an attractive one. Wearing a pea coat will help you avoid sticking out as a tourist (always good to look like you “belong” while traveling), and it will keep you warm and even protect you if it starts misting or raining lightly, which is common in some months on the East Coast. – In the chillier months in New York, you will absolutely need a warm coat, and it should be an attractive one. Wearing a pea coat will help you avoid sticking out as a tourist (always good to look like you “belong” while traveling), and it will keep you warm and even protect you if it starts misting or raining lightly, which is common in some months on the East Coast. View on Amazon.com ➜
13) Rolling Suitcase – Picture yourself toting around a suitcase that doesn’t have wheels while you’re en route to your accommodations or going back to the airport. It’s about as un-fun as it seems. I always use a suitcase that has wheels and a good handle or handles so that I can navigate any situation, whether it be upward of 7 flights of stairs in Paris or extra-long city blocks in NYC. This one is especially nice because of its hard outer shell that protects it from less-than-careful baggage handling. – Picture yourself toting around a suitcase that doesn’t have wheels while you’re en route to your accommodations or going back to the airport. It’s about as un-fun as it seems. I always use a suitcase that has wheels and a good handle or handles so that I can navigate any situation, whether it be upward of 7 flights of stairs in Paris or extra-long city blocks in NYC. This one is especially nice because of its hard outer shell that protects it from less-than-careful baggage handling. View on Amazon.com ➜
14) Filtered Water Bottle – Water in NYC is actually world-renowned for its drinkability, though the taste may not be the same as that of your hometown. Either way, I always use a bottle with a built-in filter, just to be sure that the water I’m drinking and giving to my family is as safe as possible! Plus, carrying my own bottle with me means I save a ton of money instead of buying bottle after bottle of water while I’m out and about for the day.
View on Amazon.com ➜ – Water in NYC is actually world-renowned for its drinkability, though the taste may not be the same as that of your hometown. Either way, I always use a bottle with a built-in filter, just to be sure that the water I’m drinking and giving to my family is as safe as possible! Plus, carrying my own bottle with me means I save a ton of money instead of buying bottle after bottle of water while I’m out and about for the day.
15) Deodorant Wipes: Women’s and Men’s – I remember a quote from a movie that describes New York with the word “soot,” and it’s pretty accurate. The city is absolutely gorgeous and such a fun place to explore, but the combination of winds in the city along with vehicle exhaust and dirt/dust can leave you feeling extra grimy. I carry these deodorant wipes with me so that I can clean up on the fly if I need to, or if I simply can’t deal with the grime. They’re gentle and safe on sensitive skin, and they have a nice, light fragrance. – I remember a quote from a movie that describes New York with the word “soot,” and it’s pretty accurate. The city is absolutely gorgeous and such a fun place to explore, but the combination of winds in the city along with vehicle exhaust and dirt/dust can leave you feeling extra grimy. I carry these deodorant wipes with me so that I can clean up on the fly if I need to, or if I simply can’t deal with the grime. They’re gentle and safe on sensitive skin, and they have a nice, light fragrance. View on Amazon.com ➜
16) Solid Shampoo – Solid shampoo is something I tried while I was looking for ways to lessen the number of liquids I have to carry with me through airport security, and I really love it. Certain brands don’t work quite as well as the real thing, but this one is a good substitute for liquid shampoo. It’s easy to use and leaves my hair feeling nice and smelling good! – Solid shampoo is something I tried while I was looking for ways to lessen the number of liquids I have to carry with me through airport security, and I really love it. Certain brands don’t work quite as well as the real thing, but this one is a good substitute for liquid shampoo. It’s easy to use and leaves my hair feeling nice and smelling good! View on Amazon.com ➜
17) Travel Insurance for New York – It’s not fun to think about your awesome vacation being plagued by some sort of problem, but it’s even less fun to have to deal with those problems without travel insurance. Medical trouble, emergency trips home, reservation cancellations, and damage or theft could all be covered under a good plan like those offered by World Nomads, and at a very affordable price. We prefer World Nomads for their prices, customer service, and great reputation for coverage and assistance to travelers. – It’s not fun to think about your awesome vacation being plagued by some sort of problem, but it’s even less fun to have to deal with those problems without travel insurance. Medical trouble, emergency trips home, reservation cancellations, and damage or theft could all be covered under a good plan like those offered by World Nomads, and at a very affordable price. We prefer World Nomads for their prices, customer service, and great reputation for coverage and assistance to travelers. View their plans at WorldNomads.com ➜
Other items people forget when packing for New York
What should I wear in New York?
New York is a progressive and diverse place where you never know what you’ll see – so in that sense, you can wear almost anything. But if you don’t want to stick out as a tourist, opt for dark jeans and black or solid-color staple clothing items, and dress a bit nicer than you might at home. Blouses, sweaters, and dresses are all good choices for women, and guys might choose polo-style shirts or button-downs and a sport coat. You’ll want lightweight, breathable clothes during the humid summer months, and a warm coat and gloves in the winter. No matter when you visit, an umbrella and some comfortable walking shoes are New York packing essentials.
Seasons in New York
Spring – March, April, and May: Be sure to bring a rain jacket and umbrella because rain is frequent – but you’ll still need sunscreen and sunglasses for the many sunny days. Temperatures average between 50°F and 70°F (10°C and 21°C), starting around 50°F average in March and rising about 10°F on average each month.
Summer – June, July, and August: Choose clothes made from breathable, lightweight fabrics to stay comfortable in the hot, humid weather, and bring a Choose clothes made from breathable, lightweight fabrics to stay comfortable in the hot, humid weather, and bring a water bottle to help you stay hydrated. New York hosts frequent parades, concerts, and festivals this time of year, so you’ll want to be comfortable spending lots of time outside in the heat. Temperatures average between 80°F and 85°F (27°C and 29°C).
Autumn – September, October, and November: Pack your sweaters and a light coat, and be prepared to dress in layers because the temperatures will be starting to drop, though snow is unlikely. Temperatures average between 55°F and 75°F (13°C and 24°C), starting around 75°F in September and dropping about 10°F on average per month.
Winter – December, January, and February: Be sure to bring a warm but fashionable boots, Be sure to bring a warm coat gloves, and a hat because the temperatures frequently drop below freezing and you’ll most likely encounter snow. If you’re planning to watch the ball drop on New Year’s Eve, make sure you have appropriate clothes to keep you warm outside for several hours. Temperatures average between 35°F and 45°F (2°C and 7°C).
What NOT to take to New York
1) DON’T PACK heavy books – You may want to get some reading done on your flight to New York, but physical books will really start to weigh you down. Fortunately, a
– You may want to get some reading done on your flight to New York, but physical books will really start to weigh you down. Fortunately, a Kindle takes up less space (and weighs less) than a single book.
2) DON’T BRING too many clothes – Most people tend to bring too many clothes when they travel and then only end up wearing half of them. Be choosy about what to bring, and you’ll end up with a much lighter bag.
– Most people tend to bring too many clothes when they travel and then only end up wearing half of them. Be choosy about what to bring, and you’ll end up with a much lighter bag.
3) DON’T TAKE a bath towel – Any hotel you stay at in New York will most likely have a towel, but if you do want to bring your own, opt for a
– Any hotel you stay at in New York will most likely have a towel, but if you do want to bring your own, opt for a quick-drying travel towel instead of the regular kind. They’re much lighter weight and take up almost no space.
4) DON’T PACK unnecessary valuables – You’ll probably want to bring some electronics to use during your trip and some nicer jewelry to wear on nights out, but leave anything you won’t actually use at home. There’s always a chance that things could get lost or stolen while traveling, and there’s no reason to risk it.
– You’ll probably want to bring some electronics to use during your trip and some nicer jewelry to wear on nights out, but leave anything you won’t actually use at home. There’s always a chance that things could get lost or stolen while traveling, and there’s no reason to risk it.
5) DON’T TAKE overly-casual clothes – Compared to the rest of the U.S., New York is a relatively formal place. If you want to blend in with the locals and avoid sticking out as an unwary tourist, dress up a bit.
– Compared to the rest of the U.S., New York is a relatively formal place. If you want to blend in with the locals and avoid sticking out as an unwary tourist, dress up a bit.
6) DON’T BRING uncomfortable shoes – You’ll be doing a lot of walking during your trip, so make sure you bring comfortable shoes. Otherwise, your feet will be killing you the whole time, and it could end up ruining your trip.
– You’ll be doing a lot of walking during your trip, so make sure you bring comfortable shoes. Otherwise, your feet will be killing you the whole time, and it could end up ruining your trip.
FAQs about traveling to New York City – NYC
1) What is the best time of year to visit New York?
Due to the frigid, snowy winters and the hot, humid summers, the best months for visiting New York, weather-wise, are April, May, September, and October. But if you can brave the cold, prices for everything from hotels to Broadway tickets drop in January and February, and the city is much less crowded. And while prices are still high in December, there’s nothing quite like Christmas in New York. At the other end of the spectrum, the city comes alive in the summer, despite the heat and humidity. Prices are high then, but it’s also a season of free concerts, movie screenings, outdoor activities, and more.
2) What is the best neighborhood to stay in?
The best area to stay in during your trip to New York depends on your interests – and your budget. There are far too many interesting neighborhoods in New York to list, but these are a few to get you started. In Manhattan, art lovers will be delighted by all the galleries in Chelsea, while Chinatown is the best bet if cheap, tasty food is your top priority. The bohemian past of Greenwich Village is still evident today, and Harlem is more vibrant than ever. And of course, Midtown is home to most of the things that make you think of New York. Or, if you prefer to stay in one of the other boroughs, you’ll have plenty more amazing neighborhoods to choose from.
3) How can I take public transportation?
Public transportation is easily the cheapest and most convenient way to get around New York, but the system is so extensive, it can be confusing for visitors.
The city’s subways are color-coded by line and identified by number or letter, while buses are identified by a route number following a letter that denotes the borough.
Apps like MyTransit NYC will make using the buses and subways much easier.
4) Where can I go to avoid the crowds in New York?
New York has some of the country’s most famous tourist attractions – and they draw some of the biggest crowds. If you want to avoid the crowds, skip the city’s biggest sites, namely Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and the Met. If you can, visit during the off-season (like in January or February), and plan to spend time outside Manhattan.
5) How can I save money in New York?
New York is one of the most expensive cities in the U.S., making it hard to travel there on a shoestring. Still, there are plenty of ways to cut costs while you’re visiting. If you don’t mind sharing a room with strangers, New York is one of the few cities in the country with hostels, which is probably the cheapest option if you’re traveling alone. Otherwise, consider using a home-sharing service, which can be significantly cheaper than hotels.
For saving money on food, skip the five-star restaurants and any place that caters to tourists, and eat instead where the locals eat. New York’s abundance of hole-in-the-wall spots have some of the best food and at reasonable prices. Don’t forget you can always pick up groceries at a supermarket for some of your meals, which will save you a bundle.
When it comes to seeing the sights, check to see if any of the attractions you want to visit have reduced-admission hours, or if it makes sense to get a city pass. Don’t forget about things like Groupon and LivingSocial, which have literally thousands of deals in the area. There are also lots of free walking tours and free events you can attend in New York, especially during summer. And simply strolling through the city, which might be the best way to experience it, costs nothing.
6) What should I know about seeing a Broadway show?
Tickets to Broadway shows can be incredibly expensive and often sell out far in advance – but there are many ways to find discounted and last-minute seats, so don’t give up. Traditionally, people seeking cheaper tickets have gone in-person to a TKTS Booth, which usually has most tickets available at 50 percent off. Of course, now you can buy tickets online, and TodayTix and NY Tix both sell them at a discount. You can also find discount codes online at BroadwayBox or Broadway Insider. Some shows sell a limited number of day-of tickets at steep discounts as well – but the only way to get them is to be at the box office when it opens.
Once you’ve got your tickets secured, double-check the time of the show (curtain times can be all over the place on Broadway), and plan to arrive at least 20 minutes early. Make sure you know how to get to the theater, and allow enough time after dinner or other pre-show plans. After the show, you might be able to meet some of the performers in person and have them sign your Playbill – just ask an usher where to go.
7) What are the best museums in New York?
New York has over 100 museums, so you’ll have to be choosy when deciding which ones to visit. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, better known as The Met, is one of the largest and most-visited art museums in the world, housing nearly two million works. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is as well known for its iconic architecture and unique layout as it is for the artwork, mostly Impressionist and modern, on display there. The Museum of Modern Art is one of the world’s leading modern art museums, even if many visitors question whether some of its works really constitute “art.”
If art isn’t really your thing, the American Museum of Natural History has exhibits covering virtually all periods of known human and animal history, as well as a planetarium and an IMAX theater. The Museum of the City of New York aims to celebrate the city and preserve its heritage, housing objects representing the city’s culture and illustrating its history. The New-York Historical Society also contains artifacts from throughout New York’s history, and it’s home to the Center for Women’s History, the country’s first initiative of its kind. Finally, the Tenement Museum is located in a former apartment building in the Lower East Side and tells the stories of the immigrants who once lived there.
8) What are the top foods to try in New York?
New York is so diverse and such a cultural hotspot, it’s a food lover’s paradise. Some of the foods the city is most known for come from its Jewish community, including pastrami sandwiches on rye and the go-to breakfast of bagels with lox. Of course, since New York was home to the country’s first pizzeria, New York-style pizza is another must-eat, distinguished by its thin, hand-tossed crust. For a sweeter choice, the iconic options are New York cheesecake or a cronut – or an authentic Italian cannoli!
9) What are the best walking tours?
There are dozens of walking tours available in New York, covering all five boroughs. Both Free Tours By Foot and New Europe Tours run several tours per day in Manhattan and elsewhere, all offered on a pay-what-you-wish basis. The Grand Central Partnership’s tours of the Grand Central neighborhood (including the train station) are free and led by historians, and the Central Park Conservancy runs several different tours in and around Central Park, some of which are free. Big Onion Walking Tours is another popular company; their tours cost $25, and each one is themed around architecture, culture, food, or history. Lastly, Foods of NY runs food tours in Chinatown, Greenwich Village, and elsewhere, most of which are $54.
10) Which New York city pass is the most useful?
There are numerous city passes available in New York, and each one works slightly differently and offers its own list of attractions. To choose the best one for your trip, decide which attractions you want to visit first, so you can be sure to get a pass that includes them. Some also include line-skipping privileges, use of a hop-on/hop-off bus, and other perks. Before you choose your pass, consider which extras you’ll actually use and what they’re worth to you.
The FreeStyle Pass from CitySights NY starts at $129 and includes admission to any three of the attractions on their list. For $122, CityPASS gets you entrance to six attractions, but there are some restrictions – for example, if you choose to visit the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, you cannot also use your CityPASS at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. The New York Explorer Pass starts at $84 for three attractions, and can be used at any of the 74 spots on their list. Unlike most passes, it’s valid for 30 days after the first visit.
There are also two unlimited passes – the New York Pass and the New York Sightseeing Pass – both of which are available as 1-, 2-, 3-, 5-, or 7-day passes. The prices are almost the same, but the list of attractions differs slightly, so check what’s included on each one.
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You may also like these other packing lists…On the latest episode of Marc Maron's WTF podcast, RuPaul once again lets loose on those who have an issue with his use of language some within the transgender community find offensive. His main point: that it's really only a handful of activists and they basically need to calm the fuck down.
One of the problems with demanding an apology from someone is that if by some chance that person actually concedes, the apology you're getting is by its very nature not really an apology -- it's just something he or she was forced to do. For example, when a vocal segment of the transgender activist community took RuPaul to task for throwing the word "tranny" around and for the ongoing use of the word "she-male" during a specific segment of his show, RuPaul's Drag Race, he and World of Wonder productions publicly apologized and declared the phrase "You've got She-mail" -- get it? -- off-limits.
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At the time, in a joint statement, the two said, "We wanted to thank the community for sharing their concerns around a recent segment and the use of the term'she-mail' on Drag Race... We did not intend to cause any offense, but in retrospect we realize that it was insensitive. We sincerely apologize." It seemed like a bit of a turnaround from someone who had once chastised former N'Sync singer Lance Bass for backing down after being criticized for using the word "tranny." Ru claimed he would've handled the outrage differently. "I wish he would have said, 'Fuck you, you tranny jerk!" were, I believe, his exact words.
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Well, so much for "Rupologizing." On the latest episode of Marc Maron's WTF podcast, RuPaul once again lets loose on those who have an issue with his use of language some within the transgender community find offensive. His main point: that it's really only a handful of activists and they basically need to calm the fuck down.
"Does the word 'tranny' bother me? No. I love the word 'tranny.'... It's not the transexual community who's saying that. These are fringe people who are looking for storylines to strengthen their identity as victims. That is what we are dealing with. It's not the trans community. 'Cause most people who are trans have been through hell and high water... But some people haven't and they've used their victimhood to create a situation where, 'No! You look at me! I want you to see me the way you're supposed to see me!' You know, if your idea of happiness has to do with someone else changing what they say, what they do, you are in for a fucking hard-ass road... I dance to the beat of a different drummer. I believe everybody -- you can be whatever the hell you wanna be, I ain't stopping you. But don't you dare tell me what I can do or what I can't -- say or can't do. It's just words, like, 'Yeah, you hurt me!' Bitch, you need to get stronger. If you're upset by something I said you have bigger problems than you think."
RuPaul isn't the only queer celebrity to go on the warpath against what for all intents and purposes is the PC language police. Buck Angel, a female-to-male transgender porn star said this a couple of months ago with regard to the "pseudo-academic jargon" and hyper-specific designations for sexuality and gender some are now demanding (and which Facebook has adopted):
"It’s like you have to speak in baby talk, OK? So when you start saying ‘cisgender,’ I don’t use the word ‘cisgender,’ I don’t even know what that fucking means. And by making all this new vocabulary, bottom line is they’re alienating the rest of the people in the world who want to understand and then get sort of irritated—they just don’t understand. Isn’t the point of us to educate the world to understand us that we’re just normal?"
As outspoken transgender advocate Andrea James said in response to the outrage of hashtag activist (yes, there's more than one of those) Parker Marie Molloy, who is also transgender and claims to "hate" Rupaul, "If it's a choice between siding with the language police and siding with offensive artists, I'll always side with the artist willing to risk the consequences of making an offensive joke. The right to offend people is a cornerstone of the LGBT movement, and I will always defend anyone who offends our community's finger-wagging schoolmarms."
Sure, I'm a straight ally, but still -- can I get an amen up in here?
(This story has been edited slightly. The original version seemed to suggest that RuPaul is transgender, which of course he isn't. Sorry for the confusion.)Craig & Jonathan's Injection Scare Stories and Lessons Learned - Re-added March 2013
Experiences that could help you avoid problems! (From 2004) Submit your story! admin@thetransitionalmale.com
Craig's scare:
I had been self-injecting T for over 2 years with no problem. I'm diligent about cleaning and disinfecting the site, alternated between left and right thigh.
One evening, 48 hours after an injection, I got a dull pain in that muscle, not unusual. But over the next 3-4 hours it rapidly got worse. I convinced myself nothing could be wrong until I went out to grab food and could barely get myself across the street. I mean this was excruciating and I have a high tolerance for pain.
I called a local health hotline. The nurse there told me it wasn't an infection because a) I had no fever and b) it wasn't red or itchy. In fact my leg looked totally normal.
So I took some painkillers and tried to sleep, but woke up an hour later in unbearable pain. My thigh muscle was rock-hard to the touch and I couldn't straighten or bend it. So I got myself to a hospital.
After 8 hours of waiting and explaining my situation a dozen times, an ultrasound showed that the muscle was severely inflamed and there was the beginning of an abscess. The diagnosis was "Fat Necrosis" which I had never heard of so I asked a ton of questions and now I will try to explain it.
When you inject repeatedly in the same place over time, the fat cells that are just under the skin die. These dead fat cells can cause a muscular infection. So two weeks was not enough time to recover especially if, by force of habit, I was injecting in exactly the same spot. Lucky for me a course of antibiotics stopped the abscess. I now alternate between four muscles but I honestly have no idea how easy or uncommon it is to get what I had.
My point is that surface bacteria is not the only danger and we can't always rely on doctors to know what the possibilities are so if this happens to you don't wait too long and tell them what you heard.
Jonathan's Scare
Nick,
Thanks for posting this info on your site....as always I learn things each time I read things on here. This was particularly timely however. I gave myself a shot last Weds as always. I alternate legs & shoot into the outer thigh muscles. Occasionally I'll have a small sore "knot" but it goes away in a day or so & it helps to massage it also. This past week there was a small knot so I massaged it as usual. It didn't help & in fact got larger & began to be warm to the touch. I didn't think much about it until it got very sore & started itching deep under the skin. Nothing made the knot get any smaller. I just happened to be reading your site the other night & saw these injection stories. I called my Dr. today & he saw me right away. He gave me a script for an antibiotic & said that it felt as if there was a hematoma that had formed. He said use heat if I want but that the antibiotic should clear it up. He wanted to have me on the meds because sometimes a hematoma can develop into something worse.
I'll start shooting into my hip or butt as well as my thighs from now on. The Dr. also said sometimes you can shoot into the muscle TOO deeply & maybe that's what happened. He wasn't sure but I look forward to the knot & the itch being gone!
Thanks again as always my friend.
Jonathan
Have an injection story? Send it to me! admin@thetransitionalmale.com
Site IndexAs a woman, I’m offended by John McCain’s decision to select Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. It is clear that the decision is primarily driven by politics, by the belief that to get Hillary’s supporters, all you need to do is play the gender card.
I respect what Palin has done in Alaska in terms of calling out corrupt politics, and I’m sure that McCain does too. But being a whistleblower and working towards a clean state government are not qualifications for the (vice) presidency, especially not in times like these. We need whistleblowers and we need people who will work to clean up the government, but we need so much more than that.
McCain is not a young man. The most important quality in a vice president is their ability to be the president should something happen. It’s one thing to say that Obama is not ready because he hasn’t spent enough time in Washington, but he has worked on issues at many levels and he is very well connected globally and engaged in global political issues. There’s nothing that indicates that the same is true of Palin.
Palin is the Governor of a state with severe economic issues. What has she done? She played protectionist politics to keep a dairy company in business when it was clear that they couldn’t compete and they still failed. Trying to protect failed business plans is not the path towards economic growth. Her current plan, although not yet implemented (thank god), is to destroy the environment and put at risk future generations for economic prosperity today.
As a woman, I’m offended. Women have long borne the responsibility to protect the environment and future generations. How can she turn her back on this to reap short-term political and economic rewards?
Palin marks her identity by noting that she’s just a soccer mom. She is respected politically for questioning powers that be. She is respected by evangelicals for not aborting her son after learning that he would have Down Syndrome.
As a woman, I’m offended. Palin has the right to choose what she does with her body, and I respect her decision, but I also demand the right to make my own choices. Feminism isn’t about aborting – feminism is about the right to choose and make decisions about our bodies based on what is best for everyone involved in the social context in which we live. A woman’s personal choice alone does not make her eligible for presidency.
I voted for Barack, but I deeply respect Hillary. I am in awe of the work she has done and that she continues to do. In 1992, I would’ve (could I have) voted for her in a second over Bill. 2008 is different and I think that Barack is bringing to the table something far more important. My choice of Barack is not a diss on Hillary. For the first time in my life, I made a choice about who to vote FOR not who to vote against.
Palin is not Hillary. Palin lacks the experience, the connections, the political stature, and, most importantly, the deep respect for women and women’s issues that Hillary has.
As a woman, I’m offended. I’m offended that McCain is choosing a woman who is clearly ill-equipped to be the president of this country in an effort to woo over Hillary’s supporters. I’m offended because McCain’s decision is one of the most misogynist ones I’ve seen in recent history. Does he honestly believe that women in this country are so stupid as to believe that any woman is a substitute for another woman? That all that us women boil down to is our XX chromosomes and estrogen? C’mon now.
Don’t get me wrong – I want to see women in the highest positions of power in this country. But I don’t just want any woman. I want women in power who have earned the respect and worked to achieve said power. I want women who are chosen because of what they have done, not how they look in a political power game.
I was expecting McCain to choose a woman. I figured that’s why he waited this long. I was expecting him to go outside of the DC circuit and my latest musing was that he’d choose Meg Whitman. Sure, she’d be controversial as hell, but damn is she a professional power house. And, unlike Palin, she actually knows something about economics. Her experience as CEO of a major international company has given her tremendous experience that would complement McCain tremendously. She’s financially self-sustaining and appealing to the economic conservatives that the Republican party lost under Bush. Sure, she’s controversial and I’d hate to see that kind of corporate-ness inside the White House, but she’s beyond qualified and capable. Palin is an entirely different picture. She appeals to the social conservatives because of her personal views, but she lacks anything resembling the qualifications to be president.
As a woman, I’m offended.
I wasn’t going to vote for McCain before, but I had at least respected him and what he’s done for this country. He’s completely lost any ounce of respect in my mind. His decision to choose a vice president based solely on her gender is absolutely antithetical to every value I hold dear. Our sisters, mothers, and grandmothers did not fight for women’s rights only to have a woman toted around as an accessory in federal politics. I am confident that Palin is a smart, compassionate, and capable person, but she lacks the qualifications, experience, and long-term thinking to be president. This isn’t about DC. She hasn’t even done anything worth mentioning in Alaska. For McCain to tap her for this position is just outright offensive.
On the anniversary of women’s right to vote in this country, Hillary asked the crowd if they voted for her or for the people that she’s trying to serve. In asking the audience to vote for Barack, she asked them to move beyond individualist-politics and focus on the issues at hand. My hope is that women everywhere took that message to heart. This isn’t about getting a woman into the White House. It’s about creating a future that we want to live in.[image-36]Using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and infrared telescopes, astronomers have made an important advance in the understanding of how clusters of stars come into being.
The data show early notions of how star clusters are formed cannot be correct. The simplest idea is stars form into clusters when a giant cloud of gas and dust condenses. The center of the cloud pulls in material from its surroundings until it becomes dense enough to trigger star formation. This process occurs in the center of the cloud first, implying that the stars in the middle of the cluster form first and, therefore, are the oldest.
However, the latest data from Chandra suggest something else is happening. Researchers studied two clusters where sun-like stars currently are forming – NGC 2024, located in the center of the Flame Nebula, and the Orion Nebula Cluster. From this study, they discovered the stars on the outskirts of the clusters actually are the oldest.
"Our findings are counterintuitive," said Konstantin Getman of Penn State University, who led the study. "It means we need to think harder and come up with more ideas of how stars like our sun are formed."
Getman and his colleagues developed a new two-step approach that led to this discovery. First, they used Chandra data on the brightness of the stars in X-rays to determine their masses. Then they determined how bright these stars were in infrared light using ground-based telescopes and data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. By combining this information with theoretical models, the ages of the stars throughout the two clusters were estimated.
The results were contrary to what the basic model predicted. At the center of NGC 2024, the stars were about 200,000 years old, while those on the outskirts were about 1.5 million years in age. In the Orion Nebula, star ages ranged from 1.2 million years in the middle of the cluster to almost 2 million years near the edges.
"A key conclusion from our study is we can reject the basic model where clusters form from the inside out," said co-author Eric Feigelson, also of Penn State. "So we need to consider more complex models that are now emerging from star formation studies."
Explanations for the new findings can be grouped into three broad notions. The first is star formation continues to occur in the inner regions because the gas in the inner regions of a star-forming cloud is denser -- contains more material from which to build stars -- than the more diffuse outer regions. Over time, if the density falls below a threshold where it can no longer collapse to form stars, star formation will cease in the outer regions, whereas stars will continue to form in the inner regions, leading to a concentration of younger stars there.
Another idea is old stars have had more time to drift away from the center of the cluster, or be kicked outward by interactions with other stars. One final notion is the observations could be explained if young stars are formed in massive filaments of gas that fall toward the center of the cluster.
Previous studies of the Orion Nebula Cluster revealed hints of this reversed age spread, but these earlier efforts were based on limited or biased star samples. This latest research provides the first evidence of such age differences in the Flame Nebula.
"The next steps will be to see |
in the Arctic Ocean.
Baird held a news conference Monday on Parliament Hill where he asserted the Arctic claim will include the North Pole, although Canada has yet to do the mapping work to support its bid.
Russia is already drilling for oil in the high Arctic, and in 2007 a Russian team planted the country’s flag on the sea floor at the magnetic pole.
Baird’s spokesman Rick Roth responded to Putin’s latest Arctic chest-thumping by stating Canada will defend its sovereignty in the region “in adherence to international law, and through science-based measures.”
“We will also continue our co-operation with our partners in the Arctic, as a responsible neighbour should,” Roth added in an email.
“We offer no advice to Russia, but merely point out that they should be cognizant of the message they’re sending to neighbours.”
Putin’s message has been loud and persistent.
Russia is currently building the world’s biggest nuclear icebreaker, which will add to the fleet of five it already has. The country has 10 naval ports in the Arctic, able to service its fleet of nuclear submarines, and has begun restoring Arctic airfields.
As Putin said Tuesday, Russia is “ever-more actively reclaiming this promising region, returning to it,” following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
The Canadian military, by contrast, has conceded that its recent purchase of snowmobiles for the troops will be the last for nearly a decade.
A long-promised winter warfare centre in Nunavut finally opened this past summer, six years after Prime Minister Stephen promised it. The command post in Resolute Bay can handle up to 100 soldiers at a time training for cold-weather operations.
But a deep-water port at Nanisivik, Nunavut, remains under the control of the federal fisheries department, despite long-standing promises of a navel refuelling station. Promised Arctic patrol ships are still in the design stage, and construction of an icebreaker has been put off until at least 2020.
Fortunately for Canada, the Arctic arms race won’t determine territorial claims, according to experts.
Whitney Lackenbauer, a historian who specializes in Arctic sovereignty at the University of Waterloo, Ont., says the sabre-rattling is designed more for domestic political purposes.
“It is a fascinating political dance. But in practical terms this is much ado about nothing,” Lackenbauer said in an interview.
“This is very much an emotional exercise relating to the North Pole as a symbol of the Arctic. The practical aspects are completely immaterial.”
He said both Russian and Canadian governments are playing this game.
“We’re almost mirror images of one another.”
The farcical fringe of Lackenbauer’s argument was illustrated in the House of Commons on Tuesday, but for serious observers, Putin’s Arctic fixation isn’t about Santa, the Pole, or even the promise of oil and gas and mineral riches.
Rob Huebert of the University of Calgary says that what “isn’t discussed in polite society is the fact that the core Russian strategic interest is part and parcel of the Arctic.”
“For Russia, it’s about getting their submarine fleet up and running again,” Huebert said in an interview. “They are reinvigorating their nuclear deterrent.”
And Huebert is less convinced than Lackenbauer that military capability will carry no weight in the long negotiation over Arctic territorial sovereignty.
“If we have good relations with the Russians, negotiations for any overlap (in claims) will go well,” said Huebert.
“If relations deteriorate — say over Ukraine, or who knows what — then all of sudden negotiations become that much more difficult. Then you start seeing a little more posturing that is clearly intended to put pressure on any negotiating position.”MONTREAL—Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin felt the time was right to come out and address the media in the wake of his team’s disappointing 2-6-1 start to the 2017-18 season.
On Wednesday, Bergevin took to the podium at the Bell Centre and answered a variety of questions from reporters in a session that lasted just under 23 minutes. He was asked for his evaluation on how the Canadiens stumbled out to their worst start in 76 years, about how they can turn it around, about how having $8.5 million in cap space might help them do it, and about whether or not he’d reconsider making some of the changes he made to the roster during the off-season.
Bergevin was also asked about former Canadiens player and coach Mario Tremblay taking to French radio in Montreal earlier in the week and alleging that beleaguered forward Alex Galchenyuk had twice checked into the NHL’s substance abuse program and that he has "off-ice problems."
"What I can tell you is that the NHL—and it’s been years that it’s been this way, going back to the era I played in—gives a confidential phone number out that you can call if you need help," said Bergevin. "It’s strictly confidential. You could have one guy, 10 guys, I don’t know. It’s confidential. I can’t even talk about it; it’s strictly confidential. So I don’t have any comment to make on that."
The GM did however elaborate on Galchenyuk’s spotty play and all the other issues concerning the team. Here are five takeaways from his comments.
The solution is in the room…because it has to be
Here’s something Bergevin repeated in both languages during his press conference: "For me it’s about confidence. The answer is in the room. Those guys have the answer. There isn’t anybody who’s going to come in to bail us out. We’re all together, and at this moment we’re going through a difficult period where players are squeezing their sticks and it’s become a mental thing. But together we’re going to get out of it with confidence."
The Canadiens don’t really have a choice in the matter, do they? Traditionally, blockbuster trades don’t get made in the opening months of the season. And as Bergevin acknowledged, you don’t win those trades when you’re dealing from a position of weakness.
"You go into a tough stretch and people want to pick your pocket," he said. "You know some guys are better than they’re playing, and what you’re talking about getting in return is not going to help you. So just to make a move just to make a move? That’s not going to make any difference. I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to make a move just to panic."
Whether he truly believes the Canadiens have the resources to get themselves back into a position where he can win a trade that comes to his attention is irrelevant. He—and they—have no choice for the time being but to work with what they have.
Galchenyuk is in control of how Galchenyuk plays
There is a considerably large faction of Canadiens fans who believe Galchenyuk has been completely mismanaged by the organization since being drafted third overall in 2012.
Galchenyuk may only be 23 years old, but he’s in his sixth season as an NHLer. The expectation from the organization is that he uses his natural talent to make players around him better and to be a self-starter. Claude Julien said as much on Monday when explaining the decision to demote him to the fourth line ahead of Tuesday’s 5-1 win over the Florida Panthers.
Bergevin said they won’t give up on Galchenyuk, and he also went into detail to explain why he repeatedly said on Wednesday that he’s frustrated with the situation.
"Yes [there is frustration with him] because you see the talent," said Bergevin. "You see what he’s capable of doing, and again, I’m watching Alex and I hope what happened last night [scoring a goal against Florida and playing well] is the beginning. Sometimes I see a young player that’s looking for answers. He’s not coming to us. But he’s looking somewhere else for answers instead of taking it upon himself. When you stop and you talk to kid about it, he understands. So he’s aware of it. But sometimes it’s tougher than just saying. He needs to find the little things that make him score. Not thinking about scoring, but the process: how am I going to score? What do I have to do?
"I’ve said it before, sometimes you think you’re working but you might not be working as hard as you can. The only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary. So you have to work and the result will become success."
The Canadiens aren’t an elite team
That’s what Bergevin said Wednesday.
"There’s elite teams in the league and there’s teams that are all fighting," Bergevin said. "That cluster of teams; they’re all good teams. Every night somebody could win, depends how you play, and I believe we’re in that cluster of teams. We’re in a cluster of good teams that wants to get in, wants to make the playoffs and make damage. Yes, I believe that."
We’ll see if the Canadiens can prove him right.
If they do, it’s worth asking if the $8.5 million Bergevin has in cap space can turn them into one of the elite teams he’s referring to.
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Low-risk gambles are worth it … aren’t they?
When Bergevin was asked if he’d take a redo on some of the decisions he made over the summer—bringing in defencemen Karl Alzner, David Schlemko, Joe Morrow and Mark Streit and forward Ales Hemsky—he was adamant he wouldn’t.
Alzner has struggled considerably out of the gate, Schlemko has been injured since the opening week of training camp, Streit’s contract has already been terminated, and Hemsky had performed poorly up until suffering a concussion against the Anaheim Ducks last Friday.
"Did I know Victor Mete was going to perform this well? No. So Mark Streit was an insurance policy," Bergevin said, as he began to dissect his decisions. "The way the young guy [Mete] performed, it became an easy decision [to cut Streit]. What did it cost the organization? Six days of salary? If I had to redo it, I’d do it again.
"We’re not satisfied with Hemsky. Him neither. But the expectations weren’t so high. We thought he was a player who could help us on the power play. The season’s still young.
"We knew Joe Morrow was a sixth or seventh defenceman.
"These decisions didn’t do long-term damage to the team. You have to do these things even if you know they might not work. I have no issue with that."
Fair enough.
An appropriate follow up would’ve been to ask if saving a few million dollars instead of signing fringe players may have enabled Bergevin to retain the services of Alexander Radulov, Andrei Markov, or both. But the press conference was winding down and other subjects needed to be covered.
Bergevin had said in July that he wanted to keep both Radulov and Markov, but only on the organization’s terms. He said he felt he had made competitive offers that he expected would be accepted. Inevitably, he lost Radulov to a competitive offer from the Dallas Stars and lost Markov to the KHL over what likely would’ve amounted to a million-dollar difference in compensation (Bergevin offered a $4-million salary with $1 million in performances bonuses for one season and Markov had been willing to accept one year at a $6-million salary).
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"The defence is better than last season’s."
That is the statement Bergevin made at the team’s annual golf tournament back in September, one he has defended on multiple occasions since.
Nathan Beaulieu was traded to Buffalo, Mikhail Sergachev to Tampa Bay, Alexei Emelin was exposed to the Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft, and Markov left after 16 seasons with the Canadiens.
Alzner was signed to a five-year, $23.1-million contract after playing largely as Washington’s sixth defenceman in the Capitals’ (shorter than expected) 2017 playoff run (Alzner did not play over 13:30 in any of the team’s last four games against the Pittsburgh Penguins). Schlemko came over via trade from Vegas, Morrow was brought in for depth purposes, and Jakub Jerabek was signed out of the KHL.
When Bergevin was asked about the team’s defence again on Wednesday, he said: "At this moment, we’re having defensive issues. I see a team that’s playing on its heels and not on its toes. If your players don’t close the gap quickly enough defensively… some of our defencemen are struggling, we’re not denying it. But if you look at the whole, when we play well and with confidence we’re a very good team capable of playing very good hockey defensively. I don’t want to get into the details of this player or that player, but again we know some of the players have had trouble defensively—some of them being the defencemen, but also the forwards. It’s a team game. I still believe we’re a very good team if we play well defensively and are responsible."
Perhaps that will prove true when Alzner shows his best self; when Jordie Benn finds the stable game he showed off after being traded from Dallas to Montreal last February; when Schlemko returns from injury a few weeks from now and dresses for his first game as a Canadien; and when Jerabek gets his chance to play in the NHL after figuring out the North American-sized rink in the AHL.
For now, that statement is far from being the most defensible one Bergevin’s ever made.Pictured on left: Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Bachmannistan)
Pictured on left: Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Bachmannistan)
Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert of Texas, the highest ranking member of the House Committee of Bat&h!t Wingnuttery, proposes a solution for dealing with the threat of government default:
When asked whether he would allow the government to default on its debt, Gohmert projected the responsibility for such circumstances onto Obama. "No," he said, "that would be an impeachable offense by the president."
Surely we can all agree that this is the most elegant way out of this mess. For one, it would allow House Republicans to save face, because instead of caving into extortionist Democratic demands that they prevent a default by raising the debt limit (which, coincidentally, is the only thing that can prevent a default), they could sit on their asses and do nothing.
Then, when the government defaults because Republicans sat around and did nothing instead of raising the debt ceiling, they could impeach President Obama for obeying the law that they refused to change. Sure, they would be blaming him for a crisis that they created, but as every pundit inside D.C. knows, what's truly important here is that Republicans be given an opportunity to save face, because doing otherwise might fray the collegial atmosphere that keeps Washington working.
Really, it's a win win situation, because Republicans win by forcing the default, and then they win by pointing the finger at President Obama. Yes, the collateral damage would be awful for America—things like unpaid Social Security checks, financial markets in turmoil, and a massive recession coupled with austerity like we've never seen before—but Beltway pundits could go to sleep at night satisfied that Republicans had not been humiliated, because at a time like this, our top priority should be avoiding the humiliation of Republicans who have absolutely no respect for the country they were elected to serve.Such is the rate of development in the video games industry that it doesn’t take long for a game to start looking dated. GTA IV is one of those games as it’s been out for a 3 years now. It doesn’t look any less stunning than it did at launch when viewed on its own, but compare it to the games appearing today and you can see how game engines have moved on.
Luckily, if you’re a PC gamer then there’s something you can do about this graphical ageing process. There are a number of mods that can be applied to the stock GTA IV experience on PC, but if you specifically want to enhance the graphics then look no further than the iCEnhancer mod by modder IcE La Glace.
The latest version is 1.2.5 BETA, and if you watch the preview video above you can clearly see how much better this makes the game look. Do ignore the stuttering in the video though, that’s apparently just FRAPS and not how the game runs with the mod applied.
The one drawback of wanting to use this mod is the fact it doesn’t work with the latest official GTA IV patch (1.070). According to IcE this is due to the shaders and shadow system being changed in the game which makes it incompatible with his mod. So an earlier version of the game will be required to use it.
Also, if you don’t want to risk using a beta version there’s always the stable 1.2 version, a video of which you can see below:
For comparison, here’s GTA IV running on PC with all settings set to maximum, but without the mod applied. You can clearly see the difference:
via JoystiqFeature photo by jamesdale10
Travel is a powerful force for peace. An engaged, open-minded traveler can be an ambassador of empathy and an antidote to terror.
The day American and Iraqi travelers can travel freely in each others country will be a great day. On that day, we will know for certain that war has at long last given way to peace.
Is it reasonable for you to consider traveling to Iraq now?
I don’t know. It depends on who you are and when you read this. If you do go to Iraq, however, keep these tips in mind – and tell us about your travels when you come home!
Do your research
Produce stand, East Baghdad, Iraq. Photo by Produce stand, East Baghdad, Iraq. Photo by jamesdale10
You can’t book a trip to Iraq in the same way you might book a Caribbean cruise. Do not even consider visiting Iraq until you have thoroughly researched the country, including recent political events.
Stay abreast of current news for months before your trip and while you are in Iraq. The best source of quality English-language journalism in Iraq is probably the Baghdad Bureau of the New York Times.
Other excellent sources of Iraq news include the BBC News Iraq Page and Al Jazeera English.
Stick to safe zones
Last year, an Italian tourist named Luca Marchio was found wandering around Falluja.
“I am a tourist. I want to see the most important cities in the country. That is the reason why I am here now,” he was quoted as saying. “I want to see and understand the reality because I have never been here before, and I think every country in the world must be seen.”
As admirable as Luca’s sentiment might have been, he was lucky to get out of Falluja alive.
The truth is that some regions of Iraq are much safer than others. I would have no qualms about visiting much of Iraqi Kurdistan, for example, which Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler explored way back in 2006.
Generally speaking, southern Iraq is safer than the Sunni Triangle, and a traveler must be particularly careful in Baghdad, where the line between relatively safe and highly dangerous neighborhoods is sometimes unclear.
Iraqi Kurdish boy, Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo by Iraqi Kurdish boy, Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo by jamesdale10
Don’t go gonzo
Iraq is the sort of destination that can attract adrenaline seekers with a talent for getting into trouble. Especially in the heady days of early occupation, Iraq was a green playground for dangerously naive foreigners drawn by money and war.
Most of these Quiet Americans are either jaded or gone. Some of them are dead.
You are advised to be extraordinarily cautious, respectful, and unobtrusive while in Iraq. The idea of going gonzo in a slow-burning war-zone might be exhilarating, but it can get very real very fast in this part of the world.
Baghdad, Iraq. Photo by Baghdad, Iraq. Photo by jamesdale10
Consider a guided tour
A handful of specialty tour companies offer itineraries in Iraq. Hinterland Travel is a well regarded company with regularly scheduled tours in Iraqi Kurdistan.
A pioneering 17-day Hinterland of Baghdad, Babylon, and Basra was recently written up in the New York Times under the headline “Travelers, Your Tour Bus For Basra Is Boarding.”
Go through Amman, Jordan
Amman is a safe, modern, vibrant city only 500 miles from Baghdad and linked by frequent buses and flights. Many Iraqi refugees live in Amman or travel there for health care.
Amman is a good place to cool your heels for a few days while absorbing all the latest information about current events in Iraq.
There are hundreds of Couchsurfers in Amman who can host you, in addition to all sorts of guesthouses and hotels.
Try to blend in
Iraqi man and son. Photo by Iraqi man and son. Photo by jamesdale10
There are basically two ways to stay safe in Iraq. The American Way, brought to you by Blackwater and Halliburton, is to drive fast, surrounded by soldiers and bodyguards.
If you aren’t traveling on the taxpayer’s dime, a better strategy is to blend in as much as possible. Women should dress in local fashion and men should grow out their facial hair.
Learning a bit of Arabic before you go couldn’t hurt.
Join the Army?
Many of the American soldiers in Iraq are trying hard to build peace, and joining up with this effort can be a noble decision.
US soldiers dine with Iraqi leaders. Photo by US soldiers dine with Iraqi leaders. Photo by jamesdale10
Practically speaking, the army pays fairly well, offering good benefits and a route out of poverty for some Americans.
However, life as a soldier can be difficult and risky, and there are moral questions inherent in being part of a violent occupation.
For more information check out:
Official U.S. Army recruiting website
Iraq Veterans Against The War
Talk to someone who has been to Iraq
Iraq might seem as distant as another planet, but chances are you know someone who has been there recently. A trickle of Iraqi refugees are starting to settle in the states, and thousands of soldiers are coming home from deployment.
Reach out to these people. Invite them in and listen to their stories.
COMMUNITY CONNECTION:
Matador members who have been to Iraq include:
Canoe:
Dustin is a native Texan who loves his canoe and his camera. Dustin studied at Texas State University and graduated with a BS in digital imaging. He also served 4 years in the US Army and is currently deployed to Iraq with the National Guard in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Slinky:
I have always enjoyed traveling around the U.S. but now have a job and money to travel internationally. I plan to use this to explore the world. I have dabbled in a lot of different sports, but plan to get back into para-gliding, kiting, dirt-biking, four-wheeling, and fun when I return from Iraq.
Andy-J:A bitterly cold winter weekend in June brought us to the Cederberg Mountains which lie three hours drive to the north of Cape Town. This beautiful and rugged range is 100km in length and is known for its spectacular sandstone rock formations (such as the Maltese Cross and the Wolfberg Arch), ancient San rock art and being the home of rooibos tea! The shy Cape leopard is fairly common here but rarely seen. The highest peak in the area is Sneeuberg at 2,026m asl. which is one of only two mountain peaks in the area that is home to the Cederberg endemic Snow Protea (Protea cryophila).
The Cederberg’s most well-known endemic species the Clanwilliam Cedar (Widdringtonia cederbergensis) (See right) was the primary reason for our visit. This tree used to be common throughout the higher altitude parts of the range (above 800m asl.) but for reasons that continue to mystify botanists it is dying out at a rapid rate and lies at the brink of extinction. Key reasons cited include climate change coupled with an increase in frequency of high intensity fires. It is classified as Endangered according to the IUCN Red List.
Planting
Our group set out in convoy from Cape Town on a cold but clear Friday afternoon. As night fell we came to an abrupt stop near Kromrivier as we encountered a flooded drift which looked too deep for our vehicles to cross. A freezing late night dip unfortunately proved inconclusive. We placed a rock at the edge of the water to find out if the water was subsiding but it soon disappeared as the water continued to rise. Luckily our patience was eventually rewarded and we crossed while piled on top of each other in the bakkie.
We came to the Cederberg that weekend to attend one of two annual Clanwilliam Cedar tree planting events. This one was organised and sponsored by CapeNature, Just Trees and Red Expresso and held at Eikeboom near Sandrif. This important iniative was started by the Western Cape Nature Conservation Board (WNCB) in the 1980s, but unfortunately owing to lack of funds the project had to be abandoned. However, the nursery and planting programme was re-established in the late 1990s through a collaboration between the WNCB, the Botanical Society of South Africa and Flora and Fauna International as part of the Global Trees Campaign.
Left: Warming up at our fire. Right: Widdringtonia
The programme is now in the hands of CapeNature and Just Trees and is going from strength to strength. Over sixty people attended the Eikeboom tree planting event (see group photo below) and we planted a total of 175 cedar trees. It was a bitterly cold day with wildchill down at -2C and a dusting of snow on the surrounding high peaks. We hiked up the nearby jeep track that wound its way up into the mountains to our planting site while rewarded with spectacular views. At this years event the trees were planted a distance of 5m apart in order to decrease the likelihood of the new population being destroyed by intense fire in the future.
After a highly satisfying morning of tree planting, we meandered our way back down to the bakkies in time for a delicious and hearty free lunch of soup and roosterkoek (fire-baked bread rolls for those not in the know) which went down very well on such a cold day!
Left: Hard at work. Right: Syncarpha
I couldn’t commend more highly the efforts of those involved in organising the event and it represents the perfect opportunity for the community to give a little to conserving this beautiful and charismatic tree. It was an incredibly worthwhile way to spend a weekend. We spent the remainder of the time making the most of what the Cederberg mountains have to offer, from wine tasting to hiking to just chilling by the braai with good company.
To receive details of future Cedar tree planting events, follow the Clanwilliam Cedar on Facebook to stay updated. Happy tree planting!Council of Fifty Minutes to Be Published in Joseph Smith Papers Release
Contributed By R. Scott Lloyd, Church News staff writer
Article Highlights The Joseph Smith Papers will publish the Council of Fifty minutes September 26.
The minutes have never been publicly available until now.
The Council of Fifty was created to protect the rights of the Church in 1844.
The minutes of the Nauvoo-era Council of Fifty, a document long shadowed in mystery, will be revealed to the public with the publication on September 26 of the latest release in the Joseph Smith Papers Project.
On the occasion of the new volume’s release by the Church Historian’s Press, the original minute books containing the document in the handwriting of the council’s clerk, William Clayton, are on public display at the Church History Library in Salt Lake City through October 7.
As explained in information text displayed in the exhibit, the Council of Fifty was organized by the Prophet Joseph Smith on March 11, 1844, “to establish a government or a new home outside of the United States where the rights [of Church members] would be protected. It was referred to as the Council of Fifty because it had approximately 50 members.”
The content of the minutes for many years has been the subject of intense speculation by persons interested in Church history because the document has not been available for public inspection. The minutes became part of the collection of records of the First Presidency, where they remained throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries, until they were transferred to the Church History Department in 2010.
In 2013, the First Presidency authorized publication of the minutes as part of the Joseph Smith Papers. Since then a team of historians comprising Matthew J. Grow, Ron Esplin, Mark Ashurst-McGee, Gerrit Dirkmaat, and Jeff Mahas has been preparing the minutes for publication.
The Joseph Smith Papers feature the minutes from the Council of Fifty meetings held in Nauvoo, Illinois, in the 1840s. The minutes were compiled in three small bound volumes by William Clayton, who was appointed clerk of the Council of Fifty at its first meeting in Nauvoo. Photo courtesy of the Joseph Smith Papers Project.
The latest volume of the Joseph Smith Papers features the minutes from the Council of Fifty meetings held in Nauvoo, Illinois, in the 1840s. The minutes were recorded in three volumes by William Clayton. Photo courtesy of the Joseph Smith Papers Project.
The Joseph Smith Papers feature the minutes from the Council of Fifty meetings held in Nauvoo, Illinois. The minutes are contained in three volumes that have been in the custody of the Office of the First Presidency since the 1880s, when the Council of Fifty was disbanded, and were transferred to the Church History Department in 2010. Photo courtesy of the Joseph Smith Papers Project.
William Clayton recorded the minutes of the Council of Fifty in three volumes from March 1844 until January 1846. Photo courtesy of the Joseph Smith Papers Project.
The Council of Fifty met in Nauvoo between March 1844 and January 1846, and the minutes on display at the library and published in the new Joseph Smith Papers volume are from this period. The council then reconvened in Salt Lake City in December 1848 under the leadership of President Brigham Young following the exodus of the Church from Nauvoo. It met on and off during the following decades, with the last meeting taking place in 1884.
In Nauvoo, most council meetings were held in Joseph Smith’s store or in the Seventies Hall but sometimes took place in the Nauvoo Mansion, the Masonic Hall, and the attic of the Nauvoo Temple.
Clerk William Clayton kept the minutes on loose paper. In June 1844, believing his own life was in peril, Joseph Smith instructed Brother Clayton “to burn the records of the kingdom, or put them in some safe hands and send them away or else bury them.”
Brother Clayton opted to bury them in his garden. Just before the Prophet’s death, he unearthed them. He copied the minutes into the three small record books that are now on display at the library. Presumably, most of the loose papers on which the minutes were originally kept have been destroyed, although the ones from two of the meetings still exist.
After the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, the volumes were brought across the plains by Brigham Young to the Salt Lake Valley and retained by him or other members of the council. President Young allowed Wilford Woodruff to use the minutes in working on a multi-volume manuscript history of the Church that Joseph Smith had begun.
By the 1880s, the minute books ended up in the custody of the First Presidency, where they remained until 2010.
The Council of Fifty was intended to establish the political kingdom of God on earth and to protect the Latter-day Saints in their religious rights and worship. Its most important priority was to find a new location where the Latter-day Saints could settle. Possible locations under consideration were Texas, California, Wisconsin, Oregon, and the eventual destination, the Rocky Mountains.
Another priority of the council was to assist with the campaign of Joseph Smith for election as U.S. president, after none of the men running for that office pledged to protect the Latter-day Saints in their religious liberties.
Yet another objective was to unite the Native American tribes and teach them the gospel.
After the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, completion of the Nauvoo Temple and the Nauvoo House became a priority, and when the Illinois State government, responding to anti-Mormon sentiment, revoked the Nauvoo Charter, the council was instrumental in governing the city and protecting the Saints.
Beginning with 23 members, the council had many members over time, including prominent Church leaders Heber C. Kimball, Willard Richards, Sidney Rigdon, Hyrum Smith, John Taylor, Newell K. Whitney, and Wilford Woodruff.
Three men who were not members of the Church were included “to make the point that in political matters, a man’s religion should not come into play,” said Brother Grow, one of the editors of the new Joseph Smith Papers volume, which is entitled Administrative Records, Council of Fifty Minutes, March 1844–January 1846.
“He made very strong statements in the council about the importance of agency and how that related to religious liberty,” Brother Grow explained. Members were to speak freely and then come to unanimous decisions. “He told them he didn’t want to be surrounded by a set of ‘dough heads.’ By this he meant he didn’t want to be surrounded by people who wouldn’t share their real feelings.”
The Council of Fifty, a temporal or political body, was distinguished from the First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and other quorums and councils, the purpose of which was to administer the ecclesiastical affairs of the Church.
Read about the Joseph Smith Papers release of Zion’s Camp details.
An excerpt from the minutes of the Council of Fifty, recorded by William Clayton from March 1844 until January 1846. Photo by Trent Toone.
“The Council of Fifty was involved in matters such as exploring sites in the American West where the Saints could settle,” said Matthew J. Grow, one of the editors of the Joseph Smith Papers volume titled Administrative Records, Council of Fifty, Minutes, March 1844–January 1846. Possible locations for the migration included Texas, California, Wisconsin, Oregon, and the Rocky Mountains. Photo courtesy of the Joseph Smith Papers Project.
The Council of Fifty was involved in exploring sites in the American West where the Saints could settle. Possible locations for the migration included Texas, California, Wisconsin, Oregon, and the Rocky Mountains. Photo courtesy of the Joseph Smith Papers Project.
Joseph Smith, Council of Fifty Minutes, April 11, 1844. Photo courtesy of the Joseph Smith Papers Project.
Joseph Smith, Council of Fifty Minutes, May 3, 1844. Photo courtesy of the Joseph Smith Papers Project.Shkreli, 34, was suspended from Twitter in early January after he tweeted at Duca that he had an extra ticket to the presidential inauguration festivities of Donald Trump and suggested that Duca be his date.
Duca declined, forcefully.
Shkreli, apparently not happy with her rejection, then superimposed pictures of himself into photos of Duca and her boyfriend, making it appear as if Shkreli was her beau.
Duca then asked Twitter executives online why that was allowed on the social media platform.
Twitter suspended Shkreli's account in reaction to Duca's complaints.
He was later permanently banned, and then booted twice more after he set up accounts that were not in his own name.
But Shkreli has managed to communicate with his online followers via Facebook, where he continues to write posts and to stream himself in video from his apartment in Manhattan on some nights.
During the day, however, he has been on trial in Brooklyn, New York, federal court, where he is accused of defrauding a group of hedge-fund investors and then ripping off the drug company he had founded in order to pay those investors back.
His latest targeting of Duca came shortly after court recessed for Thursday night, after a day of closing arguments by a prosecutor and Shkreli's defense lawyer.
Despite eagerly running his mouth online, Shkreli has kept his mouth shut at his trial. Earlier this month, he agreed to an effective gag order by the trial judge after he ranted to reporters about the prosecutors in the case.
And he declined to testify at the trial.I'm not ashamed of what I am. I was born this way and if other people can't accept it that's their problem. That's not to say it's always easy when people who don't know anything about the lifestyle pass judgement on what you do, suggest it's somehow unnatural or pass derisory remarks about this sporting love that dare not speak its name. At times like that you do feel like saying, "I wish I knew how to quit you, League of Ireland".
I'm not ashamed of what I am. I was born this way and if other people can't accept it that's their problem. That's not to say it's always easy when people who don't know anything about the lifestyle pass judgement on what you do, suggest it's somehow unnatural or pass derisory remarks about this sporting love that dare not speak its name. At times like that you do feel like saying, "I wish I knew how to quit you, League of Ireland".
But then there are the times when it all comes good and I realise why I made this choice and why the League Of Ireland Phobes are wrong. Like on Saturday night of last week when I watched Sligo Rovers and St Patrick's Athletic play out a profoundly exhilarating 2-2 draw in The Showgrounds. There had hardly been time to catch a breath as the game flowed and momentum switched back and forth. I'd gone as far as Charlestown on the way home before I realised I'd just seen one of the finest League of Ireland matches in decades.
Perhaps the main reason for this was that St Pat's had come to Sligo with entirely attacking intentions. And this was good news because St Pat's 2014 are the most entertaining side I've seen in 40 years watching the league, even more so than Damien Richardson's swashbuckling Shelbourne side of the mid-1990s, the side of Tony Sheridan, Stephen Geoghegan, John O'Rourke, Gary Howlett, Greg Costello and Mark Rutherford.
There has been, by League of Ireland standards, quite a buzz of interest about two players in particular on the Pat's team. Keith Fahey |
neglect of crops and livestock, controlling the consumption of alcohol and introducing legal reforms. The island enjoyed a lengthy period of prosperity from about 1770. Captain James Cook visited the island in 1775 on the final leg of his second circumnavigation of the world. St. James' Church was built in Jamestown in 1774, and Plantation House in 1791–1792; the latter has since been the official residence of the Governor.
Edmond Halley visited Saint Helena on leaving the University of Oxford in 1676 and set up an astronomical observatory with a 7.3-metre-long (24 ft) aerial telescope, with the intention of studying stars from the Southern Hemisphere.[17] The site of this telescope is near Saint Mathew's Church in Hutt's Gate in the Longwood district. The 680-metre (2,230 ft) high hill there is named for him and is called Halley's Mount.
Throughout this period, Saint Helena was an important port of call of the East India Company. East Indiamen would stop there on the return leg of their voyages to British India and China. At Saint Helena, ships could replenish supplies of water and provisions and, during wartime, form convoys that would sail under the protection of vessels of the Royal Navy. Captain James Cook's ship HMS Endeavour anchored and resupplied off the coast of Saint Helena in May 1771 on its return from the European discovery of the east coast of Australia and the rediscovery of New Zealand.[18]
The importation of slaves was made illegal in 1792. Governor Robert Patton (1802–1807) recommended that the company import Chinese labour to supplement the rural workforce. The coolie labourers arrived in 1810, and their numbers reached 600 by 1818. Many were allowed to stay, and their descendants became integrated into the population. An 1814 census recorded 3,507 people on the island.
British rule (1815–1821) and Napoleon's exile [ edit ]
Napoléon à Sainte-Hélène by François-Joseph Sandmann by François-Joseph Sandmann
Longwood House (photographed June 1970)
In 1815, the British government selected Saint Helena as the place of detention for Napoleon Bonaparte. He was taken to the island in October 1815. Britain also took the precaution of sending a garrison of soldiers, with an experienced officer (Edward Nicolls), to uninhabited Ascension Island, which lay between St. Helena and Europe.[19]:87
Napoleon stayed at the Briars pavilion on the grounds of the Balcombe family's home until his permanent residence at Longwood House was completed in December 1815. Napoleon died there on 5 May 1821.[20]
British East India Company (1821–1834) [ edit ]
After Napoleon's death, the thousands of temporary visitors were withdrawn and the East India Company resumed full control of Saint Helena. Between 1815 and 1830, the EIC made the packet schooner St Helena available to the government of the island, which made multiple trips per year between the island and the Cape, carrying passengers both ways and supplies of wine and provisions back to the island.
Napoleon praised Saint Helena's coffee during his exile on the island, and the product enjoyed a brief popularity in Paris in the years after his death.
The importation of slaves to Saint Helena was banned in 1792, but the phased emancipation of over 800 resident slaves did not take place until 1827, which was still some six years before the British parliament passed legislation to ban slavery in the colonies.[21]
Between 1791 and 1833, Saint Helena became the site of a series of experiments in conservation, reforestation and attempts to boost rainfall artificially.[22] This environmental intervention was closely linked to the conceptualisation of the processes of environmental change and helped establish the roots of environmentalism.[22]
Crown colony (1834–1981) [ edit ]
Under the provisions of the 1833 India Act, control of Saint Helena passed from the East India Company to the British Crown, and it became a crown colony.[1] Subsequent administrative cost-cutting triggered a long-term population decline: those who could afford to do so tended to leave the island for better opportunities elsewhere. The latter half of the 19th century saw the advent of steamships not reliant on trade winds, as well as the diversion of Far East trade away from the traditional South Atlantic shipping lanes to a route via the Red Sea (which, prior to the building of the Suez Canal, involved a short overland section). So the number of ships calling at the island fell from 1,100 in 1855 to only 288 in 1889.
In 1840, a British naval station established to suppress the African slave trade was based on the island, and between 1840 and 1849 over 15,000 freed slaves, known as "Liberated Africans", were landed there.
In 1858, the French emperor Napoleon III successfully gained the possession, in the name of the French government, of Longwood House and the lands around it, the last residence of Napoleon I (who died there in 1821). It is still French property, administered by a French representative and under the authority of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
On 11 April 1898 American Joshua Slocum, on his famous and epic solo round-the-world voyage, arrived at Jamestown. He departed on 20 April 1898 for the final leg of his circumnavigation, having been extended hospitality by the governor, His Excellency Sir R A Standale. He presented two lectures on his voyage, and was invited to Longwood by the French Consular agent.
In 1900 and 1901, over 6,000 Boer prisoners were held on the island, notably Piet Cronjé and his wife after their defeat at Battle of Paardeberg. The resulting population reached an all-time high of 9,850 in 1901.
A local industry manufacturing fibre from New Zealand flax was successfully re-established in 1907 and generated considerable income during the First World War. Ascension Island was made a dependency of Saint Helena in 1922, and Tristan da Cunha followed in 1938. During the Second World War, the United States built Wideawake airport on Ascension in 1942, but no military use was made of Saint Helena.
During this period, the island enjoyed increased revenues from the sale of flax, with prices peaking in 1951. However, the industry declined because of transport costs and competition from synthetic fibres. The decision by the British Post Office to use synthetic fibres for its mailbags was a further blow, contributing to the closure of the island's flax mills in 1965.
From 1958, the Union Castle shipping line gradually reduced its service calls to the island. Curnow Shipping, based in Avonmouth, replaced the Union-Castle Line mailship service in 1977, using the RMS (Royal Mail Ship) St Helena which was introduced in 1989.
1981 to present [ edit ]
Saint Helena seen from space (photo is oriented with south-east towards the top)
The British Nationality Act 1981 reclassified Saint Helena and the other Crown colonies as British Dependent Territories. The islanders lost their right of abode in Britain. For the next 20 years, many could find only low-paid work with the island government, and the only available employment outside Saint Helena was on the Falkland Islands and Ascension Island. The Development and Economic Planning Department (which still operates) was formed in 1988 to contribute to raising the living standards of the people of Saint Helena.
In 1989, Prince Andrew launched the replacement RMS St Helena to serve the island; the vessel was specially built for the Cardiff–Cape Town route and features a mixed cargo/passenger layout.
The Saint Helena Constitution took effect in 1989 and provided that the island would be governed by a Governor, Commander-in-Chief, and an elected executive and legislative council. In 2002, the British Overseas Territories Act 2002 granted full British citizenship to the islanders, and renamed the dependent territories (including Saint Helena) the British Overseas Territories. In 2009, Saint Helena and its two territories received equal status under a new constitution, and the British Overseas Territory was renamed Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.
Geography [ edit ]
Located in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) from the nearest major landmass, Saint Helena is one of the most remote places in the world. The nearest port on the continent is Moçâmedes in southern Angola; connections to Cape Town in South Africa are used for most shipping needs, such as the mail boat that serves the island, the RMS St Helena.
The island is associated with two other isolated islands in the southern Atlantic, also British territories: Ascension Island about 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) due northwest in more equatorial waters and Tristan da Cunha, which is well outside the tropics 2,430 kilometres (1,510 mi) to the south. The island is situated in the Western Hemisphere and has the same longitude as Cornwall in the United Kingdom. Despite its remote location, it is classified as being in West Africa by the United Nations.
The island of Saint Helena is 122 km2 (47 sq mi) in area, and is composed largely of rugged terrain of volcanic origin (the last volcanic eruptions occurred about 7 million years ago).[23] Coastal areas are covered in volcanic rock and are warmer and drier than the centre. The highest point of the island is Diana's Peak at 818 m (2,684 ft). In 1996 it became the island's first national park. Much of the island is covered by New Zealand flax, a legacy of former industry, but there are some original trees augmented by plantations, including those of the Millennium Forest project, which was established in 2002 to replant part of the lost Great Wood and is now managed by the Saint Helena National Trust. The Millennium Forest is being planted with indigenous gumwood trees.
When the island was discovered, it was covered with unique indigenous vegetation, including a remarkable cabbage tree species. The island's hinterland must have been a dense tropical forest but the coastal areas were probably also quite green. The modern landscape is very different, with widespread bare rock in the lower areas, although inland it is green, mainly due to introduced vegetation. There are no native land mammals, but cattle, cats, dogs, donkeys, goats, mice, rabbits, rats and sheep have been introduced, and native species have been adversely affected as a result. The dramatic change in landscape must be attributed to these introductions. As a result, the string tree (Acalypha rubrinervis) and the Saint Helena olive (Nesiota elliptica) are now extinct, and many of the other endemic plants are threatened with extinction.
There are several rocks and islets off the coast, including: Castle Rock, Speery Island, the Needle, Lower Black Rock, Upper Black Rock (South), Bird Island (Southwest), Black Rock, Thompson's Valley Island, Peaked Island, Egg Island, Lady's Chair, Lighter Rock (West), Long Ledge (Northwest), Shore Island, George Island, Rough Rock Island, Flat Rock (East), the Buoys, Sandy Bay Island, the Chimney, White Bird Island and Frightus Rock (Southeast), all of which are within one kilometre (0.62 miles) of the shore.
The national bird of Saint Helena is the Saint Helena plover, known locally as the wirebird, on account of its wire-like legs. It appears on the coat of arms of Saint Helena and on the flag.[24][25]
Climate [ edit ]
The climate of Saint Helena is tropical, marine and mild, tempered by the Benguela Current and trade winds that blow almost continuously.[26][27] The climate varies noticeably across the island. Temperatures in Jamestown, on the north leeward shore, are in the range 21–28 °C (70–82 °F) in the summer (January to April) and 17–24 °C (63–75 °F) during the remainder of the year. The temperatures in the central areas are, on average, 5–6 °C (9.0–10.8 °F) lower.[27] Jamestown also has a very low annual rainfall, while 750–1,000 mm (30–39 in) falls per year on the higher ground and the south coast, where it is also noticeably cloudier.[28] There are weather recording stations in the Longwood and Blue Hill districts.
Administrative divisions [ edit ]
Districts of Saint Helena
Saint Helena is divided into eight districts,[29] with the majority housing a community Centre. The districts also serve as statistical divisions. The island is a single electoral area and elects 12 representatives to the Legislative Council[30] of 15.
NOTE: The difference between the figure for the total number of people found in the Administrative Districts and the population recorded in the 2016 Census is accounted for by the fact that the census included figures for the number of people on board the RMS St. Helena (183) and the number of people who were on yachts in the harbour (13).[33]
Population [ edit ]
Demographics [ edit ]
Jamestown, the capital of Saint Helena
Saint Helena was first settled by the English in 1659. As of January 2018, the island had a population of 4,897 inhabitants,[34] mainly descended from people from Britain – settlers ("planters") and soldiers – and slaves who were brought there from the beginning of settlement – initially from Africa (the Cape Verde Islands, Gold Coast and west coast of Africa are mentioned in early records), then India and Madagascar. The importation of slaves was made illegal in 1792, thus preventing any further increase in their numbers.
In 1840, Saint Helena became a provisioning station for the British West Africa Squadron,[26] preventing the transportation of slaves to Brazil (mainly), and many thousands of slaves were freed on the island. These were all African, and about 500 stayed while the rest were sent on to the West Indies and Cape Town, and eventually to Sierra Leone.
Imported Chinese labourers arrived in 1810, reaching a peak of 618 in 1818, after which numbers were reduced. Only a few older men remained after the British Crown took over the government of the island from the East India Company in 1834. The majority were sent back to China, although records in the Cape suggest that they never got any farther than Cape Town. There were also a very few Indian lascars who worked under the harbour master.
The citizens of Saint Helena hold British Overseas Territories citizenship. On 21 May 2002, full British citizenship was restored by the British Overseas Territories Act 2002.[35] See also British nationality law.
During periods of unemployment, there has been a long pattern of emigration from the island since the post-Napoleonic period. The majority of "Saints" emigrated to Britain, South Africa and in the early years, Australia. The population had been steadily declining since the late 1980s and dropped from 5,157 at the 1998 census to 4,257 in 2008.[32] However, as of the 2016 census, the population has risen to 4,534.[2] In the past emigration was characterised by young unaccompanied persons leaving to work on long-term contracts on Ascension and the Falkland Islands, but since "Saints" were re-awarded British citizenship in 2002, emigration to Britain by a wider range of wage-earners has accelerated due to the prospect of higher wages and better progression prospects.
Religion [ edit ]
Most residents are Anglican and are members of the Diocese of St Helena, which has its own bishop and includes Ascension Island. The 150th anniversary of the diocese was celebrated in June 2009.
Other Christian denominations on the island include the Roman Catholic (since 1852), the Salvation Army (since 1884), Baptist (since 1845) and, in more recent times, the Seventh-day Adventist (since 1949), the New Apostolic Church, and Jehovah's Witnesses (of which one in 35 residents is a member, the highest ratio of any country).[36]
The Roman Catholics are pastorally served by the Mission sui iuris of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, whose office of ecclesiastical superior is vested in the Apostolic Prefecture of the Falkland Islands.
Government [ edit ]
Executive authority in Saint Helena is vested in Queen Elizabeth II and is exercised on her behalf by the Governor of Saint Helena. The Governor is appointed by the Queen on the advice of the British government. Defence and foreign affairs remain the responsibility of the United Kingdom.
There are 15 seats in the Legislative Council of Saint Helena, a unicameral legislature, in addition to a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker. Twelve of the 15 members are elected in elections held every four years. The three ex officio members are the Chief Secretary, Financial Secretary and Attorney General. The Executive Council is presided over by the Governor, and consists of three ex officio officers and five elected members of the Legislative Council appointed by the Governor. There is no elected Chief Minister, and the Governor acts as the head of government. In January 2013 it was proposed that the Executive Council would be led by a Chief Councillor who would be elected by the members of the Legislative Council and would nominate the other members of the Executive Council. These proposals were put to a referendum on 23 March 2013 where they were defeated by 158 votes to 42 on a 10% turnout.[37]
Both Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha have an Administrator appointed to represent the Governor of Saint Helena.
One commentator has observed that, notwithstanding the high unemployment resulting from the loss of full passports during 1981–2002, the level of loyalty to the British monarchy by the Saint Helena population is probably not exceeded in any other part of the world.[38] King George VI is the only reigning monarch to have visited the island. This was in 1947 when the King, accompanied by Queen Elizabeth (later The Queen Mother), Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) and Princess Margaret were travelling to South Africa. The Duke of Edinburgh arrived at Saint Helena in 1957, followed by his son, Prince Andrew, who visited as a member of the armed forces in 1984, and his daughter, the Princess Royal, in 2002.
Human rights [ edit ]
In 2012, the government of Saint Helena funded the creation of the St. Helena Human Rights Action Plan 2012–2015.[39] Work is being done under this action plan, including publishing awareness-raising articles in local newspapers, providing support for members of the public with human rights queries, and extending several UN Conventions on human rights to St. Helena.[40]
Legislation to set up an Equality and Human Rights Commission was passed by Legislative Council in July 2015. This commenced operation in October 2015.[41]
Child abuse scandal [ edit ]
In 2014, there were reports of child abuse in Saint Helena. Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) was accused of lying to the United Nations about child abuse in Saint Helena to cover up allegations, including cases of a police officer having raped a four-year-old girl and of a police officer having mutilated a two-year-old.[42][43][44]
Sasha Wass QC and her team arrived on St. Helena on 17 March 2015 to commence the Inquiry and departed on 1 April 2015.[45] Announcements were made in local newspapers in week-ending 13 March 2015.
A government report was published on 10 December 2015. It found that the accusations were grossly exaggerated, and the lurid headlines in the Daily Mail had come from information from two social workers, whom the report described as incompetent.[46][47][48]
Biodiversity [ edit ]
Saint Helena has long been known for its high proportion of endemic birds and vascular plants. The highland areas contain most of the 400 endemic species recognised to date. Much of the island has been identified by BirdLife International as being important for bird conservation, especially the endemic Saint Helena plover or wirebird, and for seabirds breeding on the offshore islets and stacks, in the north-east and the south-west Important Bird Areas.[49] On the basis of these endemics and an exceptional range of habitats, Saint Helena is on the United Kingdom's tentative list for future UNESCO World Heritage Sites.[50] Artist Rolf Weijburg produced various etches on Saint Helena, picturing various of these endemic birds.[51][52]
Saint Helena's biodiversity, however, also includes marine vertebrates, invertebrates (freshwater, terrestrial and marine), fungi (including lichen-forming species), non-vascular plants, seaweeds and other biological groups. To date, very little is known about these, although more than 200 lichen-forming fungi have been recorded, including nine endemics,[53] suggesting that many significant discoveries remain to be made.
Economy [ edit ]
Note: Some of the data in this section have been sourced from the Government of St Helena Sustainable Development Plan.[54]
The island had a monocrop economy until 1966, based on the cultivation and processing of New Zealand flax for rope and string. Saint Helena's economy is now weak, and is almost entirely sustained by aid from the British government. The public sector dominates the economy, accounting for about 50% of gross domestic product. Inflation was running at 4% in 2005. There have been increases in the cost of fuel, power and all imported goods.
The tourist industry is heavily based on the promotion of Napoleon's imprisonment. A golf course also exists and the possibility for sportfishing tourism is great. Three hotels operate on the island, but the arrival of tourists is linked to the slowly developing Saint Helena Airport (and in the past, the arrival and departure schedule of the now-retired RMS St Helena). Some 3,200 short-term visitors arrived on the island in 2013.
Saint Helena produces what is said to be the most expensive coffee in the world. It also produces and exports Tungi Spirit, made from the fruit of the prickly or cactus pears, Opuntia ficus-indica ("Tungi" is the local St Helenian name for the plant). Like Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha, Saint Helena is permitted to issue its own postage stamps, an enterprise that provides a significant income.
Economic statistics [ edit ]
Quoted at constant 2002 prices, GDP fell from £12 million in 1999–2000 to £11 million in 2005–2006. Imports are mainly from the UK and South Africa and amounted to £6.4 million in 2004–05 (quoted on an FOB basis). Exports are much smaller, amounting to £0.2 million in 2004–05. Exports are mainly fish and coffee; Philatelic sales were £0.06 million in 2004–2005. The limited number of visiting tourists spent about £0.4 million in 2004–2005, representing a contribution to GDP of 3%.
Public expenditure rose from £10 million in 2001–2002 to £12 million in 2005–2006 to £28m in 2012–13. The contribution of UK budgetary aid to total SHG government expenditure rose from £4.6 million in to £6.4 million to £12.1 million over the same period. Wages and salaries represent about 38% of recurrent expenditure.
Unemployment levels are low (31 individuals in 2013, compared to 50 in 2004 and 342 in 1998). Employment is dominated by the public sector, however the number of government positions has fallen from 1,142 in 2006 to just over 800 in 2013. Saint Helena’s private sector employs approximately 45% of the employed labour force and is largely dominated by small and micro businesses with 218 private businesses employing 886 in 2004.
Household survey results suggest the percentage of households spending less than £20 per week on a per capita basis fell from 27% to 8% between 2000 and 2004, implying a decline in income poverty. Nevertheless, 22% of the population claimed social security benefit in 2006/2007, most of them aged over 60, a sector that represents 20% of the population.
Banking and currency [ edit ]
In 1821, Saul Solomon issued 70,560 copper tokens worth a halfpenny each Payable at St Helena by Solomon, Dickson and Taylor – presumably London partners – that circulated alongside the East India Company's local coinage until the Crown took over the island in 1836. The coin remains readily available to collectors.
Saint Helena has its own currency, the Saint Helena pound, which is at parity with the pound sterling. The government of Saint Helena produces its own coinage and banknotes. The Bank of St. Helena was established on Saint Helena and Ascension Island in 2004. It has branches in Jamestown on Saint Helena, and Georgetown, Ascension Island and it took over the business of the St. Helena government savings bank and Ascension Island Savings Bank.[55]
For more information on currency in the wider region, see pound sterling in the South Atlantic and the Antarctic.
Transport [ edit ]
St Helena Looking back at the island from the RMS
Saint Helena is one of the most remote islands in the world. It has one commercial airport, and since air traffic opened in 2017, the island is a little less remote.[56]
Sea [ edit ]
A freight ship, M/V Helena, handles all freight to the island (some express mail is transported by air). It sails from Cape Town to Saint Helena and Ascension Island, from the beginning of 2018. It uses a wharf at Ruperts Bay which was built to assist the airport construction.
Until 2017, the Royal Mail Ship RMS St Helena ran between Saint Helena and Cape Town on a five-day voyage, then the only scheduled connection to the island. She berthed offshore in James Bay, Saint Helena, approximately 30 times per year, and passengers and freight were transferred by small boats ashore.[57]
Air [ edit ]
In March 2005, the British government announced plans to construct the Saint Helena Airport.[58] On 22 July 2010, the British government agreed to help pay for the new airport.[59] In November 2011, a deal was signed between the British government and South African civil engineering company Basil Read, and the airport was scheduled to open in February 2016 with flights to and from South Africa and the UK.[60] The cost was £250 million. This is aimed at helping the island become more self-sufficient, encouraging economic development while reducing dependence on British government aid. It is also expected to kick-start the tourism industry, with up to 30,000 visitors expected annually.[61]
The first aircraft landed at the new airport on 15 September 2015, a South African Beechcraft King Air 200, prior to conducting a series of flights to calibrate the airport's radio navigation equipment.[56][62] The airport's opening was scheduled for May 2016, but it was announced in June 2016 that it had been delayed indefinitely due to high winds and wind shear.[63] In 2017, South African airline Airlink became the preferred bidder to provide weekly air service between the island and Johannesburg. The first commercial flight ever to land at Saint Helena was a charter flight carried out by Airlink of South Africa on Wednesday, May 3, 2017 from Cape Town via Moçâmedes, Angola, using the Avro RJ85 ZS-SSH (msn 2285). The flight picked up passengers of RMS St Helena stranded on the island when St Helena suffered propeller damage.[64]
On 14 October 2017, Airlink began a weekly service between Johannesburg, South Africa, and Saint Helena Airport using an Embraer E190-100IGW, the first scheduled airline service in Saint Helena's history. With 78 passengers aboard, the airliner arrived at Saint Helena Airport after a flight of about six hours from Johannesburg with a refuel stop at Windhoek.[65]
The airport is situated such that at times serious wind shear makes it difficult to land from the north. It is safe to land from the other direction, but it is plagued by tailwinds, that decreases lift during landing, and thus imposes a weight restriction, which translates to fewer passengers.[66] Nevertheless, only a few flights were delayed to next day during the first half year. This happened a little more often during the second half year during the local winter. Fog is a bigger problem than wind shear.
Local [ edit ]
A minibus offers a basic service to carry people around Saint Helena, with most services designed to take people into Jamestown for a few hours on weekdays to conduct their business. Car hire is available for visitors.
Media and communications [ edit ]
Radio [ edit ]
Radio Saint Helena started operations on Christmas Day 1967, and provided a local radio service that had a range of about 100 km (62 mi) from the island, and also broadcast internationally on shortwave radio (11092.5 kHz) on one day a year. The station presented news, features, and music in collaboration with its sister newspaper the St Helena Herald. It closed on 25 December 2012 to make way for a new three-channel FM service, also funded by St. Helena Government and run by the South Atlantic Media Services (SAMS), formerly St. Helena Broadcasting (Guarantee) Corporation.[67]
SAMS[68] provides two radio channels to St Helena. SAMS Radio 1 is a music and entertainment channel; SAMS Radio 2 is a relay of the BBC World Service. SAMS also produces a weekly newspaper, The Sentinel, and a weekly TV news broadcast.
Saint FM[69] provided a local radio service for the island which was also available on Internet radio[70] and relayed in Ascension Island. The station was not government-funded. It was launched in January 2005 and closed on 21 December 2012. It broadcast news, features, and music in collaboration with its sister newspaper the St Helena Independent, which continues.
Saint FM Community Radio took over the radio channels vacated by Saint FM and launched on 10 March 2013.[71] The station operates as a limited-by-guarantee company owned by its members,[72] and is registered as a fund-raising association. Membership is open to everyone and grants access to a live audio stream.
Occasional amateur radio operations also occur on the island. The ITU prefix used is ZD7.[73]
Online [ edit ]
St Helena Online[74] is a not-for-profit Internet news service run from the UK by a former print and BBC journalist, working in partnership with Saint FM and the St Helena Independent.
St Helena Local[75] offers a news service and online user forum offering information about St Helena. This website is run from overseas but is open to contribution from anyone who has an interest in St Helena.
Saint Helena Island Info[76] is an online resource featuring the history of St. Helena from its discovery to the present day, plus photographs and information about life on St. Helena today.
Saint Helena Government[77] is the official mouthpiece of the island's governing body. It includes news, information for potential visitors and investors, as well as official press releases and pages from the major government departments.
Saint Helena Tourism[78] is a website aimed squarely at the tourist trade with advice on accommodation, transport, food and drink, events and the like. Saint Helena Islands Property Finder – St Helena online accommodation offering self-catering, bed and breakfasts, hotels and property news.
Television [ edit ]
Sure South Atlantic Ltd (Sure) offers television for the island via 17 analogue terrestrial UHF channels, offering a mix of British, US, and South African programming. The channels are from DSTV and include Mnet, SuperSport, and BBC channels. The feed signal from MultiChoice DStv in South Africa is received by a satellite dish at Bryant's Beacon from Intelsat 7 in the K u band.[79]
SAMS[68] formerly produced a weekly TV news broadcast, Newsbyte, which was also published on YouTube.
Telecommunications [ edit ]
Sure provides the telecommunications service in the territory through a digital copper-based telephone network including ADSL broadband service. In August 2011 the first fibre-optic link was installed on the island, which connects the television reception antennas at Bryant's Beacon to the Cable & Wireless plc Technical Centre in the Briars.
A satellite ground station with a 7.6-metre (25 ft) satellite dish installed in 1989[80] at The Briars is the only international connection providing satellite links through Intelsat 707 to Ascension island and the United Kingdom.[81] Since all international telephone and Internet communications are relying on this single satellite link, both Internet and telephone service are subject to Sun outages.
Saint Helena has the international calling code +290, which Tristan da Cunha has shared since 2006. Saint Helena telephone numbers changed from four to five digits on 1 October 2013 by being prefixed with the digit "2", i.e. 2xxxx, with the range 5xxxx being reserved for mobile numbering, and 8xxx being used for Tristan da Cunha numbers (these are still shown as four digits).[82]
Mobile telephony was due to start operating on the island by late 2015.[83]
Internet [ edit ]
Saint Helena was granted the use of.sh as its own Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD). This is formally shared with Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha, British Overseas Territories. Registrations of internationalized domain names are also accepted under this TLD so, for example, the German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein uses the.sh domain for some quasi-governmental sites.[84] In practice several sites dedicated to aspects of life on Saint Helena are run from elsewhere in the world, so use other TLD's, such as the Saint Helena Web site[85] which is based in Sweden.
Saint Helena has a 10/3.6 Mbit/s[81] Internet link via Intelsat 707 provided by Sure. Serving a population of more than 4,000, this single satellite link is considered inadequate in terms of bandwidth.
ADSL broadband service is provided with maximum speeds of up to 1,536 KBit/s downstream and 512 KBit/s upstream offered on contract levels from lite at £16 per month to gold+ at £190 per month.[86] There are a few public wi-fi hotspots in Jamestown, which are also being operated by Sure (formerly Cable & Wireless).[87]
The South Atlantic Express, a 10,000 km (6,214 mi) submarine communications cable connecting Africa to South America, run by the undersea fibre optic provider eFive, will pass St Helena relatively closely. There were no plans to land the cable and install a landing station ashore, which could supply St Helena's population with sufficient bandwidth to fully leverage the benefits of today's information society. In January 2012, a group of supporters petitioned the UK government to meet the cost of landing the cable at St Helena.[88] On 6 October 2012, eFive agreed to reroute the cable through St. Helena after a successful lobbying campaign by A Human Right, a San Francisco-based NGA working on initiatives to ensure all people are connected to the Internet. Islanders have sought the assistance of the UK Department for International Development and Foreign and Commonwealth Office in funding the £10m required to bridge the connection from a local junction box on the cable to the island. The UK government has announced that a review of the island's economy would be required before such funding would be agreed.[89]
Satellite earth station [ edit ]
In February 2018 St Helena Government launched the project to attract operators of satellite ground stations to the island who would lease capacity on the planned submarine cable for backhauling and so contribute to the operational costs of the latter.[90] Satellite ground stations on St Helena could support communications with satellites in low Earth orbit, including those in polar, equatorial and inclined orbit and with high-throughput satellites in medium earth as well as Geostationary orbit.[91]
Local newspapers [ edit ]
The island has two local newspapers, both of which are available on the Internet. The St Helena Independent[92] has been published since November 2005. The Sentinel newspaper was introduced in 2012.[93]
Culture and society [ edit ]
Education [ edit ]
Education is free and compulsory between the ages of five and 16[94] The island has three primary schools for students of age four to 11: Harford, Pilling, and St Paul’s. Prince Andrew School provides secondary education for students aged 11 to 18. At the beginning of the academic year 2009–10, 230 students were enrolled in primary school and 286 in secondary school.[95]
The Education and Employment Directorate also offers programmes for students with special needs, vocational training, adult education, evening classes, and distance learning. The island has a public library (the oldest in the Southern Hemisphere[96]) and a mobile library service which operates weekly in rural areas.[97]
The English national curriculum is adapted for local use.[97] A range of qualifications are offered – from GCSE, A/S and A2, to Level 3 Diplomas and VRQ qualifications:[98]
GCSEs Design and Technology
ICT
Business Studies
A/S & A2 and Level 3 Diploma Business Studies
English
English Literature
Geography
ICT
Psychology
Maths
Accountancy VRQ Building and Construction
Automotive Studies
Saint Helena has no tertiary education. Scholarships are offered for students to study abroad.[97]
Sport [ edit ]
Sports played on the island include football, cricket, volleyball, tennis, golf, motocross, shooting and sailing. Saint Helena has sent teams to a number of Commonwealth Games. Saint Helena is a member of the International Island Games Association.[99] The Saint Helena cricket team made its debut in international cricket in Division Three of the African region of the World Cricket League in 2012.
The Governor's Cup is a yacht race between Cape Town and Saint Helena island, held every two years in December/January; the most recent event was in December 2010.
In Jamestown a timed run takes place up Jacob's Ladder every year, with people coming from all over the world to take part.
Scouting [ edit ]
There are Scouting and Guiding Groups on Saint Helena and Ascension Island. Scouting was established on Saint Helena island in 191 |
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The first meta tag sets the character set to utf-8 and is a short-cut version of what was used previously:
< meta http-equiv ="Content-Type" content ="text/html;charset=utf-8" >
At first glance setting the character set may seem trivial and unimportant but it can actually stop some script attacks that rely on utf-7 so it’s recommended that you define it in your pages. The second meta tag is used to force Internet Explorer to use its most modern rendering engine. This comes into play with IE8 and IE9 since they have compatibility modes that a user can select in the address bar and ensures that Internet Explorer compatibility mode rendering isn’t used (even if the user selected it). Although this second meta tag doesn’t pass the latest W3C validation test it’s good to have to prevent IE8/IE9 browsers from reverting back to IE7 mode due to the user enabling compatibility mode.
Moving down further in the <head> element within index.html you’ll see that Google’s CDN is used to load jQuery:
< script src ="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.1/jquery.js"></ script >
This provides several benefits related to caching and location. A user visiting a site that references the Google CDN (Content Delivery Network) URL for jQuery will have the script cached in their browser. If they then visit your site that references the same CDN script file the cached version will be used resulting in faster page load times. Also, Google’s CDN servers (note that Microsoft also provides a CDN for jQuery: http://www.asp.net/ajaxlibrary/cdn.ashx#jQuery_Releases_on_the_CDN_0) are located throughout the world so when the jQuery script gets loaded for the first time a server close to the user’s location will normally be hit.
Having a reference to the CDN version of jQuery is nice but it’s always good to have a fallback in case the CDN is inaccessible for whatever reason. HTML5 Boilerplate uses a trick I like to use as well to embed a local copy of jQuery if the CDN version can’t be loaded. It does this by checking for the existence of the window.jQuery object. If the object isn’t found then the CDN script wasn’t loaded successfully and a local version of the script is loaded instead:
< script > window.jQuery || document.write( "<script src='js/libs/jquery-1.5.1.min.js'>\x3C/script>" ) </ script >
Another key item added into index.html is a reference to the Google analytics script for tracking page hits and other details. If you have a Google analytics account you can update your site’s ID in the provided script:
< script > var _gaq=[[ "_setAccount", "UA-XXXXX-X" ],[ "_trackPageview" ]]; ( function (d,t){ var g=d.createElement(t),s=d.getElementsByTagName(t)[0];g.async=1; g.src=( "https:" ==location.protocol? "//ssl" : "//www" )+ ".google-analytics.com/ga.js" ; s.parentNode.insertBefore(g,s)}(document, "script" )); </ script >
Testing Features
In addition to the HTML, CSS and JavaScript features added by HTML5 Boilerplate, support for QUnit is also included out of the box. QUnit is a JavaScript test library used to test the Query project code but can also be used to test JavaScript code that you write. Within the project created by HTML5 Boilerplate you’ll find a folder named test that contains the qunit.js and associated CSS file as well as a sample test HTML page and test script. The test script provides a few basic examples of using QUnit to perform assertions and test logging functionality available in the plugins.js file included with the project:
module( "example tests" ); test( "HTML5 Boilerplate is sweet", function (){ expect(1); equals( "boilerplate".replace( "boilerplate", "sweet" ), "sweet", "Yes. HTML5 Boilerplate is, in fact, sweet" ); }) // these test things from plugins.js test( "Environment is good", function (){ expect(3); ok(!!window.log, "log function present" ); var history = log.history && log.history.length || 0; log( "logging from the test suite." ) equals( log.history.length - history, 1, "log history keeps track" ) ok(!!window.Modernizr, "Modernizr global is present" ) })
While a complete discussion of QUnit is outside the scope of this post you can read more about it at http://docs.jquery.com/QUnit.
Conclusion
Whether you’re an experienced Web developer or someone looking to get into HTML5 Web development, the code generated by the HTML5 Boilerplate site can help jumpstart your projects. It includes several tips and tricks to handle cross-browser issues that crop up out of the box, implements proven best practices, and ultimately simplifies the process of writing HTML5 compliant web pages. Although the code generated by HTML5 Boilerplate only provides skeleton HTML/CSS/JS code you can visit other sites such as http://initializr.com that build on the skeleton code while supplying functional pages with graphics and placeholders.In 1990, breast cancer, diabetes, stroke, and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) represented roughly a quarter of the total amount of death and disability in poorer nations, as measured in disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs). In 2040, that number is expected to jump to as high as 80 percent in some low-income countries. At that point, the burden of noncommunicable diseases in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Myanmar will be roughly the same as it will be in rich nations such as the United States. The difference, of course, is that the same shift from infectious diseases to noncommunicable diseases took roughly three to four times as long in those wealthy nations.
Greater attention is being paid in poorer nations to the role of obesity, tobacco use, air pollution, and other major health risks in the rise of cancers, diabetes, and other noncommunicable diseases. Rightly so. More investment in preventing the adoption of unhealthful habits is critical to slowing the increase of noncommunicable diseases in lower-income countries.
The rise of noncommunicable diseases in lower-income countries is not, however, merely a by-product of worsening diets and unhealthy lifestyles. The figure below is adapted from a recent article in Health Affairs and breaks down the expected contributions of three factors to the overall burden from noncommunicable diseases. Epidemiological change refers to how much death and disability noncommunicable diseases cause for every one thousand people in a region or country income group. Population growth is the expected change in the number of people living in a country. Population aging is the expected change in the median age of the population of a country due to factors such as declining fertility rates or rising life expectancies.
The good news is that the rates of death and disability from noncommunicable diseases are decreasing in every region of the world. These improvements are due to better treatment, improved prevention, or some combination of both. The bad news is that the modest improvement is not keeping pace with the dramatic demographic changes—the population aging and growth— that are occurring in the poorer regions of the world.
The number of adults in poorer countries is increasing rapidly, as is adults’ share of the overall population. In Bangladesh, for example, the median age increased from nineteen to twenty-six years old between 1990 and 2015. Over the same time, its population grew nearly 50 percent. Bangladesh has thirty-eight million more adults between the ages of twenty-five and sixty-four than it did twenty-five years ago. This dramatic demographic change is accelerating the shift in lower-income countries from the infectious, neonatal, and nutritional diseases that disproportionately affect children to the noncommunicable diseases that mostly afflict adults.
The expected pace and scale of the shift in the disease burden to noncommunicable diseases require building different and better funded health-care systems than currently exist in many lower-income nations. Poorer countries have historically focused on acute care for infants, women around the time of childbirth, and infectious diseases such as malaria. Diabetes, most cancers, and cardiovascular diseases are chronic and costly to treat, and require health-care infrastructure and skilled health workers to do so. The government of an average lower-income country spends $23 per person annually on health (adjusting for purchasing power). By contrast, the U.S. government annually spends $3,860 per person on health and the UK government spends $2,695. Most health services and medicines in poorer nations are purchased out of pocket by patients or provided by foreign donors rather than the government. But only 2 percent of overall global health aid goes to address noncommunicable diseases. And almost all of that small amount has been devoted to prevention, not treatment, of noncommunicable diseases.
Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto via Getty Images Patients admitted to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The health-care systems in most lower-income nations are ill prepared for the speed and scale of the shift in their health burden to NCDs. LinkedIn Email Share Share
A recently released Health Affairs index systematically assesses the preparedness of 172 national health systems for the increasing toll of cancers, heart diseases, and other noncommunicable diseases. This index was constructed according to World Health Organization principles for building health systems. It uses data, validated by an independent third party, to assess the availability of the health-care infrastructure and services, skilled health workforce, total health expenditure, and implementation of tobacco control policies as a proxy for prevention. The figure below shows the results.
Countries that are expected to experience the largest increases in death and disability from noncommunicable diseases (the y-axis) are also the least prepared for them (the x-axis). The countries that are facing a potential crisis from noncommunicable diseases are those in the upper right corner of the figure. Health systems of sub-Saharan African nations perform particularly poorly on this index, as do the health systems of a few other lower-income countries (such as Bangladesh and India) that are unprepared for the rise of noncommunicable diseases.
With little access to preventive and primary care, working-age people in lower-income nations are more likely to develop and receive late diagnoses for breast and cervical cancer, hypertension, and other noncommunicable diseases. Without access to chronic care and with limited resources to pay for medical treatment out of pocket, working-age people in those lower-income countries are more likely to become disabled or die at a young age.
Cancers, stroke, diabetes, and other noncommunicable diseases are global problems, but their impact increasingly depends on the wealth of the country in which the patient lives. In rich nations, the increases in death and disability from these diseases are expected to occur mostly among people over the age of seventy, with death and disability decreasing in younger people. The opposite is true in the poorest nations.
In low-income countries, the toll from noncommunicable diseases is expected to surge in all age groups but especially among working-age adults (ages twenty-five to sixty-four years). In lower-middle-income countries, such as Kenya or Vietnam, the increase in death and disability from noncommunicable diseases will be the most dramatic in people older than thirty-five years.
Kevin Frayer/Getty Images Chinese students stretch for swimming in Beijing. More investment is needed to prevent and reduce the unhealthy lifestyles that spur NCDs, but few countries, poor or wealthy, have managed to lower health risks such as childhood obesity. LinkedIn Email Share Share
Reductions in obesity, fast-food consumption, and pollution are critically important, but they are not substitutes for a robust and cost-effective health system that can enable poorer nations to respond to the staggering rise in premature death and disability from noncommunicable diseases. More investment and public attention is needed to develop cheaper ways to elevate primary care as the main platform for responding to noncommunicable diseases in the health systems of these lower-income nations. Understanding the speed, scale, and drivers of the shift to noncommunicable diseases at the country level and estimating the preparedness of health systems for that shift is important for the health planning, budgeting, and policy formulation of national governments and donors. The time to act is now.
This interactive is one in a series of data interactives that CFR is producing on the changes occurring in global health and their broader implications for societies and economies. The second one, The Future of Global Health Is Urban Health, argues that rapidly urbanizing low-income countries will need to address the health and environmental challenges of urban lives. This interactive was made possible by a generous grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the author. The Council on Foreign Relations takes no institutional positions on policy issues and has no affiliation with the U.S. government.Income inequality peaks prior to severe economic crises. Click for more... Joint Economic Comittee There is only one other period in US history in which inequality was as high as it is now.
That was around 1930, when the super-low tax rates of the late 1920s allowed the richest Americans to coin (and keep) money, and the US economy experienced a brief, euphoric sugar high that ended in the Crash and Great Depression.
In 1932, when the public anger about the Depression and this colossal inequality reached a fever pitch--and US budget deficits soared--tax rates for America's highest earners began to go up.
In 1936, they went up again.
In 1941, with the US saddled with massive Depression and War debts, they went up again.
In 1945, they went up again.
In 1946, the nation's highest earners were paying a mind-boggling 91% of marginal income over $200,000 ($2.4 million in today's dollars) to the government. This was up from only 25% in the late 1920s.
And tax rates stayed that high until the mid-1960s, when they began to come down.
History of US income tax rates (top bracket). Click for more... National Taxpayers Union This massive tax increase on rich people in the 1940s,1950s, and early 1960s, by the way, didn't clobber the economy (contrary to the prevailing current ideology).
Over those two decades, the economy and stock-market and middle-class boomed. The massive inequality that had exacerbated class tensions in the late 1920s and 1930s eased. America went through a multi-decade prosperous expansion that would later be looked back upon as "The Good Times."
But those times are now nearly a half-century ago. And now we've just repeated the 1920s all over again.
In the first decade of the 2000s, super-low tax rates, super-cheap money, massive borrowing, and many other factors fueled an unsustainable sugar-high boom that has since turned to bust. And now the country finds itself saddled with colossal debts (in aggregate, including consumer debts, much higher than those after World War 2), huge budget deficits, and enormous inequality. And tax rates on the richest Americans are still near their all-time lows.
If history repeats itself, our financial problems will eventually be solved, but not without a lot of time and pain. And part of the solution will likely be much higher tax rates, especially on the richest Americans.
So enjoy today's low rates while they last.
Now Read: A HISTORY OF TAX RATES: Don't Buy That Crap About How Today's Are HighSaturday Morning Post: The Weekly View from Washington
An already-turbulent Republican presidential contest seemed poised to fly apart on Friday. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, now just edging Donald Trump for the polling lead in the race, melted under the new glare. In the space of a week, he insisted, despite reports suggesting otherwise, that as a kid he had in fact tried to attack his mother with a hammer and stab someone, and that any attempt to deny those stories amounted to a “smear” (huh?); stood by his contention that the Egyptian pyramids were built by the Biblical figure Joseph for grain storage rather than interring pharaohs; and then, Friday, after a bizarrely churlish CNN interview, found himself in a firestorm over whether he lied about receiving a scholarship offer from West Point.
It may be that early-state voters are looking for a violent juvenile sociopath who mellowed into an armchair Egyptologist. Or, likelier, a crowded field is growing more unstable as the first events on the primary calendar swing into view.
Lost somewhere in the contest’s bulging middle tier is Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO who vaulted into serious contention after a pair of standout debate performances. But she collapsed as quickly as she rose without so much as offering a theory about a treasure map on the back of the Constitution. What happened? One explanation, from veteran political handicapper Stu Rothenberg: In a race stratified between the “outsider” and “establishment” lanes, Fiorina doesn’t quite fit in either. She’s adopted the hot rhetoric of someone tilting against the mainstream order. Yet her CV, the spine of her argument that she’s equipped to shake things up, indicates she’s a product of it. (And she’s no stranger to Washington, having served as an advisor to Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, as a fundraising chair for the Republican National Committee, and on an external advisory board for the CIA, while owning for a time a condo at the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton in the city’s West End.) “She lacks a message,” Republican pollster Glen Bolger says. “And when you say that your strength is running HP, and by all accounts it was not a success, eventually that gets around. Why would Republicans back a candidate who has a glass jaw?”
Fiorina has room to recover the ground she’s lost. The latest NBC/ Wall Street Journal poll showed more Republican voters than not said they could see themselves voting for her — a distinction only four other candidates notched. And she continues to register near the top of the heap in focus groups. That underlying appeal could earn her a second look in a roiling race. Her bid’s fundamental deficiencies suggest she’d struggle to close the sale.It's becoming harder and harder for phone manufacturers to set their newest devices apart from the pack nowadays. With the unique feature list of phones getting shorter and common feature lists getting longer, OEMs have turned to niche features to help bring out certain buyers and get them interested in paying a premium price for a new smartphone once more. Last year we saw an interesting move on LG's part with the V10, a phone that was top-specced, had a military grade tough build, super high quality audio output and a set of cameras and software that rivals the best out there in every way. This year LG is stepping up the game with the V20, merging its design language with the G5's metal construction and top-end specs, all while retaining the more rugged Military grade build on top. Is this enough of a jump to put LG on the map for Fall 2016's smartphone buyers? Let's take a look!
Video Review
Specs
As a premium level Fall 2016 flagship you likely already know what the V20 is packing underneath its metal build. A 5.7-inch Quad-HD Quantum Dot IPS LCD display sits up front, while a 160 x 400 pixel ticker display sits just above it, taking up about 75% of the horizontal space above the main display. The entire front surface is covered in Gorilla Glass 4 and the body itself is MIL-STD 810G certified to withstand drops from regular height without suffering irreparable damage and rendering the phone useless. Underneath this frame sits a removable 3,200mAh battery and slots for a nano-SIM and a microSD card to go alongside the 64GB of UFS2.0+ speed storage. A Snapdragon 820 CPU and Adreno 530 GPU power the processing experience, and 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM power the multi-tasking side of the house. The phone packs four 24-bit Sabre ESS9218 DACs inside as well.
On the front you'll find a 5-megapixel camera with dual-function lens, one with an 83-degree view and one with a 120-degree angle view and sporting f/1.9 aperture. The two cameras on the back are a little different, as one sports an 8-megapixel sensor with 135-degree f/2.4 lens, while the other is a 16-megapixel sensor with 78-degree f/1.8 lens. Both cameras on the back utilize a dual-LED flash as well as laser-autofocus module. The phone sports a 3.5mm audio jack and USB Type-C port on the bottom, and the entire package measures 159.7mm x 78.1mm x 7.6mm and weighs 177 grams. The phone supports dual-band 2.4/5GHz WiFi up to 802.11ac speeds, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC and USB 3.0 speeds, although it's only advertised as USB 2.0 because the cable included in the box is USB 2.0 speed.
In The Box
LG's box design for the V20 is a little more interesting than your usual run-of-the-mill pop-top kind, and opens up like a book with a hinge. Inside you'll find the phone with battery removed for shipping purposes, manual, USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable with USB 2.0 speeds, as well as a 9v/1.8a QuickCharge 3.0 capable wall charger. Our review package also came with B&O Play H3 headphones, which may or may not be tacked on with your V20 depending on which carrier and promotion you order through. A screen protector is also pre-installed on the phone and protects both the main and secondary screens on the front.
Display
LG has entirely relied on IPS LCD panels for their mobile segment for many years now, an interesting decision considering LG is the lead manufacturer of OLED panels for TVs. Regardless of the reasons why, LG continues to use Quantum Dot IPS LCD displays on their phones, and in general they simply don't look as good as AMOLED displays from manufacturers like Samsung. The display is good enough in most cases, but overall it's pretty disappointing when comparing to some other flagships out there and comes off as a bit cheap in the end because of the negative points. The main display sits at 5.7 inches and sports a Quad-HD resolution (1440 x 2560 pixels). White balance is dynamic on this screen, utilizing Qualcomm TruPalette technology to analyze the light color in the environment around you to attempt to deliver more accurate colors overall. This high of a resolution at this size means the display is going to be incredibly crisp no matter how closely you look at it.
Obvious light bleed coming from corners Obvious light bleed coming from corners
Color representation is very nice and shows an accurate color palette that's pleasing to the eye without being over-saturated. Black levels are always a weak spot for any LCD panel, as blacks on the display are always going to be a hue of grey because of the inherent illumination of the pixels thanks to the backlight. Black levels look quite good when indoors and the brightness is high, or outdoors where contrast naturally drops, but anything in between, especially at higher brightness levels indoors is going to show just how grey these blacks are. Another problem with the display is light bleed, where you can clearly see brightening of the edges of objects in both bottom corners, as well as the top left corner. Brightness levels are quite excellent though, and can range from super dark in a dark room, to nearly blindingly bright when they need to be. Outdoor visibility is great as a result, and you can even enable the blue light filter to make the display an amber color in darker environments to prevent eye strain.
Unlike some LCD panels we've seen this year, this panel has a good refresh rate of the pixels and exhibits only minor ghosting or trailing of moving, high contrast images. The secondary display above the larger panel feels like the exact same display as the main one in every way, from white levels to color accuracy and even brightness in most cases. This secondary display can be turned off if desired, but is designed to stay on all the time in order to give users the ability to use the phone and see notifications and other information without having to turn the large display on. There's a large amount of light bleed from the top left corner of this display, just as there is from the corners of the larger display, and it looks pretty bad when viewing indoors where you can best see it.
Hardware and Build
Last year's LG V10 brought about a new design language for LG in many ways, and while it boasted some incredibly rugged features the phone was ultimately pretty bulky. This year LG has significantly refined the production process and has designed a phone that can be considered sleek for a phone with a 5.7-inch screen of course. The V20 is 1.2mm more narrow than the V10 was, and 1mm thinner as well, making it easier than ever to hold. This phone still feels huge though, possibly due to the second screen making this look bigger than it actually is, but it's not unwieldy for someone who's used to nearly 6-inch phones like the Galaxy Note series for instance. The phone is made almost entirely of AL 6013 aluminum, which is the same type of metal used in planes and boats as it's both light and durable. What's worth noting is that this feels more like raw metal than the G5 did even though it has a powdery finish to the metal on the back. Despite weighing in at 177 grams, which is at least 10-15 grams heavier than the average phablet out there, the V20 feels like a very light phone, something that very likely has to do with the quality of the materials used in its construction.
The metal back detaches from the body of the phone via a small button, and underneath you'll find the 3,200mAh removable battery and slots for both a nano-SIM and a microSD card. This metal plate makes the phone feel incredibly solid in ways that a glass phone simply can't, but LG recognizes that metal still causes issues with signal strength among other things. Because of this the top and bottom of the phone is made of a special Si-Polycarbonate that's painted to look like metal, but is designed to house antennas and give the phone a little extra drop protection. You can fully expect the back plate and battery to pop off the phone when it's dropped too, as that's part of LG's design to help it flex a bit and absorb the shock better rather than just shattering. As this is MIL-STD 810G certified it had to go through a rigorous set of tests where the phone was dropped at a regular person's height a total of 24 times, and had to pass an inspection each time. Real world drop performance will differ depending on the surface it's dropped on, but the LG V20 is a more rugged phone than most flagships for sure, and will last longer in these situations on average than most phones would.
Covering the basics of design, we're looking at a dual camera housing on the back centered just above the combination physical power button and fingerprint reader. This dual camera housing is completely made of plastic and holds a dual-LED flash, both cameras, a laser autofocus module and a color detection sensor for the cameras, as well as containing the NFC radio. On the bottom of the phone you'll find a centered USB Type-C port, microphone and 3.5mm jack to its left, as well as a single 1W speaker to the right. On top sits another microphone as well as an IR blaster, something that's become a bit of a unicorn once again in the smartphone market. On the right you'll find some plastic volume up and down buttons situated closer to the top edge of the phone, while the right side only holds the recessed eject button for the back plate so as to keep it from accidentally falling off.
Performance and Memory
LG has long had some of the snappiest experiences on any mobile phones out there, despite having a heavy visual skin on top of Android, and the V20 fits right in line with that legacy. As a Snapdragon 820 powered device you should absolutely expect top-notch performance in every single area, and that's what you're going to get with the LG V20. Unlike some other phones that feature heavy skins, this phone absolutely flies through everything we threw at it. Multi-tasking back 10 or 20 apps shows the Overview screen launching the instant you press the button, and launching these apps only takes as long a the animation to pull it from the Overview screen to full screen.
Multi-window is back and better than ever, sporting the official multi-window solution from Google, which is found in stock Android 7.0 Nougat, and allowing all apps regardless of stated compatibility to run in a multi-window fashion. This means there's no longer an arbitrary restriction on which apps will work in multi-window and which won't; they all work and may only display a message from time to time saying that some apps may have odd visual glitches. Google's implementation of this feature is flawless in almost every way, from long-pressing the overview button to immediately launch the multi-window interface, to the slick resizing animation and transition between apps, everything here is gorgeous and quick.
The excellent everyday performance translates right over to gaming performance as well, as the V20 sports the latest Adreno 530 GPU from ARM and performs with the best of them. At Quad-HD resolution some GPUs would struggle to deliver good framerates with this kind of detail, but the Adreno 530 flies through the vast majority of mobile games, even intensive 3D ones, without breaking a sweat. The phone doesn't get hot either, only a tad warm when really being pushed for a long period of time, which is a great change over flagships from a year ago. This kind of performance overall is exactly what we expect from a flagship, and it's great to see LG fully deliver on expectations here.
VR Performance
One of the highlights of LG's display on the V20 is the fact that it's designed in an RGB stripe pattern instead of pentile the way many displays are made nowadays, and this makes for a much sharper VR experience. It's extremely difficult to distinguish individual pixels when in VR on this phone, which is impressive because it's usually pretty easy to find individual pixels on even a Quad-HD display. The persistence rate could be a tad better on the display though, and it's likely that folks who are sensitive to heavy motion blur will have problems here. Since it's not an OLED panel the blacks aren't truly black and won't make you feel quite as immersed in VR as a phone with an OLED panel would, but it's nothing terrible when in this mode.
Frame rate issues are the worst offender of anything, and while the V20 does a good job of keeping up with the rest of the Snapdragon 820 pack, mobile VR is still not the greatest way to experience VR as a whole given it's not quite built for it yet, however the V20 has a lot of promise for one giant reason: Android 7.0 Nougat. Since this is a phone that ships with Nougat out of the box, and it's powered by the Snapdragon 820, it's likely that we'll see better VR performance on this phone than other non-Nougat powered devices. It is not going to be VR certified by Google though because it doesn't have an OLED display though, so folks hoping for official support through Google's VR environment will probably have to look elsewhere once that program launches later this Fall.
Benchmarks
Benchmark performance of the LG V20 is right on par with what we expect from a Snapdragon 820 powered device and one that sports internal storage with UFS 2.0+ speed. CPU performance is just a hair under what we saw on the Galaxy S7 and a bit above the HTC 10, while GPU performance is top of its class, beating the rest of the Snapdragon 820/Adreno 530 powered phones on the market by a few percentage points. Storage speed is pretty median for this price group and is nestled right in with flagships from this year and last year and presents great speeds overall.
Wireless Connectivity
Our version of the LG V20 is the carrier unlocked one and works perfectly with both AT&T and T-Mobile's networks here in the US. This includes excellent 4G LTE coverage and signal strength, and we noticed that the signal strength on the V20 was consistently better than other flagships we've used recently. This signal strength advantage also carries over to WiFi signal strength too, and placing a Galaxy Note 7 alongside the V20 showed approximately a 10% better signal on the V20 versus the Galaxy Note 7. This phone was also able to latch on to WiFi signals further than we've ever seen a phone grab them from, an impressive feat when you're in a building and wishing you could get just a little bit more juice from your router.
Call quality was just as good as expected, featuring HD Voice support for crystal clear calls without that nasty muffling that normal quality calls always seems to have. One thing worth noting is how incredibly comfortable this phone is to hold, even while on a phone call for long periods of time. LG has rounded every edge on the phone while keeping it flat, and it simply feels great to hold for any period of time. Support for Bluetooth 4.2 and NFC are here too, with the NFC chip found in the camera hump on the back of the phone. As the V20 is very carrier dependent in the US, models will be specifically made for each carrier's supported bands. At this time an unlocked version of the phone is not for sale in the US, but will be on sale internationally soon.
Battery Life
The battery inside the V20 is 200mAh larger than the one LG put in the V10, placing it at 3,200mAh total. This size in general is pretty average for a phablet sized device, and as expected the battery life is what you should expect from a phablet. It's easy to get through a full day of use without needing to top up in all but the most extreme of circumstances. The above picture shows a nearly 12 hour day of heavy use with 6 hours of screen on time, and users that don't keep the screen on or have stuff streaming in the background constantly will find longer active battery life without a doubt. Android 7.0 Nougat has introduced a more aggressive Doze feature that puts apps to sleep as soon as the screen is turned off, keeping background data and other battery draining features from constantly updating and instead only allowing them to update at a set interval.
The LG V20 is Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 compatible, and while the charger included in the box appears to fit the standard it still takes 1 hour and 45 minutes to charge the phone completely from empty to 100%. This was a little slower than expected given some other flagships' ability to charge fully in about an hour, but it's not terribly slow compared to some older phones. 30 minutes will give about a 50-60% charge, which is more than enough for any top-up reason and will assuredly get most anyone through the rest of the day.
Futuremark battery test Futuremark battery test
Sound
One of the defining features of the LG V10 last year was high-res audio out of the box, and this year's V20 takes that feature to a whole new level. LG didn't just opt for high quality audio chips or a high-res Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) in this phone, it actually packed in four Sabre ESS9218 DACs to help mitigate white noise and produce an ultra high quality, nearly white-noise free audio experience on the V20. This set of high quality DACs can be enabled or disabled depending on the user's taste and give a very different sound profile than just using the regular single DAC inside the V20. You'll find that using the four HiFi DACs, as the phone labels them, will produce more full, clear sound with clearer highs and deeper bass, however it may drain the battery just a slight bit more than the single DAC would.
That 3.5mm audio jack is ever important for super high quality audio, and while there are some digital systems out there that can produce this sort of sound or better, this system produces the best sound with maximum compatibility. FLAC, ALAC, DSD and AIFF formats are supported for high-res 24-bit audio and sound absolutely marvelous, delivering crystal clear sound that makes you feel like you're in a concert hall rather than listening to music through your phone. It's also worth noting that this phone can be charged while listening to audio via wired high-quality headphones, something that may become a problem without a dongle for more phones in the not-so-distant future. It's not just playback that gives 24-bit playback though, you can also record high-res 24-bit audio using the phone's 3 built in microphones, all of which record directional audio up to 132dB in volume as well. LG has added some powerful tools to the V20 to give users HD audio recording capabilities within an easy to use app. Power users will also find this app to be superb, as it allows you to adjust the gain, low cut filter and limiter options, as well as a bevy of bit rate options too.
Audio coming from the single bottom-facing speaker is pretty good and is right on par with what we saw from the LG G5 earlier this year. This 1-watt speaker produces some pretty darn good sound for a single speaker and does a great job of keeping audio clear even at higher volumes. It makes for a great speakerphone too, although the bottom-facing position of the speaker means that you're likely going to find yourself covering it fairly often because there's only so many places to hold a phone of this size. Audio quality is considerably better than this year's Galaxy S7/Edge and Note 7 phones for example, but nowhere near sound produced on an HTC 10 or Sony Xperia X Performance with their higher quality stereo speakers.
Software and UI
Once upon a time smartphone manufacturers all felt like they had to make their own versions of Android in order to differentiate their looks from the crowded pack of phones out there. While that may still be true in some ways, many skins have gone to the wayside as stock Android has become prettier and more useful. LG's skin has evolved at a snail's pace throughout the years, and while they aren't alone in this trend, the skin LG uses still ranks among one of the least pleasant looking |
's the European authorities, and the United States is going along with them. Together, Europe and the United States control the IMF, and they make these decisions.
On Thursday, July 14th, Italy will need to sell bonds to keep its government running and its creditors paid. What do you predict will happen?
Weisbrot: They'll sell them, and the interest rate — well, if I could predict that exactly right now, I'd be very rich. Obviously I can't tell you exactly what interest rate they're going to pay, but I don't anticipate that this is a turning point necessarily. It's not going to blow up that fast, and I don't think the markets are acting rationally right now with regard to Italy, because they're a long way from reaching the situation that Greece is in, where their debt becomes un-payable.
Follow the writer on Twitter @DavidCaseReportColorism is an intraracial problem as well as an interracial problem. Racial minorities who are alert to white-black or white-brown issues often remain silent about a colorism that asks “how black” or “how brown” someone is within their own communities.
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If colorism lives underground, its effects are very real. Darker-skinned African-American defendants are more than twice as likely to receive the death penalty as lighter-skinned African-American defendants for crimes of equivalent seriousness involving white victims. This was proven in rigorous, peer-reviewed research into hundreds of capital punishment-worthy cases by the Stanford psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt.
Take, for instance, two of Dr. Eberhadt’s murder cases, in Philadelphia, involving black defendants — one light-skinned, the other dark. The lighter-skinned defendant, Arthur Hawthorne, ransacked a drug store for money and narcotics. The pharmacist had complied with every demand, yet Mr. Hawthorne shot him when he was lying face down. Mr. Hawthorne was independently identified as the killer by multiple witnesses, a family member and an accomplice.
The darker-skinned defendant, Ernest Porter, pleaded not guilty to the murder of a beautician, a crime that he was linked to only through a circuitous chain of evidence. A central witness later said that prosecutors forced him to finger Mr. Porter even though he was sure that he was the wrong man. Two people who provided an alibi for Mr. Porter were mysteriously never called to testify. During his trial, Mr. Porter revealed that the police had even gotten his name wrong — his real name was Theodore Wilson — but the court stuck to the wrong name in the interest of convenience.
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Both men were convicted. But the lighter-skinned Mr. Hawthorne was given a life sentence, while the dark-skinned Mr. Porter has spent more than a quarter-century on Pennsylvania’s death row.
Colorism also influenced the 2008 presidential race. In an experiment that fall, Drew Westen, a psychologist at Emory, and other researchers shot different versions of a political advertisement in support of Mr. Obama. One version showed a light-skinned black family. Another version had the same script, but used a darker-skinned black family. Voters, at an unconscious level, were less inclined to support Mr. Obama after watching the ad featuring the darker-skinned family than were those who watched the ad with the lighter-skinned family.
Political operatives are certainly aware of this dynamic. During the campaign, a conservative group created attack ads linking Mr. Obama with Kwame Kilpatrick, the disgraced former mayor of Detroit, which darkened Mr. Kilpatrick’s skin to have a more persuasive effect. Though there can be little doubt that as a candidate Mr. Obama faced voters’ conscious and unconscious prejudices, it is simultaneously true that unconscious colorism subtly advantaged him over darker-skinned politicians.
In highlighting how Mr. Obama benefited from his links to whiteness, Harry Reid punctured the myth that Mr. Obama’s election signaled the completion of the Rev. King’s dream. Americans may like to believe that we are now color-blind, that we can consciously choose not to use race when making judgments about other people. It remains a worthy aspiration. But this belief rests on a profound misunderstanding about how our minds work and perversely limits our ability to discuss prejudice honestly.Pollen levels are high and you have a 10-K run ahead of you. Do you pop a couple of antihistamines to avoid an allergic reaction? Or not?
Sorry, a definitive answer is not provided here.
However, a newly published study from the UO lab of John Halliwill has raised such questions. The research found that 795 (about 27 percent) of 3,000 genes activated after vigorous exercise become blunted in their responses during a three-hour recovery period if exercisers had taken strong doses of antihistamines.
Audio: Halliwill's personal take on using antihistamines during extensive exercise:
Halliwill, a professor in the Department of Human Physiology, discovered in 2005 that naturally occurring histamines in the body relax blood vessels, increasing blood flow that aids post-exercise recovery. That emerged from his original focus on why some people, including athletes, pass out after vigorous physical exertion. He later found a link between an overactivation of two histamine receptors to drops in blood pressure.
The new study — led by doctoral student Steven A. Romero and in collaboration with Hans Dreyer, a departmental colleague who studies muscle physiology — expanded the research to a wider genetics level. Researchers sequenced RNA, molecules essential for making proteins and sending signals among genes, with state-of-the-art equipment in the UO's Genomics Core Facility.
"We were looking for pathways associated with the growth of new blood vessels," said Halliwill, director of the Exercise and Environmental Physiology Lab. "We saw evidence of that, but we also saw gene expression associated with glucose uptake by muscles, restructuring of muscle in response to exercise, immune responses and intercellular communications."
In the research, 16 physically fit and active young adults performed an hour of knee-extension exercise at a pace of about 45 kicks per minute. Biopsies were done before exercise and three hours after to obtain samples from the quadriceps, the skeletal muscles on the side of the thighs.
Eight participants took 540 milligrams of fexofenadine (Allegra) and 300 milligrams of ranitidine (Zantac) at nearly three times the recommended dosages of the over-the-counter antihistamines. Together they target the two histamine receptors involved in both allergic reactions and exercise-recovery responses.
Blood flow, blood pressure and heart rate were monitored during the exercise. During the three-hour recovery window the research team was able to study early signs of gene expression; they found that 88 percent of the 795 genes affected by the antihistamines mostly responded with lower levels of expression.
"Histamine, a substance that we typically think of negatively and is most often associated with seasonal allergies, is an important substance contributing to the normal day-to-day response to exercise in humans," said Romero, who is now at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas on a postdoctoral fellowship from the National Institutes of Health.
In their conclusion, the 10 co-authors noted that the research highlighted only a small fraction of genes likely involved in signaling pathways influenced by the activation of histamine receptors during recovery.
A key question is whether people should avoid taking antihistamines when they exercise. It's too early to make that call, Halliwill said. For now, he said, people should use their own judgment about choosing to take or avoid antihistamines when performing when they know they will be exposed to allergens.
"There are a lot of redundancies in physiological systems," he said. "I wouldn't be surprised if blocking histamine receptors ends up being overcome by something else, but I also wouldn't be surprised if we can demonstrate that some responses to exercise training do become blunted if you take high doses of histamine blockers."
The study is now online ahead of print in the Journal of Physiology. The NIH and American Heart Association supported the research.
—By Jim Barlow, University CommunicationsCricket Australia has announced assistant coach Craig McDermott will leave his post following this month's ICC World T20 tournament.
McDermott, the former Test quick who began his second coaching stint with Australia in 2013, will return home to focus on his cricket academy, which has bases throughout Queensland and New South Wales.
McDermott's exit follows that of batting coach Michael Di Venuto, who was announced as head coach of English county side Surrey last month.
Quick Single: Di Venuto earns senior role in England
“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time working for Cricket Australia, starting at what was then the Centre of Excellence many years ago, then working with the Australian men’s team.
“It’s been a thrill to have been able to help the players reach their potential, and to see them achieve such feats as the 5-0 Ashes win at home, defeating South Africa in South Africa and winning last year’s World Cup. I’d love nothing more than to finish this stint with victory in the World T20 in India.
WATCH: McDermott masterclass: swing bowling
“Looking ahead I’ve decided that the time is right to really focus on my academy business which is continuing to grow as well as pursuing some other business opportunities I have away from the game. And if time presents, I’ll also look at some coaching consultancy work in various competitions around the world.
“I will certainly miss the Australian team, and wish the players and coaches every success in the future.”
McDermott was first named Australia's bowling coach in May 2011, a position he relinquished after 12 months due to the heavy touring schedule. He was brought back into the fold in October 2013, just a few months after Darren Lehmann was named head coach.
The 50-year-old signed a two-year deal in May 2014 that saw his role expand beyond just the Test team and last year he began discussions with CA about a new contract, expressing his desire to continue in the role.
Quick Single: Pattinson ruled out for Shield season
"I am keen to keep going," he said in October. "I really enjoy the job. I am very keen to do another tenure. I have made them well aware that I am keen to keep going along."
McDermott has been at the helm for some significant fast-bowling achievements over the past five years, notably the 4-0 series win at home against India during his first stint in 2011-12 and the victories over England and South Africa in the summer of 2013-14.
He was also involved in the successful World Cup campaign as well as the losing Ashes series in England last year.
The likes of Peter Siddle and James Pattinson have repeatedly credited McDermott for their development at international level, while allrounder Mitchell Marsh also praised the bowling coach during the series against the West Indies last summer.
The performance of Australia's quicks against India in 2011-12 is considered one of McDermott's greatest achievements, with the tourists dismissed for less than 200 four times and scoring more than 300 just once in eight innings.
A veteran of 71 Tests and 291 Test wickets, McDermott advocated bowling a fuller length and also advised his charges to "be prepared to be boring" in order to tie down batsmen with accuracy and dismiss them with swing.A straight ally took a stand against her homophobic parents this Thanksgiving by refusing to remove the Human Rights Campaign equality sticker from her car for her visit home.
She received a text message from her father as she prepared for the holiday weekend, which informed her that she could either remove the sticker from her car or have transportation provided to her by a family member, saying they found the emblem “offensive.”
While she initially decided to cover the sticker with an index card in an effort to avoid an argument, her post received thousands of comments, which offered support but also pushed her to rethink her plan.
The supporter shared her story on the pro-Clinton Facebook group Pantsuit Nation, which was picked up and published on the HRC blog, where she is referred to only as Rachel.
“Ultimately, Rachel realized that removing the sticker was allowing discrimination to win, and she refused to back down from something she so strongly believed in. Unwilling to compromise her convictions, Rachel decided to leave the sticker on her car,” they report.
“Thank you for the outpouring of support and suggestions through comments and private messages,” she wrote. “I truly did not anticipate this response. It’s comforting to know I’m not alone in this battle.”
“Many of your comments have brought me to the realization that covering the sticker would be equivalent to removing it,” she continued. “I am an ally at all times, not just when it is convenient or easy. My father would win by forcing me to back down from something that I believe in, and it would validate his belief that he still has control over me and can bully me into submission. So there will be no compromise, as I am not willing to compromise my convictions anymore than he is willing to compromise his. I have decided that I will be parking elsewhere and walking to their house, even though that will be a good little hike since they live down a country road in the middle of nowhere. I feel that this will send a far stronger message than if I were to refuse to remove the sticker and just cover it instead.”
What do you think of her decision? How would you have handled it? Let us know in the comments below.
This Story Filed UnderCentrelink has sent text messages to welfare recipients warning them that an Australian federal police welfare fraud taskforce is operating in their area, and to keep their personal information up to date.
On Monday the opposition’s human services spokeswoman, Linda Burney, criticised Centrelink for “victimising and harassing vulnerable Australians” by sending welfare recipients letters carrying the Australian federal police logo and warning them that welfare fraud could result in prison and loss of payments.
On Tuesday, Guardian Australia was alerted to text messages warning welfare recipients that Taskforce Integrity was in their area and “focusing on welfare fraud”. Taskforce Integrity is a joint operation between the Department of Human Services and police which uses payment data to focus on regions where customers are at a higher risk of receiving the wrong payment or committing fraud.
Senate inquiry calls for Centrelink robo-debt system to be suspended until fixed Read more
The text messages and letters follow a Senate inquiry into Centrelink’s controversial automated debt recovery system known as “robodebt”. The inquiry found the system was error-prone and needed to be redesigned, after 217,403 letters were sent between July and December last year to welfare recipients, 36,305 of which did not result in a debt. The inquiry also called for communication with welfare recipients to be improved, with the letters described as intimidating and confusing.
Greens senator Rachel Siewert chaired the inquiry and told Guardian Australia the text messages indicated Centrelink had not yet changed its approach, despite the findings.
“There are a whole lot of changes and processes that the Centrelink inquiry highlighted are desperately needed, and yet these texts are designed to intimidate people,” Siewert told Guardian Australia.
“Those on welfare are often vulnerable people with disabilities, and one person I know of who received the text is in his early 20s and is on the disability support pension with poor mental health. He was scared and intimidated.
“It is an unthinking and cruel thing to do to someone with poor mental health and it is not the way that you handle people on disability support payments.”
Centrelink accused of threatening people using letters with police logo Read more
A spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services said Taskforce Integrity had identified $28.9m of debt owed to the Commonwealth nationally, and had referred 57 matters to the Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecution.
She did not elaborate on how the taskforce identifies text recipients, only saying: “It targets geographic locations where a higher risk of non-compliance and welfare fraud has been identified”.
“A small number of people deliberately defraud the Commonwealth by claiming benefits they’re not entitled to or by not informing the department when their circumstances change, which is why our fraud and compliance work is so important,” she said. She did not respond to questions about the tone of the texts.
Dr Cassandra Goldie, the CEO of the Australia Council of Social Service, described the debt collection campaign as operating with an “untenable level of harassment and intimidation”. She questioned how the government was identifying people to target with the texts.
“Imagine being on the receiving end of this kind of message when all you’re doing is struggling to get by and trying to find employment and navigating a difficult government department,” Goldie said.
“The tone of the texts is worrying. The implication is that people are being given a warning. The government has a higher level of duty of care to people who are accessing this kind of support from the department because they are often vulnerable.”South Korean president’s new stance, that ‘dialogue is impossible’, will be welcomed by Japan, US and UK
North Korea’s latest missile launch may be the latest in a long line, and widely predicted, but familiarity is not reassuring. The 2,300-mile (3,700km) flight of the missile – further than any missile tested by the regime – over Japan only serves to sharpen the policy choices facing the rest of the world.
The most immediate diplomatic impact, apart from another call for an emergency meeting of the UN security council, is that Pyongyang’s decision has put paid to South Korea’s lingering interest in reviving talks with its northern neighbours.
“Dialogue is impossible in a situation like this,” the president, Moon Jae-in, told his national security council. Moon, elected on a policy of engagement with his northern neighbours, warned the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, that “we have the power to destroy North Korea and make it unable to recover”. He promised to closely analyse and prepare for new possible North Korean threats, like EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) and biochemical attacks.
The evolution in his stance will be welcome in Japan, America and London. The UK foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, speaking before the latest missile launch, had pointedly said at a joint press conference in London with Rex Tillerson, the US secretary of state, on Thursday that “now was not the time to send other hares running about attempts at engagement”.
In a further statement after news of the latest missile test, Johnson again called for the international community to unite. The Foreign Office thinks China has done more than it might have been expected to do, but it is still insufficient.
Tillerson himself turned the issue back to China and Russia, as the US has repeatedly done in the past. “China supplies North Korea with most of its oil. Russia is the largest employer of North Korean forced labour,” he said in a statement. “China and Russia must indicate their intolerance for these reckless missile launches by taking direct actions of their own.”
In London on Thursday, Tillerson had admitted that the latest round of sanctions passed by the security council only on Monday had stopped well short of what the US and its allies had been seeking. “We had been hoping for a very much stronger resolution”, he admitted, even if he praised the complete prohibition of textiles as representing a loss of $700m annual income to North Korea. The very fact that the UN security council had remained united was important, he added, more lamely.
Unity at the UN had been bought at the expense of dropping US calls for a complete ban of oil exports to North Korea, the one measure China will not so far countenance, and the one measure that would bring the North Korean economy to the brink of collapse in a matter of months.
Tillerson added: “I hope China as a great country will decide on its own to take upon itself to use that powerful tool of oil supply to persuade North Korea to reconsider its approach. It is a very powerful tool which they alone really have the ability to assert. It has been used in the past.”
The immediate reaction from the Chinese foreign ministry did not suggest a change in its opposition towards military action against North Korea, which could trigger a refugee crisis. The ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying again emphasised diplomatic solutions.
Hua said China had made enormous sacrifices to implement UN security council resolutions and that its sincerity could not be doubted.
In a sign that Trump may be willing to use more than Twitter to cajole the Chinese, the president said he would travel to China, as well as Seoul and Tokyo, before the end of the year to discuss the crisis. It would be a sign of respect, and put some of the bluster to one side. In the words of the US diplomat Christopher Hill, the visit could provide the chance the US and China need to agree a strategy.
For some diplomats there is a fear that mounting sanctions are not deterring Kim, and are only incentivising him to speed up his programme. The danger is that North Korea’s physicists are working to an altogether different and faster timetable than the New York diplomats.It’s surprising that Elder Ronald A. Rasband does not instinctively reach for a seatbelt whenever he sits down. Fastening up for take-off has become something of a habit for this newly called Apostle.
Since becoming a General Authority 15 years ago, Elder Rasband has traveled to all corners of the world to be with the members of the Church. He and his wife, Sister Melanie Rasband, have filled multiple passports and logged hundreds of thousands of air miles.
And with each assignment, their love and admiration for the Latter-day Saints across the globe has grown stronger and stronger.
“We’ve come to recognize that this really is a worldwide Church,” he told the Church News. “We have had tremendous experiences that have given us a rich perspective of the diverse nature of our members.”
Elder Rasband, 64, said that each assignment — be they local or distant — has also taught him lessons that will serve him well in his calling to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He was sustained in general conference as an Apostle on Oct. 3, along with Elder Gary E. Stevenson and Elder Dale G. Renlund.
His past tenure in the Seventy, he added, provided priceless opportunities to serve, shoulder to shoulder, with the men of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve. They were and continue to be his mentors. On each assignment with the presiding Brethren, he soaked up their counsel and wise words. And he kept his eyes and ears wide open.
“You are always learning,” he said of his association with the Apostles. “I have loved being an observer.... They have helped to lift and prepare me in every way.”
In 2000, Elder Rasband was called, at age 49, as a General Authority Seventy. He came from the international business world and served as president and chief operating officer of Huntsman Chemical Corporation before accepting a call, in 1996, to preside over the New York New York North Mission.
But it was as a new General Authority that he developed a deep appreciation for the growing, worldwide Church. Soon after he was called, he and Sister Rasband relocated to Europe. His assignments in the Area Presidency there would prove invaluable to his spiritual and leadership development. His assignment covered more than 35 countries — stretching from Iceland to Egypt. Almost every weekend, Elder Rasband taught and worshipped alongside members from a variety of nationalities and cultures.
“Those first experiences were amazing and they taught, prepared and broadened us deeply for this new chapter in our lives,” he said.
Sister Rasband was humbled by the daily sacrifices she witnessed being made by many of the members.
“The Saints are magnificent in their faith and diligence,” she said. “In some countries, they face difficult circumstances just to make it to Church, to hold callings or to even read the scriptures with their families.”
Elder Rasband would return to Church headquarters a few years later, fulfilling assignments as president of the Utah Salt Lake City Area and as executive director of the Temple Department. In the latter capacity he worked closely with President Gordon B. Hinckley and his counselors in the First Presidency.
He remembers President Hinckley once looking him squarely in the eye, pointing his finger and saying: “Take everything you learn from me about the Lord’s love for temples. Take it for the rest of your ministry.”
With each new assignment, Elder and Sister Rasband relished their moments with members at stake conferences or during mission tours.
“You can’t be involved with the Saints without being touched by their faith and their desire to serve the Lord,” he said.
During stake conferences or other member gatherings, Sister Rasband occasionally called upon children to sing “I Am a Child of God” in their native tongue. Elder Rasband smiles when he speaks of his wife’s natural rapport with members of all ages and backgrounds.
“Many times, after a meeting, a few members come forward to speak with me — and a whole flock comes forward to be with Sister Rasband.”
Elder Rasband’s exposure to the worldwide Church only grew with his calling in 2005 to the Presidency of the Seventy. He came to love the Brethren of the Seventy — be they General Authorities or Area Seventies. He continues to be inspired by their devotion and capacity.
Sister Rasband, meanwhile, is grateful for her friendship with the wives of the other General Authorities. “I have come to deeply love the sisters in a way that I never thought possible,” she said.
In 2009, Elder Rasband was called as Senior President of the Presidency of the Seventy. His ecclesiastical duties frequently placed him, again, in the company of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He came to treasure and rely upon their time-earned wisdom. He seconded Elder David A. Bednar’s recent general conference endorsement of the veteran Apostles and their priceless experience.
“Fear,” he said, “is not a word known to the First Presidency and the Twelve. They are not fearful — they are faithful. Their experience gives them a great view of the past. Their seership gives them a view of the future.”
Counted dearly among his friends and mentors in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are the recently departed Apostles President Boyd K. Packer, Elder L. Tom Perry and Elder Richard G. Scott.
Elder Rasband said it’s impossible “to fill the shoes” of those three men. “But I feel like I can stand on their shoulders. I can use every good thing that I have learned from them.”
The new Apostle plans to utilize his ministry to testify of Christ and His Atonement for the rest of his life. His counsel for the membership of the Church: “Follow the President of the Church. Follow those we sustain as prophets, seers and revelators. Build faith in Heavenly Father, in Jesus Christ and in the Savior’s Atonement. Protect and strengthen your own family.”
Keeping the Sabbath Day holy, he added, is a sacred vehicle to realizing such faith.
The Rasbands have five children and 24 grandchildren.
“We really don’t have any other life beyond Church and family — that’s it,” he said, laughing. “When we are not serving in some Church capacity, we are with our children and our grandchildren.”
The children and grandchildren, added Sister Rasband, “are our social life.”
Elder and Sister Rasband met with the Church News just hours after Elder Rasband was ordained an Apostle. Emotions remained close to the surface as they reflected upon the life-changing call.
“My wife and I are humbled beyond measure with this new calling and new opportunity,” he said. “Today I was ordained an Apostle under the hands of President [Thomas S.] Monson. I am still trembling.”
[email protected] @JNSwensenEnvironment minister clears way for trapping and killing of the sharks with baited hooks, saying it's in the national interest
Greg Hunt, the environment minister, has helped clear the way for a controversial shark cull in Western Australia by exempting it from federal legislation designed to protect threatened species.
Hunt has agreed to the WA government’s request to have the cull exempt from assessment under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, citing a “national interest” in allowing the trapping and killing of the sharks.
The WA government plans to string 72 baited hooks 1km from the shoreline of eight popular beaches around Perth and the south-west. Boat patrols will shoot any sharks measuring over 3m caught by the hooks.
Hunt’s approval, which was dated 9 January but only made public now, points to “substantial public concern” about the safety of water-based activities in Western Australia, after an increasing trend of shark attacks since 1995.
The exemption states that WA’s $8.5bn tourism industry could be hit by continual shark attacks and that the cull should be allowed subject to conditions aimed at reducing harm to seabirds and whales.
In a letter to the WA premier, Colin Barnett, Hunt said Australians understood the risk to swimming, surfing and boating in the open sea and that government “cannot take away that risk at the general level.”
Despite this, Hunt said a series of shark attacks – there have been seven fatalities in WA waters in the past three years – were “well above the historic norm” and that exemption from the conservation act was appropriate.
Hunt said that other marine species or sharks measuring under 3m should be released from the hooks alive, unless they were too badly injured, and that the exemption would only run until 30 April.
“One does not have to agree with a policy to accept that a national interest exemption is warranted to protect against imminent threat to life, economic damage and public safety more generally,” Hunt wrote.
The act requires that the federal government assess any action deemed to threaten an at-risk species in Australia. The great white shark is listed as a vulnerable, migratory species, while the grey nurse shark is considered threatened.
The act states the environment minister can exempt such an action from assessment in the national interest, which includes Australia’s defence or security or a “national emergency”. However, the minister is not limited to these definitions.
Hunt’s approval clears one obstacle from the path of the WA government, which is facing legal action from a coalition of conservation groups that claims the cull is contrary to state, federal and international obligations.
The Barnett government has announced it will be carrying out the cull itself, after claiming that the business that won a tender for the work backed out of the project following death threats. Opponents of the cull claim it is pointless and barbaric.
Humane Society International said Hunt’s decision to exempt the cull from assessment was a “complete disgrace.”
Alexia Wellbelove, senior program manager at the conservation group, said: “The proposed policy and consideration by the federal environment minister lacks any real scientific approach, and fails to sufficiently consider the wider marine implications of the program.
“This exemption demonstrates the complete failure of the federal government to protect our most precious species and fulfill our international environmental obligations, for the price of a policy which we do not believe will have the desired impact of reducing risk for people, which is its stated purpose.
“HSI reiterates its calls on both Premier Barnett and Minister Hunt to end this farce of a program and instead invest in research to help better educate the public on how to reduce the risk of shark bites.”
Mark Butler, Labor's environment spokesman, said the opposition did not support Hunt's decision as it wasn't "evidence-based".
"Minister Greg Hunt has given the WA premier free rein to proceed with his plans by relying on an exemption provision within the federal environment laws directed at 'Australia’s defence or security or a national emergency'," he said.
"Mr Hunt’s decision contains no evidence about how this issue qualifies as a ‘national emergency’ or about the wisdom of Premier Barnett’s plan compared to traditional shark management practices.
"A proper environmental assessment would have required the WA premier to demonstrate how his plan would actually reduce fatal shark attacks while also protecting other marine life that will undoubtedly be at the risk of death or injury from baited hooks in the water."
Greens senator Rachel Siewart said: “The minister has basically approved the indiscriminate killing of great white sharks. If this is the Abbott government’s benchmark for protection of nationally protected species woe betide Australia."In the final days before the election, Democrats in the closest Senate races across the South are turning to racially charged messages–invoking Trayvon Martin’s death, the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., and Jim Crow-era segregation–to jolt African-Americans into voting and stop a Republican takeover in Washington.
The images and words they are using are striking for how overtly they play on fears of intimidation and repression. And their source is surprising. The effort is being led by national Democrats and their state party organizations–not, in most instances, by the shadowy and often untraceable political action committees that typically employ such provocative messages.
In North Carolina, the “super PAC” started by Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, ran an ad on black radio that accused the Republican candidate, Thom Tillis, of leading an effort to pass the kind of gun law that “caused the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.”
In Georgia, Democrats are circulating a flier warning that voting is the only way “to prevent another Ferguson.” It shows two black children holding cardboard signs that say “Don’t shoot.”
The messages are coursing through the campaigns like a riptide, powerful and under the surface, largely avoiding television and out of view of white voters. That has led Republicans to accuse Democrats of turning to race-baiting in a desperate bid to win at the polls next Tuesday.
“They have been playing on this nerve in the black community that if you even so much as look at a Republican, churches will start to burn, your civil rights will be taken away and young black men like Trayvon Martin will die,” said Michael Steele, a former chairman of the Republican Party. “The reality of it is, the Democrats realize that their most loyal constituency is not as loyal as they once were.”
{snip}
One way to hang on is to increase the share of the black vote that typically turns out in a midterm election. To do so, Democrats are seizing on racial mistrust and unease, the same complicated emotions often used against them in the South.
{snip}
The group started by Mr. Reid, Senate Majority PAC, ran the ad on black radio that Republicans said all but accused Mr. Tillis, the Republican speaker of the State House, of killing Mr. Martin, an unarmed black teenager who was fatally shot in Florida in 2012. In the ad, the announcer reads through a list of policies Mr. Tillis supported that blacks are likely to find offensive, like curtailing early voting in the state. And then it turns more ominous.
“Tillis even led the effort to pass the type of ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws that caused the shooting death of Trayvon Martin,” the announcer says. The music playing in the background abruptly stops.
Republicans have slammed the ad as race-baiting. “Have you heard this race-hustling Kay Hagan ad paid for by Harry Reid’s super PAC?” a new radio ad paid for by a conservative group asks, referring to the Democratic incumbent. “Probably not. Because they’re not running it on this station.”
Though Mr. Tillis was the speaker of the State Assembly at the time the law passed, he was not an ardent supporter of it. One local gun-rights group criticized him for not being supportive enough at the time.
{snip}
At a campaign rally over the weekend for Senator Hagan, one of her supporters, Alma Adams, who is in the State Legislature, said, “We need to send Uncle Thom–Tillis, that is–home.”
Ms. Hagan’s campaign has often referred to remarks in which Mr. Tillis appeared to equate reparations for slavery with social welfare programs. Governments created such public assistance programs, he said in 2007, based in part on the “belief that we should provide additional reparations” to those whose ancestors were enslaved.
In addition, at a black church in Fayetteville, leaflets with a grainy image of a lynching have appeared, warning voters that if Ms. Hagan loses, President Obama will be impeached.
{snip}
In Arkansas, voters are opening mailboxes to find leaflets with images of the Ferguson protests and the words: “Enough! Republicans are targeting our kids, silencing our voices and even trying to impeach our president.” The group distributing them is Color of Change, a grass-roots civil rights organization.
In Georgia, the state Democratic Party is mixing themes of racial discrimination with appeals to rally behind the only black man elected president. “It’s up to us to vote to protect the legacy of the first African-American president,” one flier reads.
Another invokes Ferguson. “If you want to prevent another Ferguson in their future,” the leaflet says over a picture of two young black children, “vote. It’s up to you to make change happen.”
{snip}
Original Article
Share ThisFinancial Considerations for a Physical Therapy Assistant Graduate
adminequal | July 23, 2012 | 0 Comments
For aspirants seeking qualified physical therapy assistantschools, there are many things to consider, not the least of which is, the degree to which, a school attempts to support a graduate seeking appropriate job opportunities, after completion of academic requirements and successful licensing obligations.
This is an extremely important consideration since, how a student fares in the marketplace may be directly related to the amount of guidance, support and reputation of the academic institution. Potential students would be well advised to seek a strong and positive response when posing this question to recruitment representatives or admissions staff.
Any school that simply ejects its graduating student body, into the swift current of the job-seeking miasma is, not supporting its ethical obligations to ensure a smooth entry into the world of professional employment. Too many inexperienced or naive candidates are left to the cruel ministrations of those who would prey on such neophytes, and take advantage of them.
It is therefore incumbent upon the educational facility to not only train a student to achieve success within their medical field, but to prepare them for the eventuality of seeking after employment with a variety of industries, and practices that can offer the best wages for which they are qualified.
Metropolitan Schools for wage Increases in Physical Therapy
Depending on your current place of residence, seeking an education from physical therapy assistant schools located near your residence, may prove unwise if not thoroughly researched. The ultimate goal may be to find a school that is not only affordable, but requires little to no moving expenses.
One option for today’s aspirant is the distance or online learning extension now offered by many reputable academic institutions. This option solves not only costs, but also accommodates an aspirant’s lifestyle.
Another important factor is the quality of physical therapy education a school can offer, and the strength of their reputation for graduating qualified candidates for the profession. The worst thing a graduate can experience is the denial |
Clinton's voting record was to the left of Obama's
In 2008, both Clinton and Obama spent a lot of time debating a single fateful vote she cast in 2002 in favor of George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq. But if you look at all the votes that were cast during the four years they served together in the Senate, it was Clinton who amassed the more liberal record.
In the 109th Senate, Obama was the 17th most liberal member (between Chuck Schumer and Tom Harkin), while Clinton was the 13th most liberal member.
In the 110th Senate, Obama was the 18th most liberal member (again one tick to the left of Schumer) while Clinton was again 13th most liberal.
Another way of looking at it is that of the two Democratic senators from New York, Clinton was the more liberal. Of the two Democratic senators from Illinois, Obama was the more conservative.
Of course, one could say that these kind of crude vote-agglomeration methods miss a lot of what matters. A single vote on Iraq was more consequential than dozens of votes on budget amendments. But this is the point. Clinton's reputation as a centrist Democrat comes largely from her foreign policy. On the economic issues that dominate congressional votes by volume, she's liberal.
On economics, Clinton ran left in 2008
In keeping with her voting record, Clinton ran to Obama's left on economic issues in the 2008 primaries. This manifested itself most clearly on the subject of health care, where Clinton was willing to include a politically unpopular individual mandate to buy health insurance as part of a program for universal coverage. Obama was not willing to go so far, and came in for substantial criticism from liberals for it. Less famously, Clinton proposed a Cabinet-level poverty czar position — an idea that might make a comeback in 2016.
The ideological divide here was not large, but it was reflected in patterns of support for the two candidates. Clinton secured more labor union backing than Obama, and Obama did better than Clinton at gaining primary votes from self-identified independents.
Much of the primary debate ended up focusing on foreign policy, where Clinton was (and continues to be) more hawkish than Obama. But there's nothing new about her running left on economics.
Hillary led the left wing of the Clinton administration
Reaching further back in time, there is considerable evidence that Hillary was to the left of her husband on economics in the 1990s. As Peter Beinart recounts, she was the senior adviser through whom liberals generally tried to win over the White House.
Carl Bernstein reports that in 1993, Hillary opposed the decision to prioritize deficit reduction, saying, "You didn’t get elected to do Wall Street economics."
Sally Bedell Smith reports that in 1995, Hillary and Robert Reich tried (and failed) to get Bill to make a big stink about CEO pay.
George Stephanopoulos, who was in a position to know, referred to Hillary as "the most powerful liberal in the White House."
A then-obscure law professor named Elizabeth Warren reached out to Hillary and helped convince her to persuade her husband to veto a bank-friendly bankruptcy bill at the very end of the Clinton administration.
Some of this, especially the parts about Clinton being out of step with the Wall Street wing of the party, has been obscured by subsequent events. Clinton, for example, flip-flopped on the bankruptcy issue in 2005.
But one should be cautious about reading too much into a New York politician's friendliness to Wall Street — especially a politician with such tenuous ties to New York. As a senator from Illinois, Obama was an ally of the Illinois coal industry. Elizabeth Warren is a dogmatic liberal on virtually every issue, but also a loyal ally of the medical device industry, which happens to be substantially based in the Boston area. Things can change over time, but it seems likely that First Lady Hillary Clinton rather than Fake New Yorker Hillary Clinton is the better guide to her views on Wall Street.Despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 landmark decision that legalized abortion nationwide, many women still lack access to safe and affordable abortion. Anti-choice legislators have constructed a latticework of abortion restrictions and bans in state legislatures that has prevented Roe v. Wade from being a reality for everyone.
More state abortion restrictions have been enacted in the past five years than in any other five-year period since Roe was decided. Such restrictions push safe and affordable abortion care out of reach for those who already face significant barriers to quality health care, such as low-income women; immigrants; youth; women of color; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, people. All women deserve reproductive health policies that respect their moral decision-making and safeguard their health and well-being, regardless of age, gender, socio-economic status, or other factors. In order to equalize health outcomes for all—including access to abortion services—the nation’s lawmakers must heed the original intent of the Roe v. Wade decision and restore to women their basic legal rights.
Lauren Kokum is the Special Assistant for the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative at the Center for American Progress.Chicago passes largest property-tax hike in modern city history
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and city aldermen choose tax hikes over necessary reform.
Chicago City Council passed the largest property-tax hike in modern city history by a vote of 36-14 on Oct. 28, approving Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s 2016 budget proposal.
The budget includes a $588 million property-tax increase, new fees on ridesharing services such as Uber and Lyft, and a new garbage-collection fee.
When fully phased in, the mayor’s plan will hit Chicagoans with more than $700 million a year in new taxes and fees.
On the floor of City Council, various aldermen described the vote as “the toughest decision” and “bitter medicine,” and blamed the profligate spending habits of former Mayor Richard Daley. Others scolded Emanuel for not hiking taxes enough.
Still others cited the fact that some residents of Chicago’s collar counties pay far higher property taxes than Chicagoans. This is a dishonest comparison.
The city’s collar counties levy some of the highest property taxes in the nation. Chicago’s property-tax rates rank among the highest in major U.S. cities. Residential rates are 10th highest, while commercial property taxes are the third highest among 53 of the country’s major cities.
A better measure is the city’s overall cost of living. When all other taxes and fees are considered, Chicagoans already pay far more in taxes and fees per person than residents of every other major city in Illinois.
Perhaps the most disheartening fact about Emanuel’s tax and fee hikes is that they don’t even come close to fixing the enormous budget deficit facing Chicago Public Schools and its nearly $10 billion pension shortfall. If the Oct. 28 budget vote was any indication, Chicagoans can expect to have their wallets raided once again to paper over this massive problem.
The budget also relies on $800 million in state money that is by no means guaranteed.
Instead of opening up city contracts for renegotiation, right-sizing government-worker payrolls, removing barriers to jobs growth in a declining city economy, or giving true security to new city workers in the form of 401(k)-style retirement plans, Chicago City Council simply did more of the same.
The message to struggling city residents? It will never be enough.
Before the tax hike, Chicago government already took in more money per person than any major city in Illinois by a vast margin. And city revenue has grown much faster than inflation over the last 20 years.
In the end, it will be Chicago’s poor and disadvantaged who are hurt by continual stopgap fixes to structural budget problems. Hitting up a flatlining city population for more and more money can only work for so long. If politicians offer nothing more than to bail water from Chicago’s sinking financial ship, the city will drown.An Israeli missile hits Palestinian buildings in Gaza City on Thursday night. (Photo: Thomas Coex, AFP/Getty Images)
JERUSALEM — Israeli forces launched a ground operation into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Thursday night after several hours of heavy rocket fire into southern and central Israel by Gaza militants.
After 10 days of heavy fighting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israel Defense Forces to destroy tunnels used by militants to launch attacks in Israel, a statement issued by Netanyahu's office said.
"Through terror tunnels such as these, Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israeli territory early this morning with the aim of carrying out mass terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens," the statement said.
The offensive came after a failed attempt by 13 militants to infiltrate Israel on Thursday through a tunnel under the Gaza-Israel border, only to be stopped by an Israeli strike at the mouth of the tunnel.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Israel "will pay dearly" for the assault. "Hamas is ready for a confrontation," he said.
Not long after a heavy barrage of rockets was fired at Tel Aviv and other parts of the country, thousands of soldiers backed by tanks and huge DC9 bulldozers entered Gaza after 10 p.m., Israeli media said.
Israeli news stations reported that Israel began its operation by shelling northern Gaza. Channel 10 News reported that the air force stepped up its aerial strikes while the navy fired from the sea.
The late-night broadcasts showed northern Gaza lit up by flares from Israeli forces.
Shortly before the operation, the Defense Forces instructed Israeli residents in the south near the Gaza border to remain in their homes.
An Israeli tank near the border with Gaza fires toward targets in the Palestinian enclave on July 17. (Photo: Menahem Kahana, AFP/Getty Images)
The goal of the operation is to target Hamas infrastructure, including tunnels, storage facilities, launching pads and any structures the group uses to launch its rockets, Lt. Libby Weiss, a Defense Forces spokeswoman told USA TODAY.
"We have a substantial amount of forces, though I can't specify numbers," Weiss said. "These include armored forces, infantry, artillery and aerial and naval support. This is not a time-bound operation. It's a goal-bound operation."
She said civilians are not the target, stressing that Israeli forces will continue to take measures to minimize civilian casualties.
Thousands of Israeli soldiers had massed on the border with Gaza in recent days, waiting for the order to go in. More may be coming.
The government has authorized the military to call up an additional 18,000 reserve soldiers, the Associated Press reported.
A Hamas official told the Associated Press that heavy Israeli shelling was hitting eastern Gaza, near the border with Israel. He said all border areas are under fire, and tank shells hit every minute. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with briefing regulations.
Late on Thursday, Reuters reported that while shelling was heavy along the easter border of the southern town of Rahah, there was no immediate sign that tanks were moving in.
Residents told the Associated Press the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya came under heavy Israeli shelling. "There is the sound of tank shells all the time," said Jamal Abu Samra, 42, a farmer in the area. He said his wife, six children, four brothers and their families were huddling on the ground floor of the family home.
"We don't have power since the afternoon so we are listing to the (battery-operated) radio to hear the news," he said.
He said the Israeli military sent text messages to residents urging them to leave the area. Abu Samra said he and his relatives decided to stay because they felt nowhere in Gaza is safe. "It is better to stay home than move anywhere," he said.
The ground offensive is the first major Israeli incursion in Gaza in more than five years. Israeli strikes have hit more than 2,000 targets in Gaza, and Hamas launched nearly 1,500 rockets at Israel, according to the Israeli military.
The cross-border battles have killed more than 220 Palestinians and one Israeli.
The incursion followed a brief lull Thursday to allow Gaza residents to stock up on food and other supplies.
Two hours into that cease-fire early Thursday, Israelis near the border were forced back into bomb shelters after rockets were launched at them. After that, the five-hour truce held until its precise end, when Gaza militants began launching at least 40 rockets and mortar shells into Israeli towns and cities. Sirens sounded as far north as Herzilya in the center of Israel.
Israel responded by launching two airstrikes at Gaza, the Associated Press reported.
Earlier Thursday, Egypt had pushed for a cease-fire to end the conflict that began July 8. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who governs the West Bank, after Egyptian officials met with representatives of Israel and Hamas in Cairo.
Israel had accepted Egypt's call this week to halt the fighting, but Hamas rejected it, saying it wanted more concessions that include easing a blockade of Gaza by Israel and Egypt.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which cares for Palestinian refugees, announced Thursday that it had discovered rockets hidden in a vacant Gaza school.
"UNRWA strongly condemns the group or groups responsible for placing the weapons in one of its installations," it said in a statement.
"This is a flagrant violation of the inviolability of its premises under international law," it said. The incident "endangered civilians, including staff, and put at risk UNRWA's vital mission to assist and protect Palestine refugees in Gaza."
Also Thursday, the Israeli Ministry of Defense said the murder of a 16-year-old Arab resident of East Jerusalem was a terror attack, for which three Jews were indicted on murder charges.
Muhammed Abu Khdeir was kidnapped July 2, and his burned body was discovered in a Jerusalem forest a few hours later. His murder, after the abduction and murder of three Israeli teens in the West Bank, sparked widespread Arab rioting in East Jerusalem and throughout Israel and precipitated the current fighting.
The move to designate Abu Khdeir as a terror victim "was made as a result of the indictment and the findings of the investigation, which point to the nationalist motive of his murder," the ministry said.
A 29-year-old man and two 17-year-olds, who have not been named, were indicted in the murder. The Shin Bet security services said the suspects confessed to the crime, which they said was to avenge the murder of the three Israeli teens, who were kidnapped June 12. Israel blames Hamas for that crime. The teens were buried the day before Abu Khdeir was killed.
The designation as a terror victim entitles Abu Khdeir's family to financial benefits provided by Israel's National Insurance Institute. Although many Arab families in Israel receive such benefits because of terror attacks carried out by Palestinians, the government rarely designates crimes committed by Jews as a terror attack.
Al-Helou reported from Gaza City, Dumalaon reported from Berlin. Contributing: Associated Press
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1mjv1qvSome argue that AR will be the immersive tech that really takes off due to the fact that it adds elements to our daily lives and surroundings vs VR’s dependence on isolated virtual worlds. Shopping is simply one of the examples of augmented reality’s potential to change how we live, giving us different ways to test out consumer products, and Apple is coming to the table with one of the biggest names in furniture for a new AR application. A report relayed via Business Insider suggests Apple is teaming up with Ikea to launch an AR app that lets you test drive some furniture in your home before making a purchase in the very same app.
AR has been used as a promotional tool in a somewhat gimmicky fashion from other entities, but a statement from Ikea’s Leader of Digital Transformation Michael Valdsgaard points to the company investing heavily in the technology. While he recognizes that the physical stores are their greatest assets, he declared that future new products “will first appear in the AR app”. We don’t have any direct insight into such a decision, but this could also be a cost-saving move that allows them to see who is interested in certain products before moving to mass produce an item.
Early in the year, we got another glimpse at the potential of augmented shopping when Gap and Google collaborated for CES 2017. Apple and Ikea are both leaders in their field and this could be a major boost for augmented platforms.Get the biggest Daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
A town crier has made a passionate appeal for a lucky lady to come forward to be his consort at future events.
Crewkerne crier David Craner has been as a lone figure attending events representing the town up and down the country after his wife left him a couple of years ago.
Mr Craner has been named as the best town crier in Southern England this year and would like someone to help him out at all the competitions and civic events he goes to.
He said: "My wife buggered off and left me. That means I do not have anyone accompany me and I would love to have someone come along to all these wonderful events I go to.
"The marriage broke down and she decided she didn't want to be with me anymore. Being a town crier means going out to competitions and civic events."
Anyone interested in accompanying Mr Craner to these events does not have to worry about providing their own dresses as he has already got that covered.
All he asks is for someone with a good sense of humour who would like to keep alive an age-old English tradition.
"I have got all the regalia that she used to wear so that wouldn't be a problem- as long as she didn't mind wearing someone else's dress," he said.
"There will be no cost involved to them as I am completely self-financed. I'm looking for anybody who is a forward looking person who is interested in English tradition and also has a good sense of humour."
He's not looking for anything too serious at this stage though, he just wants a friend who would love to spend time socialising with a friendly group of people.
"Who knows. Initially it would just be friendship but if anything develops from that who can say at this stage.
"It is great fun with a lovely group of people who are very friendly. It is about keeping an old English tradition alive. It is a very important tradition and if we don't keep it going we will lose it all together. We will never get it back again if that happens."
If you would like to be Mr Craner's consort then you can call him on 07875925965 or email him on davidcraner7@gmail.com.Brendan Mcdermid / REUTERS Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made a bit more than $1 million in salary and bonus last year -- relatively low by U.S. corporate standards.
Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer got a lower bonus this year than last year's, partly because of flat sales of Windows and his failure to ensure that the company provided a choice of browser to some European customers.
Ballmer, who took over as CEO from co-founder Bill Gates in 2000, earned a bonus of $620,000 for Microsoft's 2012 fiscal year, which ended in June, down 9 percent from the year before, according to documents filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
His salary -- low by U.S. corporate standards -- remained essentially flat at $685,000.
Ballmer is ranked No. 19 on the Forbes' list of richest Americans with a fortune valued at $15.9 billion, mainly in Microsoft stock.
It was the third year in a row that Ballmer failed to earn his maximum bonus, set at twice his salary.
Microsoft's latest fiscal year was scarred by a massive $6.2 billion write-down for a failed acquisition and lower profit from its flagship Windows system as computer sales stood still.
In the company's filing, Microsoft's compensation committee said it took into account a 3 percent decline in Windows sales over the year, as well as "the Windows division failure to provide a browser choice screen on certain Windows PCs in Europe as required by its 2009 commitment with the European Commission."
The company's failure to provide a browser choice in Europe was an embarrassing setback for the software maker, which has been embroiled in disputes with European regulators for more than a decade and paid more than $1 billion in fines for including its own Internet Explorer browser on Windows. It now faces further fines from a new investigation.Did you know...?
Vayetze: Ch. 29 Vs.23
Why do some communities sing "hi-la-la-la, hi-la-la-la" at weddings?
וַיְהִ֣י בָעֶ֔רֶב וַיִּקַּח֙ אֶת־לֵאָ֣ה בִתּ֔וֹ וַיָּבֵ֥א אֹתָ֖הּ אֵלָ֑יו וַיָּבֹ֖א אֵלֶֽיהָ׃
When evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to him; and he cohabited with her.
Yakov's wedding with Leah took place on Friday night, at the time of Kabbalat Shabbat.
The townspeople started singing, slurring the words “Hi Lea! Hi Leah!... hi la la hi la la..” as if to warn Yakov that he was marrying Leah, not Rachel.
But Yakov thought that they were merely tra-la-la-ing a local tune.
This is the source of the custom in some communities to sing this at weddings.
(Yalkut Reuveni, Bereshit Rabbah)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Dedicated Today L'iluy nishmat Genendel Bat Yehudah.
To dedicate a "Daily Parsha: Did you know..?" please send us an email via our Contact Form: http://www.igeretyad.org - Thank you.
Photo Credits: http://nerartgallery.com/ (Dennis Bacchus)The United States might claim a broader democracy than those that prevailed in Europe. On the other hand, European states mobilized their populations with an efficiency that dazzled some Americans (notably Theodore Roosevelt) and appalled others (notably Wilson). The magazine founded by pro-war intellectuals in 1914, The New Republic, took its title precisely because its editors regarded the existing American republic as anything but the hope of tomorrow.
Yet as World War I entered its third year—and the first year of Tooze’s story—the balance of power was visibly tilting from Europe to America. The belligerents could no longer sustain the costs of offensive war. Cut off from world trade, Germany hunkered into a defensive siege, concentrating its attacks on weak enemies like Romania. The Western allies, and especially Britain, outfitted their forces by placing larger and larger war orders with the United States. In 1916, Britain bought more than a quarter of the engines for its new air fleet, more than half of its shell casings, more than two-thirds of its grain, and nearly all of its oil from foreign suppliers, with the United States heading the list. Britain and France paid for these purchases by floating larger and larger bond issues to American buyers—denominated in dollars, not pounds or francs. “By the end of 1916, American investors had wagered two billion dollars on an Entente victory,” computes Tooze (relative to America’s estimated GDP of $50 billion in 1916, the equivalent of $560 billion in today’s money).
That staggering quantity of Allied purchases called forth something like a war mobilization in the United States. American factories switched from civilian to military production; American farmers planted food and fiber to feed and clothe the combatants of Europe. But unlike in 1940-41, the decision to commit so much to one side’s victory in a European war was not a political decision by the U.S. government. Quite the contrary: President Wilson wished to stay out of the war entirely. He famously preferred a “peace without victory.” The trouble was that by 1916, the U.S. commitment to Britain and France had grown—to borrow a phrase from the future—too big to fail.
Tooze’s portrait of Woodrow Wilson is one of the most arresting novelties of his book. His Wilson is no dreamy idealist. The president’s animating idea was an American exceptionalism of a now-familiar but then-startling kind. His Republican opponents—men like Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Elihu Root—wished to see America take its place among the powers of the earth. They wanted a navy, an army, a central bank, and all the other instrumentalities of power possessed by Britain, France, and Germany. These political rivals are commonly derided as “isolationists” because they mistrusted the Wilson’s League of Nations project. That’s a big mistake. They doubted the League because they feared it would encroach on American sovereignty. It was Wilson who wished to remain aloof from the Entente, who feared that too close an association with Britain and France would limit American options. This aloofness enraged Theodore Roosevelt, who complained that the Wilson-led United States was “sitting idle, uttering cheap platitudes, and picking up [European] trade, whilst they had poured out their blood like water in support of ideals in which, with all their hearts and souls, they believe.” Wilson was guided by a different vision: Rather than join the struggle of imperial rivalries, the United States could use its emerging power to suppress those rivalries altogether. Wilson was the first American statesman to perceive that the United States had grown, in Tooze’s words, into “a power unlike any other. It had emerged, quite suddenly, as a novel kind of ‘super-state,’ exercising a veto over the financial and security concerns of the other major states of the world.”A talking point that’s not quite fully serious yet not quite trolling either. Two words, my friends: Rigged system.
In fact, Cruz won more votes in the Wisconsin primary — 531,129 — than Trump appears to have won in New York. With 98 percent of precincts counted, Trump has 518,601 votes in his home state. On the other hand, Trump will win at least 90 of New York’s 95 delegates to Cruz’s zero; in Wisconsin, Cruz’s big victory earned him 36 delegates, to Trump’s six.
With 99 percent reporting this morning, Trump’s now at 522,000 and change in New York. If you don’t like the Wisconsin comparison, we can do home-state comparisons instead. In Texas, Cruz got 104 delegates, about 15 more than Trump will get out of New York, despite pulling in more than twice the number of popular votes (1.2 million) that Trump did last night — and Cruz did it back when the field was bigger and he had to compete with Marco Rubio for conservative support. In Ohio, Kasich won 66 delegates on the strength of 950,000 votes, which means he got fewer delegates than Trump got last night despite topping his New York vote haul by 400,000 votes. In Texas and Ohio, Trump himself received more popular votes (around 750,000 in each) than he received in New York and won a grand total of 48 delegates for his trouble. In fact, thanks to the delegate “bonuses” that state and district winners receive, Trump overall is actually receiving slightly more delegates per percentage point of the popular vote he gets (1.22) than Cruz is (1.14). Shouldn’t every vote count equally?
Cruz isn’t complaining, though, because he knows (as does Rush Limbaugh) that the time to question whether delegates are being awarded correctly was before the primaries began, not in a fit of strategic petulance after you’ve gotten an outcome that you don’t like. I think Trump’s whining about the unfairness of the process is useful, though, to the extent it makes Republican voters think harder about how we should pick the nominee going forward. We could have the simplest possible system: No more delegates or majority requirements. Whoever gets the most popular votes across 50 states is the nominee. We could keep the system we have now, or something like it: Award a certain number of delegates per congressional district (either a fixed number or proportional based on population) plus bonus delegates based on the state’s overall population. The problem with that is that it rewards candidates for winning big states even if they’re not competitive states. The Republican nominee’s going to win Texas no matter who it is (I think) so why give Cruz a big delegate windfall for winning there? The Republican nominee’s going to lose New York, badly, no matter who it is — yes, really, Trump fans, despite your fondest fantasies — so why give Trump a delegate windfall for winning there? An alternative system would be to apply extra delegates to swing states like Ohio and Florida and give bonuses depending on turnout. Granted, high turnout in a primary is no guarantee of high turnout in the general, but it’s at least a gesture towards nominating the candidate who’d be most electable in the general.
Anyway. I think Cruzers and Trumpers each have a case for why last night was important or not. For Team Cruz, the spin is simple: Trump did exactly how he was expected to do. Read Michael Brendan Dougherty and Jeremy Carl for that argument at length. Everyone knew Trump was going to kick ass in New York, just like everyone knows he’s going to kick ass next week in the mid-Atlantic states. All of the estimates about whether he’ll make it to 1,237 before the convention assume blowouts for Trump this week and next, which means that next week matters in deciding the nomination only if he underperforms somewhere, which might be fatal to his chances. Says Carl:
The real final charge for the nomination begins not next week in the Northeast, but the following week in Indiana, the first of the final ten states to vote on ground that is much more favorable to Cruz. In fact, Cruz is favored in most of the last ten states, with only New Jersey and (narrowly) California falling into the Trump column.
But that brings us to Trumpers’ spin: What if Cruz underperforms in one of those final few states he’s supposed to win? What if last night’s distant third-place finish, behind even John Kasich for cripes sake, signals to undecideds in upcoming states that Cruz is a paper tiger and they’re better off sticking with Trump? Read John Podhoretz and Matt Lewis for that argument. “Momentum” is overrated — compare Cruz’s supposedly big win in Wisconsin to how he did last night — but a series of bad defeats for Cruz while Trump is out on the trail pointing out that he’s been mathematically eliminated from clinching a majority before the convention could shift enough persuadable voters against him to give Trump the votes he needs in Indiana and California to get 1,237 — or 1,200, or 1,180. Remember, in the unlikely event that you’d forgotten, that there will be several hundred unbound delegates up for grabs even on the first ballot in Cleveland, which means that Trump may be able to win even if he’s shy of 1,237 the day after California votes. Given the ferocious blue-state beating Cruz just took last night and looks set to take next week, how confident is he really that he can hold Trump down in Cali? See now why it’s not altogether a bad thing for Cruz that John Kasich, a more appealing candidate to blue-staters, is still in the race?
Exit quotation from Ben Shapiro, summing up last night’s outcome for anti-Trumpers everywhere: “The Smartest, Toughest People In The World™ voted overwhelmingly for a loudmouth braggart liar con man who whines about how mean Ted Cruz is to New Yorkers for suggesting they are leftists who vote for loudmouth braggart liar con men.”Welcome to the Galaxy Fitness Insider. This weekly feature will be written by Galaxy Strength & Conditioning Coach Ben Yauss and will look at how he interacts with the Galaxy players and applies performance training to maximize the players' physical development. Each week, Ben will focus on a different piece of the Galaxy players' overall training plan and use current examples of how these training techniques are being used by the players. Fans are encouraged to participate by leaving questions for Ben either in the chat box or at the bottom of each weekly article, which he will aim to incorporate into future posts. Please be advised that the information in the Galaxy Fitness Insider is for informational purposes only and not intended for use by all audiences.
Last week, we discussed the importance of implementing injury prevention programs into our training to try and reduce the likelihood of an injury. This week, we'll delve deeper into that topic, focusing on two of the most common muscle injures in soccer, to the hamstrings and groin. Injuries to these muscles are often the result of overuse and usually result in muscle pulls or strains. While in years past we would wait for these injuries to occur and then rehab them, we are now trying to take a more active approach to try and prevent these injuries before they occur. The idea behind this is that if we give the players a set of exercises to do on a daily basis that focus on proper muscle activation, proper form and mechanics, and proper mobility and stability that it would allow these players to be more efficient on the field and decrease some of these overuse injuries.
The entire team is given their own set of exercises that specifically focus on their own movement patterns, limitations, and imbalances but for today we are going to focus on how Todd Dunivant is using his program to work on strengthening his core and hips to keep him healthy this season.
READ: Despite Surgery, Dunivant still an Ironman for LA
Todd understands the importance of taking care of his body both on and off the pitch. He makes sure he is working with the entire staff on a daily basis to ensure that he is recovering and receiving the necessary treatment to keep his body working efficiently and correctly. Part of that daily ritual is the time he spends in the weight room every morning prior to practice going through his foam roll, core and hip exercises, and stretching routine to make sure that he is strengthening all the areas around his core and hips in order to prevent any groin related injuries.
Todd’s routine usually starts with the foam roll. The purpose of the foam roll is to release some of the tension and tightness that our muscles sustain from practice or games. When we have tight muscles we are not able to use our bodies as efficiently as possible because our muscles are not at their optimal length to function efficiently.
Todd spends time using the foam roller on his Quads, IT band (the outer part of our thighs), the glutes and hip flexors. By foam rolling these areas he is able to loosen all the muscles around his hips so that his body is aligned correctly.
WATCH: Todd demonstrates how to use the foam roller
After loosening his muscles, Todd goes through his core and hip strengthening circuit. By strengthening these muscles he will be able to rely on his core and glutes more on the field and not have to rely on the small groin and adductor muscles as much. These exercises consist of Pillar bridges, mini band exercises and single leg stability exercises.
WATCH: Todd demonstrates his core & hip strength circuit
The final part of Todd’s program is his flexibility or mobility exercises. These exercises are geared toward improving his range of motion in his hips. This will help him with his posture and form and allow him to be more nimble and agile on the pitch. These exercises include hip flexor, groin, and hamstring stretches.
WATCH: Todd goes through his flexibility exercises
When you add all these exercises up it allows Todd to go out on the field with a confidence that his body is working the correct way and he is going to be able to perform at the highest possible level.
Like Todd, all you need is about 15 minutes a day and you can give your body a head start in the fight against hamstring and groin injuries. Here is a sample program that you can incorporate in your own training programs to help prevent those nagging injuries
Foam Roller Foam Roll IT Band - 30 seconds
Foam Roll Quad - 30 seconds
Foam Roll TFL - 30 seconds
Foam Roll Adductor - 30 seconds
Core & Hip Strengthening Circuit Front Pillar Bridge - 30 seconds
Lateral Pillar Bridge - 20 seconds/side
Glute Bridge - 30 seconds
MiniBand External Rotation - 5 on each side
MiniBand Walk - 10 on each side
MiniBand Walk Lateral - 10 on each side
Single Leg Squat (w/MiniBand) - 10 on each side
Flexibility/Mobility Exercises Hip Flexor Stretch - hold for 20 seconds
Supine Knee Hug - 10 on each side
Inverted Hamstring - 5 on each side
90/90 Stretch - 10 on each side
Follow all of Ben's Galaxy Fitness Insider updates at www.lagalaxy.com/fitnessinsider. Fans are encouraged to participate by leaving questions for Ben either in the chat box on the page or at the bottom of each article, which he will aim to incorporate into these weekly posts.
READ: Preventing the Injury Before it's an InjuryI told myself yesterday that I wasn’t going to write another story about the ridiculous phony act that Rachel Dolezal is putting on.
And then I saw Alicia’s story about liberal nut job Michael Eric Dyson saying that more black people identify with Rachel Dolezal than Justice Clarence Thomas.
After listening to Dyson’s nonsense I didn’t think this story could produce anything more ridiculous.
Boy, was I wrong.
Apparently, 71% of MSNBC viewers said it’s perfectly fine for Rachel Dolezal to identify as a black transracial woman:
There’s weapons-grade stupid walking around in America today, folks.
These liberal idiots, from the dummies who watch and respond to MSNBC polls to boobs likes Michael Eric Dyson, are only giving Dolezal a pass because she’s a liberal.
The NAACP is the oldest and most useless civil rights organization in America. And Dolezal believed she had to dress up like a black Barbie doll to be the head of her local chapter.
Would these liberal loons give the same pass to a black person (not named Michael Jackson) who identified as white?
Hell no, they wouldn’t.Govinda Ahuja (born 21 December 1963), known mononymously as Govinda, is an Indian film actor, dancer, comedian and former politician known for his work in Hindi films. Known for his dancing skills, Govinda has received twelve Filmfare Award nominations, a Filmfare Special Award, a Filmfare Award for Best Comedian, and four Zee Cine Awards. The actor was a member of the Parliament of India from 2004 to 2009. Govinda's first film was 1986's Ilzaam, and he has appeared in over 165 Hindi films.[7] In June |
yards and three touchdowns on an efficient 21-of-33 passing while picking up 83 yards rushing and another score to help snap the Panthers' six-game losing streak. Backup running back Jonathan Stewart led the ground assault with 20 carries for 158 yards, including a career-long 69-yard touchdown run.
In all, the Saints allowed Carolina to run for 271 yards and two touchdowns while averaging 6.8 yards per carry.
Harper was measured in his assessment of his former defense, which was No. 4 overall last season when he was with them.
"I don't know, I can't really put my finger on it," said Harper, who was on the Saints' Super Bowl-winning team in 2009 and made the Pro Bowl that same season. "I just know today we played extremely well defensively and offensively. Offensively we didn't hurt ourselves, we didn't sputter, we didn't turn the ball over. We played fast and we had a fast start.
"That's the whole thing, (Saints coach) Sean Payton always likes to start about starting fast, but we were the fast team today. We out-tempoed them, we out hit them. You don't win a lot of games when you do that and you lose the turnover battle. That's a bad recipe."
Also unusual for Harper was hearing the boos and signs of discontent coming from the fans in the stands at the Superdome on Sunday. Loud sounds of booing could be heard as the Saints went in at halftime trailing 24-3 and in the calls of disappointment continued in the second half while some fans even engaged in throwing objects onto the field.
"I've never seen this place booed by halftime," Harper said. "They were emotional. I saw a beer come from like the top deck and I was like, 'Wow, where do they do this?' We were a little confused by that, but overall it's a great place, great city, a great atmosphere to play in. It feels so good to win here, I've won a lot of games here.
"I can only control what my team is going through right now. We've had a rough season ourselves, this whole division has been up and down. Nobody should be shocked by what is going on."
Like the Saints, the Panthers came in with a secondary that looked nothing like it did at the start of the season. Harper was the Panthers' lone defensive back who started the team's season opener.
Harper was playing with a patchwork of young defensive backs against the Saints and he challenged them during the week to step up to the challenge, saying the unit was "young and dumb." But the Panthers played tenaciously and aggressively, forcing Graham and the rest of the Saints' receivers into an uncharacteristic number of drops.
"When you are young you don't know any better," Harper said Sunday after being the last player to exit the Superdome field. "You don't know you are not supposed to lock down Drew Brees, you don't know you are not supposed to lock down Marques Colston or Jimmy Graham. You don't know. You just go out there and play."Unions oversee closure of Sheppey steel mill in UK
By John Clayton and Mike Gardner
22 February 2012
Four hundred workers employed by Thamesteel in Kent, England, were made redundant and left unpaid when the company was taken into receivership at the end of January.
The trade unions representing Thamesteel workers, Community, did nothing to resist the closure. They have done all in their power to limit workers’ response to a bankrupt appeal to the government to save the plant, offering their managerial services to help administrators find a new buyer and organise retraining for sacked workers.
Michael Leahy, general secretary of Community (formerly the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation) and Trades Union Congress president last year, claims that he and his members were only given 48 hours’ notice of the Thamesteel mill closing. Yet recycling companies have revealed that the mill had stopped taking scrap metal last November. Workers at the plant told World Socialist Web Site reporters that orders had dried up over the previous weeks.
It is more than likely that the union participated with management to bring about an “orderly closure.” Like all unions, Community long ago became integrated into management structures, going so far as setting set up its own training organisation, Communitas, to oversee downsizing and plant closures.
Communitas EU Ltd (formerly Steel Partnership Training Ltd) was created in 1997 and became a wholly owned subsidiary of the union in 2000. It has received substantial financial support from various UK government funds and EU sources to provide joint union-management training courses, “redundancy support services” and “lifelong learning skills.” It boasts that its policies have had “a key role to play in responses to restructuring, and pointed to the importance both of early intervention, particularly in the period between the announcement and enactment of redundancies, and post redundancy provision.”
The union has plans to go one step further and launch its own recruitment agency. Leahy has made it clear that the days of mass strike action are long gone and that the union’s role is now to help individuals “re-construct their lives through the personal development of their own skill, responsibility and effort.”
In an address to the Institute of Welsh Affairs in 2007, Leahy said, “We want to promote British manufacturing…. We are pioneering a new form of trade unionism which builds on our longstanding presence in communities once based on traditional industries.”
He described how, “Typically, the steel industry in Wales and the UK as a whole has seen productivity increases averaging ten percent per annum over the last twenty years.”
Unsurprisingly, he made no mention of the benefits accruing to steel workers of these huge productivity hikes—because there were none.
Leahy then warned that the steel boom was coming to an end and that Britain had to compete with the likes of India’s Tata Steel, whose success stemmed from “its access to raw materials, low operating costs, and company culture allied to comprehensive training at all levels for continuous improvement.”
Pointing to the fact that Tata’s Indian operations were six times more profitable than its European ones, Leahy called for more consolidation of the European steel industry, greater government and European intervention and action against imports from the Far East. The steel industry would only be able to develop the “trust and confidence” needed to “tackle and resolve” the problems ahead “through concerted action and planning involving the unions.”
With these words, Leahy made clear the unions intend that their members shoulder the financial burden of maintaining the profitability of steel manufacturers.
Within months, the workforce at Tata-owned Corus agreed to cuts in overtime and production bonuses, followed, according to the Financial Times, by an offer by the steel unions to accept a 10 percent pay cut. Steel plant closures increased, including the last remaining production on Teesside in 2010.
Community union representatives told WSWS reporters last week that the steel mill still has 50 staff working inside, mainly for security reasons. The security guard on the gate revealed that six of those were union officials. Union officials have been liaising daily with the administrators “who felt confident there would be a buyer for the plant.” They claimed the mood of the workforce was “upbeat” with a view to a possible buyout. When asked who was interested in the buyout, no answer was forthcoming.
Tariq
Tariq, a redundant worker, explained, “We have been told absolutely nothing by Thamesteel. No contact at all. There has been no response from the owners Al-Turwairqi Holdings, but we are just hoping that someone will buy the company and we can get back to work.
“We knew something wasn’t right because we had no orders coming in—because of the current economic situation nobody was buying steel. The high price of scrap metal has also had an impact on the production costs of new steel.
“There is only one company and now there is a loss of 400 jobs, so everybody is in a deep trouble, especially people who have got a family, kids, mortgages to pay. They have to pay all their bills and we haven’t been paid for January. This is very tough to survive!
“Everyone wants a job as soon as possible. I want to get back to a normal life. Some of these men are highly skilled workers who are desperate to stay in the industry that they are trained for. But the jobs available are only offering very basic wages—nothing like we were earning at the plant. If you lose your job at the steel works, there is no chance of another job in this industry on this island. So people have to look for work in supermarkets and warehouses where the money is no good.
“All the available jobs I have seen are all around the minimum wage of £6 an hour.”
The Isle of Sheppey, where Thamesteel is located, ought to be a thriving place. A spectacular road bridge, the Sheppey Crossing, links the island to mainland Kent over the River Swale, a Thames estuary. From there, fast motorways lead to nearby London. Sheerness, the largest town on the island, is a natural deepwater harbour. The town’s long cobbled High Street and its many shops conjure up an image of quaintness and prosperity, but first impressions can be misleading.
On closer look, many retail premises have been closed, and “To Let” signs are a regular and depressing feature along the thoroughfare. Elsewhere in the town, once thriving industries are threatened with closure.
Bobbie
In Sheerness, Bobbie said, “Unemployment on this island is massive—about 60 percent—and now another 400 are out of work. You can tell by the town. Everything is closed. There is a boys’ club which is threatened with closure because of costs—there’s nowhere to go. Not a cinema, nothing. All we’ve got is pubs. They haven’t even got the hope of a job. I think they have all lost hope. Even the kids aren’t going to school.”
A young man described the environmental pollution that used to come from the mill. “We are all getting poisoned from the iron oxide film which can be seen on cars.”
Workers who complained about health and safety were “got rid of…. The unions make it easy for the company”.
A retired print union rep added, “What the unions are doing is nothing. They are corrupt.”The G-1 League finals in China has been amazing to watch. The world champions iG were the first team to be eliminated, Alliance finished with a perfect 6-0 record and a number of new strategies were unleashed. As the dust settled and Alliance were declared the winners, taking the title from the Chinese in their own backyards, the results and gameplay seen fom the worlds best teams will no doubt have influence throught the Dota 2 community.
The Upsets
Whether due to the rumoured internal issues, a lack of tournament practice opportunities or their legacy of G-1 troubles come back to haunt them, but iG was not on form. Able to pick up only one win in the LAN finals against DK they were consistently out-drafted and out-played and seemed uncomfortable against the current Western play style and were surprisingly the first team to be knocked out of the tournament. iG even attempted to run an Io/Chaos Knigh against Alliance with a lineup that didn’t really seem to gel, and although they were able to shut down AdmiralBulldog’s Lone Druid early they were convincingly beaten in the end, unable to take full advantage of Io’s relocate.
Of course iG is still the world champions and can by no means be considered out of the running for TI3. They're still a team of some of the most talented players in the world and will no doubt walk away from this tournament having learned a lot of hard lessons. One thing is certain, next time we see them they will have something to prove.
The real story to take from this tournament of course is that of Alliance. They hit the ground running with a level one Roshan (more on that later) and moved from strength to strength throughout the tournament. They combined the typical Western theme of high individual player skill with the calm and level headed play that is normally the hallmark of a Chinese team. They rarely made unforced errors and by minimising risky plays were able to take the game even if the early game didn’t go according to plan.
No matter where they placed though, every team at the G-1 every team made plays worthy of taking home to tell the grandkids. Liquid.Korok’s Aegis steal was one of the ballsiest moves I’ve ever seen in Dota 2 and Orange’s Witch Doctor play might just inspire other teams to pick him up. At the end of the day every team held their own against the worlds best and each can leave the stadium in Shanghai with their heads held high.
The Mind Games
Alliance wasn’t just playing well at this tournament, they were almost playing on another level to everyone else. Their teleport in for a level 1 Roshan has been called cheesy, but from a mind games perspective is very clever. Heading out of their comfort zone into a LAN in China, where the Chinese teams are going to be at a home advantage and coming out in their first game with such a bold move whilst all the other teams watch on puts everyone else on the back foot.
This means that for every game afterwards Alliance’s opponents would be holding back, waiting for the tricks that weren't necessarily coming. The level one courier snipe, although more luck than a planned strategy, only added to this sense of Alliance as an unstoppable force that would catch you unawares when you least expect it.
The New Meta
New meta is perhaps too strong a phrase, but we saw quite a few unusual picks throughout the G-1 finals as well as some new lane combinations. Much to Aui's delight Visage showed some very strong aggressive trilane presence. His early range and damage is enormous and well placed birds can stun all five heroes for two seconds. We saw him used by several teams, but LGD in particular used him very cleverly in a support trilane with Earthshaker and Jakiro. All of these heroes can initiate at long range form level one and heavily punish even a slight positioning error.
Why this trilane is particularly clever though is because typically the result of the trilane is hugely important and with over half the team there a poor laning phase for a trilane can mean a lost game. However by having three supports in the lane it removes the pressure of having to win the lane as there isn’t a carry to get farmed and the supports can just leech experience. With such initiation distance though LGD was able to use the lane aggressively, taking first blood and severely hampering the effectiveness of Orange’s Io/Chaos Knight combo.
Probably the most important thing the G-1 League has shown us in how closely the Chinese metagame now mirrors that of the West. They’ve seen the power of the Wisp (...sigh, I mean Io) and have been tempted. LGD.int have said that they have about an 80% winrate against iG while using it and pairing him up with heroes like Chaos Knight is something we’re now seeing teams like LGD and iG try to adopt.
Gyrocopter is another hero that Eastern teams have accepted from the West with open arms. Proving even more popular than the beloved Anti Mage he was one of the most popular carries for the Chinese in the tournament, although they don’t seem to have adopted other carries such as Lifestealer with as much enthusiasm. Similarly Nature’s Prophet has begun to appear in their rosters, but once again is a hero they seem uncomfortable handling, perhaps due to their focus on teamwork, something that Nature's Prophet is not famous for.
There were also some very unusual picks such as Omniknight, Spectre and the aforementioned Witch Doctor which made sure that every game had something new and exciting to see. We also saw the power of the Chinese Kunkka mid lane strategy, something that has become a standard pick now for a lot of Eastern teams. Will this have had an effect on the overall metagame though? You’ll just have to wait for my upcoming May analysis to find out!
Make sure if you check out the replays if you haven’t already seen the games, and congratulations to all the teams who participated, and Alliance for taking out the win. Thanks too to everyone at Beyond the Summit who have been working hard at all hours no stop between the Eastern Qualifiers, the Dota Super League and the G-1 qualifiers. And as always thanks to you for reading, and until next time happy gaming! Second Flight Instrument Delivered for James Webb Space Telescope
by Staff Writers
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 16, 2012
The second of four main instruments to fly aboard NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) has been delivered to NASA. The Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) will enable the telescope to accurately and precisely point at the correct, intended objects for it to observe.
The FGS is packaged together as a single unit with the Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) science instrument.
FGS/NIRISS arrived at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., July 30. It has been undergoing inspection before post-delivery testing and then integration into Webb's science instrument payload known as the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM).
"This is an exciting event," said Scott Lambros, Webb telescope Instrument Systems Manager at NASA Goddard. "The FGS instrument is part of the integrated control system that performs the extremely fine pointing and stability needed for the Observatory; while the NIRISS instrument will provide great science and new discovery space.
This milestone is the culmination of many years of hard work by our Canadian partners. We have had great cooperation between the FGS team and the Webb telescope team and look forward to continued cooperation integrating the instrument into the ISIM and Observatory."
The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) developed the Webb's Fine Guidance Sensor and the Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph. The FGS will direct the telescope precisely, allowing it to study stars and planets forming in other stellar systems.
Both were designed, built and tested by COM DEV International in Ottawa and Cambridge, Ontario, Canada with technical contributions from the University of Montreal and the National Research Council Canada, and scientific guidance of the FGS science team.
"Imagine the challenge at hand here: design and deliver technology capable of unprecedented levels of precision to conduct breakthrough science on board the largest, most complex and most powerful telescope ever built," said Steve MacLean, President of the CSA, Longueil, Quebec, Canada.
The FGS consists of two identical cameras that are critical to Webb's ability to "see."
Their images will allow the telescope to determine its position, locate its celestial targets, and remain pointed to collect high-quality data. The FGS will guide the telescope with incredible precision, with an accuracy of one millionth of a degree of angle.
Although the NIRISS is packaged with the FGS, it is functionally independent. NIRISS provides unique capabilities that will aid in finding the earliest and most distant objects in the Universe's history. It will also peer through the glare of nearby young stars to unveil new Jupiter-like exoplanets.
It will have the capability of detecting the thin atmosphere of small, habitable, Earth-like planets and determine its chemical composition to seek water vapor, carbon dioxide and other potential biomarkers such as methane and oxygen.
The most powerful space telescope ever built, Webb is the successor to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Webb's four instruments will reveal how the universe evolved from the Big Bang to the formation of our solar system. Webb is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
The FGS-NIRISS science team is jointly led by Dr. John Hutchings of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and Professor Rene Doyon from the University of Montreal, Director of the Mont-Megantic Observatory and member of the Quebec Center of Astrophysics Research (Centre de recherche en astrophysique du Quebec) or CRAQ. The team includes astronomers from: COM DEV; the NRC; Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI); the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland (ETH Zurich); the University of Montreal; the University of Rochester, N.Y.; and the University of Toronto, Canada.12.4 Litre Radial-Engined 1939 Plymouth Pickup Reading time: about 2 minutes. American
Cars
Retro
Dropping a 12.4 litre Jacobs R-755 radial engine into a 1939 Plymouth pickup truck seems like the sort of thing you might do if you’d been tasked with the job of building a modern chariot for Mars – the ancient Roman God of War.
The truck is the work of the Corns family, based out of Colorado where they run a 40 acre salvage yard with hundreds of vehicles and tens of thousands of parts. Each Wednesday evening the Corns family invites friends to come by and they set to work on a project vehicle – the rules for joining this weekly get together are “Love cars, bring beer, and have a sense of humour.”
The project for the radial-engined truck began years ago when Gary Corns bought the beat up old 1939 Plymouth from a regular customer. It sat for over 30 years as they worked on other projects and ruminated over what they should to with it – until one day when Corns senior found an old seaplane in a nearby airplane wrecking yard that still had its Jacobs R-755 radial engine bolted to the front.
The first order of business was to see if they could get the old radial to run, amazingly it fired up with minimal fuss in a cloud of smoke and a roar that would send a chill down the spine of Cthulhu.
The Corns team set about finding a suitable single-barrel updraft carburettor on eBay, they then fabricated the parts needed to fit it to the Jacobs R-755. Once it was fitted the ignition system could be tuned and the valve clearances adjusted to within specification – likely for the first time in decades.
The Plymouth truck’s original chassis was beyond saving so a new tube chassis was welded up, this also allowed them to extend the front of the truck to allow adequate room for the new power plant. The body was heavily modified as it was fitted to the new chassis, rivets were used extensively as a hat-tip to the aeronautical past of the 7 cylinder radial and the attention to detail is remarkable.
If you’d like to read more about the truck you can click here, if you’d like to visit the Corns Family website you can click here.What happens in Vegas DOESN'T stay in Vegas with new street lights that can record your conversations
Wireless street lights can play music, video, interact with pedestrians and have 'Homeland Security' applications like video surveillance monitors
Las Vegas r esidents worry that the lights are an invasion of privacy -
'Who's protecting our rights?
Some cities in the UK and Holland have street lights that reprimand pedestrians for minor offenses like littering
Las Vegas is currently installing Intellistreet lights to their well-lit city. But Intellistreets are not just any street-lighting system.
The wireless, LED lighting, computer-operated lights are not only capable of illuminating streets, they can also play music, interact with pedestrians and are equipped with video screens, which can display police alerts, weather alerts and traffic information. The high tech lights can also stream live video of activity in the surrounding area.
But there's one major concern.These new street lights, being rolled out with the aid of government funding, are also capable of recording video and audio.
New street lights currently being installed in Las Vegas are capable of recording video and audio. Some worry this is yet another attempt by authorities to potentially invade the public's privacy.
Neil Rohleder with the Public Works Department told NBC News 3 in Las Vegas that the main reason for installing the new lighting system is not to record anyone or anything.
'We want to develop more than just the street lighting component,' Rohleder said. 'We want to develop an experience for the people who come downtown.'
But some residents worry that the lights, which are currently being tested in and around Las Vegas City Hall, are an invasion of privacy.
Civil rights activist, Daphne Lee told NBC News 3 that she is worried about her freedom as an American citizen.
“This technology, you know is taking us to a place where, you know, you’ll essentially be monitored from the moment you leave your home till the moment you get home,” said Lee.
On Intellistreets website, inventor Ron Harwood explains that cameras for surveillance and recording devices can be installed in the light fixtures. But Las Vegas public works director, Jorge Servantes told News 3 that recording pedestrians is not in the cards in the immediate future.
'Right now our intention is not to have any cameras or recording devices,' Servantes said. 'It’s just to provide output out there, not to get any feed or video feed coming back.'
That said, the lights are being touted as security devices that can assist with 'Homeland Security' measures by providing applications like video surveillance and motion sensors.
Lee wonders who protecting our rights?
Las Vegas is currently installing Intellistreet lights to their well-lit city. The wireless, LED lighting, computer-operated lights are not only capable of illuminating streets, they can also play music, interact with pedestrians and are equipped with video screens. They are also capable of recording video and audio.
'At what point do we say this is the land of the free,' Lee told News 3. 'People have a right to a reasonable amount of privacy.'
But Harwood defended his lighting system when he spoke with MSNBC in 2011.
'I find that when I have to go to the airport and I have to take most of my clothes off and walk through a scanner, that's far more invasive than anything Intellistreets does,' Harwood said.
Some cities in the UK and Holland already have street lights that can talk and take surveillance video. They also reprimand people for minor offenses like littering.
In addition to recording capabilities the Intellistreet lights are energy efficient. They use far less energy than traditional street lamp systems.
With the installation of street lights capable of recording audio and video surveillance in Las Vegas, civil rights activist, Daphne Lee is worried about her freedom as an American citizen.
The company website states the 'LED luminaire (lighting) saves more than 50% in energy while the addition of the Intellistreets PTM (Post Top Module) further enables a 25% reduction in energy and an additional 3 year life extension of the light engine.'
While the lights are controlled by remote Internet-based module, Harwood told MSNBC that he is not worried about hackers because the system is encrypted.Debbie Reynolds, film star and the mother of "Star Wars" actress Carrie Fisher, has died at 84. (Nicki DeMarco,Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)
Debbie Reynolds, a Hollywood icon and the mother of Carrie Fisher, died Wednesday, her son said. She was 84.
Her death comes one day after the death of daughter Fisher, who was 60 and had suffered an apparent heart attack on Friday. Reynolds was rushed to the hospital on Wednesday, where she died, her son, Todd Fisher, told the Associated Press.
“She’s now with Carrie and we’re all heartbroken,” Fisher said from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the AP reported.
Todd Fisher told the wire service that the stress brought on by the death of his sister “was too much” for Reynolds.
According to TMZ, Reynolds had been in a Beverly Hills home to discuss funeral plans for her daughter when the family called 911 to report a possible stroke.
“She wanted to be with Carrie,” Todd Fisher told Variety.
1 of 31 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × The life and career of Debbie Reynolds (1932-2016) View Photos Mary Frances “Debbie” Reynolds, actor, singer, entertainer and humanitarian died at age 84. Caption Mary Frances “Debbie” Reynolds, actor, singer, entertainer and humanitarian died at age 84. Actress Debbie Reynolds poses for a portrait in New York. Richard Drew/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
Born Mary Frances in El Paso, Texas, Reynolds went from teenage beauty queen to a Hollywood star, catapulting to fame after landing a lead role in the 1952 musical “Singin’ in the Rain.” Her contract with powerhouse studio MGM coincided with her rise, and she ended up with a bright career as an actress, singer and dancer, on screen and on Broadway.
She earned an Oscar nomination in 1964 for her role in “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.” She never won an Academy Award, but in 2015, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave her a humanitarian award for her philanthropic work, which included mental health advocacy.
Her personal life also became gossip page fodder when her husband, singer Eddie Fisher, left her for Elizabeth Taylor. He is the father to Carrie and Todd Fisher.
Reynolds had her breakout performance in “Singin’ in the Rain” when she was only 19 — the same age her daughter, Carrie Fisher, would be years later when she first played Princess Leia in “Star Wars.”
Mother and daughter had a fraught relationship over the years; the two were estranged for some time, but eventually reconciled. A documentary about their lives together, “Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds,” is scheduled to air in 2017 on HBO.
After Fisher suffered a heart attack Friday during a flight from London to Los Angeles, Reynolds publicly stated that her daughter was in stable condition.
Fisher died two days later.
“Thank you to everyone who has embraced the gifts and talents of my beloved and amazing daughter,” Reynolds, 84, wrote on her Facebook page on Wednesday. “I am grateful for your thoughts and prayers that are now guiding her to her next stop.”
Fisher and Reynolds were considered Hollywood royalty, and their deaths — just a day apart — were met with an outpouring of grief by fellow performers.
Debbie Reynolds, a legend and my movie mom. I can't believe this happened one day after Carrie. My heart goes out to Billie. — Albert Brooks (@AlbertBrooks) December 29, 2016
https://twitter.com/msdebbieallen/status/814290546202021890
Debbie Reynolds was one of the last of Hollywood Royalty. It breaks my heart that she is gone. I'd hoped that my grieving was done for 2016. — William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) December 29, 2016
https://twitter.com/SeanHayes/status/814297345131061248
Read more:
The memorable roles that show Carrie Fisher was more than just Princess Leia
Carrie Fisher, the inspiring mental health advocate
[This post has been updated.]Image copyright PA
The UK will continue to take part in the Erasmus student exchange programme until at least the end of 2020, the prime minister has said.
Theresa May praised Erasmus+ and confirmed the UK would still be involved after Brexit in March 2019.
Whether it is involved long term is among issues likely to be discussed during the next stage of negotiations.
Erasmus+ sees students study in another European country for between three and 12 months as part of their degree.
The prime minister is in Brussels where she will have dinner with EU leaders on Thursday.
On Friday, without Mrs May, they are expected to formally approve a recommendation that "sufficient progress" has been made in Brexit negotiations so far to move them onto the next stage.
Mrs May agreed a draft deal with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker last week which would mean the UK would continue its funding of EU projects, including Erasmus, until the end of this EU budget period in 2020.
If EU leaders approve the draft deal, Brexit negotiations can begin on the next phase, covering the future relationship between the UK and EU and a two-year transition or implementation deal from March 2019. It is not clear whether this would include Erasmus+.
Mrs May said that British students benefitted from studying in the EU while UK universities were a popular choice for European students.
Speaking during a discussion on education and culture at the summit in Brussels, she added: "I welcome the opportunity to provide clarity to young people and the education sector and reaffirm our commitment to the deep and special relationship we want to build with the EU."The device is placed under the skin and will release anti-HIV drugs in the body over the course of a single year.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has teamed up with Intarcia Therapeutics to invest upwards of $140 million with the intent of developing the first once or twice-yearly anti-HIV prophylactic to help prevent the spread of HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa and other countries.
The announcement came on the heels of Intarcia securing $220 million in the second close of the Series EE Equity Financing. A third and final close is planed in the first quarter of 2017.
The initiative is a Medici Drug Delivery System that delivers matchstick-sized devices to be implanted under the skin and release medication continuously. Once placed, water from the extracellular fluid enters the pump device at one end that expands to drive a piston at a controlled rate. This allows the drug within the pump to be released in a steady, consistent fashion at the other end of the device, states the press release. Each design will hold an appropriate volume of drug to treat a person for a whole year.
Researchers are also seeking approval for a device that will do the same thing for people living with diabetes.
“There’s a vital need for an HIV/AIDS intervention that allows those at risk to incorporate prevention more easily into their daily lives,” Sue Desmond-Hellmann, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said in a statement. “We feel optimistic about our partnership with Intarcia and the prospect of an implantable prophylactic device that could make a world of difference for people most in need,”
According to Bloomberg, the Gates Foundation is providing $50 million upfront, and will possibly give $90 million more in grants depending on how the program goes.A Manhattan-based developer is reconfiguring its planned 1,197-unit Hunters Point South apartment complex because of the complex engineering involved in accommodating an Amtrak tunnel and power lines that run under the city-owned project site, Crain's has learned. As part of the new design, developer TF Cornerstone will include a 600-seat school for the rapidly growing neighborhood on the Queens waterfront.
"The plan changed, and it needed to change based on what they discovered underneath the site," said City Council Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer, who represents the area and pushed for the elementary seats. "But their delay is to the benefit of the 600 kids who will be able to go to that school." Van Bramer said the city last week sent TF Cornerstone a letter confirming its intent to build the school. In 2013, the Bloomberg administration selected the developer and nonprofit partner Selfhelp to build an ODA Architects-designed residential project, including 700 affordable apartments, and 100 more reserved for seniors on part of the Queens peninsula dubbed Hunters Point South. Nearly two and a half years later, though, blueprints have yet to be finalized. Amtrak and the New York Power Authority must sign off on the plans. Amtrak has been negotiating with TF Cornerstone since March 2015 to ensure construction doesn't damage the rail tunnel. It is not clear what aspect of the underground infrastructure took the developers by surprise, given that plans for the peninsula released in 2008 indicated whoever controlled the site would have to build around multiple easements.
TF Cornerstone referred questions about the project to the city. A spokesman for City Hall said the city is in “productive discussions” about adding a school to the site, but did not confirm that a letter of intent had been sent.
Under the original configuration, TF Cornerstone had looked at erecting an education or cultural center in a separate building on the site. But when the firm had to redraw its plans, Van Bramer and other community advocates pushed for a school to accommodate an influx of families as construction proliferates. Hunters Point South alone is set to bring 5,000 new apartments to the Long Island City waterfront, which is served by just one elementary school that is already at capacity, Van Bramer said. The school in the TF Cornerstone building will be paid for with funds announced in Mayor Bill de Blasio's preliminary budget earlier this year. Developers of the first project in Hunters Point South—a 1,100-seat school and two affordable housing buildings with a combined 925 units—broke ground two years after being selected by the city for the job. Construction of TF Cornerstone's project could be a year or more away.Until now, patients who suffer from one of the most common causes of vision loss have had little hope for treatment. Age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, typically strikes people older than 60 by thinning a layer of cells at the back of the eye known as the retinal pigment epithelium. This layer of cells eliminates waste from the eye and nourishes photoreceptors, the neurons that absorb and convert the light that creates the images we see. As the disease progresses, photoreceptors die, and patients lose central vision—the ability to see what is directly in front of them; peripheral vision is not affected.
Embryonic stem cells may be able to halt the progress of the disease. When researchers used stem cells to create new retinal pigment cells and injected them under the retinas of rats, the new cells helped restore the epithelium, temporarily stopping the degeneration of the retina and rescuing threatened photoreceptors.
This spring scientists will test this method in patients for the first time. The clinical trial, led by biotech company Advanced Cell Technology, will focus on treating the most common form of macular degeneration, known as atrophic (dry) AMD. “There’s a desperate need to be thinking about cell therapies for blinding diseases because not a lot else is coming down the pike,” says Marie Csete, former chief scientific officer at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, a research funding agency (she is not involved in the trial).
Some critics warn that patients’ immune systems could reject the foreign cells, and that undifferentiated stem cells could turn into cancer cells. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer at Advanced Cell Technology, says his team has addressed both concerns. For one, the eye is immune-privileged, meaning it is less likely than other organs to reject foreign tissue; indeed, rejection was not an issue in trials on rats. The company has also developed a test to detect a single undifferentiated stem cell among the retinal pigment cells they will give to patients.
If trials prove the treatment is safe, Lanza will test it on patients with earlier stages of AMD, the better to prevent the onset of the disease. At best, though, the treatment would spare vision but not restore sight that has already been lost.The Trump Administration The 45 |
US military services, US SOCOM, and the US Coast Guard either fully adopted or accepted the PMAG as their primary magazine offering.
At Magpul, our entire line of magazines is designed, manufactured, and tested to exceed anything you’re likely to ask of them. Our demanding scientific testing procedures go well beyond what others consider “requirements,” and the results are clear. After a successful decade on the battlefield, where reliability counts most, the PMAG has earned the title of the most-fielded polymer magazine for the AR15/M4 family of weapons platforms.RULES
This is only a non-exhaustive summary of the basic rules of the game.
Participation in the game indicates that you have read all the rules and are willing to comply with them.
Basics
This game will be hosted by Jeff Probst / Ashley Neleh.
Please respect all players, as well as the host.
Jeff will make firm and final decisions where necessary.
[II] Activity
Also keep in mind that if you do not participate in a challenge or meet Tr!bal Council or other game requirements, you will receive a BURN.
A total of 4 burns received will disqualify you from Surv!vor automatically, and you will be evacuated.
[III] Challenges
!mmunity Challenges will usually last between 20 to 24 hours to accommodate players from all time-zones, unless otherwise specified.
Reward Challenges will be conducted differently.
Challenges can be for Reward or!mmunity, and they can be tribal, team-based, or individual.
[IV] Tr!bal Councils
Players have around 20 to 24 hours to submit their elimination votes for Tr!bal Council.
Other detailed Tr!bal Council rules will be made known upon progress of the game.
[V] Disclaimer
Surv!vor and the! Series are not connected with CBS or CBS Survivor in any way.
It is a not-for-profit online role-playing game which acknowledges that it borrows the concept, format and images from CBS Survivor.
Depictions and portrayals of castaways are fictitious and not intended to be representations of actual persons or CBS Survivor castaways.
The creator shall not bear any responsibility for any resemblance to any persons in any defamation or libel proceedings.
If you are a copyright owner and have concerns about any potentially infringing material, please contact me immediately.In a bid to calm growing privacy concerns about the government’s spying powers, President Obama outlined a series of steps Friday aimed at ushering in “concrete and substantial” reforms to the National Security Agency.
“Americans recognized that we had to adapt to a world in which a bomb could be built in a basement and our electric grid could be shut down by operators an ocean away,” the president said during a major policy speech at the Justice Department.
“And yet,” he added, “in our rush to respond to very real and novel threats, the risks of government overreach — the possibility that we lose some of our core liberties in pursuit of security — became more pronounced.”
“The reforms I’m proposing today,” Obama said toward the end of the speech, “should give the American people greater confidence that their rights are being protected, even as our intelligence and law-enforcement agencies maintain the tools they need to keep us safe.”
Obama will ask Attorney General Eric Holder and senior intelligence officials to forge a path forward that preserves the capabilities of the program without government retention of the data. The president is asking for a report outlining data-transfer options before March 28, when the collection program comes up for reauthorization.
Additionally, intelligence analysts will now be required to obtain approval from a secret court before querying information from the vast telephone database.
The metadata program, Obama said, “does not involve the content of phone calls, or the names of people making calls. Instead, it provides a record of phone numbers and the times and lengths of calls — metadata that can be queried if and when we have a reasonable suspicion that a particular number is linked to a terrorist organization.”
Obama defended the bulk collection of metadata in part by raising the spectre of 9/11. “One of the 9/11 hijackers — Khalid al-Mihdhar — made a phone call from San Diego to a known al-Qaida safe house in Yemen,” Obama said. “NSA saw that call, but could not see that it was coming from an individual already in the United States.” The metadata program, the president said, was created to remedy that problem.
The NSA will also reduce from three to two the number of “hops,” or degrees of separation, from a suspected target it can jump when analyzing communications data. In his speech, Obama said this change would be “effective immediately.”
The White House also released a policy directive Friday morning, which recognizes that “signals-intelligence activities and the possibility that such activities may be improperly disclosed to the public pose multiple risks,” including harming international relationships. The directive also orders that “privacy and civil liberties shall be integral considerations in the planning of U.S. signals-intelligence activities.”
While the president recognized the surveillance program has grown in recent years, he also strongly defended those who work in the intelligence community, saying they do not abuse power. “After all,” he said, “the folks at NSA and other intelligence agencies are our neighbors and our friends.”
“Those who defend these programs are not dismissive of civil liberties,” Obama said.
Obama also called on Congress to create a panel of outside advocates to provide an “independent voice” in significant cases before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Currently, the court only hears arguments from the government in favor of surveillance.
It’s unclear how closely this outside panel would resemble the recommendation from the president’s own NSA review group for a special advocate to argue in favor of stronger privacy protections before the secretive court.
Technology companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft have been clamoring to reveal more information about the requests they receive from the NSA for user data. They argue that the secrecy surrounding the surveillance has heightened privacy fears and discouraged people from using their services.Nacka municipality in Sweden is being accused of buying apartments costing over 13.9 million kronor for a Muslim migrant and his 3 wives.
They say the claims have been spread by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrat party.
“Nacka municipality has not purchased housing for any individual. The municipal's purchase of bostadsrätter is part of the work of arranging housing for new arrivals with a residence permit,” they said.
MORE: “I'm the immigrant f---ing your daughter” state-backed Swedish Institute gives control of official Twitter account to migrant
According to The Local, bostadsrätter is “a type of private housing cooperative which is a common form of home ownership in Sweden.”
However, despite the municipality's claims The Local reports that they have bought 94 bostadsrätter worth around 305 million kronor since January last year. The majority of the apartments are rented out to newly arrived immigrants.
DISGUSTING: Swedish government kicks family out of their home, gives it to Muslim refugees
One of those apartments went to a 57-year-old man, his wife and their children. Two more apartments were allocated to women who were registered in official Swedish records as both married to the same 57-year-old man.
While polygamy is illegal in Sweden, marriages are valid if they took place in a country where polygamy is allowed and the couple have no ties to Sweden at the time.
What do you think? Leave a comment below.It was the best of times it was the worst of times (and a time of anachronistic literary references apparently). The Enlightenment. Never before had mankind been so purposeful in its great venture to shine the clarity of reason upon the wilderness of nature, upon the hysterical madness of women, upon all the surface of the world, nay upon all the fabric of the universe itself! Reason. Logic. Clarity of thought. These were the qualities which drove truly enlightened thinking. Gravitation. The Scientific Method. Algebra. Mathematics. Overzealous Use of Capital Letters. These things would lead mankind forward and onward into progression until finally we, the men that is, would reach the pinnacle of knowledge, the imaginary point to which all scientific endeavour inevitably leads, when we will finally occupy the place of the omnipresent God that we have proven doesn’t exist.
Science lads; it’s a load of hocus pocus. The Romantics were well aware of this. While Newton was busy wasting time on his equations and the industrialists were cramming orphans into the workhouses the Romantics were busy not wearing any shoes and smelling all the flowers they could get their pretty little hands on. Of all the poetic movements which have existed Romanticism is the one which helped establish the idea of the poet as the waifish, emotionally truculent, shoeless, penniless, star gazing youth. For that fact alone it should be readily applauded. The poetry itself isn’t half bad either.
A reaction against the rational Romanticism was rooted in the emotional, the power of the individual imagination, and in the sublime and often overpowering beauty of nature. The poets who lead the movement were a bizarre and mismatched lot who led fascinating lives full of raunchy drug fuelled sex parties between which they wrote poetry about truth and beauty and nature. There was one, however, who was a romantic well before it was cool…
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William Blake – The Hipster
William Blake was a lot of things. He was a poet. He was a painter. He was a religious fanatic. He was an absolutely crazy mother fucker. Here’s a little taster of what Blake was writing back in the day;
Bring me my Bow of burning gold; Bring me my Arrows of desire: Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold! Bring me my Chariot of fire! I will not cease from Mental Fight, Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand: Till we have built Jerusalem, In England’s green & pleasant Land
Now before all you atheists start getting your secular knickers in a twist it’s important to look at exactly what philosophy Blake was pushing.
What does this mean? Honestly I don’t know. All I do know is that I want to have a sword fight right fucking now. As I’m sure you can tell from that passage Blake is the fire and brimstone type. Now before all you atheists start getting your secular knickers in a twist it’s important to look at exactly what philosophy Blake was pushing. The passage above is taken from the preface to Milton: a Poem in Two Books which is itself entitled And did those feet in ancient times. In Milton Blake hooks up with John Milton who famously wrote Paradise Lost, which is in turn based on Dante’s Divine Comedy. The thread which runs through all of these texts is that they aim to rework established religious doctrines which culminates in the recasting of Satan as a sympathetic or tragic protagonist in literature. Moral of the story? God is a dick.
Blake’s work is all about this personal interpretation of divinity. In his collection Songs of Innocence and of Experience he sets out to understand the work of God in all its complex glory contrasting, you guessed it, ignorance with experience. One of his most famous poems is The Tyger a companion piece intended to be read alongside The Lamb. In The Lamb we see God portrayed in the traditional manner as being kind and nice and somewhat boring;
He is called by thy name, For he calls himself a Lamb: He is meek & he is mild, He became a little child:
Blake is talking about Jesus and how he did humanity a solid and died for everyone’s sins. Thanks Jesus. This, however, isn’t enough for Blake who can see the work of God in all things, not only the pastoral, nice, and pleasant and this is where The Tyger comes in. The tiger is fierce, terrifying, and made to kill but for Blake the tiger is equally an expression of God’s divine will as the lamb;
When the stars threw down their spears And water’d heaven with their tears: Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
For Blake the teachings of the church, the insistence that God is some sound lad hanging about the cross or chillin’ on his cloud, ready to forgive everybody everything is not an accurate one. God is in all things be they good, be they bad, be they meek, or be they terrifying. This led Blake to rebel against the dogmatic teachings of the church in particular against the understanding that the expression of base or earthly desire (SEX) was a sinful practice. How could these practices be sinful when they, like everything else in the world, were the work of God? In his work The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Blake sets out his thoughts on the matter fairly plainly;
Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion. The pride of the peacock is the glory of God. The lust of the goat is the bounty of God. The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God. The nakedness of woman is the work of God.
Whatever Blake is preaching; sign me up. As Blake continued to write (as well as illustrate and print all of his work) he eschewed the institutionalized teachings of the church and, this is where things get really wacky, developed his own personal mythology rife with ambiguous symbols and historical and literary references. This mythology features its own system of Gods and virtues and vices and is best captured in Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion. Here Blake details how Albion, representative of mankind and Britain, came to be, relates Jerusalem as a utopic setting which exists beyond war, bigotry, and dogma. Blake takes things right back to the beginning writing his own creation myth;
There is a Void, outside of Existence, which if enterd into Englobes itself & becomes a Womb, such was Albions Couch A pleasant Shadow of Repose calld Albions lovely Land
The pages of Jerusalem are packed with text and illustrations and the work itself features several full page prints. All of this work was done by Blake, his commitment to his art is definitely above reproach, but having said that he undoubtedly also an absolute crackpot. Fair play Will.
Writing, or preaching, before anyone was aware of ‘The Romantics’ Blake was leading the way in alternative thought at a time when the church had massive sway over the public consciousness. His idiosyncratic writing and ideas paved the way for other players to think freely about writing, about love, and about life in general. Many don’t consider Blake to be part of the Romantic movement but the ideas which he was purveying would eventually be adopted and expanded upon by the movement. Sublime supplication in the face of forces greater than man and the individualist approach and imaginative interpretation of accepted thought weren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
All this bible bashing and fire and brimstone style preaching would inspire other poets into accepting the doctrine and rally the Romantic cause. Two poets in particular would take up the mantle and with a single publication kick open the doors of literature with an opium pipe in one hand and a bunch of daffodils in the other, heralding the arrival of Romanticism in all its debauched glory.Pin 125 134 Shares
Cassius Methyl
October 21, 2014
(ANTIMEDIA) Crohn’s disease inflames the intestines of about 400,000-600,000 North Americans.
In the study, published in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, there were 21 people with Crohn’s Disease; half of which were given cigarettes with no active cannabinoids, and the other half given regular joints to smoke.
The joints contained approximately 23% THC and.5% CBD.
45% of the people given two joints to smoke every day for eight weeks experienced a complete remission of their Crohn’s Disease.
The other six out of 11 people reported that their symptoms were cut in half, and that they were able to sleep and eat with much more ease. In the clinical trial data, it was that said that “subjects receiving cannabis reported improved appetite and sleep, with no significant side effects.”
This is the first placebo controlled clinical trial to assess the functionality of cannabis in treatment of Crohn’s Disease. The study was conducted at Israel’s Meir Medical Center.
This is more information that was to be expected, further proving the medicinal value of cannabis, which many already know about.
Please share this with anyone who has ever been skeptical of the medicinal value of cannabis. It’s amazing that these weren’t even edibles, which are typically used in studies of this kind, but that they had patients smoke it.
This article is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TheAntiMedia.org. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to receive our latest articles. Image credit: Chmee2
Pin 125 134 SharesHe was among the coordinators of a convention, for the biometrics security industry. Maybe more to the point, several the merchandise on display, like an airport face-scan checkpoint, could trace their lineage to his work.
A physicist, Dr. Atick is among the leader entrepreneurs of modern face recognition. Having helped improve the essential face-fitting technology in the 1990s, the physicist boosted the systems to government agencies looking to identify offenders or prevent identity fraud and went into company. “The physicist saved lives,” he said during the summit in mid-March. “The physicist have solved offenses.”
Thanks in part to his innovations, biometrics’ international company — using people’s exact physical characteristics, like facial features and their fingerprint ridges, verify or to discover their identity — is booming.
Joseph Atick, a leader in the business, now worries that if face-fitting is taken too far, it could allow mass surveillance, “essentially robbing everyone of their anonymity.”
Making his rounds at the trade show, Dr. Atick, a short, slender man with an indeterminate Mediterranean emphasis, warmly greeted business representatives at their exhibit booths. Once he was out of earshot, nevertheless, he worried about what he was seeing. What were those firms’ policies for reusing and keeping consumers’ facial data? Could they identify people without their explicit permission? Were they working face-fitting queries for government agencies?
Now a business adviser, Dr. Atick locates himself in a sensitive situation. While encouraging and benefiting from a business which he helped foster, he also feels compelled to warn against its unfettered proliferation. Instead, what troubles himself is the possible exploitation of face recognition to identify unwitting and average citizens as they go about their lives in public. Online, we’re all monitored.
Face-fitting now could empower mass surveillance, “essentially robbing everyone of their anonymity,” himself says, and inhibit people’s standard behaviour outside their houses.
Face recognition to many in the biometrics industry is not any different from an automobile, an unbiased technology whose benefits far outweigh the dangers. The conveniences of biometrics appear self evident: Your exceptional code mechanically accompanies you.
Continue reading the primary narrative
Dr. Atick sees convenience in these types of uses as well. But the physicist supplies a cautionary counterexample to make his claim. The physicist heard about NameTag, an app that, according to its news release, was accessible in an early kind to individuals, just a couple of months back. Users had to glance at a stranger and NameTag would immediately return a match whole with that stranger’s name, public and profession Facebook profile information.
(His thoughts were shared Democrat of Minnesota, by Senator Al Franken and chairman of the Senate subcommittee on technology, seclusion and the law. Concerned that NameTag might ease stalking, Mr. Franken requested that its public launch be delayed; in late April, the program’s developer said he’d comply with the request. Google has said that facial recognition programs will not be approved by it on Google Glass.)
Dr. Atick is just as troubled by what could be brewing quietly in bigger firms. Over recent years, face recognition startup companies have been got by several technology giants. In 2011, a computer vision company Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition, was purchased by Google. In 2012, Facebook purchased Face.com, an Israeli startup.
Facebook and Google both declined to comment for this post about their strategies for the technology.
Unlike fingerprinting or other biometric techniques, face recognition can be used without people’s knowledge, at a space; it could then link the many images they’ve set online and their faces and identities. But in America, face recognition is governed by no special national law. A department of the Commerce Department is coordinating a meeting of consumer advocates and business representatives on Tuesday to begin hammering out a voluntary code of conduct for the commercial use of the technology.
Dr. Atick has been working behind the scenes to determine the result. “Individuals believe the business has to own up,” he declares. “If we don’t step up to the plate and take duty, there could be sudden uses and results.”
A couple of uses of face recognition are trivial. It is what enables Google Plus and Facebook to automatically imply members’ buddies in pictures or name tags for they.
And more programs could be in the works. Google has applied for a patent on a process to identify faces in videos and on one to enable individuals to log on to apparatus by making or winking other facial expressions. Facebook researchers recently reported the firm had developed a strong pattern recognition system which had reached near-human truth in identifying people’s faces.
But real time, automated face recognition is a market technology, a comparatively recent phenomenon and, at least for now.WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump asserted in a private meeting with congressional leaders Monday night that he would have won the popular vote in the 2016 election if 3 million to 5 million immigrants living in the country illegally hadn’t voted.
Trump made the debunked claim, without offering any evidence, at a White House meeting with Democratic and Republican leaders, according to a Democratic aide familiar with the exchange who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., alluded to it, telling reporters that Trump and the lawmakers talked about “the different Electoral College, popular vote.” Asked if anything surprised her about the meeting, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said, “I won’t even go into that.”
There has been no evidence of widespread tampering or hacking that would change the results of the presidential contest. Trump won the Electoral College by a comfortable margin but Democratic rival Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million votes.
Throughout the campaign, Trump pushed false claims about the propensity of voter fraud, telling his supporters the election had been “rigged” against him.
Trump has made the unverified claims before, tweeting in late November that he would have won the popular vote “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” He also alleged at the time that there had been “serious voter fraud” in California, New Hampshire and Virginia and complained that the media wasn’t covering it.It’s no secret that Kronos is the most advanced server on the vanilla scene. However, we’re not the type to rest on our laurels. This week, the development team (and more specifically, Eclipse) is pleased to bring, not one, but two new features to the project. Both of these features are focused around providing you with as much information as possible about the ingame activities of yourselves, your friends and your foes.
Boss Kills
The first of these is Boss Kills. This fantastic tool can be used to see when your guild, or others, killed a boss, while also looking in depth at the fight itself. You can see who did the most DPS, most healing, at what point in an encounter somebody died, how many attempts it took to get a boss down and so much more. All of this is accessible by simply clicking on the “detail” link next to a fight on the “latest boss kills” page.
Ultimately, how you use this information (or don’t) is entirely upto you but we feel, along with those who have tested it, that it’s a great addition to the project and will benefit many of our players when analyzing their performance on specific encounters within raids. We would love to hear your feedback on this, so let us know how you use it and why!
Honor Standings
This tool gives you a quick insight into exactly how far along the legendary “grind for rank 14” you are, while also showing you how far ahead of (or behind) your competition you are. Now you can see who is vying for ranks with you, without having to inspect every player that goes within a 100 yard radius of a battlemaster!
Of course, both of these tools are still in beta but we were anxious to show them to you, so please make sure that you let us know what you think of them and how we can improve them further. For now though, we feel that they are excellent additions to the project.
Finally…
We are pleased to announce that we have two new developers on the Kronos team. They are currently finding their feet within the project and have recently started to fix the bugs that you are reporting. So, if you do find something that seems a little off, be sure to register a bug report. The developers will then investigate the issue and resolve it, should it be found to be “non-blizzlike”. If you are not sure how to make a bug report, we highly recommend that you read this post from our colleagues on the Cataclysm realm. All of the specifics are almost identical, so it should get you heading in the right direction.
There’s so much more to come from Kronos in the coming months, including one particular feature that is exclusive to us, which will get players back into the vanilla spirit from the moment they decide to play on our server, while also reaffirming our status as the most advanced vanilla project in the world.
We’re truly excited about the quality that we are able to bring to you and thank you for your continued support.
The Kronos TeamSummary of proposal:
The current RIPE IPv6 Address Allocation and Assignment Policy (ripe-641, section 5.1.2) recognises only “the number of existing users and the extent of the organisation’s infrastructure” when assessing the requirement for an initial allocation size greater than /29. This is proving problematic for organisations whose IPv6 addressing requirements are not fully represented by such criteria.
For example:
Hierarchical Networks – The infrastructure of some organisations, particularly those with a multi-national presence, is often made up of component networks which can be regarded as Internet service providers in their own right. In many cases these ISPs could be eligible to become LIRs themselves and therefore each could obtain a /29 without justification. However, it is often important that they operate subordinately to the ‘parent’ organisation not only administratively but also technically on matters such as routing and addressing. In such cases, the need for a hierarchical addressing strategy can lead to an overall addressing requirement larger than that measured simply by the number of End User networks yet the current assessment criteria does not allow consideration of this, despite the principles of hierarchy and aggregation being stated (in section 3) as key goals of address space management.
Multiple Discrete Networks – Some organisations have a requirement to operate multiple discrete networks with completely independent routing and address management policies. Justification varies but may include, for example, regulatory restrictions on data transmission or geographic distance/diversity between networks. However, the requirement for multiple discrete prefixes is not eligible for consideration by the current initial allocation size assessment criteria.
It is therefore proposed that the assessment criteria for an initial allocation size greater than /29 should allow consideration of aspects other than “organisation size” alone. To achieve this, it is proposed that the criterion “number of existing users and the extent of the organisation’s infrastructure” is expanded with other factors that can be considered in order to accommodate the justified needs of a broader range of organisations within the RIPE community.
Policy text:
[The following text will update section 5.1.2 in the RIPE Policy Document “IPv6 Address Allocation and Assignment Policy“ if the proposal reaches consensus.]
a. Current policy text
5.1.2. Initial allocation size
Organisations that meet the initial allocation criteria are eligible to receive an initial allocation of /32. For allocations up to /29 no additional documentation is necessary.
Organisations may qualify for an initial allocation greater than /29 by submitting documentation that reasonably justifies the request. If so, the allocation size will be based on the number of existing users and the extent of the organisation's infrastructure.
b. New policy text
5.1.2. Initial allocation size
Organisations that meet the initial allocation criteria are eligible to receive an initial allocation of /32. For allocations up to /29 no additional documentation is necessary.
Organisations may qualify for an initial allocation greater than /29 by submitting documentation that reasonably justifies the request. If so, the allocation size will be based on the number of users, the extent of the organisation's infrastructure, the hierarchical and geographical structuring of the organisation, the segmentation of infrastructure for security and the planned longevity of the allocation.
Rationale:
The assessment criterion “number of existing users” is arguably unambiguous and serves as one reasonable measure of the “size” of an organisation. However, the term “extent of the organisation’s infrastructure” is somewhat ambiguous and therefore open to interpretation. Even when using a dictionary definition of the term “extent” to mean area, volume, scope, etc., it is clear that again it is very much a measurement of “size”.
For many organisations (ISPs in particular), there is often a straightforward correlation between their “size” and the amount of IPv6 address space they therefore require. However, some organisations have legitimate addressing requirements that arise from factors other than outright “size” alone and yet the current policy, as written, does not allow consideration of such requirements to be made. The proposed expansion of the assessment criteria is intended to accommodate the justified needs of a broader range of organisations within the RIPE community in a way that can be consistently and fairly applied by the RIPE NCC’s IP Resource Analysts.
a. Arguments supporting the proposal
The proposal to expand on the consideration of “size” only when assessing an organisation’s eligibility for an initial allocation greater than /29 will better align the policy with the justified addressing requirements of a greater number of organisations. In doing so, this will not only satisfy the needs of those organisations but will also provide benefit to the wider Internet community as a result of greater adoption and promotion of IPv6.
The current policy may force organisations with legally independent subordinate ISPs to register them as LIRs to obtain up to a /29 allocation each. Such allocations will inevitably be fragmented and non-aggregatable, therefore potentially leading to unnecessary growth of the Internet routing table.
The current policy may force organisations with justified hierarchical requirements to make smaller End User assignments in an attempt to fit within a restricted initial allocation size.
The current policy may force organisations with global presence to ‘registry shop’ and obtain an initial allocation from another RIR whose allocation policy is less restrictive. Any benefit to the organisation could come at a cost to the underlying principles and benefits of regional allocation and management of the IPv6 address space.
b. Arguments against the proposal
Removal of a simple “size-based” criterion on which to base eligibility for, and sizing of, allocations greater than /29 could make it more difficult for the RIPE NCC’s IP Resource Analysts to assess individual requests and/or lead to inconsistency of policy application.
Mitigation/counter-argument: the RIPE NCC, through its impact analysis, can indicate its understanding of the policy proposal, how it would apply this and whether it believes that any such difficulties could arise. This analysis, together with community input and refinement of the assessment criteria if/where appropriate, should ensure that a common understanding of the intent and application of policy is achieved.
the RIPE NCC, through its impact analysis, can indicate its understanding of the policy proposal, how it would apply this and whether it believes that any such difficulties could arise. This analysis, together with community input and refinement of the assessment criteria if/where appropriate, should ensure that a common understanding of the intent and application of policy is achieved. Removal of specific assessment criteria on which to base eligibility for, and sizing of, allocations greater than /29 could lead to abuse and/or waste of address space.
Mitigation/counter-argument: while the “opening up” of the assessment criteria is intended to cater for the justified needs of a greater number of organisations, it is of critical importance that in doing so it does not inadvertently lead to abuse and/or waste of address space. To mitigate this, the criteria will be developed and endorsed by the community prior to the policy being adopted and will be subject to further modification if/as required once further experience from implementation is gained.
Impact Analysis:
Note: In order to provide additional information related to the proposal, details of an impact analysis carried out by the RIPE NCC are documented below. The projections presented in this analysis are based on existing data and should be viewed only as an indication of the possible impact that the policy might have if the proposal is accepted and implemented.
A. RIPE NCC's Understanding of the Proposed Policy
It is the RIPE NCC's understanding that the proposal would expand the assessment criteria used to evaluate IPv6 allocations larger than /29. In addition to the existing criteria (amount of users and extent of the organisation's infrastructure), the proposal introduces new criteria to be considered by the RIPE NCC when evaluating requests. These criteria are the hierarchical and geographical structure of the organisation, the segmentation of infrastructure for security, and the planned longevity of the allocation.
LIRs would need to provide comprehensive documentation that reasonably justifies their request.
The policy does not define any specific limits for these new criteria. Instead, the proposal asks the RIPE NCC to provide its understanding of what is reasonable.
Based on experience gathered through the evaluation of previous requests, the RIPE NCC suggests that it would apply the following understanding of "reasonable" for the different criteria. For a better overview, the RIPE NCC’s understanding of the existing criteria is also included.
The RIPE NCC asks the RIPE community to provide feedback on this understanding to make it part of the PDP and to guide the policy implementation should the proposal be accepted.
The aim of this suggested understanding of “reasonably justified” is to allow the creation of a well-aggregated IPv6 addressing plan while avoiding wasteful practices.
Amount of Users
The LIR shall provide comprehensive documentation that shows the amount of end sites and what subnet size will be provided per end site. The current policy defines an end site as an end user who has a business or legal relationship with the provider.
Extent of the Organisation’s Infrastructure
The LIR shall provide comprehensive documentation that shows the need for IPv6 for their network (POPs, etc.) in addition to the number of end sites.
Hierarchical and Geographical Structuring of the Organisation
The LIR shall provide a comprehensive network topology that describes the division of the network in hierarchical and geographical sections. The RIPE NCC will ask for additional documentation to justify why a less address consuming hierarchy or topology can not be implemented.
If this network topology is justified, the RIPE NCC will consider up to one extra bit per hierarchical level or geographical segment as reasonable, on top of the documented need for that part of the network. This allows for aggregated addressing of future assignments in this part of the network.
Segmentation of Infrastructure for Security
The LIR shall provide comprehensive documentation that explains the segmentation of the network for security reasons. The RIPE NCC will ask for additional documentation to justify why the security requirements cannot be achieved with a less address-consuming approach.
If the segmentation of the infrastructure for security requirements is justified, the RIPE NCC considers up to one bit extra per security segment reasonable.
Planned Longevity
If the LIR wishes to include growth expectations in the requested allocation size, it shall provide comprehensive documentation about the past growth of its services. The RIPE NCC will consider longevity reasonable for a similar timeframe for which past growth was documented.
LIRs can include multiple assessment criteria in their request. The RIPE NCC will evaluate each criterion and make sure that they are balanced against each other. For example, if the criteria of longevity is applied to the number of end sites, no extra bit can be added to this level in a hierarchical addressing plan. Each assignment will be taken into account only once towards the total count of needed IPv6 space for an organisation and will not be multiplied by the times it is encapsulated in higher addressing plan levels.
It is important to note that the suggested policy change could also have impact on the evaluation of subsequent IPv6 allocation requests. LIRs that request an initial allocation under the proposed new assessment criteria might find it difficult to reach a sufficient HD-ratio in the future, as a significant amount of address space will be reserved for network structuring and future growth. Meeting the specified HD-ratio is required to qualify for a subsequent IPv6 allocation.
B. Impact of Policy on Registry and Addressing System
Address/Internet Number Resource Consumption:
Looking solely at the number of large IPv6 allocations requested in the past, the RIPE NCC would expect no significant impact compared to the overall amount of regular IPv6 allocations. However, the proposal would allow more LIRs to justify large IPv6 allocations. This could result in an increase in large requests and an overall increase in IPv6 consumption. The RIPE NCC is therefore unable to predict whether the proposal would have a significant impact on the IPv6 address pool.
Fragmentation/Aggregation:
The proposed policy would allow organisations better aggregation in their addressing plan. As future growth in one specific network segment does not require renumbering to achieve aggregation or alternatively the assignment of a separate address range, over the longer term a slowing effect on routing table growth is possible. The RIPE NCC has no historical data to quantify if this will have a significant impact on the size or stability of the Internet global routing table.
C. Impact of Policy on RIPE NCC Operations/Services
Registration Services:
To ensure that large IPv6 requests are evaluated consistently, Registration Services has a team of IP Resource Analysts (IPRAs) who evaluate such requests together. The IPRAs will review the submitted documentation and might request additional information if required. The details of this documentation will vary with the amount of assessment criteria that need to be considered. Registration Services will ask for some of the following documents:
Addressing/subnetting plans
Description of the network topology
Amount of end sites inside the network topology
Statistics for past network growth
Approximate deployment dates
Other relevant documentation
After the IPRAs have finished their evaluation, the request will follow the Internet number resource escalation process.
The evaluation of larger requests requires considerably more work than requests of a /29 or smaller. Still, the overall change in the workload will be minor, as Registration Services is already applying this evaluation process to large IPv6 requests. Also, the overall amount of such requests is estimated to be low, based on around ten requests for large allocations received in the past twelve months.
Training Services:
The RIPE NCC’s Training Services Department has been contacted in the past by organisations who plan to request large allocations with hierarchical, geographical or security-related IPv6 addressing plans and would like a more tailored course that covers this. If this proposal is accepted, an increase in these kinds of training activities is expected.
IPv6 Program Manager:
The proposed policy would widen |
Governors Conference in Aspen, Colorado, Christie delivered what Aaron Blake at the Washington Post described as a "clear broadside" against Republicans of a libertarian bent, including Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, expected to be competing with Christie for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016.
"As a former prosecutor who was appointed by President George W. Bush on Sept. 10, 2001, I just want us to be really cautious, because this strain of libertarianism that's going through both parties right now and making big headlines, I think, is a very dangerous thought," Christie said.
Asked whether he meant to include Paul in that call for caution, Christie said, "You can name any one of them that's engaged in this. I want them to come to New Jersey and sit across from the widows and the orphans and have that conversation.... I'm very nervous about the direction this is moving in."
One of the things making Christie nervous is the battle for privacy rights against what some see as a flagrant overreach by the federal government in the kind of surveillance conducted by the NSA in the name of national security. "I think what we as a country have to decide is: Do we have amnesia? Because I don't," Christie said. "And I remember what we felt like on Sept. 12, 2001."
By citing both September 10 and September 12 of the year 2001, Christie has September 11 surrounded, perhaps with the thought of capturing it as his issue for 2016. By doing so he would be picking up the mantle of fallen presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, who campaigned so hard on that tragic event in the 2008 campaign that Joe Biden suggested every sentence from the former New York mayor contained only three things: "a noun, a verb and 9/11."
Over more than a decade now, there have been a lot of explanations offered for the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and our nation's inability to detect and prevent it. Some have blamed lax security or intelligence failures, or an attention deficit regarding terrorist threats on the part the president at the time, the aforementioned George W. Bush. Some blamed it on inadequate response to previous terror attacks, while others cited our nation's long record of military interventions and political machinations in the Middle East, including the imposition of no-fly zones in, and an economic embargo against, Iraq — or, to borrow a phrase from the late columnist Joseph Sobran, it may have been due to "all the good will we built up through years of bombing Arab cities and starving Arab children."
But Gov. Christie is way ahead of the curve. He has already figured out who is to blame for the next 9/11 if, God forbid, there should be one. Future widows and orphans will be able to blame those libertarian members of Congress, who take seriously their oath of office and want to put some real constitutional and statutory restraint on the activities of that "big government." Republicans rail against big government on the campaign trails, while generously funding it in the intervals between elections. They are the true "wacko birds," as Sen. John McCain called Rand Paul and the handful of senators who supported Paul's filibuster over the president's use of drones to kill American citizens without due process of law.
Christie obviously approves of all the drone attacks and other bombings President Obama has ordered in Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, and elsewhere, as well as our 12-year war grinding on in Afghanistan.
"I want to say that I think both the way President Bush conducted himself and the way President Obama has conducted himself in the main on those types of decisions hasn't been different because they were right and because we haven't had another one of those attacks that cost thousands and thousands of lives," Christie said. Of course, Bush's war in Iraq cost more "thousands of lives" than the 9/11 attacks. And Iraq was not involved in 9/11, a detail that Christie, like so many others, is willing to overlook.
The Amash amendment was not about dismantling America's defenses, or even the NSA, though the agency's very existence may be unconstitutional, since it was created by order of President Truman without Congress even knowing about it. What was proposed by the amendment was limiting the NSA's collection of telephone call records to investigation of actual terror suspects instead of its current practice of scooping up all the calls, along with all e-mails and other communications, of the entire population as a matter of daily routine. It is hardly a wild-eyed libertarian idea. While it lost by a narrow 12-vote margin, it attracted the support of a wide range of representatives, many of whom could hardly be classified as libertarians. Even Wisconsin Republican Jim Sensenbrenner, often "credited" as a legislative author of the PATRIOT Act, voted for the amendment. But after an all-out lobbying effort by White House and members and friends of the "national security" establishment, the supporters of the amendment were outnumbered by its foes. As the Washington Times observed in its editorial summation:
"A strange coalition of spooks, veterans of the George W. Bush White House, Republican and Democratic committee chairmen and the Obama administration emerged from the shadows to prevent the defunding of the domestic spying. Nothing creates 'bipartisanship' quite like undermining the Constitution."I’ll skip the normal blog pleasantries and just get right down to the details, because this one is exciting!!
Next Homebrew Culture Pre-Sale Starts February 27!
Mark your calendars! Homebrew Cultures will be available again in less than a week.
The Pre-Sale starts February 27 at Noon CT and ends March 5 at Midnight. All orders will then ship out the week of March 20 (Update: Orders after February 28 will ship on or before March 27).
All of our cultures will be available again in Homebrew Packs through the Pre-Sale:
But that’s not all!!
We’re pumped to announce our first Culture Collaboration, with Michael Tonsmeire, The Mad Fermentationist!
The Mad Fermentationist Saison Blend (MFSB) consists of Saison yeast, wild Saccharomyces, rare Brettanomyces and an opportunistic Lactobacillus culture. Together they can make a beautiful tart, funky saison that is even further elevated by fruity hops.
But don’t take my word for it, check out the product page and stay tuned for Mike Tonsmeire’s blog post about the culture!
The MFSB is available exclusively through Bootleg Biology. And can be ordered for the first time through our Homebrew Culture Pre-Sale starting February 27. Commercial Brewers, please contact us about 2BBL and larger pitch sizes.
It’s really hard to convey how exciting this is for Bootleg, and me personally. Mike Tonsmeire’s blog and articles really helped kick start many of the ideas behind Bootleg. I first met Mike four years ago when we were both living in the D.C. area, and I was just an ambitious homebrewer. He gave a ton of encouragement when Bootleg Biology was in its infancy. So needless to say, this is a big geek out moment for me!
Be sure to catch The Mad Fermentationist on an upcoming episode of The Sour Hour.
We’ve got more exclusive Culture Collaborations planned for the future too. So start cleaning those fermenters!
Homebrew Culture Retailers
There’s no place more important to the health of the homebrew community than the local homebrew store. Thanks to the knowledgeable and caring owners and employees of these stores, many of us pitched our first yeast, paddled our first mash or won our first competition.
That’s why we’re super excited to expand the list of Bootleg Biology Approved Homebrew Culture Retailers. For the near future, each store will have a limited supply of individual cultures so please contact them if you have questions about availability.
Homebrew Stores will have their cultures starting the week of March 20.
If you’d like to start carrying our Homebrew Cultures or Yeast Wrangling Kits, please reach out to us through our Contact Form.
That’s all for now.
To Fermentation![Python-Dev] PEP 414 - Unicode Literals for Python 3
Indeed, the wrangling has gone too far already. I'm accepting the PEP. It's about as harmless as they come. Make it so. --Guido van Rossum (sent from Android phone) On Feb 27, 2012 1:12 PM, "Chris McDonough" <chrism at plope.com> wrote: > On Mon, 2012-02-27 at 21:07 +0000, Paul Moore wrote: > > On 27 February 2012 20:39, Chris McDonough <chrism at plope.com> wrote: > > > Note that u'' literals are sort of the tip of the iceberg here; > > > supporting them will obviously not make development under the subset an > > > order of magnitude less sucky, just a tiny little bit less sucky. > There > > > are other extremely annoying things, like str(bytes) returning the repr > > > of a bytestring on Python 3. That's almost as irritating as the > absence > > > of u'' literals, but we have to evaluate one thing at a time. > > > > So. Am I misunderstanding here, or are you suggesting that this > > particular PEP doesn't help you much, but if it's accepted, it > > represents "the thin end of the wedge" for a series of subsequent PEPs > > suggesting fixes for a number of other "extremely annoying things"...? > > > > I'm sure that's not what you meant, but it's certainly what it sounded > > like to me! > > I'm way too lazy. The political wrangling is just too draining > (especially over something so trivial). But I will definitely support > other proposals that make it easier to straddle, sure. > > - C > > > _______________________________________________ > Python-Dev mailing list > Python-Dev at python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev > Unsubscribe: > http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/guido%40python.org > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/attachments/20120227/264e51db/attachment.html>$50M in raw gold vanishes from aircraft at Ogle Airport
– pilot, engineer among four arrested
Police have detained a pilot and three other employees of Air Services Limited following the disappearance of $50M in raw gold from an aircraft at the Ogle Airport yesterday.
The gold was discovered missing around 09:45 hours, shortly after the aircraft had landed.
Kaieteur News understands that the gold belongs to the Eldorado Trading Company, which is operating in the North West District.
According to reports, a company official had given the gold to the pilot in two white paper parcels to bring to the city where he was to hand it over to an employee of the said company.
However, the pilot is claiming that after landing at the airport, he forgot the precious metal in the aircraft and went into the terminal.
About five minutes later he realized his mistake, but by the time he returned to the plane to retrieve the gold, it had vanished.
A report was made and an investigation was immediately launched involving the Guyana Police Force.
The three other employees were detained after it was learnt that they had attended to the aircraft as soon as it landed.
They are being held at separate stations along the East Coast of Demerara, as investigators try desperately to crack the case.Celebrate Ontario Success Stories
March 6, 2017 2:00 P.M. Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport
The Celebrate Ontario program has helped festivals and events across the province offer new and enhanced experiences, attracting more tourists and increasing visitor spending. Last year's successes include:
The 2016 JFL42 (Just for Laughs Toronto) introduced a new event called ComedyCon thanks in large part to Celebrate Ontario. This support helped transform the 10-day festival from a nighttime event to an all-day comedy bash, with many new events taking on the feel of an intimate comedy conference. With this new program, comedy fans had even more reasons to make the trip to Toronto. The festival saw a 16 per cent rise in total attendance, including over 19,000 tourists.
The 2016 1000 Islands Regatta featured a blend of adrenaline-charged hydroplane boat racing on the Brockville waterfront with a full range of musical entertainment, food, kids' activities and crafts for all ages. In 2016, the festival grew from three to four days, with the addition of one headline musical act and a Motocross stunt show supported by Celebrate Ontario. The event was the most successful ever, generating a 15 per cent increase in attendance with advance ticket sales tripling over the previous year, contributing to a 17 per cent growth in revenues.
The London Committee for Cross Cultural Arts received Celebrate Ontario funding to support Afrikalia: African Heart Beats 2016 at its annual Sunfest world arts and music festival. The funding provided new programming initiatives that featured performances by top African performers and musicians based in Canada. It showcased the diversity of music and dance styles representing contemporary Africa, with a special focus on women's voices. The enhanced programming initiatives were credited with attracting over 6,500 additional attendees to the festival.
The Mabuhay Philippines Festival, which took place in September at Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square, showcased many forms of art and multidisciplinary mediums to highlight Filipino contributions to Canadian society. Through Celebrate Ontario support, the festival included more artists, programming and made improvements to the venue. The event attracted 65,000 people and 4,000 parade participants.
The RBC Royal Bank Bluesfest's Iconic Artist Project supported by Celebrate Ontario attracted a record breaking sold-out attendance of 40,000 concert goers, the largest crowd in the festival's history. The project continued to establish Ottawa Bluesfest's reputation as a national and international destination live music event, and increased in-province and out-of province tourists. Visitor spending of close to $4.5 million was almost triple the organization's goal.
Rock on the River, organized by the Timmins Festival and Events Committee is an upcoming group working to attract headline musical acts to Timmins. With support from Celebrate Ontario, the group held its first outdoor summer concert in 2016. More than 3,000 people attended the two-day Rock on the River festival - of whom 10 per cent were tourists from Quebec, New Brunswick and other parts of Ontario.
The Calabogie Blues & Ribfest increased its main stage electric blues offerings by adding an acoustic stage that featured five additional performances and introduced blues workshops during the festival. More than 10,000 people attended the three-day festival - and nearly one-half of the attendees were visiting the Calabogie area for the first time.
The Ottawa International Children's Festival introduced programming for the very first time for families with very young children. In dotMaze, visitors travelled through a large artificial hedge maze and encountered actors portraying fairy tale and mythological characters. This new programming attracted sold-out audiences totaling nearly 15,000 people.
The Toronto Christmas Market just completed its 7th edition last December. With support from Celebrate Ontario, programming has expanded and the event has broken all attendance projections, growing by over 40,000 attendees each year, of whom over 30 per cent are tourists. The event is now positioned as a signature holiday event in Toronto. Based on this success, the Distillery Historic District is hosting a second winter signature event for the months of January through March, the Toronto Light Festival.
The Victoria Playhouse Petrolia achieved its highest attendance numbers in its 23-year history. Over 31,700 people attended the playhouse's seven productions, two of which sold to capacity. With Celebrate Ontario support the playhouse was able to hire celebrity talent, which attracted people from across the province -- 62 per cent of attendees travelled more than 40km to attend.
Supercrawl is a three-day arts and music street festival that takes place in Hamilton in September. In 2016, the festival saw an 80,000 increase in attendance over 2015.The festival attracted 200,000 visitors who enjoyed Celebrate Ontario-funded event improvements, including enhancements made to the secondary stage. This helped Supercrawl make full use of the festival site and will support future programming and planning.
The International Plowing Match and Rural Expo is North America's largest outdoor agricultural and rural expo. With support from Celebrate Ontario, the expo improved its programming last year with the RCMP's Musical Ride. The event attracted 96,315 visitors to watch the Mounties in action and meet the horses and riders after the show. Celebrate Ontario-funded programming was a big hit in 2016 and will be brought back to continue growing the festival.Nintendo to launch digital downloads for third-parties Nintendo clearly looking to leverage digital on 3DS and Wii U going forward
Ben Strauss Staff Writer Wednesday 2nd May 2012 Share this article Share
Companies in this article Nintendo
Nintendo previously announced that its own first-party titles would soon be released digitally as well as at retail, and now it would appear that the platform holder would like to make digital releases possible for third parties too. A statement released by Nintendo today has indicated that the company is currently working on a new system that will allow for third-party publishers to offer their games via digital distribution.
"We are currently preparing a program for third parties, but have nothing specific to announce at this time," said Nintendo to IGN.
Nintendo itself is gearing up to make its games, starting with New Super Mario Bros. 2, available for download simultaneously with the physical software release. The program will begin with 3DS games, but it's highly likely to take prominence on Wii U later in the year too.
News on any solid plans, confirmed publishing partners and games remains aloof at this time, but we expect to hear more news at E3.Packers Tried Bringing Brett Favre Back to Lambeau Field Last Year by Dan Zinski
The Vikings added another safety this week by signing former Eagles safety Kurt Coleman, but it looks like they are not done looking at that position.
Former Minnesota Gopher safety Brock Vereen will visit with the team this week, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
Vereen, the brother of Patriots running back Shane Vereen, is an athletic safety prospect who was a team leader throughout his college career for the Gophers.
Vereen has a lot of potential versatility as well, as he spent time at cornerback, nickelback, free safety, and special teams during his college career. Last year as a senior, Vereen finished with 57 tackles and an interception.
As an added bonus, he has experience with the stadium the Vikings will play in for the next two years, TCF Bank Stadium.
Vereen drew attention to himself at the Combine, where he ran the fastest 40 time among all safeties (4.47) and recorded more bench press reps than any other defensive back (25).
Rick Spielman was apparently very impressed with Vereen’s combine showing, saying he “really opened a lot of people’s eyes,” to NFL.com.
Vereen is currently scheduled to be a Day Three selection, and is the No. 141 player available in the draft on CBS Sports’ draft rankings.
Vereen has also drawn interest in the Steelers, as he visited the team last week according to Rapoport.
If Vereen ends up being drafted by the Vikings, his athletic ability could make him a nice developmental project for Mike Zimmer, as clearly he has exciting natural talent and NFL bloodlines.
Vereen wouldn’t be the first former Gopher defensive back to join the Vikings either, with Marcus Sherels receiving a nice extension from the team this offseason.Malaysia’s Biggest Problem: Our Attitudes
Cassandra Chung makes some observations about urban Malaysians and a prevailing problem among them.
Just last night, I attended a dinner and my table mostly consisted of those over 50 years of age. Like every typical dinner conversation, our conversation led to politics. My parents’ friends started talking about how those in the rural areas determine the ruling government. In some way, that is true. If a single coalition were to win all the parliamentary seats in Sabah and Sarawak alone, 25% of the majority needed to form a government would already be fulfilled (57 parliamentary seats all together). I usually follow politics very closely, whether or not it is election season, but that night I chose to remain silent, partly because I had a lot on my mind. However, that didn’t mean I wasn’t listening.
1. We lack empathy
“Why should they have a say in who runs our country? They know the least,” said somebody at the table.
Just like that, a thousand thoughts flooded my mind. Why? Well, perhaps because they are citizens. It is every citizen’s right to elect the candidate of their choice, whether we like it or not.
They know the least? Of course they know the least! They don’t have access to alternative news like Malaysiakini or The Malaysian Insider. You could say they have Radio Free Sarawak but here’s the catch: Could they really be bothered about what Radio Free Sarawak reports?
Many of us — including myself — have never properly stopped to consider that question, proving that we lack empathy. Perhaps we have grown complacent. We have a proper house to live in; our education has secured our future; we have food to eat; the list goes on. What do these people have? Definitely not money. I remember a member of the Methodist Church council telling my college’s Christian Fellowship that one of the biggest problems faced by Malaysian Christians in Sabah and Sarawak is the lack of money. Christian parents there discourage their children from attending youth service because they fear their children might become “too passionate” and end up becoming a pastor — an occupation that doesn’t earn much.
Yes, that’s how bad it is. Money is so scarce that following God’s possible calling is something to be sacrificed. When one lacks cash, basic necessities become scarce — putting food on the table becomes a problem. This is precisely the concern of the majority of rural folk. Honestly, why should they be bothered about their land being taken away from them? They get paid (as little as it is) for it, don’t they?
You might argue that it’s the long-term that matters. The Opposition can help these people have a better, self-sustaining life through transparency and good governance. While I do personally believe that, if you were in their shoes, would you take the risk? To give up all the cash handouts that feed your family for promises that possibly might go unfulfilled? As urban dwellers, the majority of us don’t know what it’s like to go hungry, to worry whether or not money might come in tomorrow and because we don’t know, we lack one of the essential things that enables us to relate with each other: empathy.
2. We are racists
We don’t notice it but we are. When we think of racists, we think of Bible-burning bigots, we think of people who advocate the concept of Ketuanan Melayu. We don’t think of ourselves. The ugly truth is, all of us practice racism. Something I continue to struggle with to this day is when I hear of Malay people gaining entry into public universities. Some time back, my Malay friend told me she got into a public university. She applied with an excellent A-Levels forecast of 1A* and 3As, and yet the first thing that came to my mind was; “You only got in because you’re a Malay”. For a split second, the bigot in me totally forgot how hardworking she is, how amazing her results were.
I once had a teacher who started deleting people off her Facebook friends list simply for the reason that they supported the Bersih 3.0 rally. When I told my parents that my teacher deleted me, their first reaction was to ask “Malay ah?” Just recently, a close friend of mine confided in me that when he was younger, whenever he refused to listen to his parents, they would threaten him by saying, “Later the Indian man come and get you.”
Our little acts reflect the true prejudices of our heart. Apparently, all Malays have something against street rallies, conveniently forgetting the massive number of Malays at Bersih 3.0. Apparently, all Indians are monsters — we forget that everybody is capable of heinous things. Apparently, those who enter public universities are lazy, incapable Malays — forgetting that the poor, hardworking and capable students, regardless of race, have no choice but to go there.
The GE13 fiasco only serves as evidence. Videos of us beating up foreigners went viral on the internet. If we didn’t beat them up, we resorted to calling them ‘Banglas’ — which is derogatory, by the way — or telling them to go back to where they came from, the very same thing our politicians do to some of us. It never occurred to us that some of those ‘Banglas’ we saw at the polling station are hardworking citizens of Malaysia. Granted, there were a massive number of foreigners illegally voting at polling stations, but we were supposed to defeat them with our vote, not through physical or verbal violence. What is sadder is that some people feel the need to defend their actions of blatant racism.
3. We are hypocrites
We often criticise our ruling government of being corrupt. They cheat and lie to us. Truth is, we do the very same things to the people around us and to ourselves. We see no problem in benefiting from exam paper leaks, especially if it’s for the SPM or trial exams. A lot of us don’t realise that one extra ‘A’ could determine whether you get a scholarship or not; by cheating, we potentially deprive someone else of a scholarship and we end up cheating the college out of their money. Sounds familiar? Depriving certain parties of scholarships to protect political interests and cheating taxpayers out of their money — that’s what we criticise our government for.
School exams aren’t the only things we cheat our way through. Students would gladly bribe their driving examiners and likewise, their driving examiners would happily take a bribe. We then proceed to criticise the government for caving in so easily to bribes. We bribe the policeman to get us out of trouble and then proceed to complain that the police force is so corrupted. Instead of being part of the solution, we contribute to the problem. By easily caving into bribes, we enable those who take bribes. Corruption is an action which involves two or more parties; we don’t realise that most of the time, we are the second party. While I do sympathise with individuals who cannot afford to pay for driving exam retakes and have to face examiners who deliberately fail them, I believe more affluent kids have no excuse. Likewise, I believe that getting stopped by the police for violating laws can serve as a lesson for us to be more observant of the speed limit.
Nobody said doing the right thing was easy, cheap or convenient. If we cannot practice integrity in such small matters, we cannot expect the ruling government to do so.
Featured image from Akichiatlas.comVaclav Klaus - has a reputation for cutting through the nonsense
FROM THE ARCHIVES: originally published 27 September 2014
Vaclav Klaus, longtime president and prime minister of the Czech Republic who is still highly popular, is one of the most respected and outspoken conservatives in Europe.
He has a reputation for straight talk and brilliance. The English magazine The Spectator publishes an interview with him in this week's issue by Neil Clark entitled "The Lies Europe Tells About Russia".
Klaus bemoans EU bureacracy bloat, EU non-market economic policies, and the "tragic misunderstanding... on same-sex marriages and all that stuff about family."
Then he explains how the EU and US are getting it wrong on Russia:
It’s not just on the economy that Europe has got it wrong, says Klaus. He doesn’t agree with the western elite’s current hostility towards Russia, which he believes is based on a false and outdated view of the country. ‘I remember one person in our country who at one moment was minister of foreign affairs, telling me that he hated communism so much that he was not even able to read Dostoevsky. I have remembered that statement for decades and I am afraid that the current propaganda against Russia is based on a similar argument and way of thinking. I spent most of my life in a communist Czechoslovakia under Soviet domination. But I differentiate between the Soviet Union and Russia. Those who are not able to understand the difference are simply not looking with open eyes. I always argue with my American and British friends that although the political system in Russia is different from the system in our countries and we wouldn’t be happy to live in such a system, to compare the current Russia with Leonid Brezhnev’s Soviet Union is stupid.’ He says, with finality: ‘The US/EU propaganda against Russia is really ridiculous and I can’t accept it.’
In an interview on Czech radio in early September, Klaus stated that Ukraine is an artificially created state, and that the Ukrainian conflict was an artificial event created by the West and the United States which forced Russia to intervene. He also argued that Ukraine lacks strong ties to keep country together. (Wikipedia)
Here is some more from the Spectator interview:BHOPAL: He was the undisputed and absolute authority in Madhya Pradesh leading the erstwhile Congress government ten years ago. And yet on Wednesday evening, the Congress closed its doors on AICC general secretary and former chief minister Digvijaya Singh denying him entry into a press conference.For nearly 20 minutes, Digvijaya Singh and his supporters stood outside the doors of the state PCC conference hall banging on the wooden panels and requesting entry even as Union minister of state Jyotiraditya Scindia was talking to the media. Scindia has been appointed the party's state election campaign committee chairman earlier this week while Digvijaya Singh has been left-out of the 22-member election committee panel.Scindia continued to address the media flanked by AICC general secretary in charge of state party affairs Mohan Prakash, senior leader Sanjay Nirupam, PCC president Kantilal Bhuria and leader of opposition Ajay Singh, while Digvijaya Singh's men made desperate calls from their mobile phones asking Congress workers inside to open the door and make way for his access.As Digvijaya Singh kept waiting outside, Scindia was talking the press claiming there was no factional rivalry within the party. He claimed leaders like Digvijaya Singh, Union minister Kamal Nath other leaders like Suresh Pachauri and the state top-brass were all strung together in a single garland of unity. Meanwhile the banging on the door continued and Scindia asked Congress workers not to let in whoever was knocking. Senior Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam also instructed that admittance into the hall is not permitted.Congress workers were seen guarding the door from inside lest the Singh and his supporters managed to unlock the gate. When the doors were not opened, Digvijaya Singh walked around the Congress office compound to gain entry through a back door. But that door was also jammed and a miffed Digvijaya Singh turned to the elevator so he could wait for the rest of the party leaders to join him for an election meeting.But half-way up the second floor, the elevator stopped working. An infuriated and irate Digvijaya Singh had had enough and told his supporters to turn around and walk-out of the state Congress office. Hurt and humiliated, he climbed into his SUV and left the Congress office with his supporters following in a cavalcade.Recently with approaching assembly elections, Digvijaya Singh is getting unfair treatment at the hands of party men and specially a much younger Jyotiraditya Scindia who is being portrayed as the Congress' chief minister probable. Earlier this month, the Scindia faction organized a rally in Morena where Digvijaya Singh was kept waiting for more than two hours by the Union minister of state. A much-harassed Digvijaya sat on the dais in Morena sweating profusely and waiting for Scindia's arrival on the stage. The programme scheduled to start at 1pm finally saw Jyotiraditya Scindia arrive at 3:15pm.(FORWARD: Sean is going to hate that I wrote this. But he’ll never tell this story, so I’ll have to.)
Sean went to bed late last night. He watched three DVR’ed episodes of The Simpsons to take his mind off things.
He’d gotten a nasty tweet from some anonymous fan who said that he blamed Sean for “losing” the Wild Card game against the Kansas City Royals a few days prior.
That’s not really anything new to any athlete who has a Twitter account. After every mediocre-to-poor outing he pitches, he gets a series of tweets from armchair “pitching coaches” on Twitter.
Get a change-up bro! Why didn’t you throw it faster? Your hair is weird! Why’d you throw a slider on an 0-2 count, loser! I hate your beard! You should be sent down to the minor leagues! You should be sent back to little league! I hope you tear your ACL! My mom didn’t hug me enough when I was a kid!
Whatever. Those are easy to ignore. I mean, after a bad outing, nobody gets angrier at Sean than Sean. If you think his performance disappointed you, imagine how disappointed Sean is. Angry tweets can’t tell him anything new. He wants to win more than anyone. He’s still one of the best relief pitchers in baseball. But he’s human.
Being a relief pitcher is a pretty thankless job. Just take the ball and for god’s sake don’t. let. anything. happen.
But there are plenty of seemingly thankless jobs out there in sports. Relief pitcher is just one of them. How about being a late-inning defensive substitution? Pay attention and don’t drop anything. Or try being a long snapper in football. You don’t even know their name until they screw up.
It’s the job he signed up for. And it’s the job he’s thankful to even have.
He was drafted as a power hitting first baseman for the Oakland Athletics in 2007. He was once considered a top hitting prospect.
But then the injuries came. Three seasons worth of them. After three years of this, he felt like maybe the end of his road in baseball was on a minor league training table.
He started looking up college courses again so he could go back to school and finish up his degree at the University of Virginia. Maybe he could get a regular job. He’d devoted his entire childhood and adolescence to baseball, so he never had a chance to have a normal job, but what choice did he have?
But then the Oakland Athletics came to him and asked him if he wanted to start throwing in case his right wrist never healed properly. It was something to help him pass the time and stay sane. If you go to enough doctors/trainers/healers, eventually you’ll start to see yourself as broken. They didn’t want that.
The wrist never did fully heal, but throwing went better than anybody expected.
The A’s sent a scout to watch him throw a few live batting practices, and it went well enough that by the end of that day, Sean was a pitcher.
Fast forward a few months (19 minor league innings pitched, to be exact) to early June 2012, and he made his major league debut. The first batter he faced was Nelson Cruz. He struck him out. Then he struck out the next two guys too; Yorvi Torrealba, and Mike Napoli.
Cue up three bells tolling.
He’s had ups and downs as a pitcher since then. Part of it had to do with the fact that pitching was so new to him. He never really failed on a professional level as a pitcher, so he never learned how to recover from failure. He had to learn to do that on the job.
It’s best to suck when nobody’s watching. Sean didn’t have that luxury.
Early in the 2014 season, he was offered an extension contract with the A’s. He wasn’t the closer at the time, so of course there was a lot of talk about why on earth any team would offer any extension to a lefty set up man.
Many wanted to know who got the best end of this deal. Was Sean ripping the team off? Was the team ripping Sean off? Who wins in this deal?
I’ll tell you who wins in this deal: the fans. The day he signed his contract (an unprecedented one for a reliever), he met up with his friend Dereck, a lifelong A’s fan who’d been stationed at a US Army base in Afghanistan.
Sean had sent Dereck care packages and notes and fostered a real friendship with Dereck without ever having met him in person. Now he keeps Dereck’s hat in his locker. If you see him talking to the media after games you can spot the camouflage hat behind him. It’s a bit of a talisman for him, but more than that it’s a reminder that there are people out there whose vocational margin for error is so much thinner.
And that is not lost on Sean, who grew up in a military family. Whose father won a bronze star for his service in the Air Force during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Whose not-too-distant cousin was General Jimmy Doolittle; the man who launched the successful Doolittle Raid in World War II off the shores of nearby Alameda.
Who, as a child, lived at Castle Air Force Base, close enough to the Oakland Coliseum (which, incidentally, is just off Doolittle Drive in Oakland) that they had season tickets to A’s games.
Who every year buys a truck full of Christmas gifts for underprivileged military families on behalf of Operation Finally Home.
The weekend after he signed the contract, he met with Marcos Garcia, brother of Diego Garcia. Diego was another lifelong A’s fan who was tragically killed by a drunk driver a few months prior. Sean had seen photos of Diego’s funeral; the pallbearers were wearing A’s jerseys. Diego was buried in a Yoenis Cespedes jersey.
He saw that the Athletics meant so much to Diego, and that Diego meant even more to his family and to his community. He had to do something. Sean immediately spoke to the front office about setting up a date for Diego’s family to throw out the first pitch at a game.
Marcos threw out the first pitch on April 19th before the game against the Astros. It was a perfect throw. Right over the plate and into the glove of Yoenis Cespedes himself.
The team also wins in this deal. They get a discount on an All-Star closer locked up for the next five to seven years.
And we win. We have the security of knowing where we’ll |
society groups, both domestically and internationally. Snowden did not reveal which groups the NSA or GCHQ have spied upon, but indicated that the types of organizations whose communications had been compromised included major global organizations similar to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and other NGOs.
Snowden explicitly told PACE members that the NSA had “specifically targeted the communications of either leaders or staff members in a number of purely civil or human rights organizations … including domestically, within the borders of the United States.”
If Snowden’s assertion is accurate, such facts would not only point to fresh dimensions of the overreach of NSA surveillance, but also would constitute an outrageous breach of the US government’s stated commitment to human rights and freedom online. It also raises the very real possibility that these organizations’ communications with confidential sources have been intercepted. Sharing this information with other governments could put victims and human rights defenders the world over in imminent danger.
The US frequently criticizes repressive states for unjustified government spying on human rights organizations, media organizations, and civil society because such surveillance has a chilling effect on freedom of expression and association and constitutes a clear form of harassment and intimidation.
Furthermore, as you are well aware, the US and the UK have taken leadership roles in the Freedom Online Coalition (FOC), the leading intergovernmental coalition, established in The Hague on December 8, 2011, for the purpose of “advancing Internet freedom—free expression, association, assembly, and privacy online – worldwide.” FOC members have joined in a shared commitment to work together to voice concern over measures that restrict Internet freedom and to support individuals whose human rights online are curtailed.
FOC members also have undertaken obligations to adopt and encourage policies and practices, domestically and internationally, which ensure the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms online, in particular freedom of expression, the right to privacy, freedom of assembly and access to information.
If the allegations about US and UK surveillance of human rights and civil society organizations are true, such practices would contradict the express commitments made by the US and the UK to the FOC.
We, the undersigned civil society and human rights organizations, seek clarification as to the allegations that the NSA and GCHQ monitored or are monitoring the communications of our organizations, or of other civil society organizations, media organizations, and human rights groups. Where the facts support these claims, we ask the US and UK governments to explain the reasons why this is occurring or has occurred in the past, and the extent of such monitoring, its continuance, and its justification.
We call upon members of the FOC to live up to their stated commitment to support civil society members or journalists whose human rights online may have been violated. We seek FOC member assistance in ascertaining the underlying factual basis for the Snowden allegations with respect to NSA and/or GCHQ spying on civil society and human rights groups, and in ensuring a halt to any violations of our privacy, freedom of expression and other human rights online.
Sincerely,
Access
Advocacy for Principled Action in Government
AGEIA DENSI
Alternative Informatics Association
Amnesty International
Article 19
Asociación de Internautas
Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
Benetech
Big Brother Watch
Bits of Freedom
Breadboard Society
Bytes for All, Pakistan
Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Democracy & Technology
Center for Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Information (CELE), Palermo University School of Law
Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, India
Chaos Computer Club (CCC), Germany
Charity & Security Network
Committee to Protect Journalists
The Constitution Project
ContingenteMX
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
Digital Rights Foundation
Digital Rights Ireland
Electronic Frontier Finland
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
European Digital Rights (EDRi)
Foundation for Information Policy Research
Free Press
Free Press Unlimited
Freedom House
Freedom of the Press Foundation
Global Forum for Media Development
Global Voices Advocacy
Hiperderecho
Human Rights in China
Human Rights Watch
Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
Internet Protection Lab
La Quadrature du Net
Movimento MEGA
New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute
Online Policy Group
Open Net Korea
Open Rights Group
OpenMedia.org
OpenTheGovernment.org
Panoptykon Foundation
PEN American Center
PEN International
Privacy International
Project On Government Oversight (POGO)
Reporters sans frontières
Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC)
Son Tus Datos
Thai Netizen Network
World Press Freedom Committee
World Privacy ForumThe industry is changing! Big oil is getting the proverbial beatdown from every angle possible. Companies are facing bankruptcy, lower to negative margins and supply seems to have become a beast all of its own due to the horizontal drilling and fracing technology revolution of the past 10 years.
We have entered into a different business environment in the sector and many companies that serve those within it will either change or face destruction. We are in a different culture now, one that is far away from the big brick and mortar structure of decades past. Why buy things you need or want from a company that has built huge facilities and support structures when their are lower cost options that offer the same, if not improved technology at a lower cost? In our industry, there are many options for reliable MWD, LWD, Motor and drilling tool technology out there. Decades ago, a company such as ours would find the best deal on a technology and purchase assets from these manufacturers to build assets of our own to use on clients projects. The technology may or may not be fit for all applications, but we would be forced to sell it to clients for the sheer fact that we need to utilize our assets before a 3rd party is considered. Now that we have purchased assets, we must expand, build or lease, a facility. We must hire experienced technicians and engineers to oversee the management of these assets and increase our administrative workforce to manage those in which supervise others. These costs add up to increased burdens on service companies and only lead them to the inability to drive down costs for the client, and are now forced to increase the costs for products and services to pay for extensive overhead.
New World Business Vs. Old World Business
We are now moving into a new world post worst downturn in the history of the industry and the old guard of service companies believe collectively that we will be able to increase day rates as soon as oil reaches $70, $80 and $90 dollars per barrel. They are eagerly waiting for this in order to turn back the clock and recover lost profits from the recent downturn. This is a huge mistake and will soon be the death of many in the sector as this is only wishful thinking and largely based on previous cycles in our past. It's just not going to be this way in the future. I believe that we have entered into a new world of business, one where the inefficiencies of the past will no longer be tolerated. The old days of redundancy and complex organizational structures with non-essential personnel within an organization can no longer be effective. Multiple VP's globetrotting around in jets, sales representatives taking clients Heli-skiing and on $50,000 African safaris is a thing of the past. Executives with multiple mansions, ferraris and inflated million dollar salaries will only add to the inability for companies to conform to the new way of doing business within the new markets. These excesses will no longer be available for those who wish to continue business in the industry and survive as long as they are not diversified into multiple sectors. Simplified management structures, reduction in employee burden rates, elimination of redundant systems & procedures and elimination of non-essential personnel for completion of a project are the only way forward. Clients in the future will be demanding even lower prices no matter what the price of oil is. The only companies to survive in the service industry will be those that can simplify their structures and find unique ways to manage their resources within the market. This will require a distinct focus on a structure that has less non-essential personnel in order to perform a single job.
Service companies not achieving simplicity, lower operations costs, lower maintenance and repair costs, lower manufacturing costs, etc.. might as well close their doors now and save themselves a lot of pain. Sure....companies should always search for better technology, but not if it costs 2 or 3 times the cost of current technology available. We are far into the well manufacturing stage of exploration evolution. Low cost solutions for the successful and reliable completion of a project is the only way forward. Complexity may lead to efficiencies in the future, but only if it takes fewer human resources to manage the process.
How Is THis Related To Amazon?
Amazon is a hub for you to get exactly what products you want, when you want them without all the additional costs of redundancies. How is this done and what do you mean? Amazon doesn't have to manufacture, create a facility, nor employ engineering teams to sell you a flashlight. Amazon can supply you with access to many manufacturers of flashlights and ensure you get the flashlight you need by utilizing the power of their vendor accounts. Customers drive the demand for the best products by reviews of the products based on their performance, reliability, quality and value. Amazon can control costs due to leveraging the power and resources of the flashlight manufacturer. This way, they can offer the best products at extremely low prices. Where does my company fit into this new world and how can I ensure its survival? Janel Energy Services was built to do exactly what Amazon was built to do. Provide manufacturers of MWD, LWD, Drilling Tools, Mud Motors, Bits with a single place to showcase and distribute their products, and a platform that would manage their use properly to the given application. Janel Energy Services was built to ensure that the customer receives access to the correct technology for their application and that it is utilized to its full potential and purpose without the high cost of brick and mortar facilities to support it.
ADVANTAGES
There are many distinct advantages to running future businesses in this fashion. By working to eliminate inefficiencies such as:
Repair & Maintenance Facilities Redundant Engineering Staff Redundant Technical Support & Analysis
Repair & Maintenance Facilities
Most manufacturers of commonly used MWD, LWD, Drilling Tools & Mud Motor technologies already have facilities in all major operating regions around the globe. For one to build a facility and not utilize facilities that already exist would only increase the amount they would have to charge in order to supply their customers with the products and services required to complete the project's objectives. It would increase logistics of inbound and outbound products and increase administrative costs to maintain facility. Does the average person who buys the flashlight from Amazon care where the facility is in proximity to their own? No... They only care that the product is high quality, reliable and performs as expected. As long as Amazon ensures that the product is received as expected and when expected, the customer will be happy with the product or service. In this new business environment, service companies and their vendors will need to team up in order to provide efficiencies needed to drive costs down for their customers in order to remain profitable. Sharing facility space, transportation costs, administrative tasks....it all matters.
Redundant Engineering Staff
Would Amazon need to staff a full time engineer for flashlight design along with the flashlight manufacturer? No....Amazon would only increase its employee burden rates along with overhead, likely with no realized benefit for the consumer. This would only increase the costs that Amazon would need to charge for its services in order to remain profitable. In the directional drilling industry, manufacturers of MWD/LWD, Drilling Tools & Mud Motors all have staff engineering resources. These resources are rarely utilized to their full potential as the old way of doing business is to build one's own engineering team to support its fleet of tools. Often times these engineers can provide the identical support, if not better, than traditional hired resources. A service company only needs to seek out the resources for assistance in order to truly benefit from their capabilities. By effectively including these resources and allowing them to achieve their full potential for our business, we can achieve a better level of efficiency by not taking on additional burdens of engineering employees. If our vendors are already taking on the employee burden for engineering, why would we need to do so as well? This is low hanging fruit in the industry and is something many companies miss today. Just go to Tolteq, Evolution, Compass, GE, Wenzel, Tomahawk, Renegade, Downhole Tools International, NOV, Stabil-Drill, Schlumberger, etc.. and ask their engineering staff how often a directional drilling company asks them for assistance with an issue. The answer may surprise you!
Redundant Technical Support & Analysis
Seven years ago I noticed a growing trend while visiting my customers offices and headquarters. More and more of the major operators were hiring ex-directional drilling managers & technical experts from service companies to assist them with directional drilling activities, technical support, remote operations center management, and directional drilling project analysis. Several of these companies had hired engineering technicians (recent petroleum engineering graduates) to assemble, analyze and report on drilling activities in real time or once daily. These support mechanisms were pulling KPI's and preparing reports for operations engineers on an ongoing basis. More often than not, I found myself face to face with someone who had spent the last 5-7 days preparing the same exact data that I had been pulling and analyzing over the same timeline. Now, this in essence is a great thing. Service company and operator aligned in the same direction and on the same page as far as analyzing KPI's while searching for drilling efficiencies to optimize drilling operations and procedures. More times than not, there were situations where there was a disconnect on exactly what should change in order to optimize and often was the case that I had wasted hours of work to find out that the operator would not listen to my suggestions and analysis over their internal resources anyway. This became a clear and apparent waste of resources for us as we were pouring out money in time for our technical staff to provide the customer with data and analysis that wasn't being used. These technical resources for this level of analysis are not cheap in our industry. People with experience and capabilities to look analytically at drilling KPI and derive a solution for optimizing a drilling program come at a cost. The cost is absolutely worth every penny as long as the information they provide is utilized and not wasted. As years passed, I understood that operators had advanced their internal resources to the point of not requiring as much analysis from the service side. Several operators had their own remote drilling operations centers that were fully staffed and assisting real time with their rigs. So why have redundant operations centers? Why have conflicting analysis and redundant reporting? If a client is small and doesn't have these resources on staff, then it makes absolute sense to provide technical analysis and support at a higher level as part of our products and services, but if the client is larger and has their own staff for this purpose, it is far better to provide them with only the minimum they require of your company. This can provide a service company with an efficient cost model that can give a customer everything they need and nothing they don't, all while keeping rates low for the client. Amazon follows a model such as this. They only staff the resources required to provide their customers with support through the processes without redundancy.
Expansion And Retraction
Ask any service company management and they will tell you that it is almost impossible to retract a business that was built for running 50 jobs down to running 5. So goes the cycles of our industry and the pains we endure to remain in business. The problem, or pain we feel is in the retraction and not generally the expansion phase of the business. While there are more than enough growth pains one can endure, they pale in comparison to the agony of retraction. Why does retraction hurt so much? Facilities, assets and staff. These are 3 of the major pain points a service company deals with upon retraction and loss of market share. It makes perfect sense to minimize one's exposure to these risks as much as possible. If we were able to reduce this risk down to a single main point of pain, such as staff, then would we not be able to handle a retraction better? Of course we would. Having unutilized assets sitting in unutilized facilities can be the death blow to many companies in a market environment such as this. In the past, companies would just reduce staff and wait out the downturn in order just to pick back up within the next 18-36 months. Rig activity will be assured to hit record levels again right? We will soon be able to increase our day rates to get back to 30%+ net margins while still operating under an inefficient model right? This may have been the case in the 1997 and 2008 downturns, but what many service companies fail to understand is that it will not be this way in the future. What our future holds for operators is a very different picture than before. Cost efficiency will no longer be limited to times of strife and low commodity prices. Cost efficiency is the new norm within our market, embrace it or get out of the business. In this post oilapocalypse era of our age, operators will be forced to remain efficient no matter what the price of oil reaches. The technological advancements of horizontal drilling and fracing have resulted in requiring less active rigs required for more asset production. There is no need anymore for 2000+ drilling rigs in order to supply North America, or the world for that matter, with the amount of oil or gas required to sustain its demands. Less rigs means more focus on drilling efficiency and productivity. More attention to cost and ensuring controls for remaining ultra-profitable during times of higher commodity pricing. Expansion and retraction of service companies in this new era of business must be done differently.
Ahead Of The Curve
It's not always cool to be ahead of the curve of something. You are often thought of and referred to as "crazy", "stupid", "out of the loop", etc.. Even though I have found some operators to be receptive and welcoming to the idea and concept, many are still unable to connect the dots. This is an awkward position for anyone to be in. My entire goal is to provide the same identical service as they are using today at a lower cost, sometimes 30% lower. I have been encouraged as of late to forge ahead after some really good and intelligent conversations with operators who understand the model and need for the industry to change its model. I find that often they were not exactly educated on our process or business structure and therefore believed that the old model was the best model, and there was simply no other way for us to reduce operating costs or improve other than a shiny new technology. After taking some time to explain what problems we are facing in the service industry and what solutions are available to correct these, the response has been extremely positive and they can see where the model can provide them with years of low cost/high quality services no matter the rise in commodity prices. Through working actively with select manufacturers and providers of MWD, LWD, Drilling Tool & Mud Motor technologies, we have secured access exceeding capabilities of the larger directional companies, without the excessive overhead and cost to maintain. Select vendors have understood where the industry is going and have agreed to long term contracts to keep costs controlled in order to provide operators with a unique option amidst a global commodity price crisis. Vendors of these products are much alike the vendors of products that sell actively on Amazon. They understand that while they will get lower retail for their products, they will sell them in greater quantities from a single source. This will reduce costs of creating multiple brick and mortar retail outlets and therefore reduce the amount of overhead they will have. Many larger directional service companies understand the trend and are slowly altering their age old business models in order to compete and survive in the market. Many will move too slow and never achieve the change in time and will fail. Within the last few months, our company has been approached by multiple directional companies that have historically never rented or leased their technologies in the market. They have approached us and requested to be our, "MWD wing" or "Sole Mud Motor Provider". Why this change in your strategy we asked? Their response was inline with what we knew all along. The retraction and future forecast for the industry have forced them to search for a different way to do business in the future.
Tool rentals look more appealing than unutilized assets sitting in their facilities. 30% of the market, is better than 0% of the market.
Employee burdens are far too great for us to continue at lower day rates. Our excessive overhead has led to cutting field staff and operations management wages to the point of collapse.
It's far too troublesome to deal with operators than it is to rent tools to a service provider.
These are all answers I received when asking why the change in strategy. These events along with my past and current involvement in discussions with operators has only strengthened my position and strategy for building my company. We remain confident that the model will prove to be the new standard at which all directional service companies will be forced to follow into the future. Will we get it right the first time? Probably not....like everything that is a success, it takes several failures to get there. I have already struck out with many operators that didn't agree or understand the model and failed to realize the ultimate value. While choosing to stay with their current provider may have given them some hope and perceived reduced risk for the future, it is only a matter of time before their provider will be forced to raise their costs to support their age old business structure of big brick and mortar. At that same time, we will not only be going in the opposite way as far as operating costs, but gaining market share and being able to actually reduce our rates for our customers. We believe alike Amazon, that we need to build our customer base doing what we do and then we will be the market leaders for everyone else to follow.
Stubbornness
"We are stubborn on vision. We are flexible on details." - Jeff Bezos | CEO Amazon
Being stubborn on vision has never been a problem for me. Once I get my head wrapped around the idea and structure, there is typically no way I will stray from its design or purpose. We know that building Janel Energy Services for the sheer reason of being the lowest cost directional service provider in the industry was going to be a hard sell. Most operators will believe that if you are lower cost, you are lower quality. This is not true as long as you are appropriating your capital in the right places. We know we need to be strong and endure some hardships in order to break through in the industry. This will require us to be stubborn on our vision. Flexibility is something we have no shortage of as well. We are ultra flexible and have utilized this mindset and structure to work alongside our vendors to achieve new and innovative partnerships that will revolutionize the value proposition for our company.
Long Term Thinking
Once, when asked about Amazon’s revenue growth, Bezos couldn’t even remember the exact growth percentage, something rare for a CEO. When asked why he didn’t know, he said:
“I’m thinking a few years out. I’ve already forgotten those numbers.” - Jeff Bezos
Long term thinking has been the cornerstone of Amazon's strategy. Most discussions within our industry center around the question, "What will change within the next 3 years in directional drilling? I often see this as a missed opportunity to ask the question, "What will not change within the next 10 years in directional drilling?" I can build a successful business on something that will remain stable in time. For example, I know that operators will want high performance results at low prices, now and in 10 years from now. This allows us to remain confident that our strategy is solid and we can be assured that we will be successful far into the future. If we remain long term strategy minded, we will be able to look past current failures to sell based on the lack of acceptance in our business model.
Obsess About Customers
Alike Amazon, we’re not competitor obsessed, we’re customer obsessed. We start with the customer and we work backwards. When you work backwards, you start with the customer and their needs and problems. This is the opposite of what most companies do, which is: they think up ideas, build a product, and then see if customers like it. We focus on providing exactly what our customers need and providing nothing they don't. Why would we go and build a remote operations center, if our customers already have one themselves? Why would we go and hire and expensive drilling analyst only to find that our customers have 3 of them on staff already? These are the inefficiencies that drive operating costs up for the customers. If we remain obsessed about our customers needs, we often find that a "Product Champion", "Technical Drilling Analyst" & "Remote Operations Staff" are often not required to deliver ultimate value in the service.
“If we can arrange things in such a way that our interests are aligned with our customers, then in the long term that will work out really well for customers and it will work out really well for Amazon.” - Jeff Bezos
This could not be a more truer statement. For us, this means we must align our interests in such a way that our interests are aligned with our customers. "Well...we are doing this when we build an engineering team and technical drilling support team to support the client's drilling activities, just like they are.", you may say. But does this mean you are truly "aligned" with them, or copying them? If you are building a team to replicate work done by theirs and you raise your internal costs in the process which results in you raising your rates for services to remain profitable, are you truly "aligned" with your customer? You would be better served researching exactly what your customers will need over the next 5-10 years and obsessing over delivery of that. It will most likely be drilling directional wells with continuous improvements while keeping your costs low. There can be many arguments made either way, and I will be the first to say that having a technical drilling expert on staff can assist with improvements and drilling efficiencies. The point I am making is that service companies often hire these resources without first discovering the capabilities and technological knowledge of staff that may be accessible on the customer's payroll. Where one could have possibly reached the same efficiency by utilizing existing resources bought and paid for by a client, one buys and pays for their own therefore increasing overhead costs in the process. This leaves most companies obsessing over themselves and not their customers.
Two Pizza Rule
Amazon believes in a “two pizza rule” for teams, meaning that the groups should be small enough to feed with only two pizzas. This generally works out to about 5 to 7 people in a team. This system works well because typically when a team becomes larger, it becomes more inefficient and therefore less productive. I believe this to be very important in any business strategy, especially in our current day and age of the commodity rollercoaster and global uncertainty in our market. There is no more room for waste in our industry. Creating larger teams of people involved will only create waste and cost inefficiencies that will erode the bottom line of any service company. What does this mean for us? It means thinking outside the box for new ways to structure our business internally. The days of structuring our company to the mold of past companies are long gone. New organizational structures with multiple duties and or tasks are required to remain lean and efficient.
Never Stop Experimenting
“If you double the number of experiments you do per year you’re going to double your inventiveness.” - Jeff Bezos
If you ask most CEOs, they’ll tell you that experimentation is imperative for their business. It’s how new innovations are born and how they stay competitive in the market. Automotive companies have concept cars; food companies experiment with new foods and flavors; retail companies experiment with placement of products and store atmosphere; drug companies are built on experimentation; tech companies have “labs” like Google Labs; and many high performing companies, like Google, allow their employees to experiment. Even sports teams experiment with new plays and/or players. Experimentation is everywhere and is always happening. I believe we are following this concept at Janel very intently. We encourage and support experimenting with new processes, technology, organizational structures, pricing models and software systems. We are consistently searching for advanced ways of delivering the most value to our customers through any means necessary.I’m in the USA this week for the second time this year, so I wasn’t surprised when the Guardian reported that, according to a new study, increasing numbers of American teens from low-income communities are trading sex to stay fed.
Not just trading sex, of course, they’re also selling drugs and turning to crime because their parents can’t afford to feed them. “We heard the same story everywhere,” said one of the report authors, having surveyed low-income kids across 10 different American cities.
Last week another American piece entitled “20 ways to help your employees struggling with food insecurity” went viral.
Christian Porter's welfare figures are designed to shock. Pay them no respect | Greg Jericho Read more
How much Australians may wish to emulate America has become a prescient question. Because while it’s estimated that up to one in seven American households are currently experiencing “food insecurity”, pursuing American-style economic policy is very much the flavour of Turnbull’s returned Coalition government.
Their hunger is to cut corporate tax, increase workforce casualisation and punish the unemployed.
When Turnbull talks of “flexibility” and “innovation” in industrial discussion, these are euphemisms for stripping awards, busting unions and keeping wage growth low.
This is the “trickle down” ideology of the American neocons, which absolves the state of the responsibility for job creation, denies income support like pensions and welfare, and refuses to add to the collective wealth through provision of universal access to healthcare and education. The idea is to rely on a barely-regulated labour market as the mechanism to generate incomes for working families.
It’s all founded in fanciful notions of free markets and self-reliance but the result of decades of this thinking in the US is entrenched material inequality and social mobility near to frozen; with inherited wealth emerging as a major determinant of future wealth.
Last week, Americans celebrated a rise in median household income from 2014 levels, but accounting for inflation, income is still about 2.4% lower than in 1999.
Living is hard in the richest country on Earth. A 2014 report from the Economic Policy Institute reported that of 26 nations, the US had the lowest-paid work in the OECD as well as the highest incidence of it, although it isn’t because Americans are working any less hard. The lowest 10% of American workers achieved a 64.9% productivity increase from 1979-2013. Alas, their wages declined by 5% over the same generation.
Minimum wage here is a tiny $7.25 an hour. And there are 35 million Americans – 26% of the workforce – presently working for less than US$10.55 an hour.
With today’s exchange rate, that’s under AUD $13.98. And while it’s calculated that buying consumer goods in America costs around 8% less than doing so in Australia, our minimum wage is not only AUD $17.70 an hour, but our casuals receive an additional 25% loading on their pay – Americans don’t – and our minimum wage workers are only 10% of our adult workforce.
Inequality is growing in Australia but we’ve so far avoided the worst of American exploitation due to fundamental differences in values expressed by more economically egalitarian social policy.
In the 1980s, US governments decided to accept high levels of unemployment as a favour to business drive down wages and encourage competition among unemployed workers for lower pay. In Australia the Hawke-Keating Accord was a bargain struck between unions and government; unions agreed to wage restraints in return for the state’s provision of a “social wage”, Medicare, accessible higher education, family tax benefits and the superannuation scheme.
Strong Australian unions fought for the right to collectively bargain industry-wide awards and establish minimum labour standards and workplace conditions. American unions don’t have this power; they exist worksite by worksite, and are limited in representing even those members in collective bargaining if they have less than 50%+1 of a site signed up.
But recent events have revealed the Coalition’s intention is for an erosion of these Australian standards. There’s their punitive work-for-the-dole schemes, omnibus bills to cut pensions and strip public services, and ongoing attacks on unions. Since their re-election, there’s been Christian Porter’s “revolutionary” abandonment of job creation as a means to address unemployment, favouring instead to target resources to humiliating the unemployed.
There’s also their intervention in the United Firefighters Union dispute in Victoria is a means of creating opportunities to accommodate free and volunteer labour in the workforce, and therefore weaken enterprise bargaining.
To fight racism, we need to craft a better 'we' and ditch the 'us' and 'them' | Tim Hollo Read more
Similarly, they’re unmotivated to regulate the proliferation of labour subcontractors like Uber or Airtasker. This week, Unions NSW released a report that exposed AirTasker as undermining award rates and conditions, with Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey explaining to me that Airtasker’s very platform encourages workers to undercut one another’s rates to “bid” in competition for jobs.
“The minimum award for data entry is $23.53,” is the example Morey gives, “but the the recommended rate from Airtasker is $17 an hour.” Taking out the 15% that Airtasker deducts, that reduces payment to $14.45, almost $10 beneath the award. This is also without industrial protections like workers compensation, equipment or anything else – and it’s a means of establishing a labour market that exists outside of collective standards.
It is the heavier regulatory touch that has so far spared us the unfair fate of our American cousins. Why the Coalition or anyone else would seek to tear at the fabric of Australian egalitarianism given the impoverished example of American alternative can only be a matter of ideology – one that insists that wealth is for the wealthy, and scraps are for everyone else.False and Misleading Information May Lead to Some Voters Staying Home
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org
HARRISBURG, PA - The legal team challenging Pennsylvania’s voter ID law filed a petition today asking Judge Robert Simpson to order the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to stop disseminating false information about the need for photo ID on Election Day and to make it to clear to the public that ID will not be required to vote in the November 6 election. This request comes in the wake of several recent mailings by both governmental and non-governmental entities that contained outdated information about the law and have added to voter confusion.
In their petition, the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, Advancement Project, the ACLU of Pennsylvania, and the law firm of Arnold & Porter argue that unless this misinformation is corrected, some eligible voters will stay home on Election Day because they mistakenly believe they need ID to vote in this election.
According to the petition, the Commonwealth has circulated misinformation about the voter ID law to voters. Last week, thousands of Pennsylvania seniors received a mailing from PACE/PACENET, a program administered by the Commonwealth's Department of Aging, that included a Dept. of State card about the voter ID law. The card incorrectly states: "Voters are required to show photo ID on Election Day.”
In addition, petitioners’ counsel has received dozens of complaints from people that they have heard and seen radio and TV ads that still say voters need photo ID to vote. As recently as October 11, some PennDOT locations were still displaying outdated posters and information telling people they need ID to vote. Pennsylvania’s voting laws prohibit dissemination of false or misleading information to the electorate about voting.
In their motion, petitioners argue that the Commonwealth has failed to clearly inform the public that the voter ID law will not be in effect for the November 2012 election. Rather than creating ads that clearly state this information, the Commonwealth instead chose to continue with its “Show It” campaign and merely add the phrase “if you have it” in small print to note that ID would not be required. These minimal changes to the “Show It” campaign are not enough to combat previous efforts by the Commonwealth to publicize the law, including multiple press releases, press conferences, and a postcard mailing in September to all registered voters.
The petitioners are asking the Commonwealth Court to issue an order requiring that the Commonwealth send notices with correct information to anyone who received false information from the state since October 2 about the law; immediately cease running any ads that still tell voters they must have photo ID to vote; re-word robocalls scheduled for the run-up to the election; issue a clarifying press release to all media outlets; and direct Secretary Carol Aichele to hold a press conference announcing that photo ID is not required to vote this Election Day.
A copy of the petition is available at: http://www.aclupa.org/downloads/Petition101912.pdfSANTIAGO (Reuters) - For nearly three decades after Veronica de Negri’s 19-year-old son Rodrigo Rojas was burned to death by Chilean soldiers during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, her hunt for justice had been fruitless.
An anthropologist inspects a bullet trajectory in a skull of a victim executed during the rule of dictator Augusto Pinochet at the laboratory of Forensic Identification Unit in the Legal Medical Service at Santiago city, Chile, October 26, 2015. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado
Two legal battles failed, as unsympathetic judges and amnesty laws foiled all attempts to bring charges.
But then in July 2015, she finally had a breakthrough. Cajoled by the Supreme Court president, prosecutors charged seven former military officers for burning de Negri’s son alive while he was photographing a political protest in 1986.
“I wanted to scream to the world what was happening,” said de Negri, who was told of the arrest warrants before they were served.
De Negri’s case is among hundreds sent to prosecutors in the past two years. Led by Supreme Court President Sergio Munoz, Chile’s courts are racing to address dictatorship-era crimes before the deaths of witnesses, victims, and the accused makes doing so impossible.
During Pinochet’s 1973-1990 dictatorship, an estimated 3,200 people were murdered and another 28,000 tortured by the state.
That was not on the same scale as in Argentina, where a military junta killed as many as 30,000 during the country’s 1976-1983 “Dirty War”. But unlike Argentina, Chile’s military government retained support among conservatives after its downfall, and for years they blocked attempts to deal with the dictatorship’s crimes. Pinochet died in 2006 without ever being convicted for human rights abuses.
“What we’re doing is restorative justice,” said Munoz, an outspoken critic of Pinochet’s legacy and, at 58, Chile’s youngest Supreme Court president.
“Chile has evolved from turning away from these issues to taking them on,” he told Reuters.
In the 25 years of democracy, there have been 1,149 convictions handed down for dictatorship-era human rights crimes. But since Munoz took office in |
And because they were spherical, symmetric, you didn't have any control ability, but essentially, these looked like perfect reflectors."
Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramerand Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.The Government is considering making it illegal to drive too close to cyclists.
Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter told Newshub she wants to discuss the issue with officials and road safety groups in the next few weeks.
"We know a lot of people want to cycle more, but see our roads as too dangerous. I'm committed to changing this," the Green Party MP said.
"Anyone who's had the experience of a car or truck passing too close, at high speed, knows how frightening it can be. It's certainly off-putting for people new to cycling."
It comes after Western Australia became the fifth state across the Tasman to implement a passing law. Drivers have to stay at least one metre away from cyclists, and 1.5m if they're going faster than 60km/h. Failure to do so could result in a NZ$440 fine and four demerit points.
Kiwi cyclists have welcomed the move.
"A close pass is really uncomfortable and scary, and it's one of the main reasons that puts people off cycling," said Patrick Morgan of the Cyclist Action Network.
"People love cycling - they don't like mixing with heavy traffic. Being overtaken too close is bad manners, it's dangerous and it's scary."
Mr Morgan says there's already a "duty of care" written into the law, but the roads will be safer if it's made absolutely clear in the law how much room drivers need to give.
"The evidence from Queensland is it has been effective at increasing passing distances."
Western Australia is the last state to put a passing distance into law, Victoria the holdout.
In the past decade, between six and 10 cyclists have died on New Zealand's roads every year. Ministry of Transport statistics show the vast majority of accidents involving cyclists - around two-thirds - are not the cyclist's fault.
Minimum passing distances are mentioned in the Road Code, but not specified in law.Neoreaction, alternatively called the Dark Enlightenment, is a disparate intellectual movement centered on some blogs that advocate a package of wholesale reforms to society. These reforms include, but certainly aren’t limited to, a return to traditional gender roles, monarchism, and typically a more libertarian-oriented economic system. There is a rough consensus on what is wrong with society and on what kind of societies there should be, but it would be an oversimplification to pretend each thinker is as deeply invested in each of these potential reforms.
The question of what brings neoreactionaries together, here and now, is a live question within the movement. No definite consensus has yet been formed, but many postulate neoreaction as a kind of libertarian heresy: think libertarianism scrubbed clean of democratic sentiment. Mencius Moldbug, a popular blogger writing since 2007, is a central figure, whose critique of progressive society has provided a framework within which neoreactionary thought has developed.
The first thing a neoreactionary does is jettison all egalitarian pretenses. One might find this surprisingly easy; nature has no concern for equality. Humankind did not evolve in order to reach a classless utopia void of strife and conflict. If anything, humanity exemplifies every brutality of nature in the most subtle of fashions, and frequently the stability of a society is not merely compatible with, but may depend upon, what modernists have deigned to call “oppression.” But to the neoreactionary, this obfuscates the issue. If you destabilize society, you threaten all potential for human flourishing. In that light, learning how to endure is more important than rising up.
The point here is less to justify inequality but ask, since inequality is the way of nature, how might that inequality be made to work for us? Don’t work against human nature, seek to capture it in service of the project of civilization.
It is inevitable, given that frame, that racial segregation and integration are evaluated very differently that mainstream society. Where multiculturalism and diversity are held to be the noblest end, they are viewed by neoreactionaries with, if not suspicion, skepticism. It is an open question as to whether these norms are always or ever sustainable.
The cult of integration disrupts identities that are treasured by those being integrated. For example, one may not praise ‘white identity’ without being charged with racism, whereas Hispanic and black identities are officially promoted as unalloyed goods. It shouldn’t be surprising that this disparity leads to attempts at recovering mere white identity without the modern form of White Man’s Burden; a self-flagellating, excusatory existence.
Every insistence that white identity necessarily poses a threat to other racial groups would be identified as rank racism were it raised about the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Simply trade “white” for any historically marginalized racial group, and it becomes easy to see that within modern anti-racist circles lurks the last acceptable form of racism. A National Policy Institute convention that attracts barely 100 participants is simultaneously played up as a meeting of “white supremacists” and ridiculed by Salon; imagine the consequences for a blogger who gave a National Council of La Raza conference similar treatment.
This explains the outlook of people like Jason Kuznicki, who lodges objections against Nick Land, author of the Dark Enlightenment, by identifying a disinterested defense of ethno-nationalism with white nationalism. Land, whose writing style and emphasis might best be described as Lovecraft goes postmodern, certainly leaves himself open to interpretation where he revels in the themes of darkness and psychological horror. In one sense, then, it isn’t surprising that Kuznicki could be led to identify “dark neo-reaction,” a term none of the neoreactionaries have seen fit to use, with white nationalism. I can only assume Land delights in that misreading, as little as I know him.
It would be a mistake to identify neoreaction with white nationalism, or any kind of nationalism, at this point. Neoreaction is less intent on forwarding a cohesive political movement as it is concerned with cultivating an ideological basis for successful reforms of society. So far as neoreactionaries are concerned, a plurality of political philosophies is not only to be expected, it is indicative of a strong theoretical grounding in opposition to the present political conceits which define Western politics at home and abroad.
It isn’t unexpected that any defense of ethno-nationalism immediately conjures up images of boogeymen like the KKK, given our cultural aversion to race-talk — or Frantz Fanon or Meir Kahane, for that matter. But it’s worth understanding what its proponents mean by the term.
Ethno-nationalism acknowledges that different ethnicities are different. Whether because of cultural norms or biologically innate differences, if groups of people with distinct ancestries weren’t different in even moderately significant ways, there would be no point to ethno-nationalism. Different ethnicities tend to think differently and they tend to form different values. Ethno-nationalism does not mean favoring of one skin color over another; ethnicities are not better or worse, just different. The differences don’t even need to be very large, as you can consider how people often have difficulty with people who are very like themselves.
We can tell these differences are meaningful because people prefer to associate with others like them. The level of segregation which exists presently, the neoreactionary suggests, is partially explainable by historical factors including oppression, but it is at least partially explainable by groups liking to associate with each other. Very simply, if I’m white, I’m going to find it easier to empathize with the thinking of other whites. The more different another person is from me ethnically, the more difficult it is for me to model what they’re really thinking, and vice versa. This means that people of the same or similar ethnic groups will more likely associate within their own group than with those outside their own group. It doesn’t need to be because they harbor any particular resentment toward other groups, but only because they find it easier to get along with people similar to themselves.
In my book What is Neoreaction? I distinguish between nationalism and cosmopolitanism, based on the degree of ethnic integration. Small towns, for example tend to be more racially uniform, while cities are more racially diverse. The former is more nationalistic while the latter is more cosmopolitan. Each of these arrangements is simply different, with different advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of nationalism is that it is easier to form associations, while the advantage of cosmopolitanism is that one is exposed to a more diverse cultural milieu. The point is not that one is intrinsically better; if you like the city life (indeed, I’m highly cosmopolitan and love the city), good for you. If you like the small town life, good for you. Either way, an individual shouldn’t be forced to live in a more nationalist or cosmopolitan arrangement than he would like. Even if we no longer really have freedom of association in America, that is the idea of it.
Inasmuch as neoreaction favors smaller states formed along whatever coherent societal arrangements are possible (e.g. ethnic solidarity is just one such example of coherent societal arrangement; think of the Czechs and Slovaks), we will almost always defend the right to secede. If Silicon Valley wants to exit and start their own society, by all means they should do so. If Scotland wants to secede from the UK, absolutely allow them to. If Texas no longer desires to be a part of the Union, let them leave. Same goes for Northern Colorado or Western Maryland. Discussions about white nationalists should be understood within the context of ethno-nationalism, rather than racial supremacism. Granted, racial supremacists may be ethno-nationalists, but ethno-nationalists are not logically racial supremacists.
Wanting to be left alone to establish a separate identity, along ethnic lines or any others, without the intervention of cosmopolitan do-gooders doesn’t make you racist. It just makes you not cosmopolitan. Isn’t that why we stopped believing colonialism is a good thing? The neoreactionary just applies that logic one step further and says coercive integration — socioeconomic, racial, or any other kind — is simply domestic colonialism.A dead man accused of murder never gets his day in court. Guilty or not, he is damned for all eternity, unable to answer the charges.
John Sheridan, a confidante of New Jersey governors and other elites over two generations, is one such man.
Sixth months ago, prosecutors say, he snapped just before dawn one morning and stabbed his wife Joyce repeatedly with a carving knife. He then stabbed himself as he poured gasoline around their bedroom in a wealthy suburb of Somerset County, and threw a match on it.
But we should ask ourselves: Did he really do it?
Not because Sheridan was a powerful man. And not because his four sons, one of whom is the top attorney for the state's Republican Party, can't accept this verdict.
We should question this conclusion because it is built on flimsy evidence that any respectable defense attorney could swat down in an afternoon. This was amateur hour in a prosecutor's office that rarely handles murder investigations, and clearly botched this one.
Put it another way: If John Sheridan had lived, it's impossible to imagine a jury -- any jury -- convicting him, knowing what we now know.
Newly released documents and a lengthy and exclusive interview with Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano point to several key weaknesses in the case.
Prosecutors still can't find the weapon they say Sheridan used to kill himself. They have no credible motive, and Soriano admits it.
The DNA evidence prosecutors used to link Sheridan to his wife's murder weapon evaporates under closer examination: In fact, the marker they found is present in one of every two white men, according to a State Police report given to the Star-Ledger by the Sheridan family that had not been released to the public.
It gets worse.
No one dusted for fingerprints outside the master bedroom to see if an intruder entered the house through one of four unlocked doors.
The key wound to Sheridan's neck, which nicked his jugular and is listed as a cause of death, was not made by the carving knife that killed his wife. Two autopsies concluded that only a narrow-gauge weapon could leave the mark.
But prosecutors didn't realize that until a renowned pathologist hired by the Sheridan family produced the second autopsy. A full week after the killings, after the crime scene had been closed, investigators returned to the house to search for such a weapon, according to both Soriano and the Sheridans.
Asked how his crew could have missed such basic evidence, Soriano said that investigators had assumed the carving knife had killed both husband and wife.
They realized the mistake only after the autopsy that was paid for by the Sheridans. "That was the first time we were told that the knives we had could not have caused the wound," Soriano says.
What they found was a blob of melted metal, which their report suggests was the narrow-gauged weapon. It turned out to be a mixture of zinc and aluminum, according to State Police. Even the prosecutor, Soriano, concedes that he has no clue if it really was once a weapon.
"Knives are not made of zinc and aluminum," he says. "Letter openers could be."
When pressed, he wouldn't stand by that theory, either. Most letter openers have dull edges, and Sheridan's wounds included slices as well as punctures.
The metal might have been a harmless piece of hardware from the armoire that fell on Sheridan during the fire, Soriano concedes.
"I don't know what it is," he said, finally. "It could have been anything."
Two months after the killings, an insurance adjuster came to inspect the home and found a bag full of jewelry in a closet off the master bedroom. Investigators had somehow missed it.
So what if that bag contained a weapon, or drugs, or some other clue? Isn't this more evidence of flat-out incompetence?
"I'm not going there," Soriano says.
Imagine being a defense attorney in this case. No weapon in John Sheridan's death. No motive, no history of violence in a 47-year marriage, no evidence of debt or drug use or scandal of any sort.
Bogus DNA evidence. No fingerprints check on possible intruders. And evidence of incompetence.
Michael Critchley, one of the state's top defense attorneys, said Sheridan would never be convicted on such weak evidence.
"If he had lived, he never would have been indicted," Critchley says. "They don't have many homicides in Somerset County. This is not a skill set they have had an opportunity to develop."
Possibly correct
Is it possible this was a murder-suicide? Even Mark Sheridan, while he doesn't believe it, concedes the answer is yes.
There is no evidence of an intruder in the home that morning. Cash and jewelry were left behind in plain sight. And several people close to Sheridan say he was acting unusual in the days before the deaths, upset by a pending report that was critical of the cardiac unit at Cooper Health System in Camden, where Sheridan served as CEO.
George Norcross, the chairman of Cooper's board, says the report was a routine problem, not a crisis. Sheridan was upset, he said, but not to the point of a mental breakdown.
"I received an email from John the night before," Norcross says. "It was business-like, a reasoned response to something I had written to him, and it's hard to conceive that someone would have gone from that to an enraged person who committed murder. I always was, and continue to be, skeptical. I'm not sure this will ever be solved."
Even Soriano doesn't go so far as to say the pending report caused Sheridan to crack. The prosecutor's seven-page summary of the case implies that, but when pressed, Soriano again backpedaled.
"What we tried to do is gather all the relevant evidence," he says. "I don't know what else was going on in his life."
In the face of this uncertainty, and the big gaps in the evidence, the obvious answer would have been for Soriano to admit that the facts lead to no definite conclusion.
The possibilities are infinite. A murder-suicide. A burglary gone bad. A drug dealer who came for Matt, a son who lived at the home and was arrested for cocaine possession shortly after the killings. A work crew that did work on the home recently, and might have seen the ample stock of painkillers Joyce Sheridan had after a recent surgery.
But prosecutors don't like to leave a murder unresolved. This was by far the most high-profile case to come Soriano's way during his nearly five years as prosecutor. Before he was appointed to this job, he had served only as a municipal prosecutor handling minor cases.
And in the interview, he says that it was a priority for him to reassure the public.
Within a week of the killings, he announced there was no danger to the general public, suggesting he had already concluded this was a murder-suicide.
"Early on, no doubt about it, we concluded it was murder-suicide," Soriano says. "There are some who say, 'You made your mind up and shut down.' It's the opposite. I challenged our detectives and assistant prosecutors to go out and find the person who did this. And we tried."
At times, Soriano sounded like a nervous rookie who didn't want to stand behind his own conclusion. That would explain why he didn't release even basic information in this case, probably in defiance of open records laws. Secrecy like that is a refuge for the incompetent.
In the interview, Soriano emphasized that it was the medical examiner who ruled that it was a murder-suicide, not him. "The truth is we supply him with information," he said.
So I asked if he is personally convinced it was a murder-suicide. After several seconds of silence I found shocking, he finally squeaked out a low-volume answer: "I am."
The medical examiner in this case, Dr. Eddy Jean Lilavois, inspires no confidence either.
He resigned from the medical examiner's office in New York City in 1995 after a similar complaint, when he concluded the death of a 3-year-old was a homicide due to blunt-force trauma, leading police to suspect the father. Weeks later he changed the cause of death to a brain aneurism without notifying the family, police or prosecutors, the New York Times reported in 1997.
Lilavois didn't return phone calls to discuss the Sheridan case or his history.
A family's wounds
The final chapter in this story is not yet written. The Sheridans intend to challenge this conclusion in court, so we will all hear much more about the evidence in this case before it is finally closed.
For the time being, this family is stuck in a deep circle of hell, grieving its loss without being able to put it away and accept it. Peter Sheridan, a federal district court judge in Newark, is John's brother.
'It's just really hard. You wake up in the morning and you're thinking about John and Joyce and how unbelievable this story is," he says. "And then you try to move through the day and you can only go a couple of hours, and John and Joyce come into your mind, and you lose track of what you're focused on. It's just really hard, and the boys are going through the same issue."
Mark, 41, is the point man for the four sons in this fight. A partner at Squire Patton Boggs, he is a high-priced lawyer who handles the key fights for the Republican Party on issues like legislative redistricting.
"I'm the one with the financial wherewithal to have this fight, and I've dealt with prosecutors before," he says.
His goal in the lawsuit is to change the official conclusion in his father's death certificate so that the manner of death is "undetermined" rather than murder-suicide. The family is well off, and his father's life insurance payments do not hinge on the cause of death, Mark says.
"This has been excruciating," he says. "You don't get more than a few hours away from it even when you think you're going to have a normal day. Not just to lose both of our parents in such a horrible way, but to have to fight the people who are supposed to be investigating the deaths."
When the target of an investigation is dead, and cannot answer, the prosecutor in effect becomes the judge and jury as well. Soriano seems to have missed that. The seven-page summary he released on March 27 is full of unsupported innuendo about motive and DNA evidence, as if he's trying to score points with spin.
At one meeting with the family, Soriano conceded he didn't really know what happened in that bedroom, according to Soriano and two members of the Sheridan family who were present.
"I meant that in the literal sense," Soriano said in a subsequent interview. "I wasn't there.... The only two people we believe right now who know what occurred were deceased."
Amen to that. It's a shame that Soriano could not have left it there. His goal from the start was to close the case. He seems to have forgotten that his job is to find the truth.
Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com or call (973) 836-4909. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find The Star-Ledger on Facebook.Also What other games are similar to my beloved CS 1.6? One that's an FPS that provides a competitive scene with ranks and streams, ones that's tactical, one that's full of player customizable maps and skins, and one that requires teamwork? I don't have a high demanding PC so I can't play Battlefield 3/4 and the Next-Gen COD games. I live in Australia so latency/ping is really an issue when playing free online FPS such as Sudden Attack, Combat Arms and A.V.A, can't really frag well when your ping is like 300 - 400. Can't really games like Quake or Unreal Tournament, its just a casual game with no competitive scene anymore, most servers are modded. The only game I know that is extremely similar to CS 1.6 and CSS is CSGO, you know, i'm not good at it, i sometimes get FPS issues, i'm not use to play the source engine, i don't like this post-processing crap but what other game offers the above, a game that's proper with a competitive matchmaking scene with ranks and a learning curve which you can follow. Some of you might be thinking, "OH but 1.6 and CSS didn't have an inbuilt competitive system", your right, but prior to the release of CSGO, there were a large player base of competitive players willing to do clan wars/pugs. CSGO is aspiring you as an individual to grow better at the game. Your right im not forced to play but based on my restrictions, I really don't have a choice do I? You don't just tell me to play some other game or do whatever, you don't know me, everyone is different. For anyone that says "No one is forced to play it" is an egoistic bastard that should consider other people's perspective and cirumstances. Furthermore if I really did found something to do, would I be bitching and making a complaint on this forum? As much as I would rather prefer to play 1.6 than CSGO, I have my options restricted, so of course I have to play CSGO, I'm not FORCED to play it rather I'm pushed to play it, And Besides gaming what else can give me pleasure? Masturbating? Mate i can only do that every hour or two.
2014-01-29 07:11Fabian Picardo says Spain is acting like North Korea and that 'hell will freeze over' before Gibraltar removes artificial reef
Gibraltar's chief minister has accused Spain of acting like North Korea and sabre-rattling over the country's new hardline stance on Gibraltar.
Fabian Picardo said the Spanish foreign minister, José Manuel García-Margallo y Marfil, was being belligerent when he suggested that a €50 (£43) fee could be imposed on every vehicle entering or leaving the British Mediterranean outpost through its border with Spain.
García-Margallo said the proceeds could be used to help Spanish fishermen who have lost out because of damage to fishing grounds allegedly caused by Gibraltarian authorities. Such a fee could impose punitive costs on Gibraltarians who regularly commute to Spain to work.
Picardo said "hell will freeze over" before the authorities in Gibraltar remove an artificial reef which Madrid claims is harming Spanish fishermen. He said any border costs would violate European Union freedom of movement rules.
Spain is also considering closing its airspace to flights heading to the Rock. Picardo claimed such a move would be dangerous was the "politics of madness".
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "What we have seen this weekend is sabre-rattling of the sort that we haven't seen for some time. The things that Mr García-Margallo has said are more reminiscent of the type of statement you'd hear from North Korea than from an EU partner.
"We've seen it before during Franco's time during the 1960s but I think all of us hoped that those politics were never going to come back and that the much more enlightened politics of Mr [Miguel Ángel] Moratinos, who was the previous but one foreign minister of Spain, would prevail, which talked about people working together and creating economic benefits for the citizens on both sides of the frontier rather than the belligerence we are seeing now."
On Sunday the Foreign Office voiced concerns over García-Margallo's comments and said Britain would not compromise its sovereignty over Gibraltar.
A spokesman made clear that the UK expected Madrid to live up to the commitments it made in the 2006 Cordoba agreement, which included deals on issues such as border crossings and flight access, as well as establishing a tripartite forum for regular dialogue between Britain, Spain and Gibraltar.
García-Margallo's comments represent the latest escalation in the dispute over the status of Gibraltar, following a number of alleged Spanish incursions into the territory's waters.
Spain claims sovereignty over the Rock, which stands on the southernmost tip of the Iberian peninsula but has been a British overseas territory since the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. The British government has made clear that it will not negotiate over sovereignty as long as Gibraltar's people want to remain British.
The foreign secretary, William Hague, last month phoned García-Margallo to complain about Spain increasing border checks, which forced drivers to wait for up to seven hours in high temperatures.
On Sunday the Foreign Office summoned the Spanish ambassador to demand assurances that there would be no repeat of the excessive checks.Merrit Kennedy, The Associated Press
CAIRO, Egypt -- Egypt's fertility rate, which has been falling since at least 1980, has risen dramatically in the last six years, according to the results of a new survey released Monday to The Associated Press.
The news raises serious economic concerns for the Arab world's most populous country, whose economy has been staggering since its 2011 revolt.
The survey, conducted jointly with Egypt's Ministry of Health and Population and a U.S. Agency for International Development-funded organization, said the number of births per woman has increased from 3 to 3.5 since 2008. Egypt's fertility rate had been steadily decreasing since at least 1980, when the survey began.
"It's a stunning result," said John Casterline, a professor at the Ohio State University who focuses on fertility rates. Casterline said it is extremely unusual for a country's fertility rate to suddenly increase after decreasing for years.
Researchers say the reasons behind the striking uptick are largely unclear.
"It's probably related to female education and labour participation," said Samer Atallah, an economics professor at the American University in Cairo. He said that there has not been a substantial increase in female labour participation during this past period.
The survey also showed a small, 2 per cent decrease in the use of contraceptives, including both modern and traditional methods. The survey said 3 per cent fewer women obtain contraceptives from public health facilities compared to 2008.
The primary effect, Casterline said, is that "this keeps the Egyptian population young." The challenge will be putting young people through school and eventually creating jobs in an already-stretched labour market with high unemployment, he said.
"The births today, they have consequences for decades," he added.
Atallah agreed.
"Given that we do not invest substantially in education, given that we do not invest substantially in health care systems or facilities, it's going to be a very difficult task to turn this fertility rate around to something positive," Atallah said.Drake debuts as featured on Gucci Mane's "Both," marking his 132nd entry, matching Lil Wayne's total.
As previously reported, The Weeknd's "Starboy," featuring Daft Punk, crowns the Billboard Hot 100 (dated Jan. 7, 2017), rising from No. 2 to No. 1 and marking The Weeknd's third Hot 100 No. 1 and Daft Punk's first.
Meanwhile, Drake ties a historic mark, as he logs his 132nd career Hot 100 entry, as Gucci Mane's "Both," on which Drake is featured, debuts at No. 41. With the bow, Drake ties Lil Wayne for the most Hot 100 appearances among soloists in the chart's 58-year history.
Among all acts, only the Glee Cast boasts more Hot 100 entries than Drake and Lil Wayne: 207. (Billed as the Glee Cast on its releases, the act was a rotating collective with certain members present, although not singing on every song, throughout the show's six-season run on Fox in 2009-15.)
Here is an updated count of the acts with the most charted Hot 100 entries dating to the ranking's Aug. 4, 1958, inception (though the chart dated Jan. 7, 2017):
Most Hot 100 Entries All-Time
207, Glee Cast
132, Drake
132, Lil Wayne
108, Elvis Presley
91, James Brown
86, Jay Z
82, Chris Brown
80, Kanye West
75, Ray Charles
73, Aretha Franklin
71, The Beatles
70, Nicki Minaj
70, Taylor Swift
Notably, the Hot 100 originated two years after the 1956 career launch of Elvis Presley. Still, Presley has charted the most entries by a soloist as a lead act, claiming lead billing in all 108 of his visits. James Brown follows among soloists as the lead on all 91 of his.
In line with the collaborative nature of hip-hop, Drake has been credited as a lead artist on 82 of his Hot 100 appearances (or 62 percent) and featured on 50; Lil Wayne has been lead on 47 (36 percent) and featured on 85.
Drake first hit the Hot 100 dated May 23, 2009, with the eventual No. 2-peaking "Best I Ever Had." He's earned 18 top 10s, including three No. 1s: as featured on Rihanna's "What's My Name?" (one week at No. 1 in 2010) and "Work" (nine weeks, 2016) and his own "One Dance," featuring WizKid and Kyla (10 weeks, 2016). Lil Wayne has tallied 19 top 10s and two No. 1s: "Lollipop," featuring Static Major (five weeks, 2008), and as featured on Jay Sean's "Down" (two weeks, 2009).
All charts will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (Dec. 28).Here’s a brief analysis of how I design an encounter.
STEP 1: STARE AT A WALL
all kidding aside, this is an important step of any creative endeavor! Think a lot about where your party is at, what they are doing, why they are doing it. what plots might hook them? What characters haven’t enjoyed the spotlight yet? Where are they in the world? What creatures might lurk there?
End result: They are in the forest known as the blackwood. I want them to experience how brutal this forest is, to show them that life outside the city walls is horrifying and dangerous even to a large group. So this encounter needs to be: Dangerous, deadly, and creepy!
Who hasn’t had the limelight? Pretty much no one has had a solo spot in the sun yet, but I think both my half elves could use some time in the limelight and this being the woods this is a great chance to tug at their nature as only “half” elf.
I don’t want to display the elves yet, so an enemy of elves. But I don’t just want one massive encounter either.
Eventually I settle on this idea of a “Venus Fey Trap” A creature that lures in fey creatures and feeds on them. I imagine it with all these tendrils and a big gaping maw feeding on these trapped fey creatures. Turn Fey Ancestry on it’s head and make it a weakness!
A creature with tendrils: I can use a roper as the base!
STEP TWO: PLAN THE ENCOUNTER
This is going to be a whole two hour session I think. This is a three act play. Introduce the “Trapped” Fey. Build up the weirdness. Reveal the “Twist”. Battle. Resolve the Fey’s plight. The story is becoming more concrete.
The Village of Toradrill. A group of half-elves fled their lives to join the blackwood. They tried to join the elves but they were cast out. Now rejected both by the world of men and the world of the fey they were left alone to die in the woods.. until a mysterious presence came to them. A great and powerful tree which offered to turn them into pure elves. Now they wish to share their joy with the Half Elven party members!
The players woke last session to their alarm going off. This will be the half elves. They will offer to guide the party through the woods saving them a great deal of time. The party can scarce refuse such an offer with the crimson moon bearing down on them! I will warn them the elves are often to be feared in these woods. However I will also allow them to insight and see these people are genuinely excited to see the half elven party members and do actually know shortcuts in the woods. Helping them approach their final goal makes this diversion not feel punishing while still allowing a side-track to the main narrative of journeying to Riverrun.
Once in the city they will all be given a wisdom save. The save is DC 20 so at this level they will need a 15 or higher to succeed making it unlikely more than 1 or 2 succeeds. Those who succeed will see through the Fey Trap’s illusions creating a party split. Some illusioned some seeing truth! Or perhaps all will save or all will fail! The joy of randomness! I set the dc very high and those with Fey Ancestry have disadvantage.
illusion:
The city: Those under the illusion see a great tree with a beautiful sparkling golden pond at the center. Several tents surround this pond. Tables are set and food is prepared. The elves go about their day, swimming, playing, preparing food. Everyone is exceedingly kind. During the long rest the half elves will be invited into the pool to become elves. What happens there will be their choice. Those entering will need to succeed a dc 15 wisdom save at disadvantage if they have fey ancestry to avoid being dominated.
reality:
A large bulbous plant sits at the center of town. Many long animated vines extend out from it’s wide open maw filled with a viscous red substance. The stench of rot reeks through this area. Bones litter the ground. At the end of the creature’s tendrils brains sit pulsating connected to the creature via the vines.The fey that the party see immediately drop their seeming upon arrival and reveal to be animated shrubs. Each one has had a modified awaken spell cast on them granting them the mind of one of the brains connected to the Venus Fey Trap. The Venus Fey Trap will send it’s awakened shrubs to dispatch anyone who resists his thrall. It will also make your words sound like nonsense to the party members in it’s thrall. Convincing the party that something is wrong without being able to speak will be an interesting challenge!
The core tenent here is to play to the ‘outsider’ nature of half elves. These are not evil beings but the death of this monster will certainly kill them. Our players can either leave them in this stupor, ‘save’ them and awaken them to their horrific ‘afterlife’ or kill the beast and put them out of their ‘misery’. No answer is right. They are currently quite happy, however they are unwittingly leading strangers to a horrible monster and causing them to become food… There’s no right or wrong just interesting chances for characters to react to strange stimuli. This is the sort of awful wretched vibe I want these woods to have. There’s no good or evil, just nasty ugly nature.
STEP THREE: PICK ENEMIES!
I use a great app called Campaign Lab which has a TON of monster stats and also helps you balance encounters.
You can see my first try was a bit too hard, the awakened trees were just too high cr!
Rebalanced with just the shrubs. This one is right on the borderline, however i plan to make some strategic edits to the monster! Specifically he’s going to be ‘vulnerable’ to fire. He will attack at disadvantage when hit with fire spells. I’m also giving his tendril attacks 1d4+1 damage to up his ability to damage a larger party. I am lowering his AC to 18 to accommodate for increased lethality. However he will gain advantage when his shrubs are near a foe. All this together I think will make for a challenging encounter. However if the players destroy brains this will also get rid of tendrils AND awakened shrubs! So there’s several ways to win this.
STEP FOUR: MAPS!
coming soon!UPDATE 10.20am: Final Fantasy 9 is now available to buy and download from the PlayStation Store in Europe.
The PS4 re-release costs £16.99, although PlayStation Plus members can get it for the lower price of £13.59 for another seven days.
ORIGINAL STORY 9.00am: Final Fantasy 9 is getting a PlayStation 4 re-release, Sony announced at today's PlayStation Tokyo Games Show press conference.
It's available to download today from the PlayStation Store - in Japan, at least.
Surprise! Actually, not so much. Word of the re-release leaked out earlier today ahead of the |
rote with Beaker. This is a song that – as a chorus – is still regularly sung in churches today.
Sometimes by Step, from the album, The World as Best as I Remember It, Volume Two.
Sometimes the night was beautiful
Sometimes the sky was so far away
Sometimes it seemed to stoop so close
You could touch it but your heart would break
Sometimes the morning came too soon
Sometimes the day could be so hot
There was so much work left to do
But so much You’d already done
With this song, Rich and Beaker managed to do something that seems impossible. They wrote an infinitely singable chorus that sang the praises of God, and then surrounded it with verses that vividly and beautifully painted a picture of the worship of that same God.
As artists, we need to seek out the unique voice that we’ve been given, and not be afraid to apply it to what we create. This is especially necessary if we are laboring in a commercial field, because just as God used Rich in all his uniqueness to do something nobody would ever guess (Rich definitely doesn’t look like a rock star), He can use any of us.
As Rich wrote…
And you never know who God is gonna use
A princess or a baby
Or maybe even you or me.
4. The Centrality of the Love of God
My final point may seem evident, but it needs to be said.
If you are a Christian artist pursuing art that is labeled “Christian” or “faith-based” or even “spiritual” for any reason other than in response to the love of God, then there’s a good chance that you are in the wrong business.
Are you looking for fame? Then you should move to Hollywood or New York and give it a go just like everyone else. Don’t try and piggyback on the niche popularity of Christian books or music or theater or film or (fill in the blank) in an attempt to be the Next Big Christian Thing.
Consider that Rich, at the height of his music career, when his records were selling thousands of copies, decided to do something that most people would consider to be suicide for a CCM musician. He left Nashville and moved to Wichita, with the ultimate goal of moving to a native American reservation where he would teach music to kids.
And he did it in response to the love of God.
Are you seeking to gain fortune through Christian art – profiting off the generous dollars of your brothers and sisters in the name of ministry? I’m not talking about just trying to put bread on the table or pay back students loans, but actual fortune for the sake of fortune. Profiting off the cross of Christ.
Consider that Rich, not wanting to be tempted by the immensity of his success, arranged that all of the money earned from his music would come to his church, and the church would pay him a living wage, and then give the rest to charity. Reportedly, Rich never knew (and didn’t want to know) how his music sold, or how much money his concerts earned. He reportedly just didn’t care.
And he did this as a response to the love of God.
Now, with all that being said, I think that probably, if Rich were able to speak to us today, he would tell me to stop focusing on him. He would tell me to stop wasting time dwelling on his accomplishments, or his songs, or his life.
I think that Rich would probably tell me to start focusing on the one thing that really matters most: The love of God.
The reckless, raging fury that they call love of God.
And so that is where I will end this blog post, focusing on the love of the One for whom Rich lived, and created, and sang.
There’s a wideness in God’s mercy
I cannot find in my own
And He keeps His fire burning
To melt this heart of stone
Keeps me aching with a yearning
Keeps me glad to have been caught
In the reckless raging fury
That they call the love of God
AdvertisementsStory highlights Jim O'Neill: The U.S. fiscal cliff now a greater market concern than the eurozone crisis
Situation in Washington risky "because we're not sure which way the politics are going to go"
While eurozone debt crisis continues, markets appear more confident the euro will hold
"When the markets press them... these guys are going to do things to keep the euro alive"
Despite the long, drawn-out debt dilemma in the eurozone, the looming fiscal cliff in the U.S. is now the top concern of Goldman Sachs' Jim O'Neill.
"I think the U.S. thing is now something I regard more as a risk because we're not sure which way the politics are going to go," O'Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, told CNN's John Defterios Thursday. "The markets have obviously latched onto post election is everything to do with fiscal policy and gridlock in Congress."
With the complexion of the post-election government -- the White House and U.S. Senate controlled by Democrats and the U.S. House controlled by the Republican Party -- there is investor fear of a stalemate as Washington faces a December 31 deadline before hundreds of billions in automatic spending cuts and tax increases kick in. Analysts have warned inaction could wipe 3-4% of GDP from the U.S. economy, sending it into recession.
"I think in order to have a deal we need to have a president that's focused on his legacy rather than his own personal politics and a Republican party that comes out of 'cloud cuckoo land' and into reality, because that is what is needed to force a deal," O'Neill said. After the loss of challenger Mitt Romney Tuesday, the Republican Party is embarking on a period of soul searching — a process that will seek to answer whether conservatives have gained too much influence within the party apparatus
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While the eurozone woes still look grim, investors appear to have been assuaged by the continued efforts there, keeping yields on borrowing costs from returning to crisis levels seen this summer.
"The European mess has been a mess for so long -- famous last words, but I sort of know these guys are going to continue to sort of muddle through at least until the German election," O'Neill said.
"I don't have a huge amount of hope for a massive recovery of the European economy next year. But I think we've seen enough that when the markets press them and test them, these guys are going to do things to keep the euro alive," he said.Counterprotesters hold signs before conservative organizers begin a planned "Free Speech" rally on Boston Common, Saturday, Aug. 19, 2017, in Boston. Police Commissioner William Evans said Friday that 500 officers, some in uniform, others undercover, would be deployed to keep the two groups apart. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
DALLAS (AP) — The Latest on a conservative rally and counterdemonstration in Boston and around the country (all times local):
11 p.m.
Only about 20 protesters remain across the street from a Dallas cemetery where police in riot gear broke up a clash over a Confederate monument.
By 10:45 p.m., most of the police — including some on horseback — had left the scene. As officers forced protesters out of Pioneer Park Saturday night, many yelled at the officers when they were relocated to a blockaded street.
Earlier Saturday night, about 2,300 people attended a rally against racism as City Hall plaza nearby.
___
10:10 p.m.
Officers in riot gear, and some on horseback, have forced hundreds of protesters out a Dallas cemetery where they were clashing over a Confederate monument.
More than 100 demonstrators lingered on a blockaded street after they were pushed out of Pioneer Park. Many yelled at the officers standing watch, and a helicopter circled above.
At one point, officers pulled four supporters of the monument over a barrier for their protection.
Some of the people on both sides of the clash were carrying weapons, though there was no indication of shots fired. There was a lot of pushing and shoving as the two groups squared off.
Earlier Saturday night, about 2,300 people attended a rally against racism as City Hall plaza nearby.
___
9:30 p.m.
Dallas police officers trying to subdue a crowd at a cemetery housing a Confederate monument have tried to protect four of the demonstrators by pulling them over a barrier in front of the memorial.
The scuffle at Pioneer Park, a civil war cemetery, happened as a large rally at City Hall plaza nearby was ending. Police had estimated about 2,300 people attended the rally, but only a few hundred remained by about 9:30 p.m.
Tempers flared at Pioneer Park as supporters and opponents of the monument faced off. Police on horseback charged through when a scuffle there broke out. The four people who were pulled over the barrier appeared to be supporters of the monument.
Some of the people on both sides of the clash were carrying weapons, though there was no indication of shots fired.
___
9 p.m.
Dallas police are using horses to try to break up a scuffle at a cemetery between people rallying against white supremacy and supporters of Confederate monuments.
Officers riding on horseback had waited as the confrontation became more intense, but they moved in to break it up around 9 p.m. It happened at Pioneer Park, a Civil War cemetery that houses the memorial to Confederate soldiers.
About 2,300 people, according to police estimates, showed up for a rally against racism at City Hall Plaza, not far from the cemetery. The group shouted,” Take them down,” referring to the monument.
___
8:15 p.m.
A large crowd attending a Dallas rally against white supremacy is chanting “take them down,” in reference to the city’s Confederate statues.
Speakers including the Rev. Michael W. Waters are addressing the group at City Hall Plaza, a short distance from the city’s Confederate War Memorial.
Waters shouted: “Now is the time to do what is right in the city of Dallas. Now is the time to bring these monuments down.”
Police officers on horseback monitored the situation, and a police helicopter circulated above. There also was a heavy law enforcement presence at Pioneer Park, a Civil War cemetery that houses the memorial. Some citizens toted guns in the cemetery, saying they wanted to protect against possible vandalism.
The city was expecting thousands of protesters, including counter-protesters.
___
7:35 p.m.
A diverse crowd of several hundred people marched from downtown Atlanta to the home of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in protest of white supremacists and other hate groups surfacing across America.
Organizers urged marchers on Saturday to practice King’s values and make sure there was no violence.
A woman was killed and 19 others injured in Charlottesville, Virginia, last week after a car plowed into counter-demonstrators at a white nationalist rally.
In Atlanta, Meredith Dubé brought her two daughters, 2-year-old Willow Dubé and 12-year-old Rai Chin, 12.
Dubé is white and her daughters are mixed-race. The 31-year-old says she’s taking her daughters to rallies because she thinks it’s essential to show children at an early age that love is more powerful than hate.
___
7 p.m.
Dallas officials are expecting thousands of people will show up for an evening rally against white supremacy at City Hall plaza, a short distance from the city’s Confederate War Memorial.
Several police sharp-shooters could be seen on top of nearby buildings ahead of the 7:30 p.m. rally.
Raymond Simmons, a 48-year-old from Dallas, arrived at the rally wearing a picture of the two Virginia state troopers killed in a helicopter crash while patrolling a gathering in Charlottesville supporting that state’s Confederate monuments. He says he believes people who engaged in violence there should be charged with treason and the death of the two troopers, as well a woman struck and killed by a car.
About a half-dozen people wearing camouflage toted long guns and other weapons as they walked through Pioneer Park, a Civil War cemetery. They said they were patrolling to make sure there is no vandalism to graves or the Confederate memorial.
___
6:10 p.m.
Hundreds of people have rallied at Southern California beaches to condemn racism in the wake of the deadly events in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Several hundred people rallied Saturday near a lifeguard tower in Laguna Beach, south of Los Angeles.
Mayor Toni Iselman told the crowd that “Laguna Beach doesn’t tolerate diversity, we embrace diversity.”
The demonstration was held one day before the group America First! planned to hold its own demonstration against illegal immigration in the same spot.
Saturday’s demonstrators said they didn’t want to confront the other group but counter-demonstrators are expected Sunday and police will be out in force.
A similar anti-racism event was held Saturday near the famed Venice beach boardwalk in Los Angeles.
___
5:25 p.m.
Boston police say 27 arrests were made during the conservative activist rally and counterdemonstration on Boston Common.
Commissioner William Evans says Saturday’s events went off “as planned,” with no one hurt or killed. Most of the arrests were for disorderly conduct. Some were for assaulting police officers.
Thousands of demonstrators chanting anti-Nazi slogans converged Saturday morning on downtown Boston, dwarfing a smaller group of conservatives staging their own “free speech rally.” The conservatives left shortly after their arrival.
Evans and Democratic Mayor Marty Walsh praised law enforcement for monitoring the demonstrations, which drew about 40,000 people.
President Donald Trump is applauding the people in Boston who he says are “speaking out” against bigotry and hate.
Trump adds in a Twitter message that “Our country will soon come together as one!”
___
4 p.m.
President Donald Trump is complimenting the Boston police on Twitter for their handling of the rallies minutes before the police department tweeted asking people to stop throwing items at them.
Trump tweeted Saturday afternoon, “Looks like many anti-police agitators in Boston. Police are looking tough and smart! Thank you.”
Trump also complimented Boston’s Democratic Mayor Marty Walsh.
Boston Police Department tweeted shortly after that urine, rocks and bottles were being thrown at officers and were asking people to refrain from doing so.
Thousands of demonstrators chanting anti-Nazi slogans converged Saturday morning on downtown Boston, dwarfing a smaller group of conservatives staging their own “free speech rally.” The conservatives left the rally around 1 p.m., shortly after their arrival.
The Boston Globe reports about 20 arrests had been made.
___
3:30 p.m.
Counterprotesters have begun to disperse after flooding a conservative activist rally in Boston that ended shortly after it began.
Boston police say Saturday’s “Free Speech Rally” on the Boston Common has officially ended. Some police officers were still stationed around the State House nearby.
Dozens of conservative rallygoers had gathered on the Common, but then left less than an hour after the event was getting underway. Thousands of counterprotesters had also gathered.
A law enforcement official says there were about 20 arrests. No serious injuries have been reported.
Many counterprotesters still remain in the area, including a few who were among people chanting “Black Lives Matter” who burned a confederate flag.
“Free Speech Rally” organizers have publicly distanced themselves from the white supremacists in Charlottesville on Aug. 12.
___
1:45 p.m.
One of the planned speakers of a conservative activist rally that appeared to end shortly after it began says the event “fell apart.”
Dozens of rallygoers gathered Saturday on Boston Common, but then left less than an hour after the event was getting underway. Thousands of counterprotesters had also gathered.
TV cameras show police vans escorting participants away, and angry counterprotesters scuffled with armed officers trying to maintain order.
Congressional candidate Samson Racioppi, who was among several slated to speak, tells WCVB-TV that he didn’t realize “how unplanned of an event it was going to be.”
Rallygoers had been met by counterprotesters who marched from to the Common. There have been some confrontations.
“Free Speech Rally” organizers have publicly distanced themselves from the white supremacists in Charlottesville on Aug. 12.
___
1 p.m.
Participants have left the location of a conservative activist rally, leaving behind thousands of counterprotesters.
Dozens of rallygoers had gathered on the Boston Common on Saturday, but then left shortly after the event was getting underway. It’s unclear if they will gather to rally somewhere else in the city.
Rallygoers had been met by counterprotesters who marched from the city’s Roxbury neighborhood about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) to the Common.
There have been some confrontations involving counterprotesters, including a group that grabbed an American flag out of an elderly woman’s hands, causing her to stumble and fall to the ground.
Organizers of the “Free Speech Rally” have publicly distanced themselves from the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who fomented violence in Charlottesville on Aug. 12.
___
12:20 p.m.
Confrontations are happening amid a gathering of counterprotesters and conservative rally participants in Boston.
Thousands of demonstrators marched Saturday from the city’s Roxbury neighborhood to Boston Common, where the “Free Speech Rally” is being held. Dozens of free speech rallygoers have arrived.
TV cameras showed a group of boisterous counterprotesters chasing a man with a Trump campaign banner and cap, shouting and swearing at him. Other counterprotesters intervened and helped the man safely over a fence to where the conservative rally was to be staged.
Black-clad counterprotesters also grabbed an American flag out of an elderly woman’s hands, and she stumbled and fell to the ground.
Organizers of the “Free Speech Rally” have publicly distanced themselves from the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who fomented violence in Charlottesville on Aug. 12.
___
11:30 a.m.
Thousands of counterprotesters have begun a mileslong march ahead of a conservative rally that’s getting underway in Boston.
Demonstrators started marching Saturday morning from the city’s Roxbury neighborhood. Organizers say demonstrators will march to Boston Common, where the rally is taking place.
Police say they’ll be out in force to keep the two groups apart.
Organizers of the “Free Speech Rally” have publicly distanced themselves from the neo-Nazis, white supremacists and others who fomented violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 12.
Boston’s rally is the first potentially large and racially charged gathering in a major U.S. city since a car plowed into counter-demonstrators in Charlottesville, killing a woman and injuring many others.
Events are planned in cities across the country including Atlanta, Dallas and New Orleans.
___
10:25 a.m.
Demonstrators are arriving at a counterprotest ahead of a conservative rally that’s getting underway on Boston Common.
Democratic Boston Mayor Marty Walsh greeted counterprotesters Saturday morning outside Reggie Lewis Center in the city’s Roxbury neighborhood. Organizers say demonstrators will march to the Common.
Police say they’ll be out in force to keep the two groups apart.
Organizers of the “Free Speech Rally” have publicly distanced themselves from the neo-Nazis, white supremacists and others who fomented violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 12.
Boston’s rally is the first potentially large and racially charged gathering in a major U.S. city since a car plowed into counter-demonstrators in Charlottesville, killing a woman and injuring many others.
Events are planned in cities across the country including Atlanta, Dallas and New Orleans.
___
12:30 a.m.
Conservative activists and counterprotesters are preparing for a showdown on Boston Common that could draw thousands a week after a demonstration in Virginia turned deadly.
Police say they’ll be out in force to keep the two groups apart. Boston’s Democratic mayor, Marty Walsh, and Massachusetts’ Republican governor, Charlie Baker, have warned that extremist unrest won’t be tolerated in this city famed as the cradle of American liberty.
Organizers of Saturday’s midday “Free Speech Rally” have publicly distanced themselves from the neo-Nazis, white supremacists and others who fomented violence in Charlottesville on Aug. 12.
Boston’s rally is the first potentially large and racially charged gathering in a major U.S. city since a car plowed into counter-demonstrators in Charlottesville, killing a woman and injuring scores of others.
Events also are planned Saturday in Atlanta, Dallas and other cities across the country.Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has been dropped as party spokesperson on the charge that he has praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi once too often.Sonia Gandhi reportedly agrees that Mr Tharoor has embarrassed and hurt the party with his "unnecessary adulation of PM Modi" in columns on ndtv.com and other sites."As a loyal worker of the Congress, I accept the decision of the party president," said Shashi Tharoor.The action against him telegraphs Mrs Gandhi's stern message that any deviation from the party's line on PM Modi is unacceptable.Kerala Congress leaders had alleged that the 58-year-old Mr Tharoor had repeatedly been appreciative of the Prime Minister.The two-time MP from Thiruvananthapuram incensed his party by saying he was "honoured" to be among nine prominent Indians tagged by the Prime Minister when he launched his five-year Clean India campaign on Mahatma Gandhi's October 2 birth anniversary.In his column on ndtv.com, Mr Tharoor wrote, "Which Indian worthy of the name would not be humbled to be tapped by his PM for a national cause?"The former union minister also commented that Mr Modi "had been effective in using his Prime Ministerial position" to drive change from the top.A Congress publication in Kerala tore into Mr Tharoor for writing "love songs" for PM Modi and compared him to "Siberian migratory birds who come looking for optimum climate."The action against Mr Tharoor comes at a time questions connected to the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar at her hotel room in January have resurfaced. The Delhi Police are yet to pinpoint how she died; a team of doctors from AIIMS has said the 52-year-old died of poisoning.Congress spokesperson Shobha Oza said, "Tharoor's statements were not received well by the (Kerala Congress). This has nothing to do with Sunanda Pushkar's case." Criticising the action against Mr Tharoor, the BJP's Siddharth Nath Singh said, "If a PM does good work praise should be accepted as natural but the Congress has not learnt any lesson."I once worked with a client who came into work one day and found himself out of a job. The reason? Two co workers he did not get along with, had fabricated a story about him to their office manager and on a knee jerk, the office manager cleaned out his desk, and had my client greeted by security the following morning.
He was confused about the incident for some time until he received a letter of termination in the mail explaining why he had been terminated. It was only after he hired a lawyer to take his company to task that he was rehired along with an apology letter. What brought my client into my office where his mixed feelings about returning to work, especially since the co workers who had made the false allegations about him where still working for the company.
I began by asking him why he was returning to work for the company, a question he could not answer. I then asked him why he would return to an environment where he was obviously poorly regarded. Obviously poorly regarded because if management was willing to fire him over the words of two people, why would they keep those two persons on staff, after it was discovered that they deliberately given false information?
My client then shot back at me about the need to forgive others and move on with one’s life. No doubt this was an auto pilot response, ingrained into his psyche and reinforced throughout his life. Which led to me have a conversation with my client about the true meaning of forgiveness.
Most people believe that forgiveness is about giving someone who has wronged you in some way shape or form, a “free pass”. Nothing could be further from the truth, forgiveness is about not taking things personal. For example, if I get stung by a bee, it would be silly of me to hold grudges against bees, after all the bee was simply following it’s biological directive in response to a stimulus. My choice to not hold a grudge against bees or the specific hive from which the bee came from, doesn’t mean that I am going to take passive stance towards bees, the next time I come into contact with one again. For example, I would educate myself on how to conduct myself around bees in the future and if I found a nest in my home, I would hire a bee expert to come and remove the nest.
In regards to my fellow human beings, when I encounter people who in some way shape or form visit wrong doing unto me, without provocation, to the best extent possibly, I hold them to account for their actions and terminate any personal relationships I have with them.
Most people will claim to forgive if they believe themselves helpless in being able to hold the person to account for their actions or terminate the relationship for their peace of mind. In the case of my client, he felt tethered to the job, because he was not confident in his ability to find employment elsewhere. While he also felt betrayed by his employers and deeply resentful towards his co workers who lied about him. He desperately wanted to be at a place of peace with the incident, but he was torn inside with his refusal to be honest with himself. Instead of admitting his fear of being unemployed, he tried to convince himself that he should forgive his coworkers, which led him to my office.
Regardless of the types of conflicts we experience, it all comes down to ourselves. How willing are we to be honest with ourselves? How willing are we to engage consistently in the difficult task of practicing self discipline? How willing are we to take adopt to changes in our environment, take on necessary risks and live fearlessly?
The more we live up towards becoming the best version of ourselves, the easier it becomes to let go of grudges and resentments.
Ugo is a psychotherapist and life coach.
Please share this post!This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and Maxnellie.
Connecting Quests
After adding the Warrior; Sasha, as a friend, Rui immediately left and arrived at the Novice Village’s tailor store.
“Welcome, do you need anything?” The shopkeeper smiled and asked Rui in a affinitive manner.
“Sorry to trouble you, could you please make this piece of fur into a piece of leather armor?” Rui took out the wolf fur and placed it in front of the shop keeper.
“Oh, a Gray Wolf’s fur. You have stored it well, not bad, not bad. May I ask what kind of leather equipment you want this to be crafted into?”
The shopkeeper raised the Gray Wolf’s fur, appraised it, and smiled.
“What kind?”
Looking at Rui’s confused expression, the shopkeeper began to explain, “If you only need me to briefly work on this, I can make a piece of beginner’s equipment. If you want to employ me, it is possible to make a fine piece of equipment. For a beginner leather equipment, I will charge one silver. But for a fine leather equipment, I will have to supply some materials myself, and therefore I will charge 5 silver coins. So which one will it be, warrior?
Beginner and fine equipment?
Rui was slightly startled, and he immediately opened his backpack and looked inside. He currently had 8 silvers and 79 coppers. Thinking back to the incredibly strong looking Wolf King boss monster, and the three Elite Gray Wolves, suddenly Rui gritted his teeth.
“I want a fine one.”
“Ok, please wait a moment.’
After receiving 5 silver coins, the shopkeeper’s smile grew. She took the Gray Wolf’s fur together with some of her own materials, and without stopping, she used a needle and sewed continuously. The fast motion lasted for about 30 seconds. Suddenly, in the shopkeeper’s hands, a bright white light appeared and enveloped the completed leather equipment within.
Waiting until the light dissipated, a fine piece of leather armor appeared in the shopkeeper’s hands.
“Thank you customer, here is your leather!”
After giving the leather to Rui, the shopkeeper smiled, and her eyes narrowed into an almost straight line.
Upon receiving the leather, Rui did not wait and immediately checked it’s stats. It would’ve been a tragedy if he had just spent the material and five silver coins, and got nothing but garbage.
Gray Wolf Leather Armor Green Equipment Defense 20 Level Req 5 Durability 15/15
Looking at the extremely high value of 20 points in defense, Rui could not help but to let out a sigh of relief. Spending the five silver coins was worth it.
Wearing the wolf leather, Rui then gave the pair of Wolf Boots to the shopkeeper lady to repair to its full durability.
Before leaving, Rui suddenly opened his mouth to ask. “Um, auntie, can I learn the Art of Tailoring from you?”
“If warrior wants to learn the Art of Tailoring, it is not impossible! However, you are unworthy to learn it right now. It would be best if you start with a harvesting technique. When you are able to obtain 5 pieces of Gray Wolf’s fur and Slime coating, then I will teach you the technique! As for the Art of Tailoring, you have to master the harvesting technique first!”
Ding!
Would you like to accept the shopkeeper’s trial?
The cold voice of the alert system rang inside Rui’s ears, suddenly scaring him.
‘A quest!’
“Accept!”
Rui accepted it without a thought. ‘LOL, only a retard would decline this kind of quest.’
Ding!
Congratulations in accepting a normal quest: Tailoring Auntie’s Trial.
Opening the quest window, a quest suddenly appeared — Tailoring Auntie’s Trial!
Quest name: Tailoring Auntie’s Trial quest Quest difficulty: Normal Quest Requirement: Give tailoring auntie 5 pieces of Gray Wolf fur, and 5 pieces of Slime coating. Upon completion: Rewarded with a life skill — the Art of Gathering!
‘Alright!’
After inspecting the quest details, Rui politely bid the tailoring lady goodbye, and went to the blacksmith shop to repair his Wolf Fang Dagger. He then went to the Alchemist shop to purchase 10 health potions.
Since he had finished resupplying, Rui thought it was best to go out of the village. ‘Right now, although it was impossible to fight the Wolf King, that area should be easy. After taking a rest and relogging, I will fight the Wolf King.’
“…Recently the wolves have started rampaging, but there aren’t enough hunters from the village. A lot of residents have been killed off by those despicable wolves. The villagers’ ploughing tools have been destroyed by the damned Slimes. At this rate how will the villagers feed themselves…!”
After stepping out of the village exit, Rui suddenly heard a helpless voice.
Turning around, he saw a player, but his expression looked calm and normal, and thought nothing has happened. However, Rui saw the nearby Village Chief’s expression suddenly turning from an apathetic expression to an anxious one.
Rui thought about it for a little, and walked beside the Village Chief.
“Chief, are you alright?”
“Nothing you can help with… Oh wait! In your hands, are those Wolf Fang Daggers? Yes! Those are definitely leather armor made from those despicable Gray Wolves. You also have gauntlets made out from the coating of those disgusting Slime. We’re saved! Noble warrior, please help our village!”
The Chief was prepared to drive away any rookies who wanted to approach him for his quest, however, seeing the items Rui was wearing, his attitude made a 180 degree turn. He was practically now on his knees, begging.
And so, looking at his nearby surroundings, Rui noticed that the players around him didn’t have an unusual expression, and they weren’t making any sudden movements. The gaming manual clearly said it would protect a player’s privacy and gaming ID, so unless there was some kind of special conditions, it was invisible to all other players. Thus, Rui made it so no one could see him talking to any NPC. Right now, only he could hear what the Village Chief was saying. His exaggerated expressions and speech, no one else could see it. To eyes of the other players, the Village Chief was still smiling, and happily going about his business.
“Village Chief, speak, what is it you want me to do?”
With a magnanimous expression, Rui earnestly asked the Village Chief. Although Rui’s expression was not revealing what he actually felt, he was extremely happy inside! He did not think ‘Kismet’ would design something so humane! As long as you are a player, there are many ways to trigger quests, and it was possible to get any quest.
The Village Chief who ignored him before, after seeing his Wolf Fang Dagger, could not help but give him a quest. However, if a player did not recognize it as a quest trigger, it’s their own fault.
“Those damned wolves killed and ate our livestocks. And recently, they also ate a large amount of pigs in the village. I hope you could help me exterminate them!”
Ding!
Congratulations on receiving a normal quest: Wolf Extermination. Would you like to accept?
‘Enough bulls—, of course I accept!’
“Ah, yes, before I forget… Recently, I don’t know why but Slimes have been multiplying more often, and the village’s farming equipments have been severely damaged, could you also please help me exterminate these damned slimes?”
Ding!
Congratulations, you have received a normal quest: Slime Extermination. Would you like to accept?
“I accept!”
Rui happily accepted the quests. Just recently, he had received a quest from the tailoring auntie, and now two quest suddenly popped up, how lucky!Marilyn Palmer and her husband decamped from Vancouver five years ago.
"We had this vague notion that we would love to be out of the city in something more rural, maybe with a bit of a hobby farm," says Ms. Palmer, 69, a former architect.
Around that time, they went on a drive through the Cowichan Valley and came across a beautiful old barn that had been converted into a house, overlooking a lake, tranquil fields, and ancient Garry oaks. It was love at first sight.
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That choice made Ms. Palmer and her partner, Phil Boname, part of the net loss of around 3,385 baby boomers from the region – the only age group that saw a net loss, between the tides of people coming in and the tides going out, according to an analysis done by University of British Columbia sociology professor Nathanael Lauster.
Their departure is seen as a potential advantage for the region in one way, and a gaping hole in other ways.
"It means less people for volunteering, less people supporting arts-and-culture institutions," says Penny Gurstein, director of UBC's school of community and regional planning. "Look at the opera now in Vancouver: there just aren't enough people in that cohort to support it."
Ms. Palmer concurs, saying that people such as her are at the peak of their volunteering activity. She is involved with four different groups in the Cowichan Valley, including one immigrant group and one focused on shelter for victims of domestic violence.
"That's a resource that I think would be lost to Vancouver," Ms. Palmer said.
On the other hand, demographer Andrew Ramlo said the departure of baby boomers means that some housing space, desperately needed in Vancouver for younger generations, is liberated. "I would hope it would free up some traditional family dwellings, either for another family or for potential redevelopment that could add a unit. I see it as positive in that sense."
While the focus is often on the supposed evaporation of children, millennials or Gen Xers, Prof. Lauster's forensic look at recently released census numbers doesn't see the changes among those groups as the crisis that they are sometimes portrayed as.
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Vancouver is a big university city and job centre that attracts a huge number of people in their 20s, creating a demographic bulge in that age group, says Prof. Lauster, who analyzes census numbers by following cohorts through the years. That means he looks at, for example, how many 25- to 29-year-olds are in the region in 2016 compared to the number of 20- to 24-year-olds there were in 2011.
That produces results that are different than comparisons of the same age group in 2011 and 2016.
Prof. Lauster's analysis shows that some of the 35-plus group eventually moves out of the core city of Vancouver, but stays in the region. And even the city retains a significant number of the late-30s and 40s groups.
"The tidal wave of young people moving into Vancouver overcomes the slow leak of them into the region in later years," he says.
(The demographics of the urban core typically get more scrutiny in Vancouver than any other city because it is the only major Canadian city where the central city is a separate municipality. Other major cities are amalgamated, so it's difficult to track the changing demographics of the core compared to the region.)
What Prof. Lauster sees as the bigger change is the loss of older people. "If there's any leak in the metro area, it's in this baby-boomer range and it's affecting other metro areas," he says.
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That's something that generally jives with the analysis of Mr. Ramlo, the former director of the Urban Futures Institute who is now working with Rennie Marketing. He says it's a recurring pattern.
"That 55-plus group declining in the region goes back to 1991," says Mr. Ramlo, who notes that the leakage of the 35-plus group from the city into the region is also a 25-year pattern.
But the movement of the older group accelerates as real-estate prices go up.
Chris Bradshaw and his wife had always thought they would retire to Vancouver Island. That's where he grew up and even served for a time on a municipal council.
But this past year, when a job came up with his union in Victoria, Mr. Bradshaw, 60, decided it might make sense to move five years earlier than planned. He sold his house in Port Coquitlam for close to $900,000 and bought in Langford for $200,000, which made |
investor sells a property to a renter, there is one less rental property, and one less renter. There is no change to the balance between supply and demand. John Daley, Grattan Institute The report's principal author, John Daley, said he was disappointed that the government wouldn't be changing the rules given the strength of the case for change, and also "somewhat bemused" by an example cited by the Prime Minister of a family that was negatively gearing to buy a property for their one-year-old daughter. Loading He asked: "What sort of country is it in which the only way you can expect to get into the housing market is if your parents start saving for you when you are aged one?"In the Florida Primary, there were no surprises. Romney beat Gingrich by a 14% margin, largely because he spent almost ten times what Gingrich spent on advertising. Santorum was a distant third and Ron Paul mattered so little that he could not even pull 10%. Gingrich was such a bad loser that he did not even give Romney the customary phone call congratulating him. Romney won 50 delegates, but that’s more complicated than meets the eye. We’ll go into that. Also, we’ll cover the Important Election.
Here are the election results for Florida.
Florida Goose Stepper Votes Percent Delegates Romney 771,842 46% 50 Gingrich 531,294 32% 0 Santorum 222,248 13% 0 Paul 116,776 7% 0 Total 1,642,160
And here is the latest delegate count.
Delegates Romney 84 Gingrich 27 Paul 10 Santorum 8
Florida gets only 50 delegates, instead if their normal 99, because The Republican controlled state government moved up the primary earlier that RNC rules would permit. The RNC penalized Florida by taking half their delegates. The RNC also has a new rule forbidding winner take all primaries. But the government of Florida broke that rule too, figuring that they have already received the RNC’s maximum punishment. However, at the convention, any Gingrich supporter can challenge the distribution of delegates to the credentials committee. They may well override Florida and redistribute the delegates proportionally.
The most important thing to know is that if any of these candidates becomes President, YOU lose!
In the important election, I’m pleased to announce that Suzanne Bonamici is Oregon’s new representative in the First Congressional District, and congratulate her on a well deserved win.
Currently, Bonamici leads 54% to 39% with 68% of precincts in.Roads are for cars, right?
Well, wrong. They are for automobiles, bicyclists and people.
And sometimes, the twain meet in unscheduled ways. And therein lies the problem.
In 2015, pedestrians were one of a few groups who use the roads to see an increase in fatalities in the United States. That year, there were 5,376 deaths, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
That’s way up from 2014, when 4,884 walkers died.
So yeah, this is a serious problem.
As more cities strive to be “walkable,” someone forgot to inform the drivers.
I moved to Pasadena three years ago because it was a walkable community.
So, I walk to the train station and take the train to downtown Los Angeles or to Monrovia and Azusa. I’ve even connected in Union Station and taken Metrolink to Angels Stadium of Anaheim or to the Expo Line to Staples Center.
Since trains are cool, my wife and I agreed to walk to the Gold Line a few blocks from where we live and ride it to Union Station, then take Amtrak to Santa Barbara.
Everywhere during that trip I felt safe — except during the short walk across the streets in Pasadena.
At the corner of Cordova Street and Arroyo Parkway, the walk sign flashes, but the pedestrian is still in the middle of the street when the cars turning left onto Arroyo Parkway start coming. They come fast, oblivious to the pedestrians.
So many times I’ve had close calls. Now, as I get the green light and the walk sign, I wave my arms up and down and make noises to alert the drivers not to run me over.
That may be one of the more dangerous intersections for walking. But there are probably plenty more dangerous intersections in your neighborhood.
“On average, a pedestrian was killed every two hours and injured every seven minutes in traffic crashes,” wrote the NHTSA in a report titled Pedestrian Safety.
I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard neighbors in South Pasadena tell its City Council about cars that drive alarmingly fast down their street — even when children are walking with their parents in the street because there is no sidewalk — or when bicycle riders and pedestrians are crossing.
These residents also can’t walk on the sidewalk because a train gate prevents them. Seems like their only solution is to drive.
I hope not. Because walking is good for you.
Walking to the Trader Joe’s the other night was a workout, especially in the heat and humidity. Walking to and from the train stations and taking the train instead of my car pollutes the air far less and reduces the amount of greenhouse gases released.
That makes me feel good. Like I’m contributing to a solution.
Walking is healthy exercise. It moves blood to and from the heart. And you can get great calves!
September is Pedestrian Safety Month, as declared by the California Office of Traffic Safety. Motorists and pedestrians are being warned to look out for each other.
In our state, the numbers of pedestrian deaths in traffic crashes (don’t call them accidents!) is on the rise.
In 2015, 852 pedestrians were killed and more than 13,000 were injured on California roadways. In 2016, while agencies still pore through reports, that number is expected to be surpassed. In fact, the OTS says the number of pedestrians killed in California may reach an all-time high of 900 dead in a year.
The percentage of pedestrians as part of roadway deaths is skyrocketing. About 25 percent of all roadway deaths in California are pedestrians. That is up from 17 percent just 10 years ago.
We have to do better. So let’s start now. Here are some tips to follow:
1. Put down the cell phone when crossing a street.
2. It goes without saying that drivers should never be looking at or talking into a cellphone (except with the aid of a hands-free device).
3. Pedestrians should stop jaywalking.
4. Be alert in crosswalks — they are not impenetrable.
When I’m waving my arms while crossing a street with a flashing “walk” sign, I’m thinking of the OTS safety campaign motto:
“Pedestrians Don’t Have Armor.”
Steve Scauzillo covers transportation and the environment for the Southern California News Group. He’s a recipient of the Aldo Leopold Award for Distinguished Editorial Writing from The Wilderness Society. Follow him on Twitter or Instagram @stevscaz or email him at sscauzillo@scng.com.As the new year every-CG-artist-nightmare began, here is simple holiday hint.
Let’s steel some bokeh pictures from internet, or take a photo of some bright defocused lights.
Cut them with a circle masks in AE or PS and make an equal images sequence (i did 10 pictures).
Setup the multi/sub object material in 3ds max for 10 ID’s, with additive transparency.
Put the white-to-black gradient ramp texture to the opacity slot using the second UV channel.
Put the bokeh images sequence into the diffuse slots using the first UV channel.
Let’s make the particle flow system based on some interesting complex geometry, e.g. some twisted helix splines.
Set proper number of the vertices in the Birth operator, and also set location: selected in the Position Object operator.
Use Mesh select over all splines to convert splines to mesh vertices.
Add Material Dynamic operator with prepared multi/sub object material to the PFlow event.
Let the Shape Facing operator, oriented to the Target Camera define particles shape.
And now the main part of the tutorial – add the Script operator with the following script:
on ChannelsUsed pCont do
(
pCont.useTime = true
pCont.useScale = true
pCont.usePosition = true
pCont.useMapping = true
)
on Init pCont do
(
)
on Proceed pCont do
(
count = pCont.NumParticles()
tarpos = $Camera01.Target.position
campos = $Camera01.position
for i in 1 to count do
(
pCont.particleIndex = i
pCont.setParticleMapping i 2 [abs((distance campos tarpos)-(distance campos pCont.particlePosition))/500,0,0]
— all the particles get the UV coordinates at 2-nd UV channel here.
— UV coords depends on the distance to camera’s focus “sphere”.
pCont.particleScale = abs((distance campos tarpos)-(distance pCont.particlePosition campos))/5
— here is the dependence of the particle’s scale defined
— “focused” particles are small, as they moving away from the focus – they are becoming bigger.
)
)
on Release pCont do
(
)
This script will define particle’s scale and transparency depends on camera’s focus.
Now you can animate the geometry or the camera and render the particles with scanline.
Don’t forget to cache all the particles for viewport/render using the Cache operator.
This setup renders pretty fast as opposed to mental ray’s or vray’s honest dof.
And we have fast bokeh effect with the ability to inceract with scene geometry.
Here is the scene
P.S. While i worked with the script there were a couple of obstructions, which took several hours to break.
And after finding the proper solution, i found that exactly same solutions were already described at the second disc of CG Academy Particle Flow Scripting.
So if this theme is interesting for someone – i advice to look through. My respect to Bobo!
That is all.
AdvertisementsThe controversy surrounding House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes may just be getting started. Nunes could soon be staring down the barrel of a House Ethics Committee investigation, lawyers familiar with the House’s rules tell The Daily Beast.
A few Republicans have already joined Democrats in calling for Nunes to either recuse himself from his committee’s probe into Russian influence—or to step down as chairman.
To add to this pressure, it appears that the chairman may have opened himself up to an ethics investigation by apparently disclosing the existence of a foreign surveillance warrant during a press conference last Tuesday.
Nunes’s problem lies in the arcane rules of the House of Representatives. Buried in the rules regarding the House Intelligence Committee is a section that triggers a mandatory investigation into an allegation of spilling classified information.
“The Committee on Ethics shall investigate any unauthorized disclosure of intelligence or intelligence-related information,” reads the rule. The key to this rule is the phrase, “shall investigate”—a command, rather than a mere suggestion.
“The plain wording of the rule is that the ethics committee is required to conduct such an investigation,” said Brett Kappel, an attorney that specializes in political law.
The trigger could be as simple as a complaint from a single member of the House of Representatives.
“If another member of Congress were to raise a written complaint about the actions of chairman Nunes, specifically his decision to disclose to the public information that is classified… the ethics committee would be required to conduct an inquiry,” explained Bradley Moss, a lawyer that specializes classification issues. A third attorney who specializes in this area of law but didn’t want to quoted on this topic agreed with this interpretation.
Nunes’ office did not address the topic of a potential ethics committee investigation, but insisted that the chairman did not spill classified information.
“The Chairman did not reveal any of the specific details of the information, such as the target of the collection, and did not reveal classified information,” said Jack Langer, a Nunes spokesman.
Last Wednesday, Nunes made to reporters what at first seemed like a bold, definitive claim: “I recently confirmed that on numerous occasions, the intelligence community incidentally collected information about U.S. citizens involved in the Trump transition.”
But things quickly grew murky from there. Nunes contradicted himself on several occasions: he first said the president’s communications were incidentally collected, then later walked it back to say it was merely possible; then Nunes said he didn’t know if the Trump transition team was surveilled or merely mentioned in intelligence reports.
But when asked if the information he obtained came from surveillance obtained under FISA, or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Nunes replied, “it appears so.” He added, “it has to do with FISA, and there are multiple FISA warrants that are out there.”
Surveillance authorized by FISA is some of the government’s most highly-classified information. To some lawyers, that means there is credible evidence to suggest Nunes did reveal classified information by speaking about FISA surveillance—assuming he doesn’t walk the FISA claim back, of course.
“In my humble opinion, yes, Nunes disclosed classified information that day. The existence or non-existence of a FISA warrant is a classified fact. The details from the warrant, namely who got caught up in incidental collection, is a classified fact,” Moss told The Daily Beast. “Until we know who gave Nunes the info that night on the White House grounds, and until we have a resolution of the question whether the President authorized Nunes to disclose the details to the press, this is a question that cannot be answered definitively.”
As the national security lawyers at Lawfare note, information about FISA orders is classified until affirmatively declassified by the agency it came from.
“The way the system works is that it is classified until there is an affirmative decision to declassify it. So a leak or public disclosure doesn’t declassify it, and it doesn’t allow people who are aware of it to then discuss it publicly,” explained Susan Hennessey, a former lawyer for the National Security Agency.
Or as FBI Director James Comey put it last Monday during a House Intelligence Committee hearing chaired by Nunes, “All FISA applications reviewed by the court and collection by us pursuant to our FISA authority is classified.”
But Nunes might actually be saved from a probe due to the muddiness of his public statements.
“Because the language was so qualified, shifting in so many strange ways, it makes it very difficult to even parse out where we are. That said, generally, discussing FISA material is classified… he was discussing the collection of U.S. persons information, and he mentioned a U.S. person by name: President Donald Trump,” said Hennessey.
The House Ethics Committee had no comment when reached by The Daily Beast.
MoveOn.org, a progressive organization, has already filed a federal ethics complaint on this matter with the Office of Congressional Ethics, a separate body whereby outside groups can submit complaints. Only lawmakers can submit complaints to the House Committee on Ethics.
There are, however, limits to the rule requiring a House Ethics Committee investigation into classified information. The rule does not require any public disclosure of the investigation unless the allegations are substantiated, it does not outline exactly how extensive the investigation must be, and it doesn’t set out a mandatory timeline for investigation.
“My experience with the Ethics Committee is the staff wants to do, and does do, a thorough job. Whether that ever sees the light of day is another thing. There are many, many instances of the committee starting an investigation, and, somehow, it never finishes,” Kappel said. “If a member files a complaint, then they will [act].”
It’s hard to imagine that Nunes could have had a more difficult week than the one that has just passed. By Tuesday, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee was facing demands from his fellow Republicans and conservatives to explain himself or recuse himself from the Russia investigation.
The saga began last Wednesday when Nunes made a shocking claim: that Trump transition officials may have been included in reports through ‘incidental collection’ during the surveillance of foreign intelligence targets.
Rather than share this information with the committee, however, he briefed the press, then rushed to the White House to tell the president about the matter. Although Nunes has promised to share the information he reviewed, as of Tuesday that has not occurred.
“This is sort of an Inspector Clouseau approach to this newfound evidence, whatever it is,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told The Daily Beast. “I like Devin, I like him fine, but he should have not gone to the White House and gotten briefed himself. He should have had his committee members involved, in my view. And I think the only way you’re going to get this thing back on track is for him to disclose who he met with and what they saw and give it to the other people.”
Sen. John McCain, the chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, said that Nunes must disclose his source. That’s something Nunes has said he won’t do.
“It’s absolutely necessary for him to describe exactly the sequence of events that led him to the actions and the narrative of his activities,” McCain said. “The American people deserve to know. This is very serious business. People’s names that were disclosed. I do not know what he’s talking about.”
By the end of the day Tuesday, Rep. Walter Jones, a contrarian Republican, became the first member of Nunes’ party to call for his recusal in the Russia investigation. And an article in the conservative National Review said that Nunes should step down as chairman of the intelligence committee.
Meanwhile, Nunes’s intelligence committee is in total disarray. Committee members told The Daily Beast that all their business has been indefinitely cancelled—whether it relates to the committee’s investigation into Russia or not.
“The committee has been frozen. We oversee an $80 billion operation. Our intelligence community is out there doing things that need oversight, let’s just put it that way,” said Rep. Jim Himes, a member of the House Intelligence Committee. “And we have been completely shut down. This week we’re not even doing our regular meetings.”
Rep. Eric Swalwell said he spoke to Nunes Tuesday and asked for a roundtable meeting with the members to clear the air. He said he didn’t think it would happen.
“Our investigation is stalled. And it’s unfortunate because the chairman—we want him to be credible on the other important duties that the committee has. Because we do a lot of stuff that is not Russia related. And he’s been successful in the past about having a functioning, bipartisan committee—whether it’s the cybersecurity bill, the reauthorization of the intelligence authorization act,” Swalwell said. “Everything now is stalled. We’re not even having our regularly scheduled meetings.”
“The chairman, I believe, if he recused himself, could get us back on track,” he added.President-elect Donald Trump, center, speaks to an aide at Mar-a-Lago resort, in Palm Beach, Fla., on Monday. (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President-elect Donald Trump (all times local):
10:20 p.m.
Japanese telecommunications and energy company SoftBank — whose founder met with President-elect Donald Trump this month — says it has agreed to invest $1 billion in the U.S. company OneWeb Ltd., which is building a network of satellites for global broadband access.
The $1 billion commitment follows founder Masayoshi Son's promise to Trump to create 50,000 jobs and invest $50 billion in U.S. startups.
The two companies announced Monday that OneWeb had obtained promises of $1.2 billion from SoftBank and other investors.
The funds will finance the construction of a factory in Exploration Park, Florida, to produce 15 satellites per week at low cost. The companies said the business could create nearly 3,000 engineering, manufacturing and other jobs.
OneWeb expects the factory to go online in 2018.
___
8:40 p.m.
A spokeswoman for Donald Trump has confirmed a published report that the president-elect recently had dinner with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim.
The weekend meal at Trump's Florida estate is surprising because Trump criticized Slim toward the end of the U.S. presidential election. Slim is a major investor in The New York Times.
Slim also was critical of Trump, but the businessmen appear to be trying to leave the rancor behind.
Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks confirmed Saturday's dinner, which The Washington Post first reported. People briefed on the conversation said the dinner was designed to open a friendly line of communication between Trump and Slim.
Slim's trip came after former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who remains close to Trump, quietly visited Slim in Mexico City earlier this month.
___
6:45 p.m.
President-elect Donald Trump is blaming "Islamist terrorists" for a truck crash in a Christmas market in Berlin that killed at least nine people and wounded scores more.
German authorities were still investigating the event. The White House says it "appears to have been a terrorist attack."
Trump says in a statement released Monday evening the Islamic State group "and other Islamist terrorists continually slaughter Christians in their communities and places of worship as part of their global jihad." He adds that they must be "eradicated from the face of the earth" and pledges to carry out that mission with the United States' "freedom-loving partners."
The Islamic State group and al-Qaida have called on followers to use trucks to attack crowds.
Trump has offered nothing to back up his claim that Islamists were behind the attack.
__
5:55 p.m.
President-elect Donald Trump is condemning the killing of Russia's ambassador to Turkey.
In a written statement, Trump calls the killing of diplomat Andrei Karlov a "violation of all rules of civilized order" and says it must be "universally condemned."
Trump is also extending his condolences to Karlov's family and loved ones.
A Turkish policeman fatally shot Karlov in front of an audience at a photo exhibit in Ankara. The assailant, who was identified as Mevlut Mert Altintas, a member of Ankara's riot police squad, was later killed in a shootout with police. Authorities said three other people were wounded in the attack.
Trump called Altintas a "radical Islamic terrorist." The gunman reportedly shouted, "We are the descendants of those who supported the Prophet Muhammad, for jihad."
___
11:25 a.m.
President-elect Donald Trump plans to meet with Robert Lighthizer, a former deputy U.S. trade representative in the Reagan administration, and Thad Allen, the retired Coast Guard commandant who oversaw the federal response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
Trump has yet to name his pick for U.S. Trade Representative.
Spokesman Jason Miller says Trump also will meet with R. Donahue Peebles, board chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Peebles is also founder, chairman and CEO of Peebles Corp., a real estate development and investment company.
The meetings will take place at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's mansion in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump is spending the holiday week there with his family.
Trump also plans to meet with J. Christopher Reyes, co-chairman of Reyes Holdings, a Chicago-based beer and food distributor.
___
9:15 a.m.
President-elect Donald J. Trump has picked Vincent Viola as secretary of the Army. Viola is the founder of several businesses, including Virtu Financial, an electronic trading firm. He also owns the National Hockey League's Florida Panthers and is a past chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
In a statement Monday, Trump said Viola is "living proof of the American dream." Viola grew up in a family of Italian immigrants in Brooklyn. His father worked as a truck driver.
Viola is a 1977 West Point graduate. He trained as an Airborne Ranger infantry officer and served in the 101st Airborne Division. He is a graduate of New York Law School. In 2003, he founded and helped fund the creation of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.
Viola bought the Panthers for about $250 million in 2013.The real estate rental market is a highly localized, relationship-based industry driven largely by individuals living and working in their own cities, causing many to acknowledge the longstanding difficulty of streamlining disruption to this market.
In recent years, however, that hasn’t stopped a multitude of innovators from seeking novel ways to improve the process’s efficiency.
If early innovators like Zillow and Trulia primarily entailed bringing real estate data online, newer innovators harness data not only to improve analytics for landlords, but also to improve efficiency for apartment seekers. This becomes more important as New York City, for instance, begins to see the start of an expected surge in rental apartments — more than 38,000 market-rate rental apartments, mostly in Brooklyn and Queens, are expected to be completed over the next three years.
With the advent of new technologies, the market has begun to shift nearly every aspect of the rental process, from leasing applications to communications with landlords and agents to payment processing.
“You really don’t have to look back more than five years and the only real option for renters searching for an apartment was Craigslist,” said Matt Reilly, Director of Growth at RadPad. “However, the Craigslist experience just doesn’t cut it with today’s digital-savvy renter. More than 90 percent of people looking for their next living situation are searching online first and more than 60 percent are looking on mobile.”
As rentals become commoditized and fewer people are satisfied being tied down to static assets, a number of players have sought to empower potential renters in new ways. The first, and perhaps most obvious, is enabling rental without a broker. New York-based real estate startup Oliver, for example, launched in 2015 to serve as a platform that cuts out the middleman and seamlessly connects renters with apartments.
What this means in practice is that by aggregating real-time rental inventory directly from property managers and landlords, rather than through third-parties, the Oliver app enables renters not only to browse and filter listings as could be done on other platforms, but also to schedule showings at the tap of a button using an in-app calendar feature. Rezi, an earlier-stage New York startup, also saves time by automatically scheduling multiple apartment visits to fit its users’ schedules.
“Just as Uber and Seamless enabled millennials to seek transportation and food in less manual, more automated ways, Oliver empowers renters by decreasing the time spent contacting third-parties to ensure that the apartment door will be open whenever is most convenient for them,” said Zachary Katz, Oliver’s Chief Strategy Officer. “Our vision is that in a few years, as the on-demand economy grows, no one will accept that viewing apartments requires calling and emailing landlords, or otherwise paying a hefty broker’s fee. To frame the terms in the classical economics, platforms like Oliver will be uniquely positioned to capture value from the inefficient gap currently wedged between supply and demand.”
Others have invested resources in improving the process for brokers themselves. Nestio, a residential leasing and marketing platform, streamlines the leasing process using cloud-based software, which enables listings to be shared, leads to be tracked and clients to be managed in one easy-to-use platform.
An increasing number of startups, both small and large, are empowering renters.
Earlier this year, Naked Apartments, a website that optimizes how brokers can proactively approach potential and current clients with appropriate, targeted listings, became Zillow’s fifth consumer-brand acquisition, with the shared goal of using data analytics to bring transparency to New York’s real estate landscape for brokers.
As agents spend less time at their desk and more time closing on rental deals via mobile applications, DotLoop has also focused on automating more redundant tasks by allowing agents to upload important documents, negotiate transactions and get bank-approved e-signatures in a single platform.
Others are playing matchmaker in different ways: by connecting potential roommates to each other. Roomi, which raised $4 million in seed funding led by DCM Ventures and already boasts more than 375,000 users in North America, as well as smaller market players like EasyRoommate, make it simpler for renters to find and connect with compatible roommates, whether renting an extra room in an apartment or searching together for an apartment.
Other startups are seeking to disrupt the traditional corporate housing and long-term stay marketplace. Startups like HomeSuite, an online marketplace that removes the hassle from finding furnished housing, aggregates not just long-term but also short-term inventory, geared toward individuals who might previously have focused their searches on more standard month-to-month property managers. In doing so, they are filling the grey area between Craigslist and Airbnb, serving the needs of individuals looking for something more permanent than a vacation rental yet more transient than a typically longer lease commitment.
Disruption hasn’t been limited to the search process. Even payment solutions and mobile are being integrated into newer platforms by companies like RadPad, an end-to-end photo-based rental marketplace aiming to become an A-to-Z platform for renters and landlords alike.
RentPayment similarly reduces the hassle of paper checks and improves the rent payment and collection process by serving as a platform for renters to pay their leases directly to their property managers by credit card, debit card or e-check.
As lead-generation platforms begin to focus more on empowering with complex data analytics those involved in the rental process, an increasing number of startups, both small and large, are empowering renters with more flexible co-living options, capitalizing on the trends toward both optimized roommate matching and pre-furnished apartments.
WeWork, the international co-working startup valued upwards of $16 billion as of March 2016, announced in January that it has begun to convert some of its spaces into fully furnished, flexible apartments. “WeLive replicates the security and comfort of a suburban neighborhood, but with the energy and vigor of a major city,” said the company in a statement, highlighting the company’s strategy to provide residents with private and semi-private housing accommodations alongside community events like fitness classes and potluck dinners, as well as a digital social network. Common, another co-living startup, also offers what it calls “flexible, community-driven housing,” and, in doing so, is revolutionizing the way apartment rental is traditionally done.
As more user-friendly startups begin to steal market share from Craigslist, the value of disruptive innovation that reduces rental-market opacity has become ever clearer, and speaks to the expectations that renters, agents and landlords now have around enabling the rental process, primarily offline in years past, with new technologies. Even more incremental changes, from video walk-throughs to new ways of slicing community rental data, have begun to play significant roles as startups cram into the real estate market, hoping for even a small slice of a huge pie.Republicans could be looking at a contested convention for the first time in 40 years. What happened the last time there was no clear winner heading into the convention? Well, mayhem didn't break out, but CNN's Brian Rokus reports it was a nail biter:
It was 1976 and a former California governor named Ronald Reagan wasn't just taking on the Republican establishment, he was taking on a sitting Republican president: Gerald Ford. And he was close to succeeding. As the convention began in Kansas City, the presence of uncommitted -- and unpredictable -- delegates meant that nobody could tell which candidate was actually in the lead. The New York Times projected Ford with a lead of 39 delegates, while Reagan's campaign claimed he was ahead by 10. Both leads were minuscule given the 2,259 total delegates attending the convention.
Ford turned to James Baker, the man that would go on to be Secretary of State but in 1976 had one job -- get Ford the delegates he needed:
As the 1976 convention approached, Baker began tracking every single one of the approximately 150 uncommitted delegates, those who weren't already bound to vote for either Reagan or Ford. Baker and his team created dossiers on each of them. "You need to know everything there is to know about a potential delegate... what turns them on, what turns them off, what they believe in, what they favor, what they disfavor, who they're sleeping with," Baker said.
Trump may indeed fall short of the full majority needed to win ahead of the convention, and if he does he will need to woo delegates, something his campaign has not been doing thus far.
As for Trump's claim that he should win if he simply has the most delegates, Baker said that's not how it works:
"That's a very good political argument for him to make, but that's not actually the way the process is supposed to work. It's supposed to work in a vote, or a series of votes by the delegates on the floor of the convention. They select the nominee. It is, after all, a party's nominating convention," Baker said.
The Republican convention takes place July 18-21 in Cleveland, OhioJAKARTA (Reuters) - The Indonesian representatives of Apple Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and other members of a local industry group said smartphone sales could fall by as much as 50 percent if the government imposes a tax on luxury models.
Women listen as a Samsung employee provides instructions on using their new Galaxy smartphones in Jakarta, April 11, 2014. REUTERS/Beawiharta
The government is considering a 20 percent tax for smartphones retailing at or above 5 million rupiah ($430), which would make Indonesia the most expensive country in Asia to buy an Apple iPhone 5s.
The tax would be part of efforts to protect domestic brands such as Evercoss Mobile Phone and MITO Mobile, and slow a surge in imports that has caused a deficit in the country’s current account.
The tax would likely be voted on after a new government takes office in October, officials said, and would follow similar action in the auto industry where this month the tax for some luxury cars rose to 125 percent from 75 percent.
“The purpose is to damp the influx of import products since domestic manufacturers only produce low-priced handphones,” Budi Darmadi, director general at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, recently told Reuters.
The Indonesia Cellphone Association said the tax would be detrimental to the smartphone industry, which researcher IDC said was worth around $1.4 billion last year on shipments of 10.8 million units.
“If the government applies the smartphone tax... it will increase illegal phone sales in the black market and cut sales of legal phones by up to 50 percent due to the different prices,” association Chairman Hasan Aula told Reuters.
Aula is also vice president of mobile phone distributor PT Erajaya Swasembada.
PT Samsung Electronics Indonesia Vice President Lee Kang Hyun said the tax would make foreign investors rethink putting their money into Indonesia. He declined to say whether the tax would have an impact Samsung’s investment in the country.
Uncertainty surrounding the tax could delay the construction of a local factory by Taiwanese mobile component maker Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, industry officials said. A Hon Hai spokesman declined to comment.
Local manufacturer PT Aries Indo Global, however, said the tax could help it make 5 million Evercoss phones a month within the next few years compared with 1 million at present, said Aries Director Edward Sofinanda.Australia, despite being 3-0 down, have provided the compelling stories of the Ashes such as Chris Rogers' belated Test success © Getty Images
To be at a cricket ground on the first morning of a Test match has always brought to me a sense of renewal. And in London, I enjoy the familiarity of the routine. The rush out of the parting doors on the tube, the springy walk up the escalators, station attendants urging fans not to forget to touch out with their Oyster cards while passing through turnstiles that have been left open, the gaggle of ticket touts brazenly soliciting customers, policemen gently ordering fans off the main street, the smell of early-morning beer, a few ties and lots of hats; and inside the ground, the spectacular sight of a packed stadium in the morning light.
The walk up to The Oval this time lived up in every sense but one. Drawing near the steps that lead up to the press box, there was a strange and unfamiliar feeling of emptiness. And then it occurred to me that this was a whole new experience: I have been to a few before, but never has my first live experience of a series been a dead-rubber Test.
Of course, every Test means something. England have never beaten Australia 4-0 (though they have beaten them 5-1). And Australia haven't left England without winning a Test since 1977. When Australia worked themselves into a winning position at Old Trafford, I had wildly fantasised about the Oval Test being the decider. Failing that, 5-0 was a far more appealing prospect than 4-0.
But there is something more. I have watched almost every ball of it, and this has not been a series to stir the senses. It has been a struggle to find a defining theme, one that will linger on in memory after this summer is done.
Ian Bell, our columnist, comes close. It has been a slaying-of-the-demons kind of series for him, but only the future will be the judge of whether his three centuries - and there could be more - became the stepping stone to a level that he has always promised. Bell is a picture-perfect batsman who has always looked destined for deeds greater than he has managed to achieve. But somehow, despite the most delightful late cuts and cover drives, his batting does not quite leave an indelible mark. That none of his three hundreds has led to a Man-of-the Match award - he was unlucky to lose out to Joe Root at Lord's - perhaps says something.
England owe no apology for being dull. They have acquired what a team requires most: the knowhow to win. After decades of misery, their fans will cherish that much more than showy brilliance that ends in tears
But there is perhaps a theme. It has come up in most of conversations I have had with writers and journalists in London in the last few days. Weird. Strange. Bizarre. These are words that have come up often. Three-nil would point to an overwhelming dominance of one team over the other, but with a bit more luck for Australia, the series could have been 2-2.
Here are some numbers. If you discount the Lord's Test, which was embarrassingly one-sided, and the ongoing match, Australia have scored more runs than England (1769 against 1563) at more runs per wicket (32.8 against 29.5) and have taken only one wicket fewer (53 against 54), but rain robbed them of the opportunity to improve this by a significant margin at Old Trafford.
Several assumptions, some of them contrasting, could be drawn from these numbers. The series has been incredibly close. Australia have fluffed the moments that have really mattered. And England have seized theirs. Or perhaps it has been a battle between the woeful and the average.
It would have been simple to say that the series has been much closer than the scoreline suggests, but even that would be a half truth. For the most part, the tension of a contest has been lacking, and listlessness has been a recurring feature. More wickets have been lost than earned, and for large swathes of play, bowlers have chosen to bore batsmen out rather than hunt for wickets.
There are balls and spells that stand out. Stuart Broad in both innings at Chester-le-Street, and his dismissal of Michael Clarke in the second innings there; a similar delivery from James Anderson to bowl Clarke at Trent Bridge. Ryan Harris |
.
“Everything that is broken in our country can be fixed. Every problem can be solved,” Trump said. “Democrats and Republicans should get together and unite for the good of our country and for the good of the American people.”The Annexation of Crimea Isn’t Going as Planned
SIMFEROPOL, Crimea — When the new Russian-appointed Crimean government opened its investigation into Akhtem Chiygoz in 2015, Chiygoz’s family said they heard the case against him was being called “candy” — that is, a sweet, ideal case.
The goal was simple. Chiygoz, a prominent figure in the Crimean Tatar community, was to be tried and convicted under Russian law, along with five other Crimean Tatars, for inciting “mass disturbances” on Feb. 26, 2014. On that day, less than a month before Crimea would be annexed by the Russian Federation, about 13,000 pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian demonstrators clashed over closer Russian ties at rallies outside the parliament building in the Crimean capital, Simferopol. Two people died.
The trial — which started in December 2015 — was to serve a dual purpose for Crimea’s new Russian government. First, it would demonstrate that the most visible resistance to the Russian takeover was generated by an unpopular minority ethnic group with a history of protesting for indigenous rights. Second, a conviction would discourage further opposition and discredit the Crimean Tatars’ governing body, the Mejlis, one of the organizers of the February protest and source of the strongest opposition to the new regime since the peninsula’s annexation.
“It was supposed to be an intimate court case in Crimea,” said Chiygoz’s lawyer, Nikolai Polozov. “It should have gone quickly and nicely, and painted a beautiful picture.”
More than a year later, the trial has gone wildly off the rails. Witness after witness called by the prosecution has directly contradicted the prosecution’s case. Many told the court they never saw Chiygoz inciting unrest; others called as injured parties said they never suffered any harm. Two of the other accused men said in court they’d been pressured to give false evidence against Chiygoz in return for lighter sentences. And then there is the major problem that at the time of events, the participants were Ukrainian citizens on what even Russia agrees was Ukrainian territory (although Russia has adopted legal changes to retroactively cover Crimea pre-March 2014).
The original prosecutor left to become a deputy in the Russian Duma in autumn 2016. The trial has since descended to such absurdity that the presiding judges often struggle to keep straight faces.
What was intended to be a quick, clean case has transformed into a sprawling show trial gone wrong. In the process, the “26 February” case, as it’s come to be called, is revealing some of what went awry in the annexation of Crimea itself.
* * *
On a recent day in court, Polozov, a bullish defense lawyer who hails from Moscow, opened hearings with his regular request to the judges to grant Chiygoz bail, and access to the court room where he is being tried. Chiygoz has been banned, under a never-before-used clause in Russian law which says defendants can be excluded if they are considered a danger — although Polozov has never managed to get an explanation of why the 52-year-old Chiygoz poses a threat.
Both requests were, as usual, denied. And so the trial continued, with Chiygoz watching via Skype from his pretrial detention cell less than 500 meters away from the courtroom.
This arrangement not only denies Chiygoz the opportunity to confer in private with his lawyer, it poses logistical problems, too. That same day a witness was asked if he recognized the defendant. The witness looked around the courtroom in vain until Chiygoz, only visible on a small flat screen, waved and shouted “Look! I’m here!” — at which point the surprised witness said he’d never seen this man before.
Chiygoz is being tried for organization of mass unrest under Article 212 of the Russian criminal code. His trial was restarted in August 2016 after his case was split from the five other Crimean Tatar men who are accused of participation in the day’s violence. None of the accused deny being present at the gathering, but say they never incited or took part in any unrest. In fact, there is no evidence that there was any large scale unrest that day at all.
On the day the supposed mass disturbance took place, the Crimean parliament was scheduled to meet for an emergency session to debate closer relations with Russia. The Yanukovych government in Kiev had fallen just days before, and two sanctioned rallies were planned that day outside parliament in Simferopol: one led by the Russian Unity party supporting closer relations, and one by the Mejlis, against any such rapprochement. The pro-Kievites numbered about 7,000 — mostly Crimean Tatars, but also ethnic Ukrainians and Russians from Crimea among them. The pro-Moscow demonstrators numbered about 5,500. Some came in buses from Sevastopol; others belonged to recently formed Crimean “self-defense militias.”
Extensive video footage shot by the media and participants shows some isolated fights, and bottles and sticks being thrown, while leaders on both sides call for restraint. The meeting broke up peacefully. The cause of the two deaths is unclear but a recent, exhaustive report by human rights groups from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, and Moldova concludes they were likely crushed when demonstrators were caught in a narrow gap between the parliament building and the outer courtyard.
Despite the lack of evidence, Russian prosecutors have forged ahead with criminal charges. Yet those charging Chiygoz seem to be regularly caught off-guard by their own witnesses, who have not been inclined to back up the state’s version of events. During 90 minutes of cross-examination, the same witness who did not recognize Chiygoz on the screen — a gruff fisherman anxious to get back to the herring season — said he didn’t know who had hit him on the head that day, or why he was being called to court as an injured party even though he had never sought any medical aid or compensation, and did not consider himself injured.
“A fight’s a fight,” he said. “I don’t know who was throwing what, everyone was throwing things.”
Over 100 hearings and 153 prosecution witnesses later, only three people have actually testified to seeing Chiygoz planning or inciting any unrest at the meeting — and two of them were secret witnesses known only as Ablyayev and Petrov, who testified via video link with their faces hidden.
* * *
The trial has revealed little proof of “mass disturbances” instigated by Chiygoz on Feb. 26, 2014. But it is inadvertently revealing details about the contested events in spring that year that led up to annexation.
On the night of Feb. 26, Russian soldiers in unmarked uniforms — who would soon come to be nicknamed the “polite people” — surrounded the parliament in Simferopol and other state and military structures. The next day, in a closed session, parliament voted to hold a referendum on joining Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted in April 2014 that the “polite people” were Russian servicemen. Nevertheless, the Russian narrative of events holds that annexation was a result of a popular local uprising. Central to this story is the supposedly spontaneous rise of the peninsula’s self-defense militias — groups of Crimeans who independently organized and armed themselves for fear of the pending arrival of right-wing groups from mainland Ukraine.
Many witnesses called in the 26 February case against Chigyoz belonged at the time to the Crimean self-defense militias. Their statements have revealed the extent of their outside assistance; testimony confirms they were established with assistance from the Russian Unity party, which helped them purchase riot gear. (Russian Unity was banned in April 2014 by a court in Kiev and its former leader, Sergey Aksyonov, now heads the Crimean government.) Others have shown how Russian propaganda deliberately fostered misconceptions among them to feed a sense of danger. They also, in some cases, reveal some sheepishness about their actions during the heady weeks around annexation.
The fisherman, for example, told the court he had belonged to a 300-strong self-defense militia of Afghan war veterans, one of about 14 divisions around the peninsula. The militias met daily, he said, and were sent to the Feb. 26 meeting by “Valeryich” (Aksyonov’s patronymic) and Sergey Tarasov, the head of the Crimean Afghan veterans’ league, who is now a Crimean parliament deputy.
Under questioning by Polozov and Chiygoz, the fisherman said his militia went to parliament that day because of rumors that fascists were on their way. “We heard that supposedly there should be something like some others coming, from there, from Ukraine,” he told the court. “They were called Banderites” — a Soviet term for Ukrainian nationalists. “No one knew when they were coming, but we were at the railway station as well because it was said there’d be a train.” He was referring to the so-called “friendship train,” a story fomented by Russian propaganda of supposedly violent Ukrainian nationalists on their way to Crimea. The story is still cited today by Crimeans who support annexation; there is no evidence that the train existed.
The fisherman said he never saw the purported Banderites, either at the railway station or at the Feb. 26 meeting. In the end, he seemed embarrassed by the whole subject.
* * *
Human rights groups like Amnesty International and the Russian nongovernmental organization Memorial recognize Chiygoz as a prisoner of conscience, and the trial as part of a wider ongoing effort by the Russian government to repress any political opposition in Crimea, particularly from Crimean Tatars who, even after three years, cannot be persuaded to support the annexation. It’s notable that although there were two sides and two organizers to the Feb. 26 rallies, only Crimean Tatars are in the dock.
“There’s an obvious segregation on ethnic grounds,” said Polozov. The prosecutor’s office has said this is because no Crimean Tatars claimed injury or damages.
It’s no surprise the Crimean Tatars and Crimea’s Russian leadership have found themselves at odds. Members of this ethnic group have not forgotten how their nation was expelled from the peninsula en masse by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1944 and not permitted to return until the Soviet Union collapsed. Just a few months after taking control, Russia banned two Crimean Tatar leaders from Crimea: Mustafa Dzhemilev and Refat Chubarov.
Remaining members of the Crimean Tatar community were initially courted by the new authorities. Chiygoz — one of the Mejlis’s most prominent representatives left in Crimea — was flown to Kazan, Russia by private jet for discussions on cooperation, according to his father, while his wife, Elmira Ablyalimova, was made director of the 16th-century Crimean khan’s palace in Bakhchisaray, one of Crimea’s most famous heritage sites. But at the same time, increasing numbers of Crimean Tatars disappeared or were arrested on charges of “extremism” and “terrorism.” Ablyalimova left her museum post in December 2014, saying she was subjected to constant pressure to influence her husband. “The authorities in Crimea need 100 percent loyalty — not professionalism, but loyalty — and everything is based on that principle,” she said.
The brief truce soon descended into all-out war. Chiygoz, Ablyalimova says, refused to show such loyalty — and so a way was found to remove him. He was arrested in January 2015. The Mejlis was banned in 2016 and labeled an extremist group.
Ludmila Lubina, Russia’s human rights commissioner in Crimea, denied bias against any of Crimea’s many ethnic groups post-annexation. In an interview last autumn, she suggested that the Mejlis ban and other repressive measures are only what the Crimean Tatars — about 12 percent of the Crimean population — had coming to them after years in Ukraine of demanding the rights they lost after they were deported in 1944, often through mass peaceful protest. (Chiygoz once laid down in front of a bulldozer to protest for land rights.)
“It’s not my opinion — I’m the ombudsman — but the opinion of most Slavic and German and Greek people [in Crimea] is that the Crimean Tatars have at last been made to live according to the law. And that’s really gratifying. Really gratifying,” she told me.
* * *
Other than Crimean Tatars, hardly anyone in Crimea today is still paying attention to the events taking place in the Simferopol courtroom. Few Crimeans can name Valentina Korneva and Igor Postny, the two people who died on Feb. 26, 2014. The court case is ignored by local and Russian media. But the gathering, like the “friendship train” and the “polite people,” has entered into local folklore about what happened in spring 2014, and reinforces among some Crimeans a long-held belief in Tatar lawlessness.
“If it hadn’t been for Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] we would have been left alone with the Tatars and it would have been the most terrible thing in the world,” said Irina Antonova, who sells souvenirs in Simferopol International Airport, including Putin T-shirts and models of a new monument to the “polite people” erected outside the Crimean parliament. “At that meeting, the Tatars would have just destroyed us.” She did not attend the meeting.
In the center of Simferopol, patrolled by the self-defense militias as well as police, posters from 2014 warning about Ukrainian fascists have disappeared. It’s hard to remember the sea of people, flags, and high emotion that filled the square outside parliament on Feb. 26.
Three years since annexation, many Crimeans find themselves disappointed by the results. Russian promises of higher living standards have not materialized. Few speak openly about their dissatisfaction, however; trials like Chiygoz’s have made it clear that dissent is not welcome. But even Lubina, the human rights ombudsman, while denying there are any human rights violations post-annexation, complained about corruption and a lack of freedom.
“I feel there’s not enough freedom to express my personal opinion,” she said. “In Ukraine, you can spit out whatever’s on your mind.… In Russia, it’s not always possible to formulate and to understand where we’re heading.”
A few streets away from the parliament, a small, dogged group of friends and supporters gather almost daily outside the supreme court for Chiygoz’s hearings. For all its unintentional comedy, the trial has been brutal: Conditions in the pretrial jail are notoriously bad, and Chiygoz spent seven months of his ongoing two-year incarceration in solitary confinement. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.
“We’re here because it could be any one of our sons or husbands,” said Ferasultan Musliadinova, a Crimean Tatar who arrives each lunchtime with a van full of rice plov and hot tea for supporters.
Other political trials of Crimeans post-annexation, such as that of the Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, have resulted in long sentences, and few expect Chiygoz’s trial to end differently, despite the lack of evidence and the reluctance of witnesses to play along. Still, with the hysteria and euphoria of spring 2014 long gone — and the case’s initial prosecutor in Moscow — local zeal to make a public example of Chiygoz seems to be fading.
“There was no mass unrest and there were no injured, just some invented victims, so it’s not interesting for [the witnesses]. It’s only interesting for the prosecutor,” said Daria Svyrydova, a lawyer from the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and co-author of the report on the Feb. 26 case. “But as time goes on, it’ll get less interesting for the prosecutors, too, as they understand the case is collapsing and it’s their headache.”
Judges closed the questioning of the fisherman witness by asking if he wanted to see Chiygoz punished for his role on Feb. 26. The fisherman, who in between grilling from Chiygoz, had engaged in an amicable exchange with him about fishing, looked nonplussed.
“I don’t know him, so how can I judge him?” he said. “Should I sentence him just because he’s asked me a lot of questions?”
Photo credit: Alina Smutko
Correction, Sept. 13, 2017: Ludmila Lubina is Crimea’s current human rights commissioner. A previous version of this article mistakenly referred to her as the former commissioner.Longtime Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone claimed that CIA Director John Brennan is a “mole” for the Saudi government and suggested that he be thrown in jail.
Stone is a longtime friend and ally of President-elect Trump’s with a decades-long history of employing political dirty tricks, and he regularly spouts violent, racist, and sexist rhetoric. Stone is a fixture on Alex Jones' program and has partnered with him to promote Trump.
Stone guest-hosted the fourth hour of Jones’ January 4 program, where he said that Brennan is the “progenitor of” the claims that the Russian government influenced the 2016 presidential election and that Brennan “is a mole, a Saudi mole.”
ROGER STONE: It’s kind of interesting to me that the number one progenitor of this theory is CIA Director John Brennan. Brennan is a man who refused to be sworn in using the Bible, who has converted to Wahhabism, who has spent a substantial amount of time in that region, who personally cleansed the passport files of Barack Obama when he was preparing to run for a second term, and, quite frankly, if you believe my friend Wayne Madsen, and I do, is a mole, a Saudi mole. That is who is advocating and pushing the entire false narrative that the Russians have somehow hacked this election.
Stone added later in the program that the country needs “a complete housecleaning and an entirely new beginning among our intelligence services.” He then advocated for appointing Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as FBI director and a new CIA director to replace Brennan.
Stone previously suggested in a December 17 tweet that Brennan should be jailed for his actions. He wrote:
Obama CIA Director,pro-Muslim Brotherhood Islamist John Brennan- a proven liar with NO proof of Russian hacking of the 20016 election #jail — Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) December 17, 2016
Alex Jones and Infowars have repeatedly pushed conspiracy theories claiming that people within the CIA are “planning to assassinate” or “overthrow” Trump and that the agency is “thinking about bringing in outside mercenaries or other agencies” in order to do that. Jones -- a founding member of the 9/11 conspiracy movement -- has said he’s talked on the phone with Trump, who appeared on Jones' show and also thanked his audience for supporting his campaign.
Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on the intelligence agencies he will soon take over as president and recently sided with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over the U.S. intelligence community.0
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La Voz de Galicia Begoña Íñiguez
Lisboa / E. La Voz 19/05/2016 05:00 h
La polémica ha estallado con fuerza en Portugal tras el anuncio del Gobierno socialista que lidera Antonio Costa de poner fin al 60% de los acuerdos y subvenciones estatales a colegios privados, muchos de ellos de la Iglesia Católica, durante el próximo curso lectivo 2016-2017. Los acuerdos afectan a un número importante de centros que funcionan en un régimen similar al de los concertados españoles. Se firmaron en la década de los 80 del siglo pasado para que los alumnos de zonas rurales y poco pobladas, de norte a sur del país, sin oferta pública educativa o con necesidades especiales, pudieran recibir una educación gratuita sin tener que desplazarse muchos kilómetros.
De nada han servido los mensajes del jefe del Estado, el conservador Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, pidiendo «una solución de sentido común, beneficiosa para ambas partes y sobre todo para los alumnos y profesores afectados por los recortes». La confirmación gubernamental la hizo el martes por la noche la secretaria de Estado de Educación, Alexandra Leitão, mano derecha del ministro de Educación Tiago Brandão Rodrigues, tras una larga reunión mantenida con la Asociación de Establecimientos Portugueses de Enseñanza Privada y Cooperativa (AEPP). Leitão avanzó que «solo 21 de los 79 colegios privados lusos con contratos de asociación los mantendrán como hasta ahora durante el próximo año lectivo». La secretaria de Estado afirmó también que «en septiembre 39 de los 79 centros no ofertarán los cursos de quinto de Primaria, primero de Secundaria y primero de Bachillerato». Añadió que «habrá otros 19 centros que tampoco podrán impartir todos los cursos de la enseñanza obligatoria a los alumnos».
Inflexibilidad
La reacción de los colegios privados afectados, de la Conferencia Episcopal lusa y de los dos partidos políticos de centro-derecha, el PSD del Passos Coelho y el CDS-PP de Assunção Cristas, no se han hecho esperar. Antonio Sarmento, presidente de la AEPP, acusó al Gobierno de Costa de dejarse presionar «e influir por los sindicatos, el Bloco de Esquerda y el Partido Comunista para acabar con los contratos de asociación con los centros privados». Según declaró, «estamos indignados con la decisión del Ejecutivo, que ha demostrado muchísima inflexibilidad en las negociaciones a pesar de los llamamientos del presidente».
La presidenta del conservador CDS-PP, Assunção Cristas, ha criticado duramente la decisión de Antonio Costa que considera «totalmente injusta y partidista y que perjudica a millares de niños del interior del país». Cristas considera que la decisión del Ejecutivo luso es «una concesión a la izquierda y a los sindicatos más radicales».
El presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal portuguesa (CEP) el cardenal patriarca de Lisboa, Manuel Clemente, pidió inicialmente «un acuerdo por el bien de todas las partes». Señaló que «esta no es una polémica entre los colegios públicos y los privados». Clemente hizo pública su posición en una homilía durante las celebraciones de la Festividad de Fátima. La Iglesia tiene una gran fuerza de arrastre en Portugal.
Más de 10.000 niños afectados y mil profesores a la calle
Según la patronal que engloba a los centros afectados son más de 10.000 los niños y adolescentes del interior de Portugal que se quedarán sin la plaza que tenían hasta el momento. El próximo curso se les adjudicará una que, con toda probabilidad, estará lejos de su residencia dada las carencias del sistema público. Los profesores despedidos serán mil.It's a Thursday in the middle of football season and the first semester of the school year, so you know what that means! Twitter is inundated with hundreds and thousands of photos of dudeskis, bros, brahs, and bruhs smashing beers and playing drinking games, all in the name of America. Today's so-bad-you-can't-look-away-and-sort-of-wish-it-were-you photo involves a couple of guys playing beer pong on top of their father's Porsche Carrera GT, of the sickest supercars of all time.
These guys couldn't afford a beer pong table so they used their dad's #Porsche Carrera GT. @Jalopnik @Autogespot pic.twitter.com/Bj6XEd9hy6 — Alexander De Clerck (@alexotics_) November 14, 2013
As long as bros exist, there will continue to be cars that are used as furniture.
RELATED: 15 Photos of Rappers Disrespecting Supercars
[via @Alexotics]There are two reasons why this could be true. The first is simply that workers may feel better about their jobs and take them more seriously if they are paid a higher wage. In effect, the higher minimum wage will make the workers getting paid the minimum better workers. Economists call this effect an “efficiency wage” and there is a substantial body of empirical research to support it.
The other way in which a minimum-wage hike could increase productivity is by reducing turnover. Turnover imposes substantial costs even for the least-skilled positions. It requires managers’ time to review applications and interview applicants. In addition, once a new worker is hired, they will require some on-the-job training and supervision. If a higher minimum wage persuades workers to stay at their job longer, many employers will more than offset the higher wage costs by reduced turnover costs. Recent research has demonstrated just this kind of strong connection between a higher minimum wage and lower turnover.
Even if a higher minimum wage did lead to some fall in employment, low-wage workers would almost certainly still be much better off with a higher minimum wage. This is apparent from considering the nature of low-wage work.
As noted before, these jobs tend to be high turnover jobs that workers do not hold for long periods of time. In this context, any job loss associated with a higher minimum wage is unlikely to take the form of workers being laid off from their jobs. More typically it would mean that there will be fewer jobs available so that workers spend more time between jobs.
The issue of job loss is then transformed into a situation where a typical low-wage worker is employed for fewer hours per week or per year, but gets more money for each hour worked. The question is then the relative size of these effects.
Critics of the minimum wage typically argue that a 10 percent increase in the minimum wage would reduce employment of minimum-wage workers by 1-2 percent.
That hardly seems like a bad deal for most workers. Minimum-wage workers will put in 1-2 percent fewer hours over the course of a year, but they will still end up with 8-9 percent more in their paychecks for the year.
It’s also worth noting that most workers who benefit from a minimum wage hike are not teenagers. About 70 percent of the workers who received an increase as a result of the last minimum-wage increase were 20 or older, according to this study.
Higher minimum wages are a simple and effective mechanism for helping the lowest-paid workers. It is also important to remember this is not new ground. In the prosperous decades immediately following World War II, the minimum wage was actually higher than it is today. Adjusting for inflation, the minimum wage would have to rise to about $9 an hour to reach its peak level in 1968. If the minimum wage had kept pace with productivity growth over the last three decades — as it did in the three decades after World War II — the rate would be over $15 today.
Despite criticisms from vocal business opponents, polls consistently show that Democrats, Independents and Republicans all voice support for the minimum wage. This makes sense. Higher minimum wages are about rewarding work and making it possible for workers to earn enough to support a family, with a minimum of government bureaucracy.
John Schmitt is a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
This article originally appeared in Salon.Last week, CareerBuilder and EMSI released an interactive map that sheds light on pillar industries for each of America's 100 largest metros. Hospitals and education in Boston, management of companies in Minneapolis-St. Paul, military jobs in San Diego – these are just a few examples of sectors that drive their economies.
But perhaps the biggest takeaway from the map is that while the regions with the most vibrant economies don't just specialize in one industry or cluster of industries, almost all of them have established tech sectors.
In Salt Lake City, software publishing jobs are growing rapidly. San Jose is a mecca for software and computer manufacturing. Austin has a bustling computer systems design industry and one of the nation's most-concentrated semiconductor manufacturing workforces.
These three metros, along with Grand Rapids, have led the U.S. in post-recession per capita job growth, thanks in part to a strong nucleus of software and computer firms.
But it's not just Salt Lake, San Jose and Austin. For half of the 20 metros that have added the most jobs per capita since 2010, software publishing is one of the major driver industries. This includes Raleigh and Durham-Chapel Hill in North Carolina, Provo-Orem (another thriving Utah metro) and traditional tech stalwarts San Francisco and Seattle.
In addition to software publishing, computer systems design consistently pops up as an important industry for big metros based on total jobs, concentration, job growth and average earnings per job. In the sprawling Dallas metro, for example, this sector accounts for nearly 60,000 total jobs and has grown 32 percent since the start of 2010. And in San Francisco, computer systems design has accounted for nearly 15 percent of all new jobs created the last three-plus years – a stunning share of job growth for such a high-paying industry.
But what role does the tech sector have in creating jobs elsewhere in these metros? Just consider San Francisco. It has 30,000 jobs specifically in computer system design services -- a detailed industry with a jobs multiplier of 4.35. This means for every one job in the industry, another 3.35 are created elsewhere in the San Francisco economy. That's a powerful ripple effect.
Even in fast-growing metros where software publishing and computer systems design aren't driver industries, tech jobs are an emerging part of their economies:
The Grand Rapids metro, No. 2 in per capita job growth, is a hotspot for manufacturing and health care jobs. Still, computer systems design accounts for 2,200 jobs in Grand Rapids, up 6 percent, and other professional, technical, and scientific services industries are showing robust growth.
metro, No. 2 in per capita job growth, is a hotspot for manufacturing and health care jobs. Still, computer systems design accounts for 2,200 jobs in Grand Rapids, up 6 percent, and other professional, technical, and scientific services industries are showing robust growth. In Houston, No. 5 on the list, computer systems design has added almost 4,000 jobs since 2010 (14 percent growth), while the smaller software publishers industry has expanded 9 percent.
, No. 5 on the list, computer systems design has added almost 4,000 jobs since 2010 (14 percent growth), while the smaller software publishers industry has expanded 9 percent. Nashville, ranked sixth, has seen a computer and software jobs boom. Computer system design is up 32 percent and makes up nearly 7,000 total jobs; software publisher jobs have mushroomed 22 percent and pay on average $190,000 per year (salary plus supplemental compensation).
The growth of tech industries has ratcheted up the demand for all sorts of IT jobs. EMSI's most recent data shows the fastest-growing detailed STEM fields – jobs in science, technology, engineering and math – are computer-related.
This growth is consistent with the trends on CareerBuilder's site. In the second quarter, job listings for software engineers were up 40 percent year over year, network and computer systems administrators were up 17 percent and business intelligence analysts to process big data were up 24 percent.
All these data points make clear that the tech sector is a good place to be right now. And the metros where tech is a big deal are benefitting.
To see others trends in tech and dozens of other industries by metro, check out the interactive map. For more, contact Josh Wright here.Rumors abound of Aviva Premiership sides showing interest in coming to the United States to play matches. Meanwhile, a club in the English Greene King IPA Championship, also known as the RFU Championship, is looking to take another route into the American market.
London Scottish have announced an initiative that is targeting Americans of Scottish decent. The initial goal of their project is to build a Tartan Army of American supporters with the end goal of using the added support to propel the Exiles into the Aviva Premiership.
The Scots have a rich rugby history dating back to their founding in 1878. At one time they were among the top clubs in England before financial woes saw the club demoted eight divisions in 1999 after their first season in the English Premiership. The club has since earned promotion in seven of the last 11 seasons and sit on the cusp of competing for promotion into the Premiership.
The Exiles earned promotion into the RFU Championship in the 2011/2012 season and finished 12th in their first season. During the 2012/2013 season the club returned to full time professional status and moved up the table to 8th place. In 2013/2014 the club made a big leap up to 5th place on the back of a 14-9 record and just missed out on reaching the playoffs. The Exiles finished 3rd in the RFU Championship last season with a record of 12-8-2. Having finished in the Top 4, they made it to the playoffs where they were defeated by eventual champs Worcester in the semifinals.
With a higher finish in the Championship each of the past four seasons, there is little room left at the top of the table. The Exiles will face stiff competition from Bristol during the 2015/2016 season. Bristol, whom many had tapped for promotion, was surprisingly toppled in the Championship finals by Worcester.
Former London Scottish, Scotland and British & Irish Lions Captain, Gavin Hastings, has backed the initiative.
Hastings, now a London Scottish ambassador, said in a release from the club, “I think this new membership scheme is a fantastic concept and I am right behind the idea of telling the London Scottish story to a brand new audience in America. London Scottish is a club rich in history and tradition which I’m sure will appeal to many American Scots.”
The London Scottish have had some American ties in recent years. Current USA 7s Head Coach Mike Friday served as their Director of Rugby last year while current Eagle 2nd rower Tai Tuisamoa spent the 2014/2015 season playing for the Exiles. Eagle prop Eric Fry also played for the club during the 2013/2014 season.
To learn more about the American Friends of London Scottish, please go to their website.(Screen capture)
(CNSNews.com) -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said at her press briefing today that she did not intend to respond to the question of whether an unborn baby with a human heart and a human liver is a human being and that the question has "no basis" in the public policy they do in Congress.
CNSNews.com asked Pelosi: “In reference to funding for Planned Parenthood: Is an unborn baby with a human heart and a human liver a human being?”
Pelosi responded: “Why don't you take your ideological questions--I don't, I don't have—”
CNSNews.com asked: “If it's not a human being, what species is it?”
Pelosi said: “No, listen, I want to say something to you. I don't know who you are and you're welcome to be here, freedom of this press. I am a devout practicing Catholic, a mother of five children. When my baby was born, my fifth child, my oldest child was six years old. I think I know more about this subject than you, with all due respect.”
CNSNews.com asked: “So it's not a human being, then?”
Pelosi said: “And I do not intend to respond to your questions, which have no basis in what public policy is that we do here.”Military officers in North Korea have pocketed and sold off supplies of South Korean-donated milk powder that was intended for babies but ordered by the Pyongyang regime to be distributed to undernourished soldiers, according to North Korean sources.
Private South Korean aid groups had provided the “Baby Love” brand powdered milk as part of humanitarian assistance to the impoverished country, but North Korean authorities earlier this year handed them out as rations for undernourished troops mobilized under a wartime alert, the sources said.
Military officers secretly diverted the supplies, selling them through brokers to local markets instead of distributing them to the soldiers, the sources said.
In the first few months of the year, supplies of the powdered milk coming from the military flooded local markets, where they were a sought-after item, one source in North Hamgyong province said.
“The South Korean Baby Love dry milk which was provided to the military by the North Korean authorities was the best-selling item at the local market until April,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“When the North Korean authorities provided it for soldiers, the local market overflowed with Baby Love,” the source said this month, adding that the infant formula was no longer available on the shelves.
Expired supplies
The powdered milk, made by South Korea’s Namyang Daily Products Co. Ltd., came in four different types and in 700 and 800 gram (26 and 28 ounce) packages.
A source in Yanggang province said many of the packages sold in local markets had expiration dates of 2009 and 2010 on them, though some had had the dates removed.
Sources said the powdered milk originally came from South Korean aid organizations, which have provided food assistance targeting groups in North Korea most vulnerable to malnutrition, including with a 20-ton shipment of powdered milk sent by the Red Cross in 2010 for infants and other shipments delivered to orphanages.
Aid from South Korea has been cut back over the past several years amid tensions on the peninsula over North Korea’s nuclear program—tensions that hit a peak this spring following Pyongyang’s December 2012 missile launch and February 2013 nuclear test.
North Korea ramped up its war threats against South Korea earlier this year and, under a wartime special alert issued at the end of last year, mobilized soldiers and sent them to live in tough conditions in underground tunnels and caves, sources said.
'Wartime reserve |
), which started at the theater square:
Several minutes later he can be seen in the webcam footage carrying and using a loudspeaker:
The activists around him waved blue-black flags, which belong to a local charity organization named “Iskrennost” (“Sincerity”). On 23 February, the final day of the Ukrainian revolution, some members of this organization participated in an Anti-Maidan demonstration that turned violent. Mariupol’s community website 0629 described how anti-Maidan protesters, including members of Iskrennost, had confronted a group of Maidan supporters. There, the leader of Iskrennost, Valeriy Onatsky, stated his readiness to take up arms (see this video at 3m15s, 7m14s, and 7m41s). The Maidan supporters left, but one of their activists named Yevgeni Korablyov was beaten by a mob, resulting in injuries to his head, hand and foot.
Several videos and photographs of the February 23 protests show how the gunman was present during these protests, often at the side of Onatsky. He’s visible in several photographs, which were posted on 0629, such as this one (Note: he’s wearing the same shirt as on May 9):
In one video he can be seen aggressively confronting a cameraman of Mariupol TV on Lenin Square, demanding that the cameraman show “only the truth” and threatening to put the camera “up his ass.” Afterwards he ensures the cameraman’s safe passage. Another video shows he was part of the mob that dragged the Maidan activist Korablyov (wearing the yellow-red scarf) on stage. Onatsky was also part of this mob (wearing a flat cap):
Though both act provocative, they also try to prevent the rest of the crowd from assaulting Korablyov and in the end secure a free passage for him.
By browsing through social media accounts related to Iskrennost, I was able to confirm that the gunman is a local resident. There is no evidence, however, linking Iskrennost to the 9 May assault, which means that the gunman may have acted on his own. Furthermore, after the website 0629 had accused Iskrennost of participating in the assault on the police headquarters, Iskrennost posted a message on VK denying any involvement.
Section Three: Clashes at the police headquarters (12:10 PM)
Fighting had intensified after the military arrived at the police headquarters. Heavy gunfire and explosions are audible in the last 15 minutes of Video 1 (2nd Part). This tells us that intensive fighting had occurred from about 12:10 to 12:25 PM. Much of the fighting was not recorded, as most protestors kept their distance. One video, filmed from the south, shows Ukrainian soldiers during the fighting. Another video, filmed from the north, shows one of the soldiers firing an RPG towards the eastern side of the police headquarters. A fire later started inside the police headquarters, but it’s unclear what started it. After the fighting ended, more videos were made by protestors. The deputy commander of Azov later alleged that the operation was muddled because Ukrainian forces were taking sniper fire and because many of the protestors were armed.
To found out what happened, I use the following video as a reference point: Video 6 – Duration: 48m56.
A crowd of protestors is seen standing near Ukrainian soldiers in front of the police headquarters. National Guard forces are also present, most of them in uniform, some in civilian clothes (Azov members). Some of the protestors are clearly recognizable as coming from Lenin Prospekt. These include the gunman and the activist with the backpack. Soldiers can be seen trying to calm the protestors and trying to prevent them from approaching further. At 5m20s, some protestors, including the activist with the backpack, begin charging towards Ukrainian troops, who appear to be taking away a handcuffed person:
This video shows (at 2m29s) that a lot of wrestling occurs after the charge. A single shot of unknown origin can be heard, after which Ukrainian forces begin firing into the air. Part of the crowd runs away.
Afterward, two wounded protestors are seen lying on the ground (at 5m35s and 6m18s). This video shows that one of them is carried away with a leg wound (at 0m35s). Another video shows the other victim receiving first aid (at 3m10s); he has considerable blood loss and some bystanders attempt to quell the bleeding by pinching his leg.
Two minutes after the shooting, soldiers can be seen helping a wounded soldier entering an APC. The soldier is able to walk, but not on his own.
At 11m16s another handcuffed protester can be seen. Judging by his clothes, he was one of the protesters who charged towards the soldiers:
Another interesting video is this recording from a live stream. The video suffers from considerable frame loss, but still reveals something important. It’s apparent from this video that the shooting incident begins at 44m11s, when the cameraman runs away 25 and ducks for cover. Next to him is a man wearing a black leather jacket and for a few seconds an AK magazine is clearly sticking out of his trousers (44m31s), which suggest there was at least one other armed man in the crowd. I have been unable to recognize him in other footage:
Shooting at the Courtyard Gate
After this incident, the main video moves onto Ulitsa Georgiyevskaya, where Ukrainian forces cover the courtyard gate of the police headquarters. At 15m33s, a shot from nearby can be heard, and the Ukrainian forces run for cover. Video 7 helps us understand what happened: right after the shot, the soldiers turn their heads toward one of their comrades who appears to be hit by sniper fire:
As soldiers fire their weapons, the wounded soldier is dragged inside the courtyard and given first aid. This is also seen in this video (video 8) (at 3m33s):
One of the protestors standing nearby is the activist with the backpack, who starts clapping as it happens (see Video 7; 0m30s, Video 6; 15m35,).
According to statements by Ukrainian forces, a sniper was positioned on the upper floor of the polyclinic opposite the police headquarters (other spokespersons alleged there were several snipers). Ukrainian forces claimed that they were later able to neutralize the sniper, who was either killed or captured.
Video 6 further shows a man being held by soldiers at the courtyard gate. At 29m20s a soldier can be seen hitting the man’s legs with his rifle butt, perhaps because of his association with the sniper. A higher quality video shows the captured man more clearly:
The detainee was later identified on social media as a local resident. He appears in the morning photographs as one of the armed men in the separatist assault, which further substantiates that these photographs are genuine:
Escape by Ambulance
When fire trucks arrive, protesters begin smashing the windows of the police headquarters to evacuate those trapped inside. Ukrainian forces continue to cover the courtyard, where they were able to evacuate several civilians and two of their wounded. One more incident was captured in two videos: Five men coming from the eastern side of the police headquarters can be seen rushing toward an ambulance:
As the ambulance takes off, soldiers fire at the ambulance, but are unable to bring the vehicle to a halt:
The ambulance driver was later interviewed, claiming that he drove away three individuals without knowing who they were. After driving as far away as possible they exited his vehicle and ran away. Judging by the speed with which they rushed toward the ambulance, and the fact that they later exited the vehicle, I think it’s safe to assume that the ambulance was simply used by militants to avoid capture.
Dust clouds in the second video suggest that the soldiers aimed at the tires of the ambulance. The last video shows that the ambulance ended up with at least one flat tire and that other parts of the vehicle were hit as well.
Retreat (approximately 13:00 PM)
Eventually Ukrainian forces began their retreat. One large unit of Ukrainian soldiers moved on foot toward military unit 3057, accompanied by a bus. Some of the protestors continued to follow the soldiers, some of them throwing stones at the bus. On Ulitsa Apatova, more people were injured by shootings. This video shows the soldiers firing into the air in an attempt to disperse the protestors. This happens shortly after an object is thrown at the soldiers, which can be seen in several frames (at 3m27s):
The object can be seen lying on the ground shortly after. It could be a bottle, but it’s hard to make out. While the soldiers are firing into the air, a soldier on the left fires two shots toward a protestor who refuses to keep his distance. Another soldier attempts to stop his colleague from firing the second shot, but he’s too late. Both shots land in front of the man, with two dust clouds clearly visible, but once again the hard surface causes the bullets to ricochet:
The man is hit by a ricocheted bullet and quickly suffers from large amount of blood loss. Bystanders immediately attempt to quell the bleeding. Another video (from RT) shows that another protestor was hit in the arm at around the same time.
On Lenin Prospekt, the webcam footage shows the first five APCs leaving the city at 1:03 PM and the last APC at 1:26 PM. In a video recorded at the intersection with Kazantseva Ulitsa, the last four APCs can be seen driving through newly setup barricades at high speed:
The APC numbered 240 didn’t return. Several videos show this vehicle standing still near the eastern end of Lenin Prospekt. Protestors can be seen confronting soldiers who had manned the vehicle. At one point another APC tries to tow the vehicle away, but eventually the vehicle is left behind. Residents begin to loot the vehicle, which causes a rather absurd event: This video shows (at 0m51s) one of the looters accidently firing the vehicle’s gun, resulting in a damaged wall and at least one wounded bystander:
Eventually a truck tows the damaged APC away. In an apparent claim of victory, flags of the DPR are planted on top, and bystanders cheer as the vehicle is towed westward on Lenin Prospekt. The next day, the vehicle is torched by activists in front of the city council building.
Section Four: Casualties
The fighting in Mariupol caused many casualties. The Ukrainian Interior Minister of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov, reported the death of one law enforcement officer and said five more were wounded. He further claimed that “at least 20 terrorists” were killed, while the rest had escaped. In addition, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry stated that eight soldiers had been wounded. On 10 May, Anna Neistat of Human Rights Watch (HRW) confirmed that seven people had been killed. She also cited a reliable witness who said no more than 10 people were brought to the morgues. Memorial’s report stated that about 41 wounded individuals were brought to the hospital, one of them being a soldier with a stomach wound who later passed away. On 14 May another body was found inside the police headquarters, which “certainly wasn’t a member of the Mariupol police,” according to the new Mariupol police chief.
The website 0629 collected information on and portraits of those who had been killed. Based on this information and other reports, I´ve been able to list 13 alleged casualties with varying degrees of confidence:
Viktor Sayenko – 41-year-old lieutenant colonel and chief of Mariupol’s traffic police, died during the clashes at the police headquarters. Sayenko was one of the meeting members. After the Ukrainian forces retreated, his body lay in front of the courtyard gate, and was later covered with a blanket. Because rumors had spread that Ukrainian forces that wanted to switch sides attacked policemen the cause of his death was disputed. A report on his funeral in Mariupol indicated that even funeral attendees weren’t sure who was responsible. Now that it’s certain that meeting members were attacked by separatists, Sayenko can be considered a casualty on Kiev’s side of the conflict.
Note: on 10 May a video was posted showing Sayenko discussing anti-terrorist operations with Radical Party leader Oleg Lyashko. This video is now circulating with the suggestion that the video is from 9 May, insinuating that Ukrainian forces had planned an attack on this day. The video, however, was taken before 9 May. We know this because Sayenko received an arm injury during a confrontation with DPR activists at the city council building on 8 May. Photographs of his deceased body show that his arm was bandaged. Since his arm was not yet bandaged in the video with Lyashko, the video was very likely recorded before the 8 May confrontation.
Mikhail Ermolenko – 38-year-old praporshchik of Mariupol’s patrol police, died during the clashes at the police headquarters. Ermolenko was also one of the meeting members.
On 22 June 2014, both Sayenko and Ermolenko were posthumously awarded the Order for Courage (3rd class) by presidential decree. This was celebrated with a procession in Mariupol, which was by that time government controlled.
Sergei Demidenko – 41-year-old professional soldier and deputy commander of the Dnipro Battalion, died during clashes at the police headquarters. Demidenko was one of the meeting members. According to Ukrainian reports, he was killed by sniper fire. Because of burns sustained in the fire, his body had to be identified by DNA.
Oleg Eysmant – 39-year-old mobilized soldier of the Dnipro Battalion, died from sniper fire at the police headquarters. Eysmant was also one of the meeting members. On July 19 Eysmant was also posthumously awarded the Order for Courage (3rd class) by presidential decree.
Rodion Dobromolov – 29-year-old resident of Kiev and member of Azov, died near the police headquarters. According to Ukrainian reports, he was killed by a separatist ambush in the courtyard during Azov’s counterassault. He was shot in his heart through the side of his body. Videos show his body lying behind a truck which closed off Ulitsa Georgiyevskaya during the clashes. One video shows a protestor tries to take off Dobromolov’s Ukrainian armband, but other crowd members stop him.
Bogdan Shlemkevych – 21-year-old resident of Biloberizka and conscript of the National Guard, died near the police headquarters. According to a Ukrainian report, someone in the crowd shot him.
Nikolay Kushnir – 53-year-old resident of Mariupol. According to 0629 he was one of the separatist militants who had attacked the police headquarters. His body was found inside. The last thing he wrote in text message to his relatives was, “I am wounded; we are barricaded in the police department.”
Sergei Drozdov – 32-year-old resident of Talakovka. According to 0629 he was also a separatist militant who was killed inside the police headquarters.
Gennady Zabovsky – 52-year-old resident of Mariupol who died at the police headquarters. According to 0629 he was also one of the separatist militants.
Peter Yeliseyev – 38-year-old resident of Mariupol, died from a gunshot wound to the head during the assault on the police headquarters. His affiliation is still unclear.
Oleg Koloshinskiy – Resident of Mariupol, reported by 0629 to be the man who was shot in the head by a soldier’s bullet in front of café Arbat.
Alexey Vorobyov – 39-year-old citizen from Mariupol. He was killed by a stray bullet to the heart while walking his dog in front of his house, two blocks away from the police headquarters. (Note: Another person named Leonid Vorobyov was also listed as a casualty, but I believe this may have been the same person. Their years of birth are close, and in other reports Alexey’s patronymic is the same as Leonid’s. I also couldn’t find anything more on Leonid).
Garnik Arzumanyan – 45- to 50-year-old Armenian, killed by a “blow” to the head. An Armenian archbishop reported his death, saying that he was unsure about the circumstances surrounding his passing. He further called upon Armenians to remain neutral in the conflict.
In addition to these casualties, the chief of Police, Valery Andruschuk, had been kidnapped by armed separatists during their assault on the police headquarters. He was one of the meeting members. On 12 May, Ukrainian officials reported his release, but stated that he was seriously injured, suffering a traumatic brain injury, broken ribs, and a number of bruises. The attached photograph confirms that he was still wounded upon release. (Note: Andruschuk can also be seen the video with Lyashko.)
Conclusion
The results of this investigation have shown that on 9 May, Ukrainian forces did not arrive in Mariupol to shoot at police officers and peaceful demonstrators. Instead, they were forced to support Ukrainian forces that were trapped and surrounded by separatist militants inside Mariupol’s police headquarters. The separatist attack was deliberately carried out at the start of the Victory Day march in a successful attempt to cause havoc. At least four men were killed on Kiev’s side, and their local police chief was kidnapped. After Ukrainian forces had withdrawn, most of the city remained in hands of the DPR. Nevertheless, Kiev demonstrated that it wouldn’t give up the city without a fight, and on 13 June, Ukrainian forces successfully recaptured the city.
The foregoing reconstruction of events was produced to counter allegations of Ukrainian forces using excessive force. Not surprisingly, Russia Today referred to the events as a “massacre,” but even mainstream news outlets criticized Ukrainian forces. Shaun Walker, writing in The Guardian, contended that “unarmed civilians were shot at by Ukrainian forces” during their retreat. Anna Neistat of HRW wrote, “My preliminary findings suggest that Ukrainian units might indeed have used excessive force near the drama theater, which resulted in deaths and injuries of some unarmed people.” In Memorial’s final report, the organizers of the anti-terrorist operation were held liable for criminal negligence, as they had failed to arm the soldiers with non-lethal material such as stun grenades and tear gas. They further suggested that the protestors were only armed with Molotov cocktails and stun guns.
The available video evidence shows otherwise: at theatre square soldiers received fire from someone who used a hostile crowd as a human shield. Only afterward did soldiers shoot protestors in the legs. Many of the protestors wrongfully believed that they were under attack by Ukrainian forces, which largely exacerbated the standoffs. At the police headquarters, Ukrainian forces were also attacked by some of the protestors, while simultaneously taking sniper fire. Here too the crowd behaved in an overtly hostile manner, and at least two protestors carried firearms. Though the soldiers did seem inexperienced and unaware that bullets could ricochet, they generally restrained themselves, despite operating under very difficult circumstances.Screenshot by CNET
Britney Spears today became the first person with a million followers on Google+, a milestone worth noting, even if hasn't generated the kind of buzz that accompanied Ashton Kutcher's and Charlie Sheen's rushes to a million Twitter followers.
According to The Next Web, the tireless--and now 30-year-old--Spears barely beat out other celebs to seven figures on Google+, including Google CEO Larry Page and rapper Snoop Dogg. However, it seems likely that Spears only made it to the million-follower mountaintop first because folks like Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber aren't on Google's social network yet.
Still, Britney's millionth recalls the excitement--some would say odd hype--of the 2009 race between CNN and Ashton Kutcher to be the first to hit that number on Twitter. At the time, such a thing was (by definition) unheard of and came with some serious bragging rights. CNN even spent a good deal of time pimping its account on TV as the race came down to the wire.
Then there was Charlie Sheen's record-breaking million Twitter followers moment. If I recall correctly, it took the scandal-plagued actor about 25 hours to get there. Not bad for someone who, at the time, was getting fired from TV shows and amassing bad juju at a furious pace.
By comparison, did anyone even notice Spears' approaching the million followers mark on Google+? And if not, is that more a comment on the social network, or on the singer? My hunch is both.Description
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Note to subscribers: Please find the course workbook (PDF) in Lecture 1, in the right column under "Downloadable Materials".Here at Build Abroad, we have found that it is best to build with local materials. Local materials can vary from mud bricks to bamboo depending on the region, but the one thing they have in common is they are easily accessible and cheap. We are very intrigued by a recent method of constructing with recycled bottles, because in some countries these non biodegradable bottles litter the streets. In some ways you could call it a “local material.” A bottle structure has numerous benefits: Rids the community of harmful plastic waste; Educates the community about the environment; Offers insulation qualities if necessary by filling bottles with wrappers; It’s free — a found plastic bottle is a free brick.
Want to keep reading about building with bottles? Head over to Build Abroad for the full scoop, and learn about their inspiring build abroad trips while you’re there.
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The article above was submitted to us by an Inhabitat reader. Want to see your story on Inhabitat? Send us a tip by following this link. Remember to follow our instructions carefully to boost your chances of being chosen for publishing!Oondasta will be a mighty challenge in WoW's Patch 5.2.
Open tagging worked particularly well with LOTRO's mounted combat.
"It can be frustrating to compete with fellow players for loot rights."
Even if it's just grumbling about fighting another flying bug.
"We never wanted the hardest thing to be waiting around for respawns."
Horde and Alliance working together! Mass Hysteria!
All players will now share the loot from a boss if they participated in the fight.
Angry? He looks kind of sad.
"The basic boss mechanics for Oondasta are much, much, much more punishing to pickup groups."
Open tagging worked well in Guild Wars 2, but would it work well in World of Warcraft? Or are you happy with the current system that only allows it for unique enemies and world bosses?
Last year saw the rise of several innovative features in MMORPGs, but few held as much promise for future games as open tagging, which is perhaps best described as the chance for every player who participates in a fight to receive experience and loot regardless of whether they're grouped or not, or was the first character to hit an enemy. (In many MMOs, such as World of Warcraft, only the first person to deal damage or "tag" an enemy will earn loot and experience from the kill, even if another player winds up doing most of the damage to it.) It made the biggest splash in Guild Wars 2, where it encouraged cooperation in the many dynamic events scattered throughout the leveling experience. By year's end, other MMORPGs had incorporated the concept, most notably the new expansions for Rift and Lord of the Rings Online. And yet the genre's dominant game, World of Warcraft, resisted embracing the concept fully. Let's find out why.Mists of Pandaria did introduce some concessions, such as open tagging for named enemy quest targets, and Patch 5.2, scheduled for release in the coming weeks, extends the concept to world bosses--provided the boss was tapped by a member of your own faction. But that, according to World of Warcraft Lead Content Designer Ion Hazzikostas, is enough. Hazzikostas doesn't foresee a future where open tagging extends to every enemy NPC in WoW, partly because he believes it ruins some of the social appeal of playing an MMO."I think all of us who play MMOs realize that it can be frustrating to compete with fellow players for loot rights or tap rights on a mob," Hazzikostas said, "but at the same time, there are important social interactions that come out of those moments." Having to compete with a fellow player from the same faction, he says, lends some weight to encounter that they might not otherwise have and occasionally, for better or for worse, leads to player interaction.It also sometimes leads to abuse of the system. "Part of the concern with open, free-for-all, open-tapping is that a lot of the game becomes more about tapping everything and tagging everything a little bit, especially when other players have already tapped them" he said. "Thirty seconds later, your quest completes because the other people killed them all. That's not an ideal way to feel like you're engaging in combat." Guild Wars 2 requires a considerable degree of participation to get credit, but I'd seen evidence of Hazzikostas' concerns myself during my recent adventures in Rift's Storm Legion expansion, where the comparatively lax open tagging rules resulted in fellow players tossing a couple of arrows or spells on the enemies I was fighting for credit.For Hazzikostas, the concept works best when it's left to named quest targets subject to respawn timers. In the past, players had to contend with other players spamming area-of-effect spells on the spawn sites in the hope of tagging the enemy. "We never wanted the hardest thing about completing a quest to be waiting around for the thing respawn so you can get the tap." Even so, this scenario presents its own challenges. As an example, Hazzikostas points to Vicejaw, a crocolisk boss sometimes encountered while undertaking the Golden Lotus faction's daily quests. The general idea is that Vicejaw is immune to attacks from the front, and you're thus supposed to lead him over a pile of corpses so he gorges on them and gets sick. To finish him off, you attack him from behind while he's stunned."That experience only plays out for the roughly 1 percent of our playerbase who are playing at five in the morning," Hazzikostas said, laughing. "Typically, three or four people are already there, so one person kites it around and the other three just stand behind him and kill it. The experience is over in 15-20 seconds." As a means of ensuring that such open-tap bosses remain fun, Hazzikostas relates that Blizzard plans on scaling their health based on how many people are on the tap list. "We want to keep the feeling that you're not honestly competing with fellow faction players while retaining some of the epic combat experience." Increasing the health pools, he believes, is a step in the right direction.Yet the biggest change to come with patch 5.2 is faction tagging for world bosses, which allows all players from the same faction to share loot for a boss if they participated in the fight. Hazzikostas says they're still working on the details of howparticipation is required, but he believes this change will improve the experience of WoW as a whole. "The notion of tagging doesn't scale very well to raid sizes," Hazzikostas said. With normal enemies, he said, it's reasonable for two ungrouped players killing boars to claim a tag on the one they hit. "When you have two raid groups of 30 people from the same faction that both want to lay claim to a single target," he said, "that ends up feeling much more arbitrary." Hazzikostas claims the shift also acknowledges awkward looting situations. With the current looting rules, it's possible for a player with loot rights in one raid to switch to another raid and share those loot rights with them. "What we're doing in 5.2 is just implementing that system in the game by default. If 60 players participated in a boss kill, they should all have a shot at the loot."Hazzikostas added that these improvements would come at the cost of more challenging encounters. Some world bosses like the Sha of Anger, he points out, are designed to be accessible by pick-up groups of random players, much like the instanced bosses in the Vault of Archavon and Baradin Hold from the two previous expansions. Yanking such boss encounters out of instances also improved the experience for players who aren't in raiding guilds. When you ride out into Kun-Lai Summit and see the Sha of Anger looming on the horizon, he said, "that's one of those cool, epic massively multiplayer moments that we're trying to deliver."Other bosses, however, such as a lumbering Stegosaurus-type boss named Galleon, were intended for structured guilds. It didn't work out that way. "Galleon was intended to be like an Azuregos or Lord Kazzak throwback," Hazzikostas said, referring to two outdoor raid bosses from Classic WoW. "The two problems with him were that he was too easy and right near a highly trafficked area. Because he was so easy, people felt like the challenge was actually getting the tap and being there when he spawned, not actually defeating him."That all changes with new world bosses like the dandied-up T-Rex Oondasta, who's closer to what he and the team originally had in mind. "He's in a much more remote location and in an area where you can't actually fly--it's not a place where your average player is going to go waiting for the boss to spawn," he said. "The basic boss mechanics are also much, much, much more punishing to pickup groups. If you're not spread out for his lightning attack, for instance, you're going to die." It's hard to miss the satisfaction in his voice when he adds that none of the pick-up groups on the test server have come close to killing it so far, faction-tagging or no. "When he spawns, it's not about getting there first."Despite his reservations, Hazzikostas says Blizzard remains open to extending open tapping to other aspects of World of Warcraft's questing experience. "We're definitely looking for something more along the lines of personalized looting or tapping for quest objects on the ground." As it is, he believes, the current competition tends to ruin the experience. "It's actually often more time consuming to finish those quests with people helping you than it is on your own, and that's very contrary to our goal of making playing with your friends more rewarding." When I asked, along those same lines, if World of Warcraft would ever feature open tagging on resource nodes for mining and herbalism as in Guild Wars 2, Hazzikostas was less enthusiastic. The impact on the in-game economy, he said, would be devastating. "They're two very different systems," he said.For my part, having experienced most of the new MMOs that embrace open tagging, I've come to appreciate World of Warcraft's approach again. WoW might no longer be quite as social as it used to be, but I've found that I still enjoy grouping with other players to tackle daily quests or form a leveling team for a particular zone more so than I do in many other MMOs. In other MMOs, paradoxically, open tagging seems to discourage conversations of any sort. In WoW, I talk more with other players (even if I'm merely arguing), and of course it thrives on the constant tension of competing for taps against players in the opposite faction. That, at least, will never be absent from the coming boss battles."We'll never want players from different factions to work together," he said.After a successful launch, the Nintendo Switch is about to get its next big exclusive in the form of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a port of the 2014 Wii U game. This Switch version of the arcade racer includes all the original game's DLC, as well as some new characters and a completely revamped Battle Mode.
Ahead of its launch today, reviews have made their way online. In our review, critic Kallie Plagge awarded the game a 9/10, stating that the changes made "refine an already great racing game." Read more in our full Mario Kart 8 Deluxe review, or check out some more of our recent coverage below.
For a wider view on critics' opinions, check out our roundup below. Alternatively, you can take a look at GameSpot sister site Metacritic.
Game : Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Developer : Nintendo
: Nintendo Platform : Nintendo Switch
: Nintendo Switch Release : Available now
: Available now Price: US $60 / £50 / AU $80
GameSpot -- 9/10
"Even if you didn't really care about Battle Mode, the smallest changes in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe refine an already great racing game. But the huge overhaul to the original's afterthought of a Battle Mode is a chaotic, varied opportunity to play very differently than in Grand Prix mode and well worth reinvesting yourself in Mario Kart 8 on Switch." -- Kallie Plagge [Full review]
IGN -- 9.3/10
"Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is an amazing game for all the same reasons I mentioned in our original review. It's still a gorgeous kart racer and every bit as addictive as it was in 2014. This is the best entry in the series so far, and it has all the content you'll need. Returning players have seen a lot of this game before, but the overhauled Battle Mode and its five additional ways to play are a great reason to pick it up. Nintendo didn't do enough to make the online experience better, but the rest of this game holds up well." -- Jose Otero [Full review]
Destructoid -- 9.5/10
"Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is straight-up a better version of the game without compromise. It looks crisper, there's more to do, it's portable, and it might even outsell the Wii U version to ensure a healthier long-term community. With Battle Mode firmly in place, it's one of the best kart racers ever made." -- Chris Carter [Full review]
Game Informer -- 9.25/10
"Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is primarily a re-release of an acclaimed game from three years ago, but by adding new content and addressing the biggest complaint of the original, this version is unquestionably the best way to experience Nintendo's great racer. Battle Mode is back to its original glory, and when combined with the rest of the robust Mario Kart 8 package, it creates a great addition to the fledgling Switch library." -- Brian Shea [Full review]HELSINKI (Reuters) - The parties in Finland’s ruling coalition agreed on Wednesday on a complex reform of health care and regional administration after years of negotiations that almost toppled the center-right government last year.
The deal is likely to soothe fears over the government’s ability to pass difficult reforms as the Nordic country’s economy slowly returns to growth after a decade of stagnation.
The reform aims to curb future health care costs by around 3 billion euros ($3.1 billion) as Finland struggles with an aging population. Overall, the government plans to find savings worth 10 billion euros to balance public finances over the long term.
The reform opens up business prospects for private players in the health care system and moves responsibility for the provision of services to 18 new health care regions, starting from 2019, from more than 300 local governments at present.
Prime Minister Juha Sipila threatened to quit last year due to disagreements over the reform among the three coalition parties - the Centre Party with agrarian roots, the nationalist Finns party and the pro-business NCP.
The coalition later agreed on the general reforms, but they had struggled to finalize the details of the package.
“The government now has a common solution on the whole package and the historic reform will finally happen,” Sipila, leader of the Centre Party, said, adding that the relevant bills would be sent to parliament in the spring.
The Finnish government has faced demonstrations and strikes over its austerity plans, including a hard-fought labor reform deal which cuts workers’ benefits and increases working hours.Real-time view data is not available at this time. Learn more.
Kiernan Shipka's (Sally Draper on "Mad Men") been in so much therapy on her TV show, that it qualifies her to be a child psychologist to other child stars like Nolan Gould (Modern Family), Danielle Fishel (Boy Meets World) & Toddlers & Tiaras star, Eden Wood.
Actor Nolan Gould Actor Eden Wood Actor Danielle Fishel Executive Producer Funny Or Die Director/Show Lead stoneysharp Writer Chris Kelly Producer Ally Hord Cinematographer kevinstewart Sound Designer BoTown Sound Set Designer Martin C Vallejo
Starring Kiernan Shipka, Nolan Gould, Danielle Fishel, Eden Wood, and Berit Beebe (as baby Hope)
Written by Chris Kelly
Directed by Stoney Sharp
Produced by Ally Hord
Executive Producer: Mike Farah
DP: Kevin Stewart
2nd Camera/AC: Andrew Crighton
Sound: BoTown Sound
Gaffer: Ricky Fosheim
Production Design: Martin Vallejo
MUA: Genevieve Lamb
Key Grip: Jordan Downey
Editor: Dave Patton
PA: Alistair WalfordDell and Sony Pictures are celebrating the impending release of Marvel cinematic universe movie Spider-Man: Homecoming with a gamified digital out of home billboard in Times Square.
Participants can enter the game by accessing a URL promoted on two digital screens in Times Square. The first screen promotes Dell’s Inspiron 15 7000 gaming laptop gaming while driving footfall to the game in Times Square, which will have a leaderboard for entrants to compete over |
ers and atheists made a common lot, and were both collectively known as “freethinkers.” As the days pass I am more and more intrigued by this history.
Hence I propose a universal freethought. Freethought being more loosely defined, as a liberated intelligent mind willing, and actively engaged in experimenting with ideas. I think all atheists would qualify for this definition, but so would all intelligent occultists.
But very importantly, I suggest to all my readers who have not done so yet, make scientific skepticism a part of their work.
If you are experimenting with a new idea, especially if you believe the phenomena is coming from some external energy outside of yourself, try to come up with a way in which the cause of the phenomena could be falsified.
This is science in a nutshell: “I think this causes this, but if this happens in an experiment it would disprove my idea.”
It is only by a series of attempts to disprove that a theory can be established. After the scientist fails to disprove. But an idea can always be disproven.
Too may occultists (especially New Agers) have a unfounded attitude towards scientist as a white male patriarchal racist project which exist to only serve the man. I can understand how one might be cautious about these things, and there have been political controversies in science.
But in the last 40 years these controversies have grown more and more mundane as science strongly polices itself through a strong series of rigorous procedures, competition, and incentives built in to the peer review aspects of the scientific method.
A scientist can’t prove. Only disprove. And whoever disproves a more established theory gets the most prestige.
This is a good thing, and a kind of thinking which should be more widespread and more universal.A sign on the campus of the Aetna headquarters, in Hartford, Conn. (Bill Sikes/AP)
Health insurance company Aetna “stunned” some of its customers last month when it accidentally made their HIV statuses visible from the outside of envelopes, two legal groups said Thursday.
The letters, which contained information about changes in pharmacy benefits and access to HIV medications, were sent to about 12,000 customers across multiple states, Aetna confirmed in a statement.
For some of these customers, a plastic window on the envelope exposed not only the patient’s name and address, but also a reference to filling prescriptions for HIV medications. This meant that whoever picked up the mail that day — a family member, a friend, a postal worker — would have been able to see the confidential information, according to the Legal Action Center and the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania. It is not known exactly how many customers were affected.
Attorneys from both legal groups wrote to Aetna on Thursday demanding that the company immediately stop sending customers mail that “illegally discloses that they are taking HIV medication.” It also demanded that the insurer take necessary measures to make sure such a breach doesn’t happen again.
The legal groups wrote on behalf of Aetna customers in Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, according to their letter. The attorneys have so far received 23 complaints regarding the misstep, and more continue to come in, CNN reported.
“This type of mistake is unacceptable,” the company said in a statement, Bloomberg reported. “We sincerely apologize to those affected by a mailing issue that inadvertently exposed the personal health information of some Aetna members.”
Aetna was first made aware of the possible breach on July 31, the company said in a letter sent to affected customers, uploaded online by CNN. After investigating the issue, Aetna confirmed that a vendor in charge of the mailing had used a window envelope, and “in some cases, the letter could have shifted through the window.”
A redacted letter in an envelope, received by a customer in Brooklyn. (Legal Action Center and the AIDS Law Project)
“Regardless of how this error occurred, it affects our members and it is our responsibility to do our best to make things right,” Aetna said. “We will work to ensure that proper safeguards are in place to prevent something similar from happening in the future.”
The letters were sent to customers taking medications for HIV treatment as well as for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which helps prevent HIV, according to the legal groups. The errors have caused “incalculable harm” to Aetna customers, the attorneys wrote.
“Aetna’s privacy violation devastated people whose neighbors and family learned their intimate health information,” Sally Friedman, legal director of the Legal Action Center, said in a statement. “They also were shocked that their health insurer would utterly disregard their privacy rights.”
Many of these customers have filed complaints with agencies such as the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services, the legal firms wrote.
Beyond violating the law, Aetna’s “casual disclosure” of a patient’s HIV status “creates a tangible risk of violence, discrimination and other trauma,” Friedman said.
Despite medical advances, “widespread stigma still exists against people living with HIV,” the legal groups wrote in a statement. This can lead to discrimination in employment, housing and education.
LGBT rights group Lambda Legal, one of the many organizations contacted by customers affected, tagged Aetna in a tweet Thursday, saying, “Shame on you.”
“You’ve effectively fanned the flames of #HIV stigma,” Lambda Legal wrote. “You need to fix this.”
More from Morning Mix
Trump is threatening a government shutdown. Here’s what that looks like.
A male director calls ‘Wonder Woman’ a step backward for women. Big mistake.
India’s ‘guru of bling’ convicted of raping two followers. Supporters riot.
San Francisco dog owners plan to ‘leave a gift’ for right-wing protesters: PoopThe Bitwala update makes it possible to separate and customize the storing of funds, such as labeling wallets as Travel Funds, Daily Funds, Savings, basically sorting funds according to user preferences and needs.
Bitwala, a Berlin-based bitcoin wallet, banking, and spending card provider announced today they are officially rolling out a major update to the Bitwala Wallet which will allow users to create multiple bitcoin wallets on their accounts.
This is useful for those who want to distinguish one wallet from another by setting labels or convenient names for their wallets all under one account.
Users can now easily sort through a list of wallets under the wallet tab on their account dashboard.
Bitwala Features
Wallets are secured with two-factor authentication, wallet-specific passwords, and multi sig keys that users can manage to recover their wallet at any time.
Each time a new Bitwala Wallet is created the backup key is displayed one time only to download and keep safe. Bitwala stated that from this point on if the backup PDF is not saved, a user will never be able to recover that wallet if the wallet password if ever lost. Bitwala does not save backup keys, so funds are users full responsibility to keep and be responsible for.
Bitwala wallet owners can control and adjust their own bitcoin network fee settings, set the preferred bitcoin units in (BTC or mBTC) along with the preferred local fiat currency-equivalent (EUR, USD, or GBP).
The Bitwala team stated:Hundreds of millions of people throughout the Western world are being forced to admit an obvious, yet uncomfortable reality. Democracy is dead. Your vote and your voice doesn’t matter. Not at all.
No group of people understand this as intimately as the Greeks. They voted for one thing, got something else, and in the process were unceremoniously reminded of their political irrelevance.
– From the post: Greeks Flock to Grassroots Alternative Currencies in Affront to Euro Debt Slavery
Just in case you still had any doubts as relates to how slimy, nefarious and undemocratic the EU is, check out the following from Ekathimerini:
Yanis Varoufakis was instructed last year by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to put together a small team of people to draw up a plan for introducing a parallel currency if Greece was unable to reach an agreement with its lenders on a new bailout, the ex-finance minister said in a TV interview late Tuesday. Speaking on Skai TV’s “Istories” (Stories) program, Varoufakis outlined what was known as Plan X. He said that a small team of about six people examined the various parameters surrounding a potential standoff that would lead to Greece being unable to meet its obligations. Among the issues examined by Varoufakis and his advisers were how the country would continue to have access to medicines, fuel and food under such circumstances. Varoufakis said that he advised Tsipras to put the plan, which would see Greece defaulting on 27 billion euros in Greek government bonds held by the European Central Bank, into action as soon as he called a referendum at the end of June. Varoufakis added that he was against efforts to secure funding from Russia but that there had been an agreement with China regarding investment in Greece, including in Greek bonds. “This agreement was overturned, though, with a phone call from Berlin,” he claimed. Varoufakis admitted that he “failed” during his time in office. “I carry a great responsibility,” he said. “I would do a lot of things differently.”
A man that can admit this so easily, is a man you can’t help but respect.
For related articles, see:
“This is a Coup” – The Story of How Greece Lost Democracy
Greeks Flock to Grassroots Alternative Currencies in Affront to Euro Debt Slavery
This is Sparta – 1,000 Bitcoin ATMs are Coming to Greece
Yanis Varoufakis on “Europe’s Vindictive Privatization Plan for Greece”
A Message to Europe – Prepare for Nationalism
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
Donate bitcoins: Like this post?Donate bitcoins: 3J7D9dqSMo9HnxVeyHou7HJQGihamjYQMN
Follow me on Twitter.Michael Kuzyk spends a lot of time on his feet. The owner of Category 12 beer is competing in one of B.C.'s hottest industries.
Craft brewing is also a fast moving field. Dozens of breweries entered the industry in 2015, including Kuzyk's. As those new beer makers arrived, so did a major change from the provincial government.
It used to be breweries could sell their product directly to private retailers or through their tasting rooms at a discount. But now the wholesale price is set by the government's own liquor distribution branch.
Bottom line, prices have gone up.
"We had this tectonic shift in the foundation of our business plan," Kuzyk said. "I don't think anyone really saw it coming. The direct impact — the cost of our bottles went up for the end user. Plain and simple."
The government now has to come clean about its role in the inadvertent price hike. Otherwise, the province's legions of beer fans are likely to unfairly place the blame on people like Kuzyk.
Category 12 owner Michael Kuzyk says it's time for the province to admit it caused craft beer prices to go up. (Twitter/Michael Kuzyk)
Before the changes came into effect on April 1, 2015, the government assured the public "to expect no significant change to product pricing." from the new rules.
But an internal government briefing note released this week clearly shows the province knew three weeks after making the changes they had made a mistake.
"For a majority of cases, the retail price for small-production breweries packaged beer sold through B.C. Liquor Store and private retailers has increased as part of the transition to the new wholesale pricing model," said the note.
No real price change, says province
The province has painted a much different picture in public.
"Government does not set liquor prices. It is up to the government and private liquor stores to set retail prices," said MLA John Yap. "In 93 per cent of the inventory of products in the B.C. Liquor Stores, they have seen no change of prices."
The province is reducing the markup rate for craft brewers by 25 percent per litre. (Getty Images)
Lovers of the other seven per cent of products might reasonably hope the government would right its wrong.
Yap has been consulting with craft beer makers. Change is coming. But for the people who make the beer, it can't be soon enough.
For Kuzyk, at Category 12, a change could mean another 15 cents per bottle in his pocket. Like many in the industry he has called for a reduction in the amount of tax per litre brewers pay.
Right now, it is set at 55 cents a litre. One suggestion is to lower that to 45 cents a litre and allow for lower retail prices and wider margins for beer makers.
This is something the province is in the midst of considering as they "crunch the numbers."
"For a brewery of our size it could basically allow us to expand and grow our business," said Kuzyk. "It is a really significant business case for us. We are optimistic the change will come."
Getting more craft beer into liquor stores
Brewers have also complained that the wholesale pricing has made it harder for certain labels to get on B.C. liquor store shelves. The way the distribution works now is that older craft breweries often have an advantage getting in provincial stores. This needs to change to allow the industry to grow.
B.C.brewers want to see a bigger variety of craft beers in liquor stores. (CBC)
There also needs to be better signage for B.C. craft beers. How about signs clearly stating a beer is made in British Columbia?
It would allow both locals and tourists to understand what products are part of the province's growing craft beer scene.
"Most of the retailers and the breweries have been in a wait-and-see. We have just told them we are working with the government and hoping to get a resolution," said Ken Beattie, the executive director of the B.C. Craft Brewers Guild. "Some of our members lost listings and maybe didn't get as many as they did in the past."
VQA beer?
There has been some movement behind the scenes on developing a B.C. craft beer designation. In the past the government has indicated that B.C. beers can't have their own designation because unlike VQA wines, a majority of the ingredients in a beer aren't made here.
B.C.brewers have been working towards a craft beer designation similar to the VQA label for local wines. (Kirk Williams/CBC)
But with consultations the government seems to have had a change of heart on that position as well
"I think the designation has to be based on sale volumes. There is no other jurisdiction that base it on ingredients. Beer and wine are two completely different drinks," said Beattie.
Don't expect the government to ever apologize for driving up prices inadvertently for one of the province's most unique industries.
But for brewers like Kuzyk, just making the changes, and soon, would be enough to offset not hearing the word, sorry.If you thought the cultural purge over the Confederate flag was breathtaking — wait until you see what LGBT activists do with Christians. — toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) June 26, 2015
It’s difficult to see how the nationwide legalization of gay marriage could have any kind of significant negative repercussions for anybody who’s not gay. Difficult – but not impossible. Because now that the US government formally recognizes marriage equality as a fundamental right, it really shouldn’t skew the tax code so as to give millions of dollars in tax breaks to groups which remain steadfastly bigoted on the subject.
I’m talking, of course, about churches.
For all that the US Constitution mandates the separation of church and state, the two do overlap in quite a few areas. (Just look at your currency, with its slogan of “In God We Trust”.) One of those areas is taxation: the US government subsidizes churches to the tune of many billions of dollars per year by giving them tax-exempt status. One conservative estimate put the sum at $71 billion, but the fact is that no one really knows what the number is.
It’s important to note that the tax exemption for churches and other religious organizations is not embedded in the Constitution. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, but that’s free as in love, not free as in beer. Taxation is a purely secular affair, and by default it applies to everybody equally, whether they’re a religious institution or not. It would be unconstitutional to single out religious institutions to make them pay more tax than anybody else, but the government has every right to stop giving them special tax-free privileges. (One example: the Mormon church owns a theme park in Oahu which pays no federal taxes. That’s even after a Hawaii court found it to be “not for charitable purposes”, and therefore subject to local property taxes.)
It’s abundantly clear that religious institutions have no right to tax exemption. Most famously, in 1983, Bob Jones University lost its tax-exempt status when it continued to ban interracial dating. Which prompted this exchange with Donald Verrilli, the solicitor general, during oral argument in the gay-marriage case at the Supreme Court:
It’s going to be an issue because it should be an issue. America’s highest court has now ruled that marriage is a “fundamental right”. We have decided, correctly, as a nation, that when we say that “all men are created equal,” included in that is the right to marriage, no matter what your sexual orientation.
But while religious organizations have often been ahead of the curve on social issues, in this case they’ve been part of the problem rather than part of the solution. There are gay-friendly churches, of course, but most of the organized opposition to gay marriage came from churches and other religious organizations.
In the Bob Jones case, the US government made a very important statement. It’s not enough, they said, to support the right of interracial couples to date and get married; it’s also important to register official disapproval of any organizations which fail to support that right. To be given exemption from paying taxes is a special privilege bestowed by the state on deserving organizations. But there’s nothing deserving about an organization which bans interracial dating. So, the state is entirely within its powers to remove that privilege.
The same argument can and should be applied to gay marriage. If your organization does not support the right of gay men and women to marry, then the government should be very clear that you’re in the wrong. And it should certainly not bend over backwards to give you the privilege of tax exemption.
We have religious freedom in this country, and any religious organization is entirely free to espouse whatever crazy views it likes. But when those views are fanatical and hurtful, they come into conflict with the views of any honorable legislator who believes in freedom and equality. And at that point, it makes perfect sense for our elected representatives to register their disapproval by abolishing the tax exemption for organizations who cling to narrow-minded and anachronistic views.
Conservatives should not object. The libertarian position here is simple and clear: everybody has freedom of conscience, including religious organizations; the tax code should apply equally to all; and the government should not be in the business of “picking winners”, and deciding who does and who doesn’t qualify for tax exemptions. So, abolish tax exemption for all religious organizations, whether they support gay marriage or not. Religion is concerned with spiritual matters; when it comes to taxes, the general principle is “give unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s”. Which is to say, give to the country’s secular monetary authorities that which you owe in tax.
Many people would consider such a move — abolishing all religious tax exemptions — to be too drastic. But at the very least it is entirely right and proper for the state to say to a church that if you want to thumb your nose at a fundamental right which is held by all Americans, then we are not going to privilege you with tax-free status. We’ll let you practice your bigotry, at least within the confines of your own church. But we’re not about to reward you for doing so.On Monday, Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro elicited an incendiary and violent response from, ironically, an editor at Reason magazine after Shapiro simply said he didn’t believe “transgender women” were actually women.
The set-up for the situation was this. Shapiro was responding to this tweet:
trans women are women
trans women are women
trans women are women
trans women are women
trans women are women
trans women are women
trans women are women
trans women are women
trans women are women
trans women are women
trans women are women
trans women are women
pass it on — brooke (@dirak_) November 11, 2017
Shapiro responded by issuing a tweet with a rather simple message:
Nope
Nope
Nope
Nope
Nope
Nope
Nope
Nope
Nope
Nope
Nopehttps://t.co/TV9Zy0fkBu — Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 20, 2017
In case the message got misinterpreted, he immediately followed with this:
Oh yeah, and also, nope. Nope. — Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 20, 2017
Shapiro's dismissal of the transgender argument prompted a female editor for Reason who is a self-described “elder millennial” and writes about civil liberties and crime, to show her capacity for entertaining an argument with which she disagreed:
People protesting Shapiro had the wrong idea. This dude needs his smug mug punched, repeatedly https://t.co/iVxWpoCQtl — Elizabeth Nolan Brown (@ENBrown) November 20, 2017
Shapiro replied:
You seem nice https://t.co/8jbpPzEO94 — Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 20, 2017
It's weird that an associate editor at libertarian magazine @reason thinks physical violence against dissenters is awesome now. Not very libertarian. https://t.co/RbLXzLisnR — Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 20, 2017
As another conservative noted:
Not just that, but the threat is made to discourage you from speaking the truth. Scary. https://t.co/ybbNoradcw — Mollie (@MZHemingway) November 20, 2017
Shapiro added:
Also, I'm going to have to seriously consider now offering a "Smug Mug" at the upcoming Shapiro Store. https://t.co/RbLXzLisnR — Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 20, 2017
Brown’s tweet prompted some swift responses:
Or you could try defeating him in debate, which is what adults do. — Gene Killian (@genethelawyer) November 20, 2017
How dare someone say something manifestly true and not be beaten for it because you don't like it.
I keep warning people about making new rules and they just won't listen.@benshapiro — Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) November 20, 2017
Expert on crime and civil liberties advocates crime against someone for exercising his civil liberties. https://t.co/e6dQURSMah — Razor (@hale_razor) November 20, 2017
Don't worry, @ENBrown. Calling on people to punch @benshapiro in the face directly violates Twitter's policy against inciting targeted violence, but it doesn't violate the SPIRIT of the policy; which is precisely to malign easy targets on the Right.
But you knew that. pic.twitter.com/1OvJCuUr4r — Stephen Herreid (@StephenHerreid) November 20, 2017
@benshapiro It seems unhelpful to call for violence in a time where people are actually attacked on the street for their beliefs. — Mark Gleason (@LevelToPower) November 20, 2017
a punch to the face is lethal force, multiple punches even more dangerous. you can get shot doing that sort of thing. do you ever think this shit through before you spew it? — red seewun (@redc1c4) November 20, 2017West Coast radiation from Fukushima disaster poses no risk, experts say
Scientists trying to quell an outburst of concern say radiation from the 2011 tsunami that hit the Japanese nuclear power plant has dropped.
"There is no public health risk at California beaches due to radioactivity related to events at Fukushima," the California Department of Public Health said in a statement.
Those assertions are false and the concerns largely unfounded, scientists and government officials said last week, because Fukushima radionuclides in ocean water and marine life are at trace levels and declining — so low that they are trivial compared with what already exists in nature.
Experts have been trying to dispel worries stemming from a burst of online videos and blog posts in recent months that contend radiation from Fukushima is contaminating beaches and seafood and harming sea creatures across the Pacific.
Radiation detected off the U.S. West Coast from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan has declined since the 2011 tsunami disaster and never approached levels that could pose a risk to human health, seafood or wildlife, scientists say.
Concentrations of radioactive cesium from the nuclear plant that were detected in the tissue of bluefin tuna, which migrate from waters near Japan across the Pacific to the coast of California and Mexico, were very low to begin with and have been falling since 2011, said Nicholas Fisher, a professor of marine science at Stony Brook University.
"The dose is measurable but it's extremely low," said Fisher, an expert on marine radioactivity.
Even at its worst in the months after the disaster, the dose of radioactivity that Fisher's lab found in tuna caught off California was far lower than what people are exposed to from medical X-rays or eating bananas or other potassium-rich foods, which contain naturally occurring radioactive isotopes.
The latest concerns are mostly driven by online videos, blogs and social media — including a post titled "28 Signs That the West Coast Is Being Absolutely Fried With Nuclear Radiation From Fukushima." A video posted on YouTube last month shows an unidentified man with a Geiger counter detecting elevated radiation levels on a beach in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, and has received more than 650,000 views.
The California Department of Public Health sent inspectors to the beach shown in the video, and their tests found similarly elevated radiation levels. But their analysis indicates they are naturally occurring — probably from minerals in the sand — and not associated with Fukushima.
Kim Martini, an oceanographer at the University of Washington, noticed a surge in outrageous worries about radiation in Seattle last fall, including people who were afraid to go to the beach and stopped eating seafood.
"Every single environmental issue was being blamed on Fukushima," she said. "And I thought there's no way that can be true."
Since then she and other scientists have been posting information on the blog Deep Sea News, with posts including "Is the sea floor littered with dead animals due to radiation? No."
A magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Japan on March 11, 2011, triggered a series of tsunamis that crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, releasing radiation into the ocean and atmosphere. Studies show that leaks from the facility continue to send radionuclides into the sea. But they dilute quickly in ocean water, scientists say.
Once those contaminants disperse across the Pacific Ocean and reach the West Coast, their concentration will be many thousands of times lower and not of concern, according to an online FAQ by Ken Buesseler, a marine scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
"This is not to say that we should not be concerned about additional sources of radioactivity in the ocean above the natural sources, but at the levels expected even short distances from Japan, the Pacific will be safe for boating, swimming, etc.," Buesseler wrote.One STDV had a post discussing the futility of arguing with modern Liberals. No matter how logical your argument, they will dismiss it in the stupidest fashion, and then all pat each other on the back – the idiots of Idiocracy, all dazzled by their own brilliance. Of course such a mind as the Liberal’s has no use for logic – its sole measure of success is not the degree to which its argument comports with logic, but rather the degree to which its argument averts the shocking agony inflicted by the raw amygdala For this reason you might be well advised to review the post on the origins of the raw amygdala here. It might also help, after one grasps the basic premise herein, to examing the concept of amygdala hijack, as it is a similar concept to what is presented here, and an understanding of it will aid in understanding this material.
I spent a considerable period of time in my early childhood in close proximity to an individual with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (and among the most anticompetitive, Liberal psychologies I could possibly imagine). I subsequently dealt with him again for a fairly long period in my adulthood. Due to this, I found myself acquiring an unusually intimate knowledge of the Liberal psychology, and how best to antagonize and manipulate it.
Bear in mind, what I will describe is not theory. It is based upon lengthy periods of careful observation of the most extreme form of the Liberal psychology, combined with careful testing of these techniques, absent any sympathy for the guinea pig upon whom they were developed.
In the course of this extensive analysis, I have literally found myself in a car, driving such an individual to the emergency room with clear symptoms of a stroke, after a wholly un-confrontational (but carefully planned – over weeks) conversation. His MRI and CT were negative for a stroke, and he was released the next day, his gross neurological dysfunction an unexplainable mystery. I believed my conversation with him was the cause (even though his pseudo-stroke was not my objective), and I was proven correct in subsequent tests, demonstrating repeatability. I was overloading a brain structure, to the point it actually shut down – just as it would have due to oxygen insufficiency. Eventually, the stroke symptoms were so common an occurrence when we would interact that he didn’t even go to the emergency room, but would just lie down until they passed.
Thus, when I say Liberals are traumatized by the techniques I will describe, I do not mean they are merely bothered or uncomfortable. Rather, I mean they will experience a gut wrenching, neurological upset, the likes of which a Conservative can only vaguely imagine.
My observations elsewhere indicate that almost all ardent Liberal ideologues suffer from similar damage to some extent, even if not as severe. Indeed, I believe that the very neurological deficiency producing Liberalism is what facilitates the effectiveness of these techniques. The embrace of Liberalism is a direct attempt to shield these vulnerable structures from stimulation, so as to avoid the adverse consequences this stimulation would produce.
The more Liberal the individual, the greater the extent of their brain damage, and the more effective these techniques will be upon them. The less Liberal the individual, the less of a problem they are, and the better your efforts are focused upon more Liberal individuals, upon whom this will work much better. Again, everyone is unique and some Liberals may be immune to this, but I have seen this done on enough Liberals (often by others, accidentally, and in attenuated form), and done it enough myself, that I am led to believe this will work on the vast majority of true-blue, hard-core Liberal believers.
As but one example of how subtle stimuli, presented properly, can yield outsized results, consider the case of MIT Biology Professor Nancy Hopkins. Larry Summers gave a speech on gender differences in scientific aptitude, in which he said that since the uppermost echelons of scientific study depended heavily on aptitude, it is possible there may be a gender disparity in aptitude which will affect the relative numbers of men and women within such fields. Simply listening to this speech, Hopkins reported that, “I felt I was going to be sick. My heart was pounding and my breath was shallow. I was extremely upset. I just couldn’t breath because this type of bias makes me physically ill.” If she hadn’t left, she reported that, “I would have either blacked out or thrown up.”
That response, particularly the disruption of the enteric nervous system, and associated GI upset, was produced by an amygdala stimulation, and it leaves little doubt that Hopkins is a lefty, with an amygdala poorly suited to routing specific types of adverse stimuli into productive action, or anything for that matter, beyond a panic attack of extraordinary proportions. I recognize the phenomenon because I have engendered it myself, using the techniques which will be described herein.
This is not nearly as unusual a phenomenon as Liberals would like you to believe. In fact, it is the threat of this sensation which I believe drives the frantic vitriol and shrillness of the modern Liberal when confronted with undeniable facts and logic by an unemotional opponent. That shrillness is desperation – it is amygdala.
Another group of examples, as background for this series, is located at this site, which examines case studies of what it refers to as SOB’s in management (So named because the individuals the author took note of all referred to themselves as SOB’s in casual conversation). Here, the writer recounts cases he has experienced of similar psychologies, where individuals in management positions seek to exert control over others, so as to quiet their own amydgalae.
Note in this case, a Captain, confronted with an inability to prevent his own out-grouping suffers an immediate nervous breakdown (his amygdala was stimulated to a point of no return by the incident). Here, in this case, another is so shaken by simple meetings with upper management that he leaves on sick leave within minutes of each meeting’s end, and is out sick for several days after each meeting. I am aware that these are the most extreme and defective examples of this anticompetitive, Liberal psychology. In that manner, they appear unique. However this is where one begins to acquire the ability to perceive the differences which are present elsewhere, but too subtle to detect without a practiced eye, trained to detect them. Captain Oakes and Nancy Hopkins are defectives separated only by degree. On their spectrum is Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Bill Clinton. Understand one, and you will know the others better, and better understand how to manipulate them using their own neurobiology against them.
In all of these cases, people with defective amygdalae are engaging in bizarre behaviors in an effort to exert control, and quiet their amygdalae. Whether using the bravado of calling yourself a tough “Son of a Bitch” to try and mask insecurity, or denying the threat posed by a national enemy, these are all individuals who have amygdalae poorly suited to process stressful stimuli into productive action. But just as that creates discomfort in those around them, their easily triggered amygdala can also be used as a weapon against them.
This series of posts will assert that you can identify the stimuli which produce this effect in the modern Liberal, and that this stimuli will be relatively standardized among hardcore Liberal ideologues. It will be subtle – yelling, vitriol, and other extreme emotional presentations will not be required to produce the effects – and indeed will even diminish their magnitude.
Evidence I have presented previously here, supports my contention that the Liberal brain operates differently from the Conservative brain. Specifically, in debate the Liberal brain will be highly concerned with types of stimuli that the Conservative brain will tend to ignore. If Conservatives can learn how to touch the Liberal’s raw amygdala through the presentation of these stimuli, they will be able to destroy the Liberal in public debate. The Liberal will do anything to stop the assault upon their amygdala, including abandoning the debate, and ceding the issue to the Conservative.
I actually first learned to recognize these techniques and stimuli during my childhood, while watching the Narcissist I knew interact with some of his family. He had other relatives, similarly afflicted, and the few times when I witnessed them assembled, they would have polite conversations, all structured around these techniques and stimuli, as each tried to inflict psychological misery upon the other subtly, without initiating an open confrontation. I suspect that being so afflicted, each had a lifetime of self analysis to discover what most bothered them, and they used this information to then structure their attacks upon their relatives.
In retrospect, these experiences were almost surreal. A group of defectives, speaking in their own coded language, seeking to assail each other, while apparently trying to avoid any consequence of their attacks by keeping them below the perceptible radar. Today I view those events as psychologically identical to the modern Liberal’s efforts to attack the successful through government without openly initiating a confrontation, by cloaking their assaults within layers of phoney empathy. (Phoney because the Liberal will only sate their empathy with the money of others. True empathy would produce an associated personal sacrifice as well, which Brooks has clearly shown tends not to emerge.)
What I would observe in my childhood when these Narcissists met, was polite conversations filled with things I would never have said, and drawing attention to things I would have purposely ignored out of courtesy. In my childhood naivete, I could not figure out why they said these things to each other. Could these adults be more ignorant than a child? These conversations were so opposite to my own natural inclinations, and so surprising and confusing as I followed them, that even today I can recall some of them from my earliest childhood. Of course today, they make perfect sense, in the context of the psychologies involved, and the desires they fulfilled. But at the time, they were indecipherable, absent my understanding of the Narcissist.
This series of posts will make the case that when arguing with Liberals (or just presenting arguments to them in public), one must demote the importance of the logical argument, and instead focus upon creating an emotional/environmental stimuli, designed to present to the Liberal several emotional/environmental themes, all of which will trigger amygdala activation in the Liberal (it’s effects upon Conservatives will be grossly attenuated or nonexistent – this technique is useless against us). Logic can aid in the creation or substantiation of these themes, but only so far as it bolsters the theme, and fortifies it’s structural integrity from attack. The theme and it’s presentation are paramount.
In doing this, you may even be forced at times to disregard the logical debate yourself, focusing solely, like a robot, on presenting these emotional themes to the Liberal. The Liberal wants their advocacy of Liberalism to be approved of by the crowd, or to at least see the crowd turned against Conservatism. Your goal, by contrast, is to make their advocacy of Liberalism emotionally wrenching, absent any consideration of facts or figures. Your goal is to make their contemplation of Liberalism stimulate their amygdala to such a degree that they will become physically afflicted, and conditioned neurologically to avoid openly advocating upon Liberalism’s behalf.
I suspect this theory is why Liberals frequently present “for the children” emotional arguments. Ignore the statistics on gun violence – we need more gun control for the children |
", with paperwork taken.
Image caption Neil McEvoy said his home has been previously "ransacked"
Mr McEvoy said that in the early hours of Thursday "the criminals involved went through two outside doors, down a lane, removed a screwed in hard wood cover on the back window, cut through a PVC window frame and cut through metal bars to get in the window".
"Once again, valuables were ignored in the office, but drawers were broken into and files gone through in the back office which wasn't alarmed.
"Thankfully, they couldn't gain access to the main part of the office without tripping the alarm."
Image copyright Neil McEvoy Image caption A window in Mr McEvoy's constituency office after the break-in
"I put in place new safety procedures for staff at the end of last term, because I am aware of serious cages being rattled," he said.
"Some people would like to silence us, but this intimidation has just added to our motivation."
A South Wales Police spokesman said that the break-in was reported after 09:00 GMT on Thursday.
He said that investigations were ongoing and that no arrests had been made.
A Plaid Cymru spokeswoman said: "Neil McEvoy has now been the subject of two break-ins, one at home and one at his office.
"Plaid Cymru is supporting him and his staff at this time and is keen that the police establish whether these intrusions are linked.
"All elected representatives and their staff deserve to operate in a democratic way without fear of harassment or intimidation.
"The National Assembly is working with Neil and his staff to ensure their safety and security, and we strongly urge that this continues."1 / 10 10. Politics
Predictions about our robot overlords aside, we will probably never have a robot in the White House. "I think a lot of government jobs may someday be threatened, but probably not those of politicians," says Ford. A robotic president would require human-like artificial intelligence of a kind that experts may never be able to develop, he points out. And even if they could, the people who kiss babies, give speeches, and make laws for a living will probably retain their gigs.<br><br> "The best answer for why we won't have robotic politicians is that the politicians would never allow it," says Ford. "Among workers, politicians really have a unique level of power when it comes to protecting their own interests." However, their support staff--government-paid analysts, auditors, and accountants--won't necessarily be as safe since much of all of the work they do could be automated some day.
APBrian Blessed, 79, is one of Britain’s best‑loved actors. He lives in Bagshot, Surrey, with his wife, Hildegard Neil.
A hell of a lot. I remember my father would come home from the coal mine that had no coal baths and I’d see him approaching through the fog. There he was, all black, with his miner’s light shining atop of his helmet.
He’d pick me up, take me inside, then climb into the enamel bath and soak while I washed his back. It was like a purple landscape, because in mines the roof constantly falls away in small bits, hitting their backs and forming calluses.
He earned £14 and 10 shillings, which was a lot of money. Surface miners got paid £8 but coal hewing was the hardest work of all. I’d see his wage packet covered in coal dust and think, “My God, he worked bloody hard for this.”
From that day I’ve always hated it when people overspend, are spoilt or throw their money away.
At just 15, your dad was crushed when his mine collapsed, forcing you to leave school. What impact did that have on you?
Until then, my dad was opening fast bowler for Yorkshire’s second team and I couldn’t believe he could die. He wasn’t going to get better for at least six months, so I left school early to become the family breadwinner.
What was your first job?
I was determined not to go down the mines, so I became an undertaker’s assistant making coffins for 35 shillings a week. I gave 25 bob to my mother and kept two shillings and sixpence. It meant I could afford a Raleigh bike and put one and sixpence in my post office account with a shilling left over for my speech lessons.
One day, my boss used the wrong embalming liquid on the body of Mr Yardley, the richest man in Goldthorpe, and his body turned green. I used my make-up from amateur theatre, applied a layer of No. 9 to his face, and some lipstick, and made him look rather lovely.
What about your first acting role?
I went to drama school but it was very hard to get work until I was made assistant stage manager at Nottingham Rep for £4, 19 shillings and sixpence a week. I had to pay for digs, and the rest I had to feed on.
We had a food store at the theatre and I used to pinch food. I pinched some trousers and shirts to keep me going but they would wear out. I was virtually on the breadline.
Did you worry about the bills?
No, because actors would always help out with the odd quid. Sir Barry Jackson spotted I had a good singing voice and offered me a job with Birmingham Rep, on £15 a week.
'I bought a cottage [in Richmond] for £1,800 in 1965... I could never have dreamt they’d sell for £1.25m today'
When I moved to London, I did lots of auditions and in the evenings I was bodyguard to a rich lady for £10 a week.
Eventually I got into Z-Cars in 1962, and in the beginning we all got £34 a week. Later they increased it to £60 and six months after that, it moved up to £100, which was wonderful. I was rich.
I lived in Richmond and bought a cottage for £1,800 in 1965, which I later sold for £13,000. I could never have dreamt that they’d sell for £1.25m today.
Photo: Moviestore/REX Shutterstock
With 'Flash Gordon' did you realise you’d arrived?
I was paid £30,000 and it’s become a cult movie all over the world.
If I’m halfway up Kilimanjaro and meet a Maasai tribesman, he’ll say, “It’s you! Please shout, 'Gordon’s alive!’ ”
It’s a cry for freedom. In the Arctic I met some Russian sailors on a submarine and they chorused, “Gordon’s alive!”
When I was in Downing Street, David Cameron saw me and said, “Please, shout it all around and let it penetrate to my cabinet meeting.” So I bellowed: “Gordon’s alive!”
• Bill Oddie: 'A 30-second advert paid enough to buy a house'
• Hayley Mills: 'Dad helped me avoid seventies super tax'
• Vicki Michelle: I earned just £220 a go for 'Allo 'Allo!
What’s been your proudest moment?
My biggest love is space. I completed 800 hours’ space training in Moscow and I became the world’s oldest man to go to the North Magnetic Pole. At 67, I also became the oldest man to reach 28,400ft on Everest without oxygen.
Of all your commercial ventures, which has been most lucrative?
My biggest earnings were £200,000 for Return to Treasure Island [TV mini series] in 1986.
Are you a spender or saver?
I’ve always been generous and like giving to charities and people in need.
• Why every man should aspire to be Brian Blessed
What’s the most 'Hollywood’ thing you’ve ever bought?
For the animated film of Tarzan I voiced the villain, Clayton. I worked with Disney for two years and they told me they had some early, rare Mickey Mouse statues, so I bought an original statue for £7,000 – that’s the most I’ve spent on anything in all my life.
Photo: Abbie Trayler-Smith
Have you learnt any harsh money lessons?
Yes, when I was 12, there was a World Peace Congress outside Sheffield [in 1950] that attracted 360,000 people including singer Paul Robeson and American and British generals.
Picasso was there, painting, and I raced ahead of everybody and stood before him.
'I threw [Picasso's] drawing on the floor and in doing so, threw away about £50m'
I asked, “Are you Picasso?” and he replied, “Yes, I am.” I told him, “You sound more like Carmen Miranda, so if you’re really Picasso, draw me something.”
He said, “I will draw you a dove of peace,” which he did and handed it to me. “I said, 'That shows you’re not Picasso, that’s not a dove!’ ”
Picasso replied: “For the first time I have a critic, the child does not believe this is a dove.”
I threw his drawing on the floor and in doing so, threw away about £50m. It was picked up, presented to the assembly as a symbol of the peace congress of 1948 and now hangs in Sheffield Gallery.
What’s your biggest personal indulgence?
I cannot restrain myself in garden centres.
Do you invest in stocks, shares and pensions?
No, I can’t be bothered.
Does money make you happy?
Ninety nine per cent of the time, for anyone who wins or makes money, it makes them happy.
Do you support any charities?
My favourite is Born Free. I do everything I can for wild animals because they have such a bloody awful time.
Cecil the lion was shot and I’d like to put an arrow up the hunter’s a---, so he knows what it’s like to be hunted. Born Free founder Virginia McKenna is a saint who goes out on a limb.
You famously collapsed on stage last year. Do thoughts of retirement ever enter your mind?
A load of b-------. I had a fibrillation, as simple as that. I had Britain’s best heart specialist using the latest pacemaker. It’s an astonishing one, they inserted it with all the students standing around and within 10 minutes they said: “You now have a heart like a 30-year-old.”
I can’t retire from life. I love life too much and I cannot wait to start the day.
• Absolute Pandemonium by Brian Blessed was published on October 8 (Sidgwick & Jackson), £20
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Fame & Fortune video archive: Level 42's Mark KingFeature film Buzzard edited with Adobe Premiere Pro CC
Premiering at SXSW 2014, Joel Potrykus’ film Buzzard purposely doesn’t fit a particular genre. A follow on to his first film, Ape, the movie tracks a deadbeat check scammer through Detroit and is chock full of 1980s references—chugging Mountain Dew, Nintendo jokes, and heavy metal music. Brandon Bowman joined the production by chance, and shares his first experience working on a feature film and editing with Adobe Premiere Pro CC.
Photo by Adam J. Minnick
Adobe: How did you get involved with Buzzard?
Bowman: I live in Seattle, Washington and I split my time between the restaurant industry and working as a freelance still photographer and videographer. I was visiting Austin, Texas on a vacation and have a family connection with Adam Minnick, who is childhood friends with Joel. For his follow up to Ape, which he shot himself, Joel wanted to hire Adam as his cinematographer. I told Adam that I would love to help in any way I can and ended up going to the shoot as a volunteer. In the end, I played a much larger role than I expected.
Adobe: What did you do on the film?
Bowman: Joel runs things pretty informally and as bare bones as possible. There were maybe 12 people in production and we all wore a lot of hats. I was the main point on all of the tech stuff. My official credit is assistant camera and assistant editor. I worked closely with Adam on lens, camera, and software selection. I was the one who introduced Premiere Pro CC to the team.
Photo by Jon Clay
Adobe: Why did you recommend Premiere Pro CC?
Bowman: I was previously a Final Cut Pro user and Joel edited Ape on Final Cut Pro. In pre-production we were talking about our hardware and software needs. I’d joined Creative Cloud and had been doing some tests with Premiere Pro CC. I recommended it because the film was going to be shot with a Canon 5D Mark III and I knew that we would be able to throw the H.264 files on the timeline without transcoding. Joel tested it out and agreed that we should use it for the edit.
Adobe: Was it easy to learn the software?
Bowman: I learned Premiere Pro for the production, mostly using training content on Adobe TV and Lynda.com. Coming from Final Cut Pro 7 it was fairly easy. Joel also found the transition to be simple. He’s very tech savvy and knowledgeable but he doesn’t like to be bogged down with details. For him, his script and actors are paramount.
Adobe: What was the production schedule?
Bowman: The film shot for five or six weeks in Grand Rapids and Detroit, Michigan. I came on several months before production and they were already deep into rehearsals and casting. Joel and Joshua Burge, the film’s lead actor, had a good working relationship and understanding of the character. Adam chose to shoot with the Canon 5D Mark III DSLR because it offered lower cost, as well as speed and storage simplicity. I started ingesting media, organizing drives, and syncing the sound for all of the clips during production, and then assembled a rough timeline for Joel before we started editing.
Photo by Jon Clay
Adobe: Tell us about the editing of the film.
Bowman: After shooting I returned to Seattle, Adam went back to Austin, and Joel stayed in Grand Rapids. We kept all of the post production in Premiere Pro and just passed the project files back and forth and update everything as we went along. We had full hard drives of all of the content in each location. Joel would go on extended, overnight editing binges and I would wake up in the morning and there would be a rough cut of half the movie. In a week he had the entire film fleshed out. It was pretty easy to work remotely and the crew would review all of the cuts on Vimeo every couple of weeks. In addition to assisting with the editing, I worked with Joel on the color correction and also handled the noise reduction and production of the final renders and exports for the DCP.
Adobe: Were there any particular challenges with the edit?
Bowman: The biggest post production trick was working with the DSLR files. Joel likes to shoot in a very natural way, so during production most of our challenges were to be nonexistent with no deliberate camera moves, odd angles, or unnatural lighting. We focused on getting everything right in camera so in the end we only had to tease the footage a bit in Premiere Pro. The film was minimally processed to keep it as natural looking as possible.
Photo by Adam J. Minnick
Adobe: What was your favorite feature in Premiere Pro CC?
Bowman: The feature that was the biggest deal to us was the native workflow. The ability to throw H.264 files on the Premiere Pro timeline and play them back in real time was definitely the biggest selling point for us. It was great to be able to start working right away without transcoding; that transcode step would have really bogged us down.
Adobe: Did you use any other Creative Cloud software?
Bowman: I’ve been a Creative Cloud member for six months and bouncing among the various software programs is really easy. We used Photoshop quite a bit for the title sequences and the ability to round trip between Photoshop and Premiere Pro was great. We also appreciated knowing we had the full library of Creative Cloud applications to fall back on, including SpeedGrade and After Effects, in case we needed them. On any future films I can see staying with the same software and even branching out a bit with SpeedGrade and After Effects.
Photo by Ashley Young
Adobe: What’s next for Buzzard after SXSW?
Bowman: The acceptance to SXSW already exceeded our expectations. Joel won Best New Director at the 2012 Locarno Film Festival for Ape, and Buzzard will be showing there for its international premiere. It’s also been accepted to the New Directors/New Films show in New York. Oscilloscope Laboratories acquired the North American rights to the film, so there will be more festival showings, followed by a theatrical release later in 2014.
For more – Watch an interview with Buzzard director Joel Potrykus
Watch the trailer
Learn more about Adobe Creative Cloud
Download a free trial of Adobe Creative CloudCharacter
Tom Smith[4] is a Bikini Bottomite who first appears in the episode "Ripped Pants." He is the husband of Martha Smith, though due to the negative continuity of the series he has been shown hanging out with other women. He is shown to be the father of Miss Rechid in "Bubble Buddy" and Monroe's father in "Hocus Pocus."
His skin is regularly olive-green, but it has varied to orange in the episode "Pizza Delivery" and lime-green in "Patty Hype." His name was revealed in the latter episode.
He is heard with a woman's voice in the episodes "Doing Time" and "The Sponge Who Could Fly." He has been voiced by Dee Bradley Baker and Mr. Lawrence. His most famous appearance is in "Chocolate with Nuts" when he starts chasing after SpongeBob and Patrick, trying to buy all of their chocolate bars, screaming "Chocolate!"
Contents show]
Biography
At one point, Tom got married to Martha Smith and had a daughter.
In the episode "Friend or Foe," his childhood is reflected in the flashback, where he is one of the customers at Stinky Burgers.
Description
Tom is an olive-green trout who wears a lavender shirt with light-blue shorts and has a solid body. He also has olive green-golden fins and legs. His eyes are quite big and the pupil is small, but the surrounding area of the eye is golden-brown, and he has light tan-salmon lips.
In "Pizza Delivery," he is dark orange with light-orange fins, dark olive-green eyes, light greenish-gray lips, is a little more obese than in his other appearances, and wears a dark-purple shirt and dark-teal shorts.
In "F.U.N.," he is slightly more obese.
In "Patty Hype," he is shown to be a lighter shade of green.
In other appearances, he looks the same as his olive-green look but has a light-green face and has dark olive-green eyes.
Personality
Tom lives a good life and he enjoys being married to Martha. He is a recurring patron at the Krusty Krab and enjoys their food.
Despite his general kindness, he can become somewhat insane. In the episode "Chocolate With Nuts," he goes berserk over a sales offer for chocolate and stalks SpongeBob and Patrick in an attempt to purchase all their offerings.
Tom is shown to have an obsessive-compulsive disorder when it comes to the food and beverage industry. In some of his appearances he violently obsesses over food and becomes extremely nitpicky over the most minor inconveniences that his food or drinks have to offer. In "Pizza Delivery," Tom lashes out at SpongeBob for forgetting to bring him his drink (even though he did not order one while on the phone with Mr. Krabs) as an addition to his pizza order, thereafter angrily slamming the door on him. In "Fools in April," Tom panics over SpongeBob allegedly doing something to his drink, although he regains his sanity when it's revealed to be a simple prank of putting in just one ice cube when he actually asked for a couple. In "No Weenies Allowed," Tom berates SpongeBob for accidentally landing his feet in his two bowls of potato salad that took 3 days to make. His violent obsession with food reaches its epitome in "Chocolate with Nuts," where Tom goes berserk over a sales offering of chocolate bars and stalks SpongeBob and Patrick in pursuit of the chocolate.
Tom is shown to have shades of courage, as he is willing to spend the entirety of his money in pursuit of SpongeBob and Patrick's chocolate bar supply.
Housing
Tom's house is seen in the episode "Chocolate with Nuts."
Health
Tom receives severe facial injuries when Squidward brutally assaults him with the pizza box toward the end of "Pizza Delivery."
Tom is shown to have suffered a severe buttock injury sometime before or during the events of "I Had an Accident," as he is treated by the "Iron Butt," a device that restrains his buttocks to enforce its safety.
Tom is one of Gary's victims in "Once Bitten," giving him zombie-like side effects in the process.
Occupation
Tom has held various occupation titles over his vast appearance history.
In "Culture Shock," he is the news reporter cameraman holding the camera next to the news reporter introducing and encouraging Squidward at the Krusty Krab talent show.
In "MuscleBob BuffPants," Tom is the bartender and cashier for the Juice Bar at Goo Lagoon.
In "Mid-Life Crustacean," he is shown as a dentist cleaning SpongeBob's teeth.
In "Pranks a Lot," he is shown as a bus driver.
In "The Lost Mattress," Tom is a mattress salesman at Mattresses & Then Some.
In "Skill Crane," it is revealed that he works at R.A. Penny Pincher Vending Supplies. In "Wigstruck," he is an actor who plays John in the movie My Hair Lady.
Spongebob Chocolate Guy
Criminal record
Tom has been arrested at least once, for he is shown at prison in Inferno Island for unknown charges in the episode "The Inmates of Summer."
Attempted prison escape: Tom is among the many inmates who attempt to break out of prison in "The Inmates of Summer."
Tom is among the many inmates who attempt to break out of prison in "The Inmates of Summer." Civil disobedience: Tom is shown to join many riots with the other Bottomite fish. In "Bubble Buddy," he and a small group of protesters knock over the lifeguard stand to get back at Bubble Buddy.
Tom is shown to join many riots with the other Bottomite fish. In "Bubble Buddy," he and a small group of protesters knock over the lifeguard stand to get back at Bubble Buddy. Stalking: Throughout a majority of "Chocolate with Nuts," Tom manically stalks SpongeBob and Patrick in pursuit of the chocolate bars they're selling.
Role in series
In "Pizza Delivery," Tom is SpongeBob and Squidward's customer to whom they must deliver the Krusty Krab pizza. Once they finally arrive at his house, Tom becomes furious with SpongeBob simply for forgetting to bring him his drink and therefore refuses to eat his pizza, criticizing the Krusty Krab's service. However, he receives his comeuppance when Squidward violently slams the pizza box in his face and force-feeds it to him.
In "Fools in April," Tom is one of SpongeBob's prank victims; Tom requests two ice cubes for his drink, but—as a prank—SpongeBob only puts in one.
In "Bubble Buddy," Tom joins the other Bottomites in attempting to pop Bubble Buddy in retaliation for his misdeeds.
In "Patty Hype," he and Fred neglect the Krusty Krab and instead go to the Shell Shack.
In "No Weenies Allowed," Tom lashes out at SpongeBob for accidentally placing his feet in his family's two bowls of potato salad.
Tom plays his most prominent role yet in "Chocolate with Nuts," where he exhibits a violent obsession with chocolate and chases after SpongeBob and Patrick in pursuit of it.
In "I Had an Accident," Tom is shown to have underwent a severe buttock injury that lead him into a state of hospitalization, as the "Iron Butt" is shown treating him.
Tom appears in "Fear of a Krabby Patty" when SpongeBob screams at all the Krabby Patty hallucinations in sight, with Tom's wife thinking that he did it because Tom's shirt was hideous.
In "Hocus Pocus," he was seen driving with Monroe crying, "I don't like pistachio!" Tom replies tensely, "Then why did you ask for it?"
In "Roller Cowards," Tom is seen standing in line for the bathroom right in front of SpongeBob and Patrick, expressing annoyance toward the duo's antics.
In "Breath of Fresh Squidward," he is shown to have a daughter, and is married to Sadie. When Squidward creepily asks how everything is, Tom answers with "What do you mean?" in a very skeptical tone.
In "The Battle of Bikini Bottom," when Patrick is telling the story of the battle, Tom can be seen as part of the Blue (don't wash hands) Team.
Quotes
Shower In A Can! This section is in need of cleanup in order to comply with Encyclopedia SpongeBobia's Manual of Style. Please help Encyclopedia SpongeBobia by making this section specific and short.
Trivia
The model number for Tom is "6." [5] [6] Specifically, his main model is labeled "006-DAY" on the sheet of incidental characters. [7]
Specifically, his main model is labeled "006-DAY" on the sheet of incidental characters. Adam Paloian has stated that he likes Tom.[8]In majority-Sikh societies, a law making it compulsory to wear a motorcycle helmet would go against the will of the people. Are principles of justice universal or contextual? © Flickmor It is a near-truism that philosophy operates at a remove from the “real world.” Many philosophers suppose that the answers to questions in logic, epistemology and metaphysics are independent of particular empirical facts about how human society happens to be set up. But what about ethics and political philosophy? How far should philosophers concerned with these areas take into account the messy reality of everyday life? Not far at all, says one venerable tradition that dates back at least to Kant in the 18th century, and probably as far as Plato. From this perspective, the job of ethics and political philosophy is to work out how things ought to be. This need not be closely related to how things actually are. For the philosopher trying to imagine the ideal society or specify the nature of virtue, engaging in detail with the world in its current state (or in its historical forms) may be unnecessary or even unhelpful. This traditional picture, however, has always had its detractors. In recent years the attack has been led by a group identifying themselves as “political realists,” counting amongst their number philosophers such as Raymond Geuss and the late Bernard Williams. According to the realists, the traditional picture risks making political philosophy both irrelevant and falsely universalistic, mistakenly supposing that the same abstract principles are applicable to societies of radically different kinds. Realists have singled out many of the most prominent political philosophers of the 20th century—John Rawls, Robert Nozick, Ronald Dworkin and GA Cohen—for particular scorn. The realist critique of these philosophers—let’s call them, by contrast, the “idealists”— encompasses a number of distinct charges, not all of which sit well together. One criticism is that the idealists’ abstract theories of justice are insufficiently engaged with real politics. Another related accusation is that their demands are unrealistic, standing no chance of being implemented. Another common charge, although a very different line of attack, is that idealists—Rawls in particular—are apologists for the political status quo, cooking up a convenient justification for the US’s particular brand of liberal democracy. Finally, the realists sometimes seem sceptical about the whole project of formulating theories of justice, suspecting that such theories are merely ideological devices that obscure power relations, or that there is in fact no universal theory of justice independent of particular societies and their convictions. They argue that trying to design a single political theory to apply to, say, Britain, China and Morocco—not to mention the political cultures of the past—is hopelessly naive. Although there is something appealing about these lines of criticism, many existing articulations suffer from a mixture of blustering polemic (Geuss allegedly sent a number of colleagues a postcard juxtaposing the pictures of Kant, Rawls, George W Bush and an Abu Ghraib prisoner) and faux-profound obscurantism (see, for instance, Geuss and Williams’s proclamations about the “uniqueness of the political”). They also frequently rely on rather uncharitable readings of the idealists and on a desire to engineer a kind of showdown between rival approaches in political philosophy, a tactic which often obscures points of agreement between traditions. In the midst of this confused debate, the arrival of David Miller’s richly nuanced, philosophically acute, and finely written book, Justice for Earthlings (Cambridge University Press, £18.99), is very welcome. Miller avoids the label “realist,” preferring a more moderate position which he calls “contextualism.” He argues that, whilst there is some capacity for political philosophy to critique existing political ideas, there is a limit to how revisionary it can be—a limit to the extent of its aspirations to reform both our sense of what justice is and our concrete political system. Rather, its fundamental business is to systematise and make consistent our existing convictions. Moreover, Miller agrees with the realists that in a society with radically different convictions, the appropriate fundamental principles of justice would be different. Most provocatively, as Miller puts it, “justice [is] a human invention that accordingly is shaped by the circumstances of human life.” There is no true theory of justice independent of us. At first glance this might seem like a much more attractive approach to political philosophy than the idealist one. After all, societies have differed widely in their ideas of justice, and it can seem like cultural imperialism to say that it is only the modern western conception that has got it right. Furthermore, Miller is surely correct that the justifiability of particular political policies sometimes depends on circumstances and on the convictions of citizens. An example may help here. Sikh men are unable to wear regular motorcycle helmets because of their turbans. Passing a law making it compulsory to wear motorcycle helmets would force such individuals to violate their own religious convictions, and, particularly in majority-Sikh societies, would go against the overwhelming democratic will of the people. Thus it would not be legitimate for a government to pass such a law. Yet in a society with no Sikh citizens—where passing the law would not violate religious convictions or go against the democratic will—it might be completely legitimate. So, the circumstances, and the convictions of individuals, make a difference to what is justifiable. But it is not only contextualists like Miller who can offer this kind of sensitive approach to circumstances. So, too, can many idealists—a fact made clear by a fascinating exchange over the years between Miller and the late, great socialist philosopher GA Cohen. Questions like whether motorcycle-helmet-wearing should be mandated or not, Cohen argued, are not fundamental questions of justice. Rather, there are more fundamental principles—do not force people to violate their core religious identities; do not legislate against the overwhelming democratic will of the people—which themselves explain why we get one verdict in one set of circumstances, and a different verdict in another. And it is only the most fundamental principles, on Cohen’s view, which are universal. So he can acknowledge much of the context-sensitivity that Miller helpfully points us towards. What divides Cohen and Miller is Miller’s claim that there need not be deeper universal principles of the sort that Cohen envisages underlying particular political prescriptions. So what’s the attraction of Cohen’s idealism over Miller’s contextualism? Well, according to Cohen, we can only explain why particular circumstances must be taken into account by providing more general principles that specify how they do so. Moreover, one requires such fundamental principles to adjudicate more borderline cases. To return to our example: what if the turban-wearing group is a sizeable minority, for example, but nowhere near a democratic majority—what policy is appropriate then? Miller’s contextualism, and relativist views more generally, can seem appealing due to a humane desire to be tolerant and sensitive to the views and practices of others. We want to make room for people to pursue the good life as they see it, informed by their own historical, cultural and religious perspectives—and not to be told by the state what is good for them and what to value. But, as the old point goes, there is only reason to be tolerant if tolerance has a value that is not itself relative. It’s partly for this reason that philosophers have been so hesitant to move beyond sensitivity to circumstances, and embrace Miller’s bolder claim that justice is a human invention. One might, alternatively, be drawn to Miller’s work if one is worried that endorsing universal, rather than contextual, principles of justice will lead to enforcing a particular moral conception on citizens against their will. And it is an important insight of political philosophy that not every moral truth is an appropriate basis for the state to legislate on. For instance, it might be that, as private individuals, we are morally obligated to give a lot more money to charities, especially to those in the developing world, than most of us do. But it doesn’t follow that the state would be justified in forcing us to do so. Past a certain point, individual citizens in a liberal society must be free to come up morally short—and it is citizens, not the state, that are accountable for such failings. But, once again, this does not show that political philosophy should not try to formulate universal principles. It’s just that these principles govern state action, not that of private individuals. The claim that states should not enforce particular moral conceptions on people is itself a moral claim: a claim about what the state has the right to legitimately do. And we need principles to fix the limits of the sphere in which the state is justified in compelling private citizens. If, like Miller, you think that there need not be such deeper universal principles underlying particular prescriptions, what does make such prescriptions appropriate in one context but not another? For example, Miller suggests that even basic democratic principles are not applicable in some societies. Since formulating political principles is about articulating our convictions, says Miller, democratic principles may be inappropriate in a society where people do not support democracy. And this is not just a hypothetical scenario: recent polling data suggests that democracy does not always find popular support—even in countries such as Libya which have been portrayed as swept up in recent pro-democracy movements. One way to justify the claim that democratic principles do not apply in such countries would be to say that basic political structures ought to be arranged in the way the citizenry want them to be. Whether convincing or not—and it looks rather self-defeating—Miller would be unlikely to pursue this line of argument. After all, it attempts to explain why democracy is appropriate in some contexts but not others in terms of a deeper principle: political structures should reflect the wishes of the citizenry. Instead, it seems that Miller believes that there is simply nothing more to a principle being “appropriate” than it reflecting peoples’ convictions. This is not just to say that our convictions are all we have to go on in working out what is just. Rather, it is to say that, since justice is a human invention, there is no fact of the matter about what is just: only what we think is just. There is no way to fundamentally justify such claims, and all political philosophy can aspire to do is to articulate them and make them consistent. This puts us in a somewhat precarious position. When we have convictions about what is just, part of what makes them convictions is the feeling that they are not just arbitrary. When you believe, for instance, that racial discrimination is unjust, you don’t just believe that you believe that racial discrimination is unjust; you believe that racial discrimination is unjust. Of course, you should acknowledge that not all others share your view and that they are entitled to their views. But it’s part of believing that racial discrimination is unjust that you see those who deny this as in at least some way mistaken. It is hard—perhaps even incoherent—to cling on to one’s convictions if one has to simultaneously view them as no more correct than anyone else’s. Most importantly, it is unclear what the point of giving a systematic articulation of our convictions would be if they were just arbitrary, and did not get at some deeper truth. If the convictions are arbitrary, why should I care what the convictions of my society as a whole are, as opposed to my own convictions, or those of my family, or gym club, or racial group? A picture of political philosophy as giving voice to arbitrary fictions which we just happen to have inherited makes it look significantly more pointless than a picture of political philosophy as making “utopian” demands that do not look like being fulfilled any time soon. Admittedly, Miller would probably not accept this somewhat nihilistic picture. He does think that political philosophy should be more than a description of how we currently think. The question, however, is whether this is reconcilable with his view that justice is an invention, and that even the most fundamental norms should not be applied where they are not accepted. As many radical political philosophers have stressed, one key task of political philosophy is to alert us to the ways in which our existing political beliefs are distorted by bias and ideology, and thereby to seek to revise them. But the notion of our beliefs about justice being distorted by bias does not even make sense if there is no justice independent of our beliefs, as Miller’s claim that justice is a human invention implies. Things can only be distorted if there is a truth to distort. That said, one can acknowledge Miller’s insights—retaining his objection to “utopian” political philosophy which makes demands that stand no chance of being achieved—without signing up to his entire programme. It may be right that political philosophers will marginalise themselves by seeming wildly out of touch with reality. Yet it may also be true that it is sensible to “start the bidding high” when making demands about changes to our political systems. Striking the balance here is a difficult task, and what strategy works best is an empirical question which we should not try to settle from the armchair. Nevertheless, these questions are not fundamentally about what justice is, but rather about how best to realise it. Miller’s book raises one final, more pessimistic, question. Does the exact methodology of political philosophy really affect its chance of influencing political practice? It is true that a more “realistic” set of demands will be more relevant in the sense that they could be implemented if anyone were listening, but the reality is that, with the possible exception of a few very high-profile figures such as Rawls, most political philosophers do not influence public policy to a great degree. If this pessimism is apt, then it is unclear what the point of trying |
– diploastrea brain coral or honeycomb coral Diploria Milne-Edwards and Haime, 1848 – grooved brain coral
– grooved brain coral Echinopora Lamarck, 1816
Erythrastrea Pichon, Scheer and Pillai, 1983
Favia Oken, 1815
Favites Link, 1807 – moon, pineapple, brain, closed brain, star, worm, or honeycomb coral
– moon, pineapple, brain, closed brain, star, worm, or honeycomb coral Goniastrea Milne-Edwards and Haime, 1848
Leptastrea Milne-Edwards and Haime, 1848
Leptoria Milne-Edwards and Haime, 1848 – great star coral
– great star coral Manicina Ehrenberg, 1834
Montastraea de Blainville, 1830 – great star coral
– great star coral Moseleya Quelch, 1884
Oulastrea Milne-Edwards and Haime, 1848
Oulophyllia Milne-Edwards and Haime, 1848
Parasimplastrea Sheppard, 1985
Platygyra Ehrenberg, 1834
Plesiastrea Milne-Edwards and Haime, 1848
Solenastrea Milne-Edwards and Haime, 1848
Gallery [ edit ]Alex Wong via Getty Images For years, the Democratic elite ignored their working class voters, and Republican front-runner Donald Trump has been able to prey on their concerns.
The Republican elite is struggling to understand why so many of its core supporters have abandoned them for an authoritarian demagogue. After decades of cozy cohabitation, the plebes are moving out, leaving the cufflink wing of the party to wonder what went wrong.
Last week, the leading journal of elite conservative opinion presented a blunt, honest and unapologetic answer: Republican intellectuals loathe the rabble.
"The white American underclass is in thrall to a vicious, selfish culture," writes Kevin D. Williamson, one of several vocal Trump critics on staff at National Review. Williamson assails in scoffing prose what he calls the "immoral" "lie" of the current political moment. Specifically, "that the white working class that finds itself attracted to Trump has been victimized by outside forces. It hasn't."
Surveying rust-belt desolation in upstate New York, Williamson concludes: "Nobody did this to them. They failed themselves."
Liberal writers are reveling in Williamson's straightforward poverty-shaming (which his colleague David French defended). The New Republic's Jeet Heer sees the piece as a return to National Review's founding "aristocratic conservatism," which has more recently been "obscured by a populist mask." For Jonathan Chait, Williamson is exposing the perverse moral logic of hardline libertarianism. "The marketplace hasn’t failed the white working class," he mocks. "The white working class has failed capitalism."
They could go further. Republican elites have relied on such ideas for years. In the depths of the Great Recession, Paul Ryan worried that the social safety net was becoming "a hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency." Unemployment had spiked not because of a financial crisis, but because the poor had suddenly decided in unison to be very lazy. Mitt Romney's "47 percent" comment was nearly as dismissive as Williamson's vitriol.
But this only explains why the rabble are abandoning their well-heeled overlords in the GOP. It does not explain why they have embraced a xenophobic authoritarian instead of, say, the Democratic Party.
The most comforting rationale for Democratic true believers is that these voters are racist and ignorant and hostile to Democratic policies on social issues. That's part of the explanation. But the full truth is a bitter pill for Democrats to swallow. Thomas Frank's new book Listen, Liberal Or, Whatever Happened to the Party of People? documents a half-century of work by the Democratic elite to belittle working people and exile their concerns to the fringes of the party's platform. If the prevailing ideology of the Republican establishment is that of a sneering aristocracy, Democratic elites are all too often the purveyors of a smirking meritocracy that offers working people very little.
***
Listen to HuffPost's interview with Frank in the latest episode of the So, That Happened podcast embedded below. The discussion starts at the 15:20 mark.
The trouble, Frank writes, began in the early 1970s, with a culture clash between the radical left on college campuses and the conservative ideas about race and gender that pervaded many union halls. The Archie Bunker stereotype of the gruff bigot denouncing communists and women's lib ignored much labor history -- Frank cites the United Auto Workers' support for the Civil Rights Act, "the union placards carried by marchers at Martin Luther King's 1963 March on Washington" and the 1968 sanitation workers' strike in Memphis as counterevidence -- but campus skepticism was not completely unfounded.
In the Hard Hat Riot of 1970, construction workers joined bankers in lower Manhattan to physically assault anti-war protesters, and police allowed the violence. President Richard Nixon later named the head of the construction workers union his Secretary of Labor.
It was not a good look. Organized labor's status was about to plummet within the Democratic Party. Gary Hart started winning Senate campaigns by denouncing Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. Jimmy Carter lent his ear to deregulation advocates and appointed a Federal Reserve chairman bent on breaking union power. Frank quotes former Carter adviser Alfred Kahn:
"I'd love the Teamsters to be worse off. I'd love the automobile workers to be worse off. You may say that's inhumane; I'm putting it rather baldly, but I want to eliminate a situation in which certain protected workers in industries insulated from competition can increase their wages much more rapidly than the average without regard to their merit or to what a free market would do."
The idea that collective bargaining is incompatible with a free market would have been madness to FDR or Lyndon Johnson or Elizabeth Warren. But there's also a not-so-subtle moral judgment about union workers embedded in Kahn's econo-speak. The rednecks don't deserve high wages because it takes money away from the good people. You know, the ones who went to college. This brand of elitism would come to dominate the worldview of Democratic Party leaders and the agenda of President Bill Clinton.
For most Democrats today, the Clinton years remain the good old days. The country prospered, incomes rose, and good-guy Bill survived all the insane political attacks from the Republican bad guys. Frank's chapters on Clinton will make these Democrats feel terrible. Because for anyone who takes economic inequality seriously, the chief villain of the Clinton years wasn't Ken Starr. It was Bill Clinton.
Here is a list of Bill Clinton's major legislative achievements: Three separate major bank deregulation bills. Deregulating the telecom industry. Passing the North American Free Trade Agreement. Ending "welfare as we know it." Passing a crime bill that turned over-incarceration into mass incarceration. Slashing the capital gains tax. He even cut a deal with Newt Gingrich to privatize Social Security, but the pact fell apart when the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke.
This was right-wing domestic policy on a scale unimaginable to Ronald Reagan or George H.W. Bush, achievements made possible only by a Democratic president willing to advance the ideological agenda of a Republican Congress (Frank cites a celebratory White House memo saying as much after a bank deregulation bill passed). The upshot of these policies was to shift economic power from Washington to Wall Street, while converting a large swath of the social safety net quite literally into prison.
"Toil hopelessly or go to prison," Frank writes. "That is life at the bottom, thanks to Bill Clinton."
Clinton defenders today argue that this was the best anyone could have done amid the full-throttle, facts-be-damned, you-murdered-Vince-Foster opposition he faced. But Frank teases out an elitist ideology underpinning Clintonism, laying bare its roots in earlier Democratic Party trends and its continued influence today.
Here's Clinton in December 1992: "Our new direction must rest on an understanding of the new realities of global competition. The world we face today is the world where what you earn depends on what you can learn. There's a direct relationship between high skills and high wages."
This is the mantra of meritocracy. A degree means money and success. No degree equals poverty, and it's your own fault if you don't get one.
It turns out that boosting overall levels of education doesn't actually assuage income inequality. The rate of college-level enrollment has been increasing steadily since the late Clinton years, while economic inequality has been exacerbated.
Striving to earn what you can learn has in fact destroyed the finances of many working-class families under Clinton, Bush and Obama. Between 1990 and 2013, enrollment at for-profit colleges and universities soared 565 percent, fueling a massive increase in the nationstudent debt burden. Americans now collectively owe nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars to for-profit schools.
It's generally proving to be a national ripoff. Only a third of students at for-profit schools graduate within six years, and those that do often receive limited economic benefits.
How has the Obama administration responded? The Department of Education has misled the public about alleged fraud at major student loan contractor Navient. It has refused to punish schools that violate state and federal rules. It has dragged its feet on providing debt relief to students from the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges, even after federal judge ruled that the school scammed more than 100,000 students.
"What I fundamentally believe -- and what the president believes," former Obama Education Secretary Arne Duncan told The New York Times in 2012, "is that the only way to end poverty is through education." Heckuva job, Arne.
The student debt debacle has been a replay of Obama's response to the Wall Street meltdown, when he rushed to get money to big banks while leaving struggling homeowners in the dust. His foreclosure-relief initiative was a backdoor effort to help banks, not borrowers. His Treasury Department didn't even bother to spend the foreclosure aid money it was allocated, and his Justice Department shrugged off Wall Street prosecutions despite widespread evidence of fraud.
Like Clinton's criminal justice reforms, these policies were not only classist, they were racist. Black and Latino students are overrepresented at for-profit colleges. Subprime mortgages disproportionately targeted black neighborhoods. Wall Streeters are overwhelmingly white.
This is why Democrats can't just point their fingers and cry "but they're racist!" when considering why white working class voters are turning to Trump. The Democratic Party's commitment to racial justice clearly softens as we descend the class ladder. Democrats, Frank notes, applaud the shrewd technocratic management of the first black governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick. They don't talk much about his tenure on the board of subprime lending giant Ameriquest from 2004 to 2006. Ameriquest was one of several firms sued by the NAACP for targeting black borrowers with predatory mortgages, and toward the end of his tenure, the company agreed to pay $325 million to settle predatory lending charges with 49 states. Patrick now works at Bain Capital.
To Frank, issues of racial and class justice get attention from Democrats so long as they do not threaten existing benefits for the multicultural professional class, which sees itself as the enlightened and deserving recipient of those rewards. If the Republican Party had not spent so much of its political energy over the past three decades winking and nodding to white nationalists, the Democratic Party wouldn't be getting such an easy pass from voters of color.
At times, Frank underplays the Obama administration's achievements. The creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the passage of the Affordable Care Act really have addressed problems faced by millions of working people. But he is correct to note that Obamacare was an effort to achieve a liberal policy goal while avoiding conflicts with the established order in the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. When the CFPB moves to regulate payday lending, it isn't taking on an industry where many elite Democrats can envision themselves operating. They want to work at JPMorgan Chase, not ACE Cash Express.
The Republican Party has been fanning the flames of fascism for years now. It's grimly funny to watch Mitt Romney, who campaigned on self-deportation and sought Trump's endorsement during his birther mania, suddenly insist that the GOP front-runner isn't a proper Republican. But Trump's supporters aren't wrong when they envision liberals looking down their nose at the white trash. We've known since at least World War I that sustained economic misery breeds fascism, and Democratic leaders have consistently brushed aside the material needs of working class people for decades. It shouldn't be a surprise that they're looking elsewhere for solutions. It could have been prevented.Writing articles particularly when deadlines have to met can be mentally taxing. Michael Hyatt, one of the biggest names in publishing industry is a prolific writer himself and posts at least two articles a week. In one of his podcasts, he shared a few tips of the trade. He mentions that the thought process regarding an article should starts weeks earlier. One has to come up with a topic and plant its seed in their mind. The sub-conscience then automatically nurture it.
He also mentions that thinking about a topic when your mind is passively engaged in another activity is extremely beneficial. Driving on an clear highway, taking a shower or playing golf are activities during which thinking on your article can yield great dividends. But most importantly he mentioned that playing music during your typing process can really add extra yards to the pace of your writing. He further elaborates that soundtracks with lyrics are not as helpful as plain music as words can be a distraction.
The objective of playing music is to lift your emotive self to a state of higher sensitivity and brew your passion. This heightening of senses and flow of passion feeds into your write up, which can be the difference in content that is magical or one that is a damp squib.
It has to be mentioned that for some people absence of sound brings clarity of thoughts. Thus listening to music while writing may not suit everyone and that has been the traditional wisdom.
The modern brain however is hardwired differently and has to be stimulated through triggers on occasions. It is proven the music lights up certain neurons that are otherwise dormant. It can also help jog memories. Featured below are links to 11 soundtracks that have been found helpful in writing articles by the Convergence Stride community.
For uplifting content
James Horner: Apollo 13 Splashdown
Harold Faltermeyer Topgun: Cleared To Fly
Hans Zimmer: The Contender
For deep and mystical content
Hans Zimmer: Intersteller
Paul Maunsey North
Yaani Nightingale
For nostalgic content
Jerry Goldsmith: Its a long road
Hans Zimmer Chevalier de Sangreal
For hard hitting content
Hans Zimmer: Watchful Guardian
Ennio Marricone: Chi Mai
Steve Jablonsky: My name is Lincoln
Hans Zimmer features heavily in the list. Most of his soundtracks will help add zestful energy in your content.
Please share the list if you found it useful using the buttons belowLUNA PIER, Mich. - This year there is a very special stand raising money for a very worthy cause at Luna Pier's annual citywide garage sale.
Haley, Danielle, Kaitlin and Kendell were hard at work Saturday selling water, cookies, chips and sloppy joes, trying to raise money to buy a tombstone for their parents.
In 2011, their dad died in a car accident and this year they lost their mom as well.
Currently, they are living with their grandparents and money is tight, so that is what gave 9-year-old Haley the idea.
Besides selling sloppy joes, they are also accepting donations as every little bit helps.
The girls planned to stay out until 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. Saturday. To donate online here.
Copyright 2014 by ClickOnDetroit.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Gal Gun VR Is Now Available On Steam
By Jenni. August 9, 2017. 11:00am
Last year, Inti Creates announced it was working on a Gal Gun virtual reality game. Today, Gal Gun VR has appeared on Steam for Windows PCs. For $29.99, people can play Gal Gun on their HTC Vive or Oculus Rift headset.
The premise of the game remains unchanged. Players have been shot by Cupid Arrows, which has caused every woman around him to become infatuated with him. He needs to find his true love before the Cupid Arrows power runs out, or else he’ll be alone. What proceeds is a rail shooter where you shoot pheromone shots at the random girls who appear. Gal Gun VR uses tracked motion controllers and can be played either when seated or standing.
Gal Gun VR is available immediately for Windows PCs.A Photoshop mock-up of the proposed van via PETA
While Planned Parenthood doesn't want any of Tucker Max's fratire money, there's one organization that doesn't mind associating itself with the self-proclaimed "asshole" and "dickhead" and one that shares a history of publicity stunts: The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA's president Ingrid Newkirk has written a letter to Max (cc'ing Ryan Holiday, of course!) saying they'd use Max's $500,000 to get a "brand-new mobile spay-and-neuter truck"—plus they'd name it "Fix Your Bitches! The Tucker Max No-Cost to Low-Cost Spay and Neuter Clinic."
A Forbes blog post by Holiday, Max's publicist, claimed that Planned Parenthood was excited to get a $500,000 donation from Max—with the stipulation that a clinic be named after Max—but then the group got cold feet. Holiday and Max have accused Planned Parenthood of hypocrisy ("the Susan G Komen Foundation did the EXACT SAME THING TO PLANNED PARENTHOOD THAT PP DID TO ME"), while critics have pointed out, "Trying to bolster the career of a misogynist narcissist at the expense of an organization that is already teetering on the brink, and then crying foul — and attempting a public shaming- when the organization protects itself so that it can continue to provide much-needed help to people who need more fundamental assistance than a new image and a tax break? That’s disgusting and transparently self-serving."
ANYWAY: Newkirk points out, "Dogs and cats can't use condoms, so PETA would be happy to have Tucker Max's help in staving the flow of dogs and cats who flood U.S. animal shelters by the millions every year for want of a home." Here's her letter in full:
Dear Mr. Max,
I am writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and our more than 3 million members and supporters with a proposition we hope you’ll like. Having heard about Planned Parenthood’s rejection of your offer, we’d like to propose an alternative way that you can help prevent unwanted pregnancies, receive a tax break, and put your name proudly on a clinic—perhaps along with a picture of you and your dog! We would like to purchase a brand-new mobile spay-and-neuter truck and name it “Fix Your Bitches! The Tucker Max No-Cost to Low-Cost Spay and Neuter Clinic.” The truck would cost just shy of $400,000 (delivered fully equipped) and give us $100,000 in leftover funds to spend on veterinary fees—if you are willing to spend the same amount you were offering Planned Parenthood.
Since 2001, our mobile clinics have helped prevent the births of hundreds of thousands of unwanted cats and dogs. In fact, PETA spays and neuters more than 800 dogs and cats every month in some of the most impoverished areas of North Carolina and lower Virginia. We assist owners who have a hard time paying their utility bills, are without transportation of any kind, and often live in trailer parks. One of our mobile clinics is on its last legs (it’s in the repair shop more than it’s on the road), so this would be a huge help.
Two of our clinics currently display images of Simon Cowell and Ron Artest. Please see this mock-up of what the Tucker Max clinic could look like, complete with the “Fix Your Bitches!” slogan and an image of you hugging a dog.
Millions of dogs and cats must be euthanized every year because people continue to let them breed when there are not enough homes to go around. Most end up in shelters—others are left to fend for themselves on the streets, where they are often subjected to cruelty, suffer from starvation or diseases, or are hit by cars.
Dogs and cats may “sleep” with more mates “than is safe or reasonable”—but unlike us, they can’t unwrap a condom. Will you help us provide this essential form of birth control? Thank you for considering this.
Very truly yours,
Ingrid E. Newkirk
President
cc: Ian Claudius and Ryan Holiday
Your move, Tucker Max!Architects: Mass Studies - Minsuk Cho + Kisu Park Location: City Park, Denver, Colorado, USA Design team: Joungwon Lee,Bumhyun Chun, Kyungmin Kwon, Sungpil Won Structure: Pneumatic Construction: ABR Finishing: Nylon fabric with silver dot printing Gross floor Area: 673 sqm Design year: 2004-2008 Construction year: 2008 Photographs: Sungpil Won / Mass Studies
Air Forest is a temporary public pavilion installed in City Park, Denver, Colorado, USA, for Dialog:City, an arts and cultural event during the Democratic National Convention 2008.
Sungpil Won
Located in east-central Denver, City Park is the largest and most notable park in Denver. This historic 1.3 km2 park has large open grass fields with Ferril Lake in its center, with a ring of trees all around the lake and the park’s perimeter. There is a main east-west axis that crosses the lake, starting from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on the lake’s eastern edge (at the park’s highest elevation) to the landmark boat pavilion to the west on the other side of the lake, past which one can see the Denver skyline and the mountains beyond. The ring of trees becomes disconnected at this axis on both sides of the lake, to provide a vantage point.
Sungpil Won
Denver Office of Cultural Affairs had hosted an event called Dialog:City, an arts and cultural event for the public, inspired on the occasion of the city of Denver hosting the National Democratic Convention 2008. The event invited 10 artists and architects to design or exhibit site-specific projects at various locations of the city, for the public to converge and spark dialogue across the city through innovative cultural initiatives, during the period of 24th to 30th August. Our invitation was to create a temporary public space to be utilized in a vast array of scheduled events (such as the Yoga Health Festival, a cocktail party for the convention, a high school play, Dialog:City closing party) as well as for the general public to enjoy.
Mass Studies
Sungpil Won
Air Forest is a 56.3m long, 25m wide pneumatic structure, composed of 9 hexagonal canopy units, at 4m height. These units are interconnected as one large piece of fabric, which are then inflated from the 14 blowers that are located at the base inside its 35 columns. These columns are 5m apart, and are weighed down by dirt and lighting elements which are also inside the columns, which light up at night and provide a public space after dark as well. 6 each of these pneumatic columns form a unit as they are connected in a hexagonal manner creating a circular opening from their inside perimeter. Out of the 9 total hexagonal units formed, 3 of them are left open-air while the remaining 6 have vortex-shaped meshes that hang from them, providing shades for the public from the harsh sunlight. The nylon fabric is coated with a gradient of silver dots, whose reflective surface mimics the colors of its surrounding environment, as well as providing a playful dotted shadow on the people under the structure.
Sungpil Won
The Air Forest is situated on the western edge of the Ferril Lake along the main axis. Being at one of the two disconnected open gaps of the ring of forests, this synthetic structure seems to be a continuation of the forest that bridges this gap.
The structure also acts as a giant device to measure the site’s conditions. Not only does it sway gently with the wind, it also acts as a barometer, since the installation becomes structurally weaker (and thus affected by the wind more) as the air pressure drops due to cooler weather or even after sunset.When the employees of an Ontario recycling plant cracked open the wooden frame of a worthless, broken-down television set from the 1980s, they found the real treasure inside.
The television had been sent for recycling a year ago and made its way to the scrap heap at Global Electric Electronic Processing in Barrie, Ont., where the crew ripped it apart on Jan. 13.
Inside, they found $100,000 in $50 bills. The man who put it there more than 30 years ago had forgotten he hid a large cash inheritance from his parents within the TV. In a lapse of memory, the man actually gave the television — with the cash still inside — to a friend who, years later, brought it to the recycling depot.
It wasn’t like he was hazardous with his money … he probably thought it was under the mattress
“It’s surprising how compact $100,000 is in fifties,” said GEEP’s vice president of operations, Lew Coffin.
Barrie police reunited a 68-year-old man from Bolsover, Ont., a village of about 400 people in the Kawartha Lakes region, with the cash, using banking records from 1985 to trace the owner. Police did not release his name because of privacy concerns.
“This is a unique situation where this large quantity of money was missing without anyone knowing it was missing,” Const. Nicole Rodgers said. “He hadn’t even realized with the police officers sitting in his house that they were speaking of the cash box with his money in it.
“In his mind, he thought it was still somewhere else in his house.”
When a GEEP employee removed the back of the television, the cash box holding the bills was immediately visible, Coffin said. The money was counted — although it was so old, a cash counting machine couldn’t do the job — and kept in a safe until police arrived to collect it the following week.
Because the television was given to them, there was no requirement for the plant’s employees to turn the money inside over to the police.
“The whole company brand is built on security and integrity,” said Coffin, who added GEEP has found smaller cash amounts hidden within stereos, speakers and computers they recycle.
“If it comes to GEEP, we’ll return it.”
Though the accompanying banking records gave police a clear indication of where the money could be traced, they first had to rule out that it was acquired in bank robbery, researching major incidents in Southern Ontario in the mid-1980s. When a robbery was ruled out, Barrie police still had to confirm with the RCMP that the bills were not counterfeit.
Police tracked the man down using the address listed on the banking documents. In more than 30 years, he hadn’t moved from his home in Bolsover, according to locals. His family also still owned a business.
When police revealed the lost cash was his, he was “relieved and ecstatic,” Rodgers said.
Despite the man’s shoddy memory, Rodgers understands how he could’ve forgotten his “special hiding spot.”
“It wasn’t like he was hazardous with his money … he probably thought it was under the mattress.”When the phrase "Lotus Notes" is mentioned in the halls of your IT department, you probably hear a range of responses, from "That's still around?" to "Notes is a critical part of our application portfolio, and we couldn't deliver value without it." For a significant enterprise collaboration application that's been around for more than two decades, it's surprising that so many IT professionals still have a difficult time explaining just what Notes and Domino is, what it does and how it fits into the IT infrastructure.
Lotus Notes is the "Ginsu knife" of application development. It slices, it dices, it cuts both leather and tomatoes. This extreme flexibility means that Notes doesn't fit neatly into a single software category in either its definition and functionality. But it also means that your investment in Notes and Domino can deliver more than "just e-mail" to your organization. Are you taking advantage of what it can do?
1. Notes is more than "just e-mail."
With near-universal use of e-mail as a corporate communication tool, Notes users spend much of their time in their mail file. This tends to lead to the never-ending debate of which is better: Lotus Notes or Microsoft Exchange. In reality, that's an unreasonable comparison.
If you're using Lotus Notes as "just" an e-mail application, you could do much better (and save a lot of money). Download an open-source mail transfer agent (MTA) like Sendmail and an open-source mail client like Thunderbird, and you have e-mail. Historically, the Notes mail client has not been "best-in-class" (to put it nicely), and as such has suffered in comparisons to Microsoft's Outlook mail client. But it's what Lotus Notes offers beyond the mail client that makes it so valuable to the enterprise.
In addition to its e-mail capabilities, Lotus Notes is also a full-featured rapid application development platform. Notes uses a semi-structured data store that allows for the creation and processing of "documents" (which are similar to records in relational database systems). Documents are displayed to the user as "forms," which reveal the application's pertinent fields. This means that you can use Notes to build electronic workflow applications that can create requests, notify approvers via e-mail and process the requests once the approval is granted.
For instance, an expense reporting application built on the Notes platform could allow users to enter their expenses, route the document to their supervisors for approval (perhaps with an additional level of approval if the amount is over a certain limit), and then generate a notice to the Accounting department to reimburse the user.
Another example might be an information request form on your corporate website. Once the form is completed and the "submit" button is clicked, Notes could route the request to the correct department and track its fulfillment.
2. Notes and Domino is a powerful (and open) application development platform.
A goal of many organizations want to avoid getting too closely tied to any single vendor or technology. If not careful, the proprietary nature of the technology can limit the future choices of the company when it comes to upgrading or integration with other platforms.
Applications built for Notes incorporate a wide variety of open standard technologies, such as JavaScript, HTML, Java and LotusScript (a close relative of Visual Basic). Developers who already know some of these technologies can quickly come up to speed in Notes application development, producing complex workflow applications very little time.
To build Notes applications, developers use the Designer client to create and modify all the different parts of a Notes application, such as forms, views and agents. It can be viewed and tested in the Notes client or in a web browser for instant feedback. In terms of productivity, developers get a lot done with very little effort.
But useful Notes applications don't always require attention from the IT department. It's common in Notes for power users to develop applications that meet a tactical need, with little assistance from IT.
On the other hand, Designer's easy-to-use interface historically can be a frustration at times to high-end developers. The latest version of Notes/Domino (version 8) has an Eclipse-based IDE, making it easy for some of those developers—for whom Eclipse is their native environment—can easily grasp the environment and produce high-quality applications.
3. Notes is the client, Domino is the server.
Notes, Domino, Notes/Domino... What is this software really called, anyway?
The full name of IBM's software offering is IBM Lotus Notes and Domino. Lotus Notes refers to the Notes client, which is installed on the user's personal computer, and is used to access both mail files and Notes applications.
Domino is the server component of the Notes/Domino team, and it runs on a variety of operating systems. When a user connects to the server replica of their mail database using the Notes client, it's the Domino server that is serving up the content from the user's mail database. The Domino server is also responsible for controlling access and security to mail files and application databases.
The Domino server has a robust security model that can control access in Notes documents down to the field level. This includes both user access based on the user's Notes ID, as well as database and network traffic encryption.
Notes and Domino run on a number of operating systems: from an Intel Pentium 2 desktop machine to the "big iron" of IBM mainframes. The Domino server is available for Windows Server 2003, IBM AIX, Novell SUSE and RedHat Linux distributions, Sun Solaris, IBM System i, IBM System z and IBM z/OS. This attention to multi-platform support means that IT departments can use existing servers and data center architecture to consolidate hardware and keep a tight rein on costs. The Notes client is supported on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS, and SUSE and RedHat Linux desktop distributions.
4. Notes has a long history of backward compatibility.
One of the most impressive features of Notes is its level of backwards compatibility between versions. It's possible to take a Notes application built in version 1 back in 1989, and run it in the current Notes 8 release without any need to convert or rewrite the application. We're not talking about showcase "proof point" applications, but real-world legacy applications which are still giving good value to the organization and do not need any feature enhancements. Few software applications can boast about compatibility across versions like Notes can. This means your application development investment continues to return value long into the future.
Often, a Domino server migration consists of running the install utility for the latest version. In as little as 15 minutes, the server is upgraded. All the applications built in prior versions of Notes still continue to run with no conversions necessary.
5. Replication lets you work both online and offline.
Today's knowledge workers don't come to the office at 9:00 am and leave at 5:00 pm. They are "always on," and they need to access their data whether or not a network connection is available. The Notes client accommodates this requirement by replicating data between server and local versions of your mail files and applications. It's among Notes oldest and most cherished features—for good reason.
When a network connection exists, Notes synchronizes data between the server and client. The replication occurs at the field level, so two people can update different fields in the same document (such as an invoice or travel request); the server merges the updates so that the document shows both sets of changes. Frankly, this is slick. Nobody else has ever achieved this level of WayCool synchronization sophistication, particularly because it's so trouble free that the feature is usually invisible.
Notes e-mail users replicate their mail files to local versions on their laptops, so they can be productive offline. When they once again connect to the network, all the changes are replicated with the server and messages are sent to the appropriate people. That applies to Notes databases and applications, not just e-mail.
6. Notes applications can be built for both the Notes client and for Web browsers.
Part of the flexibility of Notes is that you can build both Notes client applications and applications that are accessed through a Web browser. Domino has a built-in HTTP server that renders content based on normal HTTP requests. Domino takes the application's design and data and renders it into HTML "on the fly" for the browser. That's one quick way to migrate an in-house legacy application to an intranet or extranet.
Because you can deliver both Notes client and browser content from the same source, your application development investment can pay off with greater flexibility for the end users.
7. Notes is "not dead."
Notes has been declared dead multiple times. When the Web came along, some opined Notes would be replaced by web browsers. When Java became the hot new development platform, many felt that Notes would be replaced by a full-fledged Java Enterprise architecture. And now that Microsoft has a popular collaboration offering in SharePoint, some are again predicting the demise of Notes.
Excuse me if I don't hold my breath waiting for that to happen....
Not only has Notes survived—it has adapted and thrived. IBM added Web capabilities to the Domino server long ago, when intranet applications became a business requirement. Java became another language supported in the Notes programming environment. Notes Domino version 8 added the ability to build composite applications. That is, these applications allow developers to blend data and functionality from both Notes and non-Notes applications so that the end of Notes and the start of a different application becomes seamless. For instance, an SAP application can interact with a Notes application, sharing and updating data between the two platforms.
With the rapid pace of innovation that's demanded these days, it's tempting to be on the hunt for that "silver bullet" that solves all your technology and business problems. Unfortunately, silver bullets don't exist in our field. But rather than being distracted by the latest shiny object, step back and ask yourself if you're getting the most out of what you already have. IBM Lotus Notes and Domino is far more than "just e-email," and you should be squeezing out every last dollar from your investment.
Thomas "Duffbert" Duff is a software developer with nearly 30 years of experience in IT, covering everything from punch cards and tape drives to cloud computing. When he is not developing Notes-based collaboration applications for a large health insurance company, he's usually reading and reviewing books on his blog, Duffbert's Random Musings. He also speaks at software conferences.Charles R. Schwab opened the doors of his San Francisco-based brokerage company, Charles Schwab Corporation, in 1971.
The company didn't take off right away.
"My dad was a struggling businessman really until my mid-20s," his daughter Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz told Business Insider. "I was 14 when he started Schwab, but it didn't really become the company people know until well into my 20s, when it was sold to Bank of America [in 1983]."
Right around the time the firm started taking off — today, it has $2.56 trillion in client assets and Charles Schwab himself has an estimated net worth of $6.2 billion — Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz was a typical 20-something, unsure how to invest her money.
"When I opened up my first |
& Kodak Black
Label:Interscope Records
Release Date: October 16, 2017
Producer: Stwo
Dreezy’s verse on “Spar” deserves a CNN roundtable discussion or at least the same internet-breaking virality as Eminem and Joyner Lucas' political rap songs. “Spar” is just another example of how the world criminally ignores the voice of black women.
41. Danny Watts — "Black Boy Meets World"
Label: Authors / The Order Label
Release Date: September 22, 2017
Producer: Paul Castelluzzo & Jonwayne
Ben Savage didn’t meet the world like Danny Watts did. “Black Boy Meets World” is a necessary perspective of the black boy tale in its rawest form. Too raw for Disney, but perfect for hip-hop.
40. Toro y Moi — "Girl Like You"
Label:Carpark Records
Release Date: June 9, 2017
Producer: Chaz Bear
Romantic dream-pop defines Toro y Moi’s “Girl Like You,” a single released in June that has continued to mesmerize from summer to winter. It feels retro, nostalgic, like roller-skating backward under the pastel glow of a spinning disco ball. As the kids say, issa vibe.
39. Milo — "Landscaping" ft. ELUCID
Label:Ruby Yacht
Release Date: August 11, 2017
Producer: Scallops Hotel
Contemporary choruses aren’t sung throughout milo’s who told you to think??!!?!?!?!, they’re more philosophical phrases and mantras repeated. He’s thought-provoking in a space where it's customary to hook listeners with simplistic and catchy. On “Landscaping,” he recites one of my favorites: “Y'all was imitating God trying to mimic our sound.”
38. King Krule — "Biscuit Town"
Label:True Panther
Release Date: October 13, 2017
Producer: King Krule & Dill Harris
To know King Krule is to appreciate his exploration into the heart of darkness and dismay. “Biscuit Town,” the intro to The OOZ, his long-awaited sophomore album, is a jazzy descent into the murky. Music so vivid you can envision the collection of cigarette butts building in the ashtray, you can smell the scent of whiskey mixed in the polluted air, and you're able to visualize the shadowy singer in the center of the swirling madness.
37. Khalid — "Saved"
Label:RCA Records
Release Date: January 13, 2017
Producer: OZ & Syk Sense
For someone so young, Khalid sings of love and loss with a maturity beyond his years. “Saved” is the teenage breakup sequel to Soulja Boy’s “Kiss Me Through The Phone,” when the kisses finally stop and all you have are the memories and a phone number that may never call again. No tantrum was thrown, no dirty laundry hung to dry—just reflection, acceptance, and peacefully moving on like a sensible adult.
36. J.I.D — "D/Vision" ft. EarthGang
Label: Dreamville / Interscope Records
Release Date: March 10, 2017
Producer: J. Cole
The man himself said it best: “Far as these rappers, I can’t count on a ninja turtle’s finger who really is fucking with the kid, that is J.I.D.”
35. BROCKHAMPTON — "MILK"
Label:QUESTION EVERYTHING, INC. / Empire
Release Date: June 9, 2017
Producer: Romil Hemnani, Jabari Manwa & Kiko Merley
Boy band of the year, without contest, goes to BROCKHAMPTON. We have spent the year submerged underneath their content flood. Saturation was their mentality and method of releasing music, but it’s natural to grow attached to a single song. “MILK” is that song―honest, pure, and true to all the growing pains that make them real and relatable. How can you not love these kids?
34. Rapsody — "Black & Ugly" ft. BJ The Chicago Kid
Label:Jamla Records / Roc Nation
Release Date: September 22, 2017
Producer: 9th Wonder
Rapsody’s “Black & Ugly” soulfully tackles a past and present of being harshly criticized for her outward appearance, but insecurity didn’t devour the Snow Hill, North Carolina MC. She stands confident as ever, a shining example of how hate doesn’t define you when self-love is louder than hate. A much-needed message from one of hip-hop’s most talented lyricists.
33. IDK — "Pizza Shop Extended" ft. Yung Gleesh, MF DOOM & Del the Funky Homosapien
Label: HXLY, LLC / Commission Music
Release Date: October 13, 2017
Producer: BLWYRMND & BigKiddMusic
Kendrick Lamar and crew committed an act of home invasion on good kid, m.A.A.d city deep cut “The Art of Peer Pressure.” Similar circumstances lead IDK into a pizza shop, armed and ready to rob as masterfully illustrated on “Pizza Shop Extended.” Having a villain such as DOOM to be the Rusty Ryan to his Danny Ocean is the satisfying cherry on top of this storytelling sundae.
32. Joey Bada$$ — "FOR MY PEOPLE"
Label:Pro Era / Cinematic Music Group
Release Date: April 7, 2017
Producer: DJ Khalil
Upon first listen, I found Joey Bada$$’ ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$, his long-awaited sophomore album, aggravating. Despite being inspired by the state of America, the music was soft, tender, and driven by saccharine melodies. Where was the aggression? Eight months later, I’m singing a different tune. “FOR MY PEOPLE” shows how acknowledging hardship doesn’t have to be done with hostility; it’s the warm hug of someone saying "I understand, I’m here." Sometimes you just need a hug.
31. Rick Ross — "Santorini Greece"
Label:Epic Records / Maybach Music Group
Release Date: March 17, 2017
Producer: Bink!
“Santorini Greece” represents the pristine lyricism and splendid beat selection that appears across Rick Ross’ excellent ninth studio album, Rather You Than Me. “Santorini Greece” shows how even late in his career, Rozay is sharp as the nose of a swordfish and carries the potency of 20-year old scotch aging in the cellar. The biggest boss is only getting better.
30. EarthGang — "Meditate" ft. J.I.D
Label: Spillage Village
Release Date: September 1, 2017
Producer: Elite
“Meditate” is so true to black lives in 2017 that the single will surely live on as a landmark in EarthGang’s discography (and videography). The pursuit of peace in America finally has an anthem from the only trio in hip-hop giving Migos a run for their money.
29. Steve Lacy — "Dark Red"
Label: Three Quarter
Release Date: February 20, 2017
Producer: Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy stepped out from the shadows of his Internet crew to steal the spotlight for himself with his very own demo. The singer-songwriter wonders aloud if he lets his "bad thoughts linger for far too long," but "Dark Red," like the project it's housed on, leaves you wanting more.
28. Sampha — "Blood On Me"
Label:Young Turks Recordings
Release Date: February 3, 2017
Producer: Rodaidh McDonald & Sampha
“Blood On Me” is the desperation of escaping the terrors of a nightmare. Sampha brings to life the exasperation and anxiety of being hunted, a gripping listening experience. There’s a special quality to Sampha’s music, the way feelings translate from artist to audience. I still listen with visions of Trayvon Martin, giving the song a harrowing slice of real life.
27. Majid Jordan — "Gave Your Love Away"
Label: OVO Sound / Warner Bros.
Release Date: October 27, 2017
Producer: Jordan Ullman
Previewed alongside Drake's "Signs" at a Louis Vuitton runway show, it took months to finally hear Majid Jordan's "Gave Your Love Away" in all of its high-quality glory. More than worth the wait, it's the best song of their career, an irresistibly groovy piece of late-night R&B that sets a new bar for the Canadian duo.
26. Joey Fatts — "562" ft. Vince Staples
Label: Self-Released
Release Date: March 31, 2017
Producer: Supa Mario
Music politics brought down “562” from all major streaming services upon release, a true crime against the best collaboration between Joey Fatts and his cousin Vince Staples. “562” is a song where every component compliments—the soulful Supa Mario production sounds perfectly tailored for the candid lyricism. The worth of a song should be how often you feel compelled to rewind and it's nearly impossible to play “562” just once.
25. Young Thug — "Family Don’t Matter" ft. Millie Go Lightly
Label:300 Entertainment / Atlantic Records
Release Date: June 16, 2017
Producer: Rex Kudo & Wheezy
Young Thug isn’t married to any sound or style. His music morphs, bends, and transforms; there is no ceiling for his artistic imagination. “Family Don’t Matter” is beautiful and bizarre, enchanting and otherworldly, the kind of song you never imagine Thug making and the kind of song you wish he would make more of. But he won’t, the first rule of Young Thug is to never expect a repeat performance.
24. Playboi Carti — "Magnolia"
Label: Interscope Records
Release Date: April 14, 2017
Producer: Pi'erre Bourne
The summer belonged to Carti and “Magnolia”—the two could not be escaped unless you completely secluded yourself from the world. I have a theory that Carti doesn’t make songs, he creates ringtones. Music where any 15-30 seconds can be isolated into an infectious hook. “Magnolia” is my favorite ringtone of 2017.
23. Big K.R.I.T. — "Drinking Sessions" ft. Keyon Harrold
Label: Multi Alumni
Release Date: October 27, 2017
Producer: Big K.R.I.T.
Under the truth serum’s influence, Big K.R.I.T.’s innermost thoughts are exposed in rhyme. All skeletons are brought from their hidden closets as if the Mississippi rapper is spring cleaning what’s been piling upon his mind. The emotion-charged confession is chilling, and K.R.I.T. holds nothing back while creating the feeling of a therapy session between artist and listeners. Cheers to fearless transparency.
22. Tyler, The Creator — "Boredom" ft. Rex Orange County, Anna of the North & Corinne Bailey Rae
Label:Columbia Records
Release Date: July 11, 2017
Producer: Tyler, The Creator
“Boredom” is flawlessly arranged. The beauty builds and blossoms as the guitar strum transitions into an array of radiant instruments and vocal tones. Tyler knows how to build a crew around his vision, a vision that proves his genius as a producer. 2017 was the year the industry finally woke up to appreciate the gifted terror turned flower boy.
21. Frank Ocean — "Biking" ft. JAY-Z & Tyler, The Creator
Label:Blonded
Release Date: May 15, 2017
Producer: Caleb Laven, Jarami & Frank Dukes
“I believe I’m one of the best in the world at what I do” — Frank Ocean. As do I, Frank. As do I.
20. Kendrick Lamar — "DUCKWORTH."
Label: Aftermath / Interscope / Top Dawg Entertainment
Release Date: April 14, 2017
Producer: 9th Wonder
The first time hearing “DUCKWORTH.” is similar to the first time watching a movie where the plot twist leaves your heart thumping like a jackhammer and thoughts racing faster than Usain Bolt darting from the jaws of a cheetah. One of the rare hip-hop stories that will be cemented in history. We will never forget Ducky, Anthony, and the three soulful 9th Wonder loops that blessed ears while Kendrick unveiled secrets from his past.
19. Daniel Caesar — "Freudian"
Label:Golden Child Recordings
Release Date: August 25, 2017
Producer: Jordan Evans & Matthew Burnett
There’s a sudden pause that occurs in the middle of “Freudian,” the closing record from Daniel Caesar’s stunning debut album. It's the first silent gap since Chance The Rapper’s "Pusha Man / Paranoia" that causes me absolute discomfort. But just like Chance, the wait, is worth the irritable anxiety. With a voice that will leave a choir of angels envious, Daniel singing of human sacrifice over a beautiful church organ is just one final breathtaking moment before the album ends.
18. SZA — "Doves in the Wind" ft. Kendrick Lamar
Label: Top Dawg Entertainment / RCA Records
Release Date: June 9, 2017
Producer: Cam O'bi
SZA and Kenny made sure we don’t forget pink matters. Vagina appreciation from ‘17 'til infinity.
17. Calvin Harris — "Slide" ft. Frank Ocean & Migos
Label:Sony Music Entertainment
Release Date: February 24, 2017
Producer: Calvin Harris
Calvin Harris deserves a pity trophy for being criminally overlooked for song of the summer. “Slide” is a winner, it sounds like dancing under the influence of expensive tequila on a DayGlo-dyed yacht owned by Charlie Sheen. The disco groove is enhanced by the enchanting cool and contagious melodies brought by Frank, Quavo, and Offset, and the three featured artists are the heartbeats that keep the party lively. What “Slide” lacks in accolades I hope it makes up for in immortality.
16. Rapsody — "Laila’s Wisdom"
Label: Jamla Records / Roc Nation
Release Date: September 22, 2017
Producer: Nottz
Nottz chopped up Aretha Franklin’s “Young, Gifted and Black” for Rapsody’s album intro and few are more worthy to be described as such. “Laila’s Wisdom” is full of soul, musically pleasing and lyrically piercing; an excellent album opener and an ideal introduction track for anyone unfamiliar with Rapsody’s greatness.
15. Daniel Caesar — "Blessed"
Label:Golden Child Recordings
Release Date: August 25, 2017
Producer: Jordan Evans & Matthew Burnett
Love can be messy and flawed. Love can be beautiful and perfect. Daniel Caesar understands this dichotomy of human relationships and how they are simplistic and complex. “Blessed” is the beautiful flaw, the messy perfection of two people who make mistakes, but loving each other isn’t one.
14. Frank Ocean — "Chanel"
Label: Blonded
Release Date: March 10, 2017
Producer: Frank Dukes, Michael Uzowuru & Jarami
Upon release, writer Austin Williams declared “Chanel” to be “the most important song in the world right now.” He wasn’t wrong, Frank’s internet-breaking return is a lionhearted statement tied to sexuality, masculinity, and gender norms. Beyond Frank’s plain-spoken reference to his sexual orientation, “Chanel” is a three-minute masterwork of the modern hybrid of melodic rap and singing. The two separate mediums become seamlessly one―the Vegito of Frank’s discography.
13. Future — "Mask Off"
Label:Epic Records / A1 / Freebandz
Release Date: February 17, 2017
Producer: Southside & Metro Boomin
Armed with a simplistic hook of drug references, a hashtag challenge, and an almighty flute sample from Metro, "Mask Off" was not just the highest-charting solo single of Future's career, it was a cultural moment. The more radio-friendly HNDRXX dropped a week later, but it was this unlikely smash hit that we'll forever equate with the Atlanta superstar's mainstream success.
12. Wiki — "Mayor"
Label: XL Recordings
Release Date: August 25, 2017
Producer: Tony Seltzer, Alex Epton & Rafi Gavron
There’s a physical energy bleeding through the speakers as Wiki raps. You can feel it on the tip of every bar, the heartbeat of someone pouring his everything into words. The love he has for his New York City home is obvious on “Mayor.” As the soul sample whispers behind him, the impeccable rapper bursts with hometown glory. The unapologetic New Yorker is the mayor the city needs, or at least, the rapper to represent its new era of artists on the rise.
11. Smino — "Father Son Holy Smoke"
Label:Zero Fatigue / Downtown Records
Release Date: March 14, 2017
Producer: THEMPeople
Smino’s melodies are superb and his songwriting stellar; he's truly one of the most gifted new artists to arise this year. What he isn’t given enough credit for is his lyrical prowess, his knack for clever wordplay, and the double entendres that make each revisit to his music a completely new experience. “Father Son Holy Smoke” is bombarded with excellent lyricism within the blazing, rapid-fire flow. The "Cha-Cha Slide" reference in the second verse is a perfect example of why you have to take DJ Khaled's advice and really listen when Smino rhymes.
10. JAY-Z — "The Story of O.J."
Label:S. Carter Enterprises / Roc Nation
Release Date: June 30, 2017
Producer: No I.D.
Without reaching hit status, “The Story Of O.J.” was one of the most impactful rap releases of their year. Everyone who ever used a money phone on Instagram felt attacked, every bad record deal was linked back to Jay’s words of disapproval, and credit became synonymous with Hov’s advice. Almost every lyric became a social media meme or a pop culture reference, proof that the pulse is still underneath JAY-Z’s thumb.
9. Kendrick Lamar — "FEAR."
Label: Aftermath / Interscope / Top Dawg Entertainment
Release Date: April 14, 2017
Producer: The Alchemist
Three verses, three different ages, three different fears―a simple yet genius concept epitomized by the brilliant execution. “FEAR.” exemplifies Kendrick’s commitment to the art of storytelling beyond conventional means, a recurring devotion that spans across all his studio albums. Edgar Allan Poe could never.
8. Big K.R.I.T. — "Price of Fame"
Label:Multi Alumni
Release Date: October 27, 2017
Producer: WLPWR
“I'm a man now, I came up to hold my fam down / Can't tell them about my depression cause most them fans now." Imagine wishing to speak with someone close about struggles with depression but they can’t separate your celebrity. Fame can cost you friends, family, and often, your sanity. “Price of Fame” is Big K.R.I.T. revealing what fame has cost him by shedding the Big K.R.I.T. persona and allowing Justin Scott to speak the words he’s never said to those who adore him but don’t truly know him.
7. SZA — "The Weekend"
Label:Top Dawg Entertainment / RCA Records
Release Date: June 9, 2017
Producer: ThankGod4Cody
Instant classic. Our children’s children will be wondering who’s man is who’s man when SZA’s massive hit enters their atmosphere.
6. Lil Uzi Vert — "XO TOUR Llif3"
Label: Generation Now / Atlantic Records
Release Date: February 26, 2017
Producer: TM88
2017 was the year a song heavily referencing suicide from a mostly forgotten surprise EP with a misspelled name referencing being on tour with The Weeknd that was produced on a Beats Pill speaker became one of the most undeniable club smashes of recent memory, complete with a remastered version being replaced with its lo-fi original after fan outcry. If you need further explanation, you can find us in the club, still crying.
5. GoldLink — "Crew" ft. Shy Glizzy & Brent Faiyaz
Label:RCA Records
Release Date: December 16, 2016
Producer: Teddy Walton
“Crew” isn’t a record that arrived suddenly with immediate fanfare. No, GoldLink's single was a quiet storm, a song that grew legs gradually, crawling around SoundCloud before eventually graduating to house parties and clubs. Now, as the year ends, “Crew” is GRAMMY-nominated. Brent’s hook, GoldLink’s charisma, and Shy Glizzy’s flow refused to burn out. Three artists hailing from the DMV broke into the mainstream, together. "Crew" is a testament to the importance of working a record you believe in... and also an incredible song.
4. Cardi B — "Bodak Yellow"
Label: Atlantic Records
Release Date: June 16, 2017
Producer: J. White Did It
“Bodak Yellow,” much like GoldLink’s “Crew,” was the underdog single that wasn’t guaranteed a successful reception. You can have millions of fans or millions of dollars and a song can still die faster than Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. There wasn’t another song released in 2017 that brought the joy, energy, and enthusiasm of “Bodak Yellow.” It was the song that could be sung by all. It was bigger than a hit, more than an anthem, it was a movement, and everyone moved behind Cardi. May we all experience getting a bag and fixing our teeth.
3. Kendrick Lamar — "DNA."
Label:Aftermath / Interscope / Top Dawg Entertainment
Release Date: April 14, 2017
Producer: Mike WiLL Made-It
“DNA.” is all the mayhem of a monster truck in rap form. There is no other song in Kendrick’s discography that matches the three minutes of pandemonium displayed after the initial “I got! I got! I got!!!!” Mike Will’s pulsating beat is the year's most riot-inducing production, and the beat switch that comes right before the two-minute mark is the chaos and disorder of a revolution reaching fever pitch. A lesser rapper would’ve been drowned, but Kendrick uses the untamed beast to put on a flawless exhibition of rap adroitness. “DNA.” is a weapon of mass destruction, and it could have been the only song released by Kung Fu Kenny in 2017 and he still would have caused the planet to stop spinning.
2. Frank Ocean — "Provider"
Label: Blonded
Release Date: August 27, 2017
Producer: Jarami, Caleb Laven & Vegyn
It's a shame that Frank Ocean's name won't appear on any end-of-year album lists after dropping four of the year's best songs. It wasn't as important as "Chanel," as shape-shifting as "Lens," or as star-studded as "Biking," but Frank saved the best for last. "Provider" is endlessly replayable, the work of a genius able to nod to Stanley Kubrick, shoegaze, DragonBall Z, Aphex Twin and Talking Heads in a love song as casual as it is sincere, as timeless as it is referential, and as powerful as it is nimble. He may be a recluse, but he's quite the provider.
1. Sampha — "(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano"
Label: Young Turks Recordings
Release Date: February 3, 2017
Producer: Rodaidh McDonald & Sampha
Hairs on arms stand tall as Sampha hits the “Never let me go” high note on the second verse of “(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano.” You might expect the chills to subside after eleven months of casual listening, that the emotional weight would lose its intensity. Nope. Sampha's tribute to his mother who passed after losing her life to cancer still strikes with soul-stabbing eloquence. It’s beautiful melancholy, the somberness rich with affection. No rage, just grief. He sings tearless, but the pressure wails up in his voice, each word more elegant than the last, each piano note seeping into the heart’s cage.
Sampha found the bridge between the beauty of reflecting on life and the pain of accepting that all lives must end. May all the pain to come sound so beautiful.WASHINGTON –Donald Trump’s Twitter target Sunday morning was NBC’s “Meet the Press” as the president-elect called the editing of an interview “terrible!”
“Kellyanne Conway went to @MeetThePress this morning for an interview with @chucktodd,” Trump tweeted Sunday.
“Dishonest media cut out 9 of her 10 minutes. Terrible!”
The interview of Conway, Trump’s incoming White House counselor, was posted online by NBC, but only a portion if it was aired on the Sunday
news program.
CNN’s Brian Stelter reported that Conway knew in advance the interview would be edited.
“NBC source says Team Trump knew (on Friday) that the show was only planning to run a sound bite from @KellyannePolls, not full interview,” tweeted Stelter, anchor of CNN’s “Reliable Sources” show on the media.
But Conway, a Sunday show regular, said she wasn’t aware her point of view would be chopped.
“False. We’re not in the business of furnishing 10-minute Sunday show interviews so media can choose which ‘soundbite’ to run. Our POV cut,” Conway tweeted.
Trump, who routinely uses the media as his punching bag, will hold his first official press conference in five months on Wednesday.Nonetheless, some Conservative lawmakers added a strident note to Tuesday’s debate.
“It is not possible to redefine marriage,” said Sir Roger Gale, a right-wing backbencher. “Marriage is the union between a man and a woman, has been historically, remains so. It is Alice in Wonderland territory, Orwellian almost, for any government of any political persuasion to seek to come along and try to rewrite the lexicon. It will not do.”
Another discomfited backbencher, Edward Leigh, struck a note that carried a warning for Mr. Cameron, who spoke openly of his support for gay marriage almost as soon as he became the Conservative leader in 2005. “We should be in the business of protecting cherished institutions and our cultural heritage,” Mr. Leigh said. “Otherwise what, I ask, is a Conservative Party for?”
Mr. Cameron is trying to modernize the Conservatives, and to position the party for general elections in 2015, when it will have to battle against a resurgent Labour Party riding high in the polls.
“Today is an important day,” he told reporters at 10 Downing Street before the vote. “I am a strong believer in marriage. It helps people commit to each other, and I think it is right that gay people should be able to get married too.”
“Yes, this is about equality,” he added. “But it is also about making our society stronger.”
A day after the newly confirmed archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, took office saying that he shared the Church of England’s opposition to same-sex marriage, three cabinet officials said in a letter published in The Daily Telegraph that the new legislation was “the right thing to do at the right time.”
“Marriage has evolved over time,” the letter said. “We believe that opening it up to same-sex couples will strengthen, not weaken, the institution.”
The three ministers — George Osborne, the chancellor of the Exchequer; Foreign Secretary William Hague; and Home Secretary Theresa May — also asked whether it was “any longer acceptable to exclude people from marriage simply because they love someone of the same sex.”The UK's Police Intellectual Property Unit has raided a UK-based pirate TV streaming operation said to be responsible for the distribution of thousands of illegal devices worldwide. In addition to the seizure of dozens of servers, three men have been arrested.
Last month saw the shutdown of KickassTorrents and the arrest of its alleged founder, a development which sent shockwaves through the file-sharing community.
That was followed by the surprise shutdown of Torrentz, the world’s largest torrent meta-search engine. It’s not known why the site chose to close its doors but its departure from the scene was somewhat more orderly than that of KAT.
Meanwhile, and as revealed in our earlier report, streaming continues to prove increasingly popular with Internet users, a fact the authorities are well aware of.
With that in mind, the UK’s Police Intellectual Property Unit (PIPCU) has just carried out a new operation against individuals it believes are involved in streaming content online and distributing set-top boxes modified to receive it.
Following a series of dawn raids carried out yesterday morning in Lancashire, PIPCU arrested three men aged 36, 40 and 58, on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering offences.
PIPCU say that the operation received assistance from local police and a forensic investigator from the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT).
While previous operations against streaming pirates have usually resulted in the seizure of Kodi-enabled Android set-top boxes, this operation appears to have gone a step up the chain.
Photographs provided by PIPCU show what appears to be a somewhat sophisticated operation, beginning with satellite TV reception.
The PIPCU operation spanned three residential addresses and an as-yet-unnamed business premises. It seems likely that the photograph of the server room shown below was taken in the latter location. Thus far, PIPCU say they have seized approximately 30 servers.
In addition, PIPCU say they also recovered set-top boxes which had been modified so that users could access hundreds of premium subscription-only channels.
“Some of the channels available on the devices include pay-per-view sports, the latest movies and UK broadcast television only available to UK licence fee payers. Officers have also identified 15 satellites,” PIPCU report.
Neither the police nor FACT have provided any information which allows us to easily identify those arrested or their operation. However, there are a number of clues which point us in a particular direction.
Firstly, PIPCU claims that the devices were being sold as legitimate products that could provide content to users anywhere in the world for an annual fee of around £400. Second, the unit also identified a small town with a population of just 41,000.
So, given the location of the raids and the specific nature and size of the business, TorrentFreak sources familiar with IPTV operators in the UK told us that one company in particular stands out as the most likely candidate.
The outfit has not yet responded to our requests for comment so naturally we won’t name them, but we do know that they offer IPTV packages to the expat market and those abroad for just a few pounds less than the £400 mentioned by PIPCU.
The packages (and indeed the hardware) are also marketed and sold as entirely legitimate. We’re also aware that a staff member at the company was previously involved in another business dealing in satellite communications.
At the time of writing their website is still up and running and registered to a business premises in Chorley, Lancashire, the town mentioned by PIPCU. Furthermore, a posting discovered online by TF indicates that the IPTV operation had been established for a number of years and was recently running 30 servers.
In a statement, head of PIPCU, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Ratcliffe, described the outfit as “a significant and highly resourced operation to distribute pirated television on an industrial scale” to tens of thousands of people across the globe.
“Operations like this remain an integral part of protecting livelihoods supported by the entertainment industry and the law abiding public who pay for their channels with their hard earned cash,” he said.
Director General of the Federation Against Copyright Theft, Kieron Sharp, said his organization will continue to pursue those engaged in this growing area of piracy.
“Illegally modified set-top boxes, along with infringing apps and add-ons, have created new opportunities for criminality and piracy. Tackling these threats and the people behind them is one of our highest priorities and therefore today’s multi-agency action is another great result for law enforcement and the creative industries,” Sharp said.
“We will continue to work with our members and partners, such as the City of London Police, to crack down on those involved in the illegal supply of these boxes so that both the content and its creators are protected.”
When TF has solid information concerning the identity of the company involved we will post an update.Given that it happened during the one sliver of the calendar year when every professional sport short of football is in a meaningful stretch of its schedule, Tim Tebow signing with the Eagles feels like the NFL’s version of an SEO ploy. You could argue that it’s a signing that somehow manages to detract from both sides’ credibility, which is probably why you’ve heard all the jokes about the move since it was announced yesterday. It’s not even low-hanging fruit. It’s no-hanging fruit.
So, we could all sit here and make jokes for 3,000 words. That could be fun. What seems more interesting right now, though, is trying to figure out how and why this might make sense. Writing about the Eagles and Chip Kelly’s plan over the past few months has increasingly become an exercise in piecing together tenuous strands of logic, but it’s not hard to figure out why the Eagles might be bringing in Tebow. As with many of their other moves, the decision has so many question marks attached that it’s also hard to imagine that Philadelphia is better off for Kelly’s latest transaction.
For your sake and mine, let’s ignore the various Tebow sagas and the hyperspecific context he’s managed to carve out for himself as a football player, at least for a few paragraphs. Just in terms of the skills Tebow has exhibited on the field, does he fit as a possible quarterback in Kelly’s vaunted offensive scheme? Yes. And no. And, more than anything: It depends. Let’s run through the characteristics of the ideal Kelly quarterback and see if Tebow matches up:
Kelly wants quarterbacks who can throw downfield. The Eagles want to discourage opposing safeties from creeping up into the box to stop the run game by having a quarterback who can hit receivers downfield for big plays. Kelly’s emphasis on acquiring tall targets for his quarterbacks also fits that mold; even as he’s let DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin leave, Kelly re-signed 6-foot-3 Riley Cooper, drafted 6-foot-3 Jordan Matthews and 6-foot-5 Zach Ertz in the first two rounds, and took a flier on 6-foot-3 Miles Austin in free agency this offseason.
Last year, the Eagles threw 20 yards or more downfield on 13.7 percent of their passes, the sixth-highest rate in the league. That fits Tebow’s strengths as a passer. His arm strength plays up on deep throws, and while he has issues with his accuracy, the sheer time it takes for a football to move 40 yards downfield allows his receivers to make adjustments that they can’t make on shorter routes. Tebow doesn’t get the sort of velocity that a freakishly strong-armed quarterback like Matthew Stafford gets on his intermediate throws, but his downfield throws have a consistent loft that get over trailing defenders.
During his season as the primary starter with the Broncos in 2011, Tebow was able to find Eric Decker and Demaryius Thomas when teams left them alone in single coverage downfield. He just didn’t do it quite as frequently as it might have seemed at the time. On throws 20 or more yards downfield that year, Tebow was 15-of-60 for 496 yards, with three touchdowns and two picks. His 60.4 QBR doesn’t sound too bad, but that was 29th among 33 qualifying quarterbacks that year. On all of his other throws — the ones that traveled 19 yards or less in the air — Tebow’s 48.2 QBR was 28th out of 34 qualifiers. The arm strength is an unquestioned tool, but he didn’t really turn it into a skill during his famous season in Denver.
Kelly wants quarterbacks who avoid turnovers. This seems silly — what coach would want a quarterback who doesn’t avoid giving the ball away? — but it’s fair to say that Kelly loathes takeaways. It was part of the reasoning for the team falling out of love with Nick Foles, whose interception rate jumped from 0.6 percent to 3.2 percent last season, and why it went after Sam Bradford, who has thrown picks on just 2.2 percent of his pro passes.
Tebow’s interception rate hasn’t stood out; he’s thrown picks on 2.5 percent of his pro passes, a figure that was at 2.2 percent during that 2011 campaign. Given how aggressive he is as a runner and how badly he tries to extend plays, the Eagles would probably have some concerns about Tebow’s propensity for fumbling. He led the league with 14 fumbles across 14 games during 2011. It’s too small of a sample to say whether he has a fumbling problem, but the reality is that Tebow gets hit a lot. He’s been sacked on 10.2 percent of his pro dropbacks, and that doesn’t include the plays on which he’s scrambled out of pressure. More hits inevitably mean more fumbles.
Kelly wants a mobile quarterback who can be a threat as part of the read-option. Nobody doubts that Tebow can be an effective runner. He’s not the sort of fleet-footed scamperer that Michael Vick or Marcus Mariota were in this same offense, but Tebow can be a very effective weapon in between the tackles, where he’s agile enough to slip into small creases but big enough to push the pile when he gets there. I’ve suggested in the past that Tebow could carve out a role as a short-yardage runner, and if he did make the roster, it wouldn’t be shocking to see Kelly use him in a specialized role as such.
As an option quarterback, though? I’m skeptical. Sure, Tebow ran the option as part of Urban Meyer’s offensive attack at Florida and won two national championships. That counts for something. |
ayer": the teenage Jeremy Clarkson. The pair ended up working together on Top Gear, and according to Wilman, now the executive producer of the show, their schooldays have been a profound influence on the revamped model: the presenters behave as if they are still at school and are celebrated and condemned alike for their puerile sense of humour.
The arrival of the motormouth Clarkson in the late 80s shook up strait-laced Top Gear, but audiences declined after he departed in the late 90s. Wilman, a burly, sweary 47-year-old who, when we meet is frantically stitching together the new series in an edit suite in Soho, was actually sacked from the old model Top Gear in 1999. The show looked "fucking old-fashioned" next to new formats such as Changing Rooms, he says now, and after it was finally axed in 2001, he and Clarkson got together over a pub lunch to draw up a manifesto for a brand new Top Gear.
One, it would have a news section so "important but boring" cars could be dispensed with quickly. Two, it would be filmed before an audience in an old aircraft hangar, that would become "an oasis for people who like cars". Three, they would have an all-male line-up. Four, and perhaps most importantly, "it would always be an unfair show," says Wilman. "The BBC would say, 'You should get Professor Suchabody on talking about the environment' and we would go, 'Fuck off, he can have the Ten O'Clock News.' Do the Two Fat Ladies say, 'And if you want to have a low-fat version of this recipe you can use single cream'? They never do. They go, 'Pile it on; heart attack now'."
Other winning ingredients were arrived at more by accident. The show needed a professional driver – but "a racing driver with brains" was impossible to find. Clarkson suggested an anonymous masked driver who never spoke, like the Gimp in Pulp Fiction. Wilman approached racing drivers: "We'd ask, do you want to be this secret racing driver on Top Gear? They'd say, 'I'm on.' You'll be called the Gimp... They'd go, 'You can fuck off.'" So he and Clarkson relented: their "captive racing driver" would be called The Stig, the nickname for new boys at Repton.
The bolshy, rebranded Top Gear – a blend of TFI Friday, Tiswas and That's Life, according to Wilman – was relaunched in 2002, but it was not an immediate success. "It was just a car show on BBC2 so we were afforded the time without having to force it," explains Richard "the Hamster" Hammond when we talk. "There was no artifice, there was no, 'Jeremy will be the big bombastic one and you, Richard, can be the short, noisy one.' We just sat down and did what we did and we were afforded the opportunity to let it grow organically."
The on-screen gang was completed with the arrival of the cerebral James May for the second series. Whatever you think of these three white, middle-class, middle-aged men with their schoolboy humour, all three are smart. Or, as a Top Gear editor said recently: "Thick people doing thick things is not funny. Clever people doing clever things is not funny. But clever people doing thick things really is funny."
Their onscreen chemistry and cartoon characters took shape over several series. "Jeremy is walk through a door rather than open it, Richard's massively accident prone and cheeky chappie, and James is a pedantic nerd," says Wilman. His young children love these "black-and-white, tabloid characters"; Wilman jokes that Top Gear's audience is all schoolboys and prisoners. Hammond, who grew up as one of three brothers, points out that a trio works well: one of them always gets in trouble, or gets picked on. Like any gang, they mercilessly take the piss and have even started to speak the same: Hammond now seems to echo May's distinctive way of saying "I wuz" and "becuz".
As audiences grew and Top Gear attracted A-list guests from Joanna Lumley to Usain Bolt to race in its "reasonably priced car" each week, its stunts became more outlandish and its films more exotic. The trio graduated from converting old bangers into stretch limos to road trips across America, painting "Man Love Rules OK" in pink on an old pick-up for a ride through Alabama that ended with locals throwing rocks at them.
"One of our watchwords, a phrase that permeates our productions, is 'ambitious but crap'," says Hammond, chuckling to himself. "I love setting off on projects like trying to make a car and cross the English Channel." Hammond's Triumph Herald with a sail sunk in minutes and a coastguard called them irresponsible. "I love setting off with deliberately childish and innocent and wide-eyed hopefulness, and I think people enjoy that."
May, a donnish, genteel man nicknamed Captain Slow by his colleagues for his championing of comfort over speed in cars, thinks Top Gear gives viewers vicarious pleasure. "Maybe a lot of people would like to make an amphibious car but not everybody can – we'll tell you about it and hopefully keep you amused while we are doing it," he says. "We are not hidebound by the conventions of television or political correctness; we just do what we think would be a good laugh and film it for television. People quite like the refreshing honesty of it. It's a fairly simple concept, Top Gear: three blokes pushing the boundaries of automotive acceptability."
It appeared they had pushed the boundaries too far in 2006 when Hammond nearly died while filming a stunt at Elvington airfield near York. A tyre on his dragster burst as he reached 288mph and a serious brain injury left him depressed and disorientated for many months. "I'd get confused between responses to things and I'd respond in the wrong way to things; it would be heartfelt and genuine but wrong," he says now. "Ongoing from that was a phase of a propensity for depression, for compulsion, for paranoia. I experienced those things and they are very unpleasant."
When Hammond returned to Top Gear, Clarkson handed him a tissue in case he started "dribbling" – another crass joke that was jumped on by critics. "Just because we make light of it on the show, don't think for a second I make light of it myself because I don't – it was bloody horrible," Hammond says.
While Wilman is called "the boss" by Hammond, Clarkson is the "engine room" of Top Gear according to Wilman. "It's Jeremy's show. No question, because it can't be a democracy. It's Jeremy's vision. We've all got drive but his drive is noticeably amazing." Arriving home at midnight after a recent Top Gear Live event, Clarkson worked on a rough edit of the new series and called Wilman with his notes at 8am the next day. "I doubt Jonathan Ross is doing that," Wilman says.
Clarkson would not be interviewed for this article. He refuses all interviews, claims Top Gear's publicist, although he pops up in the pages of the Sun and the Sunday Times often enough. Which is a shame, because Clarkson is an easy hate figure for Guardian readers, even those who secretly enjoy Top Gear. He seems to ooze contempt for the environment. During filming for Top Gear, it was claimed he damaged a peat bog in Scotland. On another occasion, the BBC was forced to apologise after he rammed a pick-up into a chestnut tree to test the vehicle's strength. He rails against political correctness and health and safety regulations, and earlier this summer was accused of calling Gordon Brown "a cunt" in unbroadcast comments to his Top Gear audience, whom he has also referred to as "oafs". He has been condemned by chief constables for glamorising speeding, has joked about truck drivers murdering prostitutes, and said a woman presenter would be "a disaster" on Top Gear.
He sounds like a sexist monster and a bully, but then Clarkson's reactionary opinions are probably the calculated wind-ups of a professional stirrer. Wilman's account of their schooldays is revealing: "Going to school together is more important than most people realise with Top Gear," he says. At school, Clarkson found his niche perpetually needling teachers and those in authority. "He'd be like somebody doing that to you." Wilman leans over and repeatedly prods me with his finger. "If they do that to you for four years, you want to kill them."
The pair learned in boarding school that there was a limit to punishments – they already had bad food and early bedtime – so they felt almost untouchable. "Which is why I can't be arsed with Ofcom," Wilman says of their frequent brushes with authority. (The latest was this week, when the regulator ruled that Top Gear breached broadcasting regulations with its spoof VW advert depicting a suicide.) "If the BBC get cross with us, we struggle to take it seriously."
Curiously, the Labour government has been another ingredient in Top Gear's success. "I believe there is a load of reasons why Top Gear is popular – families like it, girls like to watch men being thick and we do that with aplomb, and the third thing is we are a release valve for people who get nagged to fuck," says Wilman. "We know this Labour administration has put more rules in since '97 than anyone else because they have passed more laws."
May agrees. "I hope people like the fact we're not going to be cowed into toeing the Labour party line. We don't like being told by other people how we should live and how we should think." He pauses and adds with genial irony: "We're striking out for freedom on Top Gear." Under a Conservative government, Top Gear's status as an enjoyably subversive pleasure may disappear. Wilman admits the team are "a bit Tory wanker", but argues they will "end up doing opposition" because any new government will "still pop the motorist because it's an easy target".
One analogy that keeps returning to Top Gear is of a rock band. After years of obscurity, this gang of four blokes has gone global. They may be at the peak of their powers – with their world tour, solo projects, long hair, helicopters and big houses in the country – but just like jaded rockers they sense their own mortality.
Indeed, May has said that if he had known how massive Top Gear would become, he would not have joined in the first place. Hammond is not convinced: "James is not without ambition. None of us are. You don't do our job unless you really want to. It doesn't happen by accident and don't think for a second it does. But none of us imagined it would get this big."
If personality clashes don't kill Top Gear (these days, the presenters sound increasingly convincing when they describe how much they dislike each other), then budget cuts might. On BBC orders, Top Gear has cut costs this year and must do so again next year. Wilman is worried that its lavish films – "our signature dish" – will suffer. It has been reported that each show costs £100,000, but "it's more than that," Wilman brags. "We spend that on crisps."
Global rights and merchandising make millions for Worldwide, the BBC's commercial arm, which then pays for a quarter of Top Gear's budget. The rest is from the licence fee. But reports that Clarkson earns £2m a year are "the biggest pile of bollocks," says Wilman. "They are not getting paid stupid money."
As well as the budget, Top Gear has been forced into a new, schoolboy-unfriendly 9pm time-slot because The X Factor results show is now at 8pm on Sunday. Wilman would happily have Simon Cowell back on Top Gear, but "this time we might cut through the brakes".
Critics may dislike Top Gear's swagger and argue that it appears more scripted these days (not true, says Wilman). For the new series, they have romped around South America in 4x4s, crashed a caravan-airship and are hoping to create a smash-hit art exhibition out of cars. If Top Gear is a rock band, aren't these expensive stunts a self-indulgent concept album too far?
Wilman insists they do not stage their misadventures but admits it is "less spontaneous" after 13 series. "We know we want calamities to happen. There is no surprise to us any more, just relief, when things go wrong," he says. Unlike great rock bands, he does not think they will be destroyed by their own hubris. "It will end because we are a one-trick pony, as all good shows are, and at some point we will run out of ideas or the public will go, 'We've got the point now.'" he says. "But we'll run out of songs first."
A new series of Top Gear begins on BBC2 at 9pm on Sunday, and also on the BBC HD channel.Minority report
Single party minority governments are pretty common and reasonably durable
Chris Hanretty Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jun 20, 2017
Following the general election earlier this month, it looks as though the UK will get a single party minority government formed by the Conservative party with external support from the Democratic Unionist Party.
I can't be certain of this, because the details of the Conservative party's arrangement with the DUP are, ahem, not yet clear. Yet, mirabile dictu, the sky has not fallen, and the UK seems as though it will survive this brief interregnum.
Given this — and given the conviction that UK politics isn't a special snowflake utterly distinct from all other parliamentary systems — I thought it might be helpful to review some basic figures about minority government taken from ParlGov.
These figures are based on 486 post-1992 cabinets from the thirty seven countries featured in the ParlGov database. A new cabinet forms where the prime minister forms, where the party composition of the cabinet forms, or where an election intervenes. The code used in the analysis can be found on GitHub.
Around one in every three governments (32.9%) is a minority government. The figure does not change very much whether or not one includes caretaker administrations (32.9% with, 30% without).
. The figure does not change very much whether or not one includes caretaker administrations (32.9% with, 30% without). Single party minority governments are the most common type of minority government. Just under two in five minority governments (37%) are single party minority governments. Two-party minority governments are almost as common (31%). Minority coalitions with three or more parties make up the rest
Just under two in five minority governments (37%) are single party minority governments. Two-party minority governments are almost as common (31%). Minority coalitions with three or more parties make up the rest The average minority cabinet lasts one year and five months, compared to two years for the average majority cabinet. Minority cabinets are not strange, evanescent creatures. They last 70% as long as majority cabinets.
Minority cabinets are not strange, evanescent creatures. They last 70% as long as majority cabinets. Just three out of 160 minority cabinets lasted longer than four years, compared to a larger proportion of majority cabinets (30 out of 326). Note thought that these averages include a number of cabinets formed midway through a parliamentary spell.
My own view (which may or may not be more prescient than my election forecasts) is that this current cabinet (with Theresa May as Prime Minister) will struggle on until the end of the Article 50 negotiations, at which point the Conservative party will decide that the Prime Minister has outlived her usefulness.File under "How not to be a good corporate citizen." (Scott Lynch/Gothamist)
The heat wave of the last two days is expected to break tonight, and Con Edison has restored service to all but 780 of the 20,000 New Yorkers who lost power yesterday, most of them on Staten Island. But that doesn't mean it's open season to behave like a dick, according to the energy giant. The company had been urging customers in areas affected by the likely heat-induced outages to hold off on using washers, dryers, air conditioners, and other energy-sucking devices. Now it's just asking people to use common sense, another resource in short supply around here.
"We would just ask people to use energy wisely, not to use energy unnecessarily," Con Ed spokesman Bob McGee said. "Stores using air conditioners with their doors open and stuff like that—it's not a good thing." No, it is not a good thing, and in some cases it's illegal.
McGee said that crews have fired up generators on Staten Island, but 221 customers remain without power, most of them on the borough's East and South shores. Another 100 or so are without power in the South Bronx, along with nearly 300 in Borough Park, Brooklyn.
Con Edison has throttled down power in Midtown West, and in parts of Brooklyn and Queens, where it has deployed generators. Neighborhoods that still have scattered outages include Corona, Maspeth, Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, East New York, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, and St. Albans.
McGee said an official investigation hadn't been completed, but that all signs point to the heat having fried cables.
"We do typically see spikes in these kinds of events during 90-degree heat waves on the second and third day," he said. "This certainly follows the pattern."
It's only 84 now, according to our pals at The Weather Channel, but it's supposed to get up to 92 later today.Conor McGregor appears to show vast improvements every time he steps into the cage to compete. He truly is an obsessed fighter, always looking to build on top of any of his weaknesses in his game. When it came down to challenge the lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez, Conor looked even more impressive. This fight was a one-sided performance to say the least, but here we are again exploring the craft of Conor McGregor. Eddie did display some brief moments of successful offense, but Conor’s timing, precision, and distancing was too superior to handle.
Controlling The Fight
In the lightweight division, the average reach is about 71.5’’ according to Fightnomics.com. Conor has a 74’’ reach and makes complete use of it to manage distance. We saw history repeat itself when Conor returned to fighting an orthodox fighter in Eddie Alvarez. When Conor fights someone who uses an orthodox stance, he typically looks to seize control of their lead hand.
By controlling the lead hand, Conor was able to measure while simultaneously keeping Eddies lead hand in check. With that lead hand in check, Eddie’s offensive options from that hand were limited. With Eddie’s lead hand constantly in check, Conor typically reduced the moments to a battle of who can now fire off their rear hand, or breach through the control of the lead hand.
Like this example where Conor breaches through the control of the lead hand. See how he controls the hand of his opponent and breaks through range with a jab..
By having his hand over the top of the opponent’s hand, he now controls their options with that arm. With narrow options left, Eddie chooses to retract his lead arm, however, retracting the arm often means the he ends up relinquishing control of distance. Despite the criticism Conor receives about his lack of an active jab, he actually uses the lead hand more preferably to control the distance and the opponent.
McGregor’s Trap
Here’s where it gets interesting, Conor is well known for his excellent rear hand shot (his infamous left hand), and has a variety of ways to land it. This is one of the main attributes that distinguish him from many of his opponents. Conor will typically bring the fight into his terms by reducing the fight to a game of whose better at breaching through with the left hand. If the opponent attempts to deviate away from his control, Conor would typically reset by back stepping or countering.
As a principle, if you bring two fighters into a specific scenario, the one with the most tools for that scenario will have the superior edge. In this case, Conor overwhelmingly dominated Eddie with the craft of his left hand shot.
Left Hand Shot, How Does He Do It?
The cross is a relatively basic technique; one of the first forms of striking every beginner picks up, yet not everyone has that ability to consistently land it. Conor has the art of the left hand shot down frighteningly well. No matter who he fights, he’s always shown the competency and distance management to land it on every single fighter he’s faced. I’m often asked about his left hand shot from fellow readers seeking to know why such a basic shot lands so exceedingly well. The truth of the matter is that his success is a product of many different qualities. Aside from his excellent precision and timing, he has tremendous variance in how he throws the left hand.
Conor uses a variety of rhythm when throwing that left hand. He typically uses a greater range of rhythm compared to the average MMA fighter. For the sake of this fight, we’ll just look at a few examples. Take a look at the following examples:
Delayed Cross
Check out the delayed left hand. It’s typically a delayed left hand that takes a bit longer to finish. The time it takes to finish a typical strike is considered a beat. In this case, this delayed cross can be considered a strike that takes about a beat-and-a-half to finish.
The purpose of the delayed left hand is to throw off the opponent’s reactive rhythm. More specifically, the opponent’s timing gets disrupted. See the example above where Conor throws the delayed cross and Nate mistakenly throws his lead hook counter way out of rhythm while Conor lands that left hand shot.
Conor has shown tendencies to use this on a regular basis and had even displayed its use against Eddie Alvarez, but he didn’t produce anything too significant with it.
Breaking Rhythm Mid-Combo
In this next example, Conor sets up the cross by using deceptive rhythm mid-combo. In this example, Conor throws a jab, then throws a subtle feint jab to throw of the opponent’s timing, this sequentially opens up an opportunity for that left hand to land flush.
Pay close attention to the first jab. After the jab misses, Conor throws a feinting lead hand which causes Eddie to slip his head off early. Conor then proceeds to precisely land that left hand cross again after masterfully baiting Eddie’s head there through timing manipulation.
This left hand shot was similar to what he used to connect on Dennis Siver as well. See this next example where Conor throws a jab, feints a jab, then lands a left hand.
In short, the success of Conor’s left hand stems from his ability to combine it with a vast variety of deceptive rhythm which he can connect with by countering or going on the offensive. In addition, his precision and timing make that left that much more devastating. With precision, he can hit the sweet-spot of the chin where it’s ideal to rock someone into a concussive state. With timing, that left can be used to intercept opponent’s moving forward, using their own momentum against them as they move into his shot.
The Efficiency of Conor’s Counter
Conor’s timing and precision looked really good in this fight. The distance Conor manages is so precise that he’s able to avoid shots by a hair. This plays a big role of why his counters are so efficient. Because he’s so precise with how he moves, he’s able to effectively transition into his attacks so fluidly. In principle, the further you move away from your neutral position, the longer it takes for you to return. So by moving away from your position by a small margin, this allows you to quickly come back to attack. Take a look at a few examples of how well Conor manages his distance by a precise margin.
Floyd Mayweather follows the same principle in his shoulder rolls, mentioning how he uses small subtle movement just enough so he body doesn’t turn too much, otherwise his rear hand shot would take longer to connect.
In this next example, Conor steps back and is able to maintain an offensive position.
Note that Conor’s legs are in a linear stance which is best suited for defensive movement, but his upper body remains squared up in an offensive position. His upper body isn’t linear, so this means his upper body is readily available to attack from either arm quickly. Since his shoulders don’t deviate away from his square stance too much, his cross is closer to the opponent and can connect sooner. The efficiency in this position allows him to fluidly transition into various offensive options.
In part 2, I continue off going into detail on some of Eddie Alvarez’s craft (signature moves), why he got countered and some aspects of the fight that did go right. PART 2 Here.By World Boxing Council
Andre Ward is one of the most dominant champions of today, as well as a true embassador of the sport of boxing and an example to the youth of the world.
Very unfortunately, he has sustained injuries that have left him out of the ring for long periods of time. First, Andre sustained a broken hand after conquering the WBC championship versus Carl Froch in December, 2011, which kept him out of the ring until September, 2012, when he defeated WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson.
Andre was set to fight Kelly Pavlik when he suffered yet another injury which required surgery and has kept him out of the ring for eight months, and it is yet uncertain as to when he will resume his boxing carrer.
The WBC Board of Governors is honored to announce that by a unanimous voting, Andre has been designated Champion Emeritus, joining a very limited number of champions who have received such recognition which grants them special priviledges to be able to resolve ther own personal matters while not losing their standing as WBC Champion of the World.
Once Andre is ready to return, the WBC will order an immediatte bout between him and whoever is the reigning champion, with a purse split of 60-40 in favor of Andre.
Other Emeritus Champions who have succesfully used their designation are Vitali Klitschko, Konstantin Tszyu, Erik Morales, Bernard Hopkins and Floyd Mayweather Jr.Univ. of Georgia Athens campus. Facebook
Georgia’s Republican governor vetoed Tuesday a campus carry bill broadly supported by his own party and easily passed by the state legislature that would have allowed college students to carry concealed guns on campus at the state’s public colleges and universities. Despite the bills support within his own party, there were signs Gov. Nathan Deal was considering sending the bill that would have allowed anyone 21 and older to carry a weapon on campus back to the legislature unsigned. The bill would have allowed guns in classrooms, but barred them from dorms, Greek housing, and athletic events.
Each of the 29 presidents of public institutions and their police chiefs all opposed the bill. “Long an opponent of the measure, Deal said in February that fears that campus carry would lead to a ‘Wild West scenario’ were overblown,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports. “But shortly after the measure passed, Deal sent hand-written notes to House Speaker David Ralston and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle urging them to exempt on-campus child care facilities, faculty or administrative office space and disciplinary meetings in a separate measure.” They declined to reconsider the bill and Deal vetoed it.
The veto was the second time in a matter of weeks Gov. Deal, in his second and final term in office, vetoed a high-profile bill popular among his party. A little over a month ago, Deal vetoed a highly controversial “religious liberty” bill that would have permitted wide-ranging discrimination against the LGBTQ community in the state. This week Deal again countered his party and the powerful NRA gun lobby, so it is unsurprising that he went to painstaking lengths to explain his decision in his veto statement, “citing legal precedents and even harking back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in 1824, and their stance opposing guns on the University of Virginia campus,” the AP notes.
“If the intent of [this bill] is to increase safety of students on college campuses, it is highly questionable that such would be the result,” Deal said in the statement. “From the early days of our nation and state, colleges have been treated as sanctuaries of learning where firearms have not been allowed. To depart from such time honored protections should require overwhelming justification. I do not find that such justification exists.”
A number of other, largely Republican, state legislatures have disagreed with Deal’s thinking. According to the AP, nine states currently allow concealed handguns on campus: Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin.In just five short weeks, the desperate wait of college football fans ends. No more Signing Day talk, no more spring games, no more media days, just actual football.
So with fall nearing, it's time to take a look at this season's main characters: the 100 best players, as they stand entering the 2014 season, based on their talent as college players. Naturally, this list will in some cases reflect NFL potential, because the best college players usually make the best pro players. But this is not an NFL big board; it's a list of the best players currently playing college football, based on watching everything last season, rewatching games this offseason, watching cutups (thanks, as always, draftbreakdown.com), studying statistics and reading as much offseason news as possible.
Inevitably, even though 100 players seems like a lot, there are always hard names to leave off (Florida State TE Nick O'Leary, Virginia Tech CB Brandon Facyson, Texas DT Malcom Brown, Navy QB Keenan Reynolds, Penn State OT Donovan Smith, LSU LB Kwon Alexander, Clemson LB Stephone Anthony, Stanford DB Jordan Richards, Boise State RB Jay Ajayi, Oklahoma DE Charles Tapper and on and on and on) and players who will inevitably break out this season and deserve spots on the list by midseason (Mississippi State QB Dak Prescott, Miami WR Stacy Coley, Alabama QB Jacob Coker, various freshmen and on and on).
Alas, there are only 100 spots available. So with that said, here are college football's top 100 players entering the 2014 season.
100. Rakeem Cato, QB, Marshall. The Thundering Herd may beat everyone in Conference USA by at least two touchdowns. With East Carolina joining the rest of the former CUSA heavyweights in the American, the league is Marshall's show -- and that means it's Cato's show. In the Herd's up-tempo offense, Cato -- who has 35 career starts -- threw for 3,916 yards with 39 touchdowns and nine interceptions last year. He's undersized and won't wow anyone with his arm strength, but he's a mobile playmaker who fits exactly what Marshall wants to do offensively. Honorable mention at this spot goes to another two Group of Five QBs worthy of consideration: Bowling Green's Matt Johnson and East Carolina's Shane Carden.
99. Jeremy Langford, RB, Michigan State. While much of the early-season attention was focused on the quarterback part of Michigan State's offensive struggles, the Spartans also desperately needed a running back to emerge and replace Le'Veon Bell. Langford, a converted DB, proved to be the answer. While not particularly explosive or dangerous on the outside, Langford developed into exactly what the Spartans needed: a consistent, hard-running chain-mover who could handle a lot of carries and can block.
98. Quandre Diggs, CB, Texas. A heralded recruit in 2011, Diggs has been a three-year starter who has shown flashes of stardom but has never really gotten over the hump. He is an All-Big 12 performer who broke up 10 passes last year, though, and it's possible that Charlie Strong's staff will put him in position to truly break out.
97. Leonard Fournette, RB, LSU. Too soon? Probably not. Fournette established himself as one of the greatest running back prospects ever, and while comparisons to Adrian Peterson and Herschel Walker are unfair, he does have a golden opportunity to make a big impact immediately. Les Miles talked up the 6-foot-1, 224-pound true freshman from New Orleans at SEC media days, and with the LSU skill positions turning over but four offensive line starters back, Fournette is primed to live up to the hype and potentially move up this list quickly.
96. Connor Cook, QB, Michigan State. After getting action late in the 2012 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl, it took a few games for Cook to actually unseat Andrew Maxwell in 2013. What followed was a remarkable transformation for the Michigan State offense, moving from embarrassing to competent to at times even quite good. Much of the credit should go to Cook, who got better and better as the season went on. He completed 58.7 percent of his passes for 2,755 yards with 22 touchdowns and six picks overall, but he was at his best in the biggest moments, hitting 300 yards against both Ohio State in the Big Ten title game and Stanford in the Rose Bowl.
95. Byron Marshall, RB, Oregon. Marshall doesn't jump off the screen like some of Oregon's other recent standout backs (Kenjon Barner, LaMichael James, De'Anthony Thomas), but that doesn't mean he won't be highly productive. Last year, he averaged 6.2 yards per carry, running 168 times for 1,083 yards and 14 touchdowns, with deceptive power on top of his solid speed out of Oregon's spread.
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94. Ryan Switzer, WR/PR, North Carolina. There has to be some special teams love on this list. While not there yet as a receiver (Quinshad Davis is the Tar Heels' best wideout and deserves consideration for this list), Switzer did catch 32 passes for 341 yards and three touchdowns last year. That, of course, is on top of his record-tying five punt returns for touchdowns, which helped give him an average of 20.9 yards per return.
93. Taylor Kelly, QB, Arizona State. The Sun Devils do exactly what they need to help Kelly succeed: He doesn't have a big arm, so they focus on a shorter passing game, with the top two running backs and starting tight end combining for 132 catches last year. Kelly utilizes his quick release and also his mobility, as he ran for 608 yards and nine touchdowns on top of his 3,635 yards and 28 touchdowns passing. With Jaelen Strong back at receiver, Kelly should have problem putting up a lot of points again after the Sun Devils averaged 39.7 per game last year.
92. Chris Jones, DT, Mississippi State. Jones only scratched the surface last year, starting just three games. In that time, the five-star true freshman made his presence felt, notching three sacks and seven tackles for loss with 32 tackles. With a full-time role now and a full offseason of work, Jones is poised to become an All-SEC performer quickly.
91. O.J. Howard, TE, Alabama. Like Mississippi State's Jones, we got a small taste of what Howard, a top recruit, could do in his true freshman season. His role should expand greatly in 2014. The 6-foot-6, 237-pounder is able to line up anywhere for Alabama, drawing mismatches with his combination of size and speed that brings to mind many of the modern star receiving tight ends. Now, it's just up to Lane Kiffin to use him properly.
90. Sean Mannion, QB, Oregon State. Remember last October? There was a time where Mannion was briefly on the Heisman radar. It was short-lived, given that Oregon State fell apart as soon as it hit the tough part of its back-loaded schedule. Still, Mannion impressively took hold of the Beavers' starting job and turned in a prolific season, finishing second to Derek Carr nationally with 4,662 yards and 37 touchdowns, although he did throw 15 interceptions. We'll see what he can do as a senior without ultra-productive receiver Brandin Cooks.
89. Josh Shaw, CB, USC. (Editor's note: After publication, Shaw sprained both his ankles and was suspended from the team indefinitely after lying about how the injuries happened.) Shaw gives USC's defensive backfield flexibility because he's versatile enough to excel at both safety and cornerback. He's a senior with good size at 6-foot-1, and he has a knack for making plays on the ball, including four interceptions last season. He appears slated for cornerback this season, but he'll likely end up playing both, depending on the situation and USC's needs.
88. Frank Clark, DE, Michigan. A somewhat overlooked standout for an inconsistent Michigan defense, Clark is a disruptive end who had 12 ½ tackles for loss and five sacks as a junior. Clark was an under-the-radar linebacker recruit who has bulked up in college but still brings great athleticism to the line.
87. Shaq Thompson, LB, Washington. The closest thing to Myles Jack in the Pac-12 who's not actually Myles Jack. Thompson is a terrific athlete at linebacker, so much so that he could get some looks on offense. The 231-pound junior finished second on the team in tackles with 78 last year and has proven to be an asset in coverage for a team that gave up only 5.8 yards per pass attempt last year.
86. Derrick Henry, RB, Alabama. All we needed were a few brief glimpses to understand what Henry is capable of. Nick Saban may have kept his blue-chip true freshman on the bench for much of the season, but he sprung Henry on Oklahoma and the Sugar Bowl, and the results were dazzling. Henry is built like a middle linebacker at 6-foot-3, 238 pounds and runs with power, but he also displayed agility, explosiveness and receiving ability. Against |
aret. This is another way of saying it makes you forget you’re in a mall.
All of this in the name of debauchery. New Yorker writer Joseph Moncure March’s long narrative poem “The Wild Party” (1928) was a literary sensation in its day. Jack Kroll called it “F. Scott Fitzgerald on Spanish fly.” Banned in Boston and elsewhere, it was the book that made William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch) want to become a writer. Never forgotten, it was the basis of the dark James Coco film The Wild Party (1975) and two musicals in the year 2000. Michael John LaChiusa’s Broadway show boasted big names but suffered a short run, while Andrew Lippa’s off-Broadway version became the one everyone has wanted to remember.
Flushed with tension, Wild Party’s action begins when Queenie (Leila Dean), a blonde chorine from vaudeville, is squabbling with her abusive husband Burrs (Jason Bean), a mordant clown possibly based on silent film actor Fatty Arbuckle. To raise their spirits she decides to throw the mother of all parties and make herself attractive to the men who arrive as a way of making Burr jealous. They’re a motley lot, and most are in some form of show business, so they tend to wear black and flaunt shtick in their entrances. No one makes a bigger splash than Queenie’s friend Kate (Mary Musial) with her show-stopping “Look at Me Now.”
To meet the demands of the music Brunson and Searor have cast the net to snare just the right voices. Leila Dean might once have been a Mary Magdalene in a Salt City Center production of Jesus Christ Superstar but she’s been belting them out at rock venues more recently. Tall, almost ghostly in her blonde marcel wig, with epaulet-like tattoos on her alabaster skin, Dean can dominate a scene even before she sings.
Last seen in Covey Theater Company’s Rent, Mary Musial’s Kate writhes with the bumptious energy of a young Liza Minnelli. Jason Bean as the fateful Burrs (not always seen in clown makeup) was a community theater discovery when he impressed deeply as Javert in Baldwinsville Theatre Guild’s Les Misérables in March.
Company regulars Liam Fitzpatrick has made some sacrifices to play Mr. Black, a threatening dude who arrives with Kate. Fitzpatrick has shaved nearly all the hair from his ears to the top of his crown, with what’s left on top pomaded straight back, to look like something from Weimar Germany. Black’s entrance number, “Poor Child,” a quartet with Burrs, Kate and Queenie, suggests a naïve romantic under the swagger. The chemistry with Queenie is immediate, and flames are running along the taboo love triangle.
Two new faces electrify the two comic second leads: short blonde Mae (Briana Jesse Duger) and plumpish Eddie (Zach Siracuse), who brighten the tone with “Two of a Kind.”
Mr. Black’s hair is hardly the only reminder of Weimar Germany, also the era of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. One of the singing D’Armano brothers, Phil (Benjamin Wells), is dressed to look like the Emcee in the Brecht-inspired Cabaret. Donnie Williams’ period costumes, the extreme white makeup with blackened eyes, and Marguerite Beebe’s harsh, from-below lighting design could put the party in Berlin instead of Manhattan.
commentsMotivation
Recently, I was working on a Spring Boot application that needs to query database (Mysql in my case), extract, compute and save a large amount of data (about 100 000 row).
I started first with a small prototype of 5000 lines to check my algorithme. All was good, except one line that triggered this error:
org.springframework.dao.InvalidDataAccessApiUsageException: HOUR_OF_DAY: 0 -> 1; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: HOUR_OF_DAY: 0 -> 1 at org.springframework.orm.jpa.EntityManagerFactoryUtils.convertJpaAccessExceptionIfPossible(EntityManagerFactoryUtils.java:384) at org.springframework.orm.jpa.vendor.HibernateJpaDialect.translateExceptionIfPossible(HibernateJpaDialect.java:246) at org.springframework.orm.jpa.AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean.translateExceptionIfPossible(AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean.java:491)... Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: HOUR_OF_DAY: 0 -> 1 at java.util.GregorianCalendar.computeTime(GregorianCalendar.java:2829) at java.util.Calendar.updateTime(Calendar.java:3393) at java.util.Calendar.getTimeInMillis(Calendar.java:1782) at com.mysql.cj.jdbc.io.JdbcDateValueFactory.createFromDate(JdbcDateValueFactory.java:66) at com.mysql.cj.jdbc.io.JdbcDateValueFactory.createFromDate(JdbcDateValueFactory.java:39) at com.mysql.cj.core.io.BaseDecoratingValueFactory.createFromDate(BaseDecoratingValueFactory.java:46) at com.mysql.cj.core.io.BaseDecoratingValueFactory.createFromDate(BaseDecoratingValueFactory.java:46) at...
and a tons of questions triggered in my mind! How even this error triggered?! This specific line contains the date 2009-06-01. SO What happened in this specific date for god sake, and hope I found the answer: First time Morocco started to implement summer time was... Yes right: 2009-06-01. and from here comes my motivation to write this post, how you can control the timezone used by Hibernate when it communicates timestamps with the database in a spring boot app.
Error cause:
It turns out that the Calendar objects Hibernate send to the JDBC API gets completely ignored. When the driver runs in the useLegacyDatetimeCode=true mode, which is default. The driver get’s the argument – and then simply choose to make another Calendar like this: Calendar.getInstance(). The effect of that, is that the driver uses the timezone that is default to the JVM.
1- Configuring the JVM’s default timezone
2 possible ways here:
launch a Spring Boot runnable JAR:
java -Duser.timezone=<TimeZone> -jar springboot-timezones.jar
from inside your Spring Boot application
@SpringBootApplication public class Application { @PostConstruct void started() { TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone("TimeZone")); } public static void main(String[] args) { SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args); } }
You could also put the TimeZone code into the main method. But putting the TimeZone code into a @PostConstruct callback like this, ensures that it is also effective when you run tests or wrap up the application as a Web ARchive (WAR). Be careful about competing with other initializer methods that use JPA during startup.
In fact, as of writing this post, setting the default timezone is the only truly portable solution for vanilla JPA solutions. JPA doesn’t allow you to control this.
2- Mysql Configuration
As explained above, It turns out that MySQL by default runs in a useLegacyDatetimeCode=true mode. You need to deactivate it for Hibernate to be able to do it’s magic. Luckily that’s easy, just configure it in the JDBC connection URL:
jdbc:mysql://<ip>/<db>?serverTimezone=TimeZone&useLegacyDatetimeCode=false
While this solution worked for me and solved my issue, but it clearly tightly bound to the specific driver.
Hibernate Tip: Configure Hibernate to control the timezone
This is simply done by adding this config to your application.yml file
spring: jpa: properties: hibernate: jdbc: time_zone = TimeZone
With this, Hibernate automatically translates Dates from to your TimeZone when communicating with the database. much cleaner. But you still have, in order to this to work in mysql, to disable the useLegacyDatetimeCode.
Please feel free to comment if you have any suggestion or recommendation.A 36-year-old North Dakota woman who married herself in a commitment ceremony last March has now spoken about her self-marriage choice in an interview with Anderson Cooper.
The marriage took place among friends and family who were encouraged to "blow kisses to the world" after she exchanged rings with her "inner groom", My Fox Phoenix reports.
"I feel very empowered, very happy, very joyous... I want to share that with people, and also the people that were in attendance, it's a form of accountability," Nadien Schweigert told Anderson Cooper.
Schweigert said the ceremony was a celebration of how far she'd come since her painful divorce six years ago that led to her two children to decide to live with her ex-husband.
"Six years ago I would've handled a problem by going out and drinking," she said. "I smoked, I was 50 pounds overweight... this is just celebrating how far I've come in my life."
The Fargo-based yoga teacher also takes herself on dates to treat herself and "to invest in this relationship".
According to a local Fargo newspaper, Schweigert first got the unusual idea from a friend.
"I was waiting for someone to come along and make me happy," Schweigert told Inforum. "At some point, a friend said, 'Why do you need someone to marry you to be happy? Marry yourself.'"
Believe it or not, this isn't the first time a woman has chosen to tie the knot solo. In 2010, a 30-year-old Taiwanese woman married herself.Conor Friedersdorf identifies one of the same problems with Walker’s weak answer regarding the war on ISIS that I found:
His answer is discrediting because it betrays how little thought he has given these questions.
That is true, but Walker’s answer is troubling for another reason. If a governor understandably knows little about foreign policy because it is not relevant to his current job, and if he has given little thought to the issues at hand, it is even more irresponsible for him to support aggressive action. Ignorance would be bad enough, but in Walker’s remarks we have the marriage of ignorance with the willingness to escalate a foreign war. Walker won’t rule anything out because he hasn’t thought through his position, but the default position for someone who has given so little thought to the matter should be one of much greater caution.
The difficulty is that the politician that doesn’t know much about the subject matter is also ignorant of the importance of caution and restraint in foreign policy, because he often chooses to treat these issues as occasions for posturing and demagoguery. Indeed, the ignorant politician relies on the latter to make up for the fact that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and so we hear him lecturing on the need for aggressive policies that he couldn’t coherently describe or defend when asked about them. These displays of ignorance don’t alarm his hawkish admirers, who see in the governor’s ignorance an opportunity to mold him to their liking, and they are laughed off by others on the grounds that governors never know anything about foreign policy. But if that is true, why should we ever want to gamble on making one of them president?
As I was pointing out last week, however, the problem is not limited to governors. We have such low expectations for what our politicians are supposed to know about foreign policy that serial blunderers are credited with “expertise” simply because they talk about these issues on a regular basis. When these blunderers set the standard for what counts as “expertise,” it is no wonder that governors can fake their way through this part of the debates. They may not know anything, but they can repeat the vapid slogans about “leadership” and American exceptionalism just as well as members of Congress can, and that is unfortunately what matters more.Since China began its market reforms in the late 1970s, it has lifted more than 800 million people out of poverty, slashing the rate from nearly 90% in 1981 to under 2%, as measured by the World Bank’s latest spending benchmark.
The rest of the world is lagging behind. Ahead of the UN general assembly this week, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation warned that the international community could miss the ambitious milestone it has set on poverty—to banish it by 2030.
The 2030 target and 16 other sustainable development goals replaced a set of millennium development aims that sought to halve extreme poverty between 1990 and 2005. Over that time, the number of people worldwide living in extreme poverty went down by over a billion, to 840 million. China accounted for about half the drop.
In the years ahead, the biggest gains must come from elsewhere. World Bank data show that of the one in 10 people in the world still living on under $1.90 a day, more than half are in Africa. The ranks of the extremely poor in sub-Saharan Africa have expanded since 1990—peaking in 2010 at 399 million (pdf, p.38). India, for its part, halved the share of its population living in poverty in the past two decades. Still, the country remains home to the largest number of poor people anywhere.
What has made China unique
China is sometimes looked to for lessons on how to reduce poverty—and there are definitely many to be had. However, the story of how China lifted its hundreds of millions is a particular story of implementing the right policies at the right time in the right place, as the country took advantage of the rise of globalization in a way that wouldn’t be possible today. Even for China.
Here are some of the conditions that made China’s gains possible:
Developing-country wages amid well-developed infrastructure
In 1978, China’s leader Deng Xiaoping kicked off the “reform and opening-up” campaign by focusing first on improving his nation’s dismal agricultural growth. Deng dismantled Mao Zedong’s communes, and allowed a return to family farming. That led to dramatic gains in agricultural incomes and savings, helping to provide funding for the industrial and urbanization coming next.
When companies first began to shift factories from the developed world, wages were low in China. Even by 2004, Chinese factory workers earned an estimated 64 cent per hour, as compared to $2.48 in Mexico, the lowest hourly compensation among the 30 foreign countries measured by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. But low wages alone may not have made China that much more attractive than other countries with large, low-paid labor forces.
In the 1980s, China launched major efforts to build dams, irrigation projects, and highways. The “Food-for-Work” program, which offered free meals to workers, promoted highway construction in rural areas. Between 1994 and 2000, some 42,000 kilometers (26,100 miles)—about 1,200 kilometers a day—of rural highways were built a year. (Even now, India manages just about 20 kilometers a day.)
“By the early 2000s, China had a unique and probably unrepeatable combination of low, developing-country wages and good, almost-rich-country infrastructure,” wrote Arthur Kroeber, founding partner at Gavekal Dragonomics, a China-focused research consultancy founder, in his 2016 book China’s Economy.
The combination of low-wage workers with a basic education—adult male literacy was about 80% in 1980—drew foreign investment in factories and created millions of jobs. China’s per capita GDP went from being less than Bangladesh’s in 1980—under $200—to more than $8,000.
The revolution in cargo transport
China was well-prepared for the offshoring of factories from the West. Yet the factories wouldn’t have headed to China without gains in telecommunications and transportation that made it possible to manage far-flung supply chains, boosting global trade. At the heart of those changes was what seemed a relatively simple innovation—the shipping container, invented in 1956, and not widely adopted until about two decades later. The container made it easier to load more on ships and do it more quickly—allowing for bigger ships and cheaper cargo costs. According to the Economist (paywall), “containers have boosted globalization more than all trade agreements in the past 50 years put together.” Now, more than half a century after their appearance, most of the gains from its adoption may have already been made.
Innovation in consumer electronics
Personal computers. Walkmans. Mobile phones. All these ground-breaking gadgets started to change consumers’ lives in the 1980s and ’90s—opening up new lines of manufacturing. China’s export boom over that period was largely driven by electronics and machinery. Between 1992 and 2005, as the IMF noted (pdf), Chinese manufacturing exports shifted significantly from agriculture and soft goods, such as textiles and clothing, to higher-value items like consumer electronics and appliances. And as demand for these goods was about to explode, barriers to selling to the biggest markets—the US and Europe—were coming down, particularly after China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001. That’s quite different from these more protectionist times, especially with populist and nationalistic rhetoric on the rise in the West.
China’s share of global exports reached 13.8% in 2015, the highest share any country has enjoyed since the US almost 50 years ago.
Little competition from automation
When China began opening its doors to foreign investment, factories looking to cut costs had few alternatives to low-wage humans. Now countries thinking of focusing on boosting manufacturing and exports are competing against other low-wage economies—and countries in the developed world that can take advantage of the productivity gains made possible through automation. According to consulting firm BCG, the share of manufacturing tasks performed by robots will go from around 10% now, to 25% in 2025, which could help keep factories close to markets.
The limits on what can be copied
Some aspects of China’s battle against poverty are repeatable—and others come with pitfalls:
A tolerance for experimentation
Despite China’s one-party rule and highly concentrated power structure, often cited as the reason for its success in the battle against poverty, University of Michigan politics professor Yuen Yuen Ang notes that China actually encourages a fair amount of experimentation and decentralization. Pilot projects and new policies are tried out on a smaller scale and then either expanded nationally or abandoned. The policy at the start of reforms actually grew out of a grassroots experiment. In 1978, farmers in a poor village in eastern Anhui province signed a secret contract to divide up collectively owned lands among families. The local provincial official didn’t fight the effort—and later Deng decided to adopt this “household responsibility system” nationwide. Other countries could do a better job of expanding the adoption of successful small-scale experiments.
Massive spending on infrastructure
China’s infrastructure-investment model, which once served it so well, facing increasing scrutiny, given the country’s economic slowdown and high debt after stimulus spending to deal with the 2008 global financial crisis. “Poorly managed infrastructure investments are a main explanation of surfacing economic and financial problems in China,” wrote researchers at Oxford University in a paper published in September (pdf). “We predict that, unless China shifts to a lower level of higher-quality infrastructure investments, the country is headed for an infrastructure-led national financial and economic crisis.”
Advancement brings new challenges
China’s own battle against poverty isn’t quite over, of course. By the end of last year, there remained more than 43 million Chinese citizens still living below the nation’s official poverty line of 2,300 yuan annual income (about $350), measured in terms of 2010 purchasing power. China says it aims to wipe out poverty by 2020, with the ruling communist party vowing to build a “moderately prosperous society” ahead of the 100th anniversary of its founding.
“We must send our best talents to the front line,” president Xi Jinping said in a speech in June.
With slowing economic growth, high government debt, rising health-care costs, and the need to assist both left-behind children and elderly parents the last 40 million may prove a tougher challenge than the first half a billion.KYIV, UKRAINE—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to wrap up his latest overseas travels Tuesday with a visit to western Ukraine, where he will greet the Canadian Forces soldiers who have been training their Ukrainian counterparts since last summer. Whether those troops will still be there next summer, however, was both an open question and a central issue Monday as Trudeau met with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
During their meeting, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko thanked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for Canada’s support, including sending hundreds of military and police trainers, as well as helping Ukraine crack down on corruption. ( Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS )
The previous Conservative government deployed 200 Canadian military trainers to a base near the Ukrainian city of Lviv last year in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine. The Canadians, alongside British and American troops, have been teaching the basics of soldiering, such as how to use their weapons and move as a unit, as well as more advanced skills such bomb disposal and medical training. And they are having an impact,
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“We are giving significant support to the Ukrainian military to be able to be more effective in defending and reclaiming Ukrainian territory,” Trudeau told a news conference where the two countries announced a new Canada-Ukraine free trade deal. “We are very happy to be involved in and to be supporting the people of Ukraine.” Trudeau wouldn’t say, however, whether the Liberal government — fresh from committing hundreds of troops to form the core of a NATO battalion in Latvia — will extend the training mission past its current expiry date in March. Poroshenko said a professional military is essential for protecting his country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. “I have asked the prime minister to prolong the mandate of the mission,” he said through an interpreter.
Asked to respond, Trudeau said Canada would co-ordinate with its international partners and allies on how best to help Ukraine in the future. “We are right now focused on the training mission that is going so well for both Canadians and especially for the Ukrainian military,” he said. “As the situation evolves, we will continue to monitor and look at the best way we can continue to support and help Ukraine.”
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Trudeau did promise more observers for a mission by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe monitoring ceasefire violations between Ukrainian and Russian-backed separatist forces in the country’s east. Canada will increase its complement to the 700-strong OSCE mission from 25 to 50. Canada will also send more police officers to help train the Ukrainian police. Russia loomed large as Trudeau met with Poroshenko and other Ukrainian officials throughout the day. Some European allies are impatient that Ukraine is not doing enough to implement its commitments in the Minsk peace deal with the rebels and Russia, but Trudeau pointed the finger at Moscow. “Russia has not been a positive partner,” he said. “They have not been moving responsibly or appropriately on things like ceasefires or international observers.” Poroshenko said Ukraine has fulfilled 95 per cent of its political obligations and all of its security requirements under the agreement. He went on to accuse Russian “troops and mercenaries” of having launched an attack against Ukrainian positions earlier in the day. Solidarity was a central theme to Trudeau’s visit to Kyiv, where he met with Ukrainian leaders and civil society groups and paid homage to Ukrainians killed in mass atrocities by the Nazis and Soviets in the 20th century, and more recently in the country’s 2014 revolution. A key moment came when Trudeau and Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman visited a memorial to those killed in the Euromaidan, an uprising that ousted the pro-Russian president in the name of democracy. Surrounded by pictures of the dead, the two placed rose bouquets before a wooden cross bearing the image of Jesus before a moment of silence. A short time later, in a meeting with Ukrainian parliamentarians, Trudeau talked about the importance of fighting for democracy. “Many of us in the West have gone a long time without having to fight for democracy,” he said. “Ukrainians reminded us how important democracy is and how we can’t take it for granted.” In a meeting with Groysman and his cabinet, Trudeau praised the Ukrainian government’s progress toward democracy. In meetings with Ukrainian leaders and civil society representatives, however, he also emphasized the importance of championing the hopes and aspirations of average Ukrainians wanting a better future. “Reforms never happen as quickly as everyone would like,” Trudeau told the group during a special roundtable session. “But your job is not to make everything happen overnight, as you well know. Your job is to make sure that everything keeps moving forward as responsibly and as quickly as you can.” Trudeau and his oldest son Xavier also paid their respects to Ukrainians killed in past atrocities. They laid a bouquet of flowers at a memorial to tens of thousands of Ukrainians, many of them Jews, killed by the Nazis in Kyiv during the Second World War.
Read more about:Hannah Howells, 22, moved to Boystown in October. View Full Caption Ariel Cheung/DNAinfo Chicago
LAKEVIEW — Think you are paying a lot to rent that one-bedroom, 500-square-foot apartment near the "L"?
You're right — rents in Lakeview hit about $1,400 in February, on average, a national rental company said.
That's nearly a 4 percent jump from January, reported Zumper.com, which offers 8,200 apartments in 30 Chicago neighborhoods.
And experts said rents are only going to increase as spring moving season begins.
"There are definitely options out there,” said Erin Smithe, 22, but “if you want to live by yourself, there's not as much.”
Smithe added: “It's so much easier if you have a roommate to find affordable rent."
Ariel Cheung says when you rent affects what you pay:
Erin Smithe, 22, moved to Lakeview two years ago and says while rent is expensive, there are sufficient options to keep her in the neighborhood. View Full Caption Ariel Cheung/DNAinfo
Smithe moved from Phoenix two years ago into a 250-square-foot Lakeview studio apartment she found on Craigslist.
"I was paying $100 more a month for rent than I was in Arizona, where I had 1,200 square feet, a private balcony and in-unit washer and dryer, so it was kind of hard to adjust," Smithe said.
Smithe moved to a three-bedroom house with four women before finally finding a junior one-bedroom apartment recently.
While Smithe did consider looking at different neighborhoods, she said she doesn't see herself leaving Lakeview anytime soon.
"I trust and know Lakeview, so I just didn't want to screw with that. Plus a lot of my friends live here," she said.
That loyalty is common, and even new Chicagoans often seek out Lakeview when moving to the city, said Maurice Ortiz, director of operations at Apartment People.
"Even people who don't know a thing about Chicago, they will have this order: Lakeview, Lincoln Park or Bucktown. Those are three areas they absolutely start with," Ortiz said.
Apartment People has been matching renters with apartments since 1984 — while landlords pay for the service, it's free for renters — and Ortiz said the market is gearing up for the spring rush after a chilly winter. With May 1 ushering in a flood of movers, prices will likely start increasing in March and April, Ortiz said.
With pricier neighborhoods like Lakeview and Lincoln Park sometime out of newcomers' price ranges, Ortiz said he's noticing a willingness to explore lesser-known or up-and-coming areas, like Rogers Park or Logan Square.
"For the first time in a long time, people are willing to move outside that comfort zone. It's probably one trend we'll continue to see as prices tend to get higher and higher," Ortiz said.
Hannah Howells didn't know much about Chicago when she moved here last October, but she knew one thing: She wanted to live in Lakeview.
"I just wanted to live somewhere safe, and this really felt like a safe area," said Howells, 22. She quickly figured out a one-bedroom apartment would be out of her $600-$800 price range.
While she considered less expensive neighborhoods, her heart was set on Lakeview. Howells looked at about 20 apartments before finally finding a Boystown studio apartment for $725, she said.
Rent in Lakeview was slightly below the citywide median price, Zumper said. The median rent price for a two-bedroom apartment was $2,000, a 2.6 percent increase over January. Ortiz said the figure is fairly accurate for the neighborhood, with one-bedroom apartments typically starting at $1,100 a month.
Lakeview did see a jump of 3.7 percent in February rental prices, although the increase was not as drastic as rises in Auburn Gresham and North Lawndale. Nearby neighborhoods of Logan Square ($1,350), North Center ($1,250), Uptown ($1,180), Edgewater ($1,050) and Avondale ($1,020) had lower median rent prices, while Lincoln Park averaged $1,750, making it the fifth most expensive neighborhood on Zumper.com's list.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Seven people were convicted of child sex abuse in Portugal on Friday in a major trial that lasted nearly six years and shocked the country.
The six men and one woman were found guilty of crimes including sexually abusing minors and adolescents, raping children and running a pedophile ring at a state-run children's home in Lisbon during the 1990s.
The six men were handed jail sentences of between six and 18 years for sexual abuse. The woman, whose house was used by the ring, was not given a custodial sentence because of a 2007 change in the law, the judge said in the televised ruling without elaborating.
The longest sentence was given to a 53-year-old former driver at the home, Carlos Silvino, who confessed to more than 600 crimes and gave evidence against the other defendants.
Others sent to prison were Carlos Cruz, a popular television presenter with a three-decade career in show business, who will serve seven years; and Jorge Ritto, a decorated career diplomat and former UNESCO ambassador, who was given six years, eight months in jail.
Their lawyers said they would consider an appeal.
Chief prosecutor Miguel Matias said the victims were pleased with the outcome.
The victims — now aged between 16 and 22 — gave chilling testimony during the trial and identified their alleged abusers by pointing to them across the courtroom.
Bernardo Teixeira, one of the victims, said he felt vindicated. "The court recognized that we were telling the truth," he said. "It's a happy ending for us. The pedophiles are going to jail."
The three judges at the trial read out a summarized version of the court's decisions, but they did not refer to dozens of other alleged crimes they found to be unproven. The full ruling, which reportedly runs to almost 2,000 pages, is due to be released next week.
The trial, believed to be Portugal's longest, included testimony from more than 800 witnesses and experts, including 32 alleged victims.
The abuse centered on Casa Pia, a 230-year-old institution caring for roughly 4,500 needy children, most of them living in dormitories at its premises around the capital.
A whistleblower broke the scandal in 2002, followed by a yearlong police investigation. The case that shook public trust in the country's institutions, and the protracted trial fueled outrage about Portugal's notoriously slow legal system.
Catalina Pestana, who was head of Casa Pia during the period when some of the abuse took place, said she would not celebrate the ruling.
"Nobody in their right mind can be happy after a case like this," she said. "These were some of the most horrible stories I've ever heard."
Casa Pia "shared some of the blame" for the crimes because it failed to detect them, the judges said.
Alvaro Carvalho, a psychiatrist who has counseled the victims and was in court with them, said they were nervous as they awaited the verdict.
"They calmed down when the judge ruled that the crimes were proven," Carvalho told reporters. "In a way, it's society making reparation for what happened to them."This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We turn now to voting rights. On Tuesday evening, Desiline Victor, a 102-year-old Miami voter who waited for hours to cast her ballot in the last election, got a standing ovation during President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. Victor attended the event as a guest of first lady Michelle Obama and was singled out for praise by President Obama.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We should follow the example of a North Miami woman named Desiline Victor. When Desiline arrived at her polling place, she was told the wait to vote might be six hours. And as time ticked by, her concern was not with her tired body or aching feet, but whether folks like her would get to have their say. And hour after hour, a throng of people stayed in line to support her, because Desiline is 102 years old. And they erupted in cheers when she finally put on a sticker that read “I voted.” There’s Desiline.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Later in his speech, President Obama proposed a solution to the problems Victor and others faced. He introduced a commission to improve the voting experience in America.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Defending our freedom, though, is not just the job of our military alone. We must all do our part to make sure our God-given rights are protected here at home. That includes one of the most fundamental rights of a democracy: the right to vote. Now, when—when any American, no matter where they live or what their party, are denied that right because they can’t afford to wait for five or six or seven hours just to cast their ballot, we are betraying our ideals. So—so tonight I’m announcing a nonpartisan commission to improve the voting experience in America. And it definitely needs improvement. I’m asking two longtime experts in the field, who, by the way, recently served as the top attorneys for my campaign and for Governor Romney’s campaign, to lead it. We can fix this. And we will. The American people demand it, and so does our democracy.
AMY GOODMAN: For more on the state of voting rights, we’re joined by Ben Jealous, president and CEO of NAACP.
Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Ben.
BENJAMIN JEALOUS: Thank you. Good morning.
AMY GOODMAN: Desiline Victor, 102 years old, it turns out now more than 200,000 people, just Florida residents alone—
BENJAMIN JEALOUS: That’s right.
AMY GOODMAN: —got out of line because they just couldn’t wait any more on Election Day.
BENJAMIN JEALOUS: This has been a strategy to suppress the participation of working-class people, of senior citizens, of students, who tend to vote for the Democrats, by making it unbearable. And, you know, you can travel around as I do in different cities, and on the wealthy side of town the lines are moving, and near the universities and the poor parts of town, they’re stuck. And this is the, if you will, the most basic, most rudimentary form of voter suppression. It’s—what we’ve seen since 2000 is, whether it’s secretaries of state or whether it’s county clerks, you know, the folks who are running it in their county, it’s become very politicized, and folks really making, in many cases, explicitly political decisions about where they even put these machines, who gets a few machines and long lines, who gets a lot of machines and no lines, trying to skew the outcome.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: But, Ben, this whole idea that a commission will resolve these problems—after 2000, we had all of this legislation, Help America Vote Act, and things did not improve. Isn’t part of the problem that in state after state the electoral process is still controlled by the—I mean, supposedly in a bipartisan way, but by the parties rather than independent commissions that run our elections, as in many other countries?
BENJAMIN JEALOUS: Yeah, you know, look, we have seen, again, the hyperpartisanization, if that’s a word, of the secretary of states’ offices, for instance, right? And very clear, people coming in with a real, you know, partisan purpose in what should be a very kind of democratic—small-d—mission. What we need—I mean, if the president’s call does anything, what I would hope is it would inspire progressives across this country to think deeply and strategically about how they make an impact in improving the situation in their county, in their state. We tend to come on in the even years or turn folks off, and then go to sleep in the odd years. And that’s when the other side goes to work, and they actually start changing the rules, changing the laws. Right now we have voter repression legislation in several states. It increases—the number increases basically every day on us right now. And we’ve got to get back to understanding that we have to invest in making our process more fair every year, year in, year out.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to a group called Project 21, comprised of prominent African-American conservatives trying to help scrap a key part of the Voting Rights Act, part—that’s Section 5, which mandates specific areas of the country with a history of racial discrimination when it comes to voting rights need to get federal approval before changing any of their voting procedures. Cherylyn Harley LeBon, co-founder of Project 21, told The Guardian, quote, “Now we are in 2013, and the Voting Rights Act was something that came from a historical context. We need to update the law, and this part of it is no longer needed.” Cherylyn Harley LeBon is also a defender of voter ID laws. I want to go to a clip of that.
CHERYLYN HARLEY LEBON: When Indiana passed its ID law, its voter ID law, Justice John Paul Stevens—and we would not, by any stretch, call him conservative—
ERIC WALLACE: Right.
CHERYLYN HARLEY LEBON: He said, in a Supreme Court decision, that the plaintiffs have failed to make the case that this voter ID law is going to be a hindrance or an impediment to anyone voting. And, I might add, when the state of Georgia passed their voter ID law, we saw, in effect, the opposite of what the liberals and civil rights organizations allege. In the state of Georgia, we saw black voter participation increase—
ERIC WALLACE: Yeah, I heard it increased instead of decreasing, right.
CHERYLYN HARLEY LEBON: —after the state of Georgia passed their |
: Jonathan Klinsmann, JT Marcinkowski, CJ Dos Santos, Justin Garces
In a position that always gets replaced by an overage player for the Olympics, Brady Scott looks to be the best age-eligible player at the moment as the likely No. 1 for the 2019 U-20 team.
Defenders
3. Erik Palmer-Brown
4. Cameron Carter-Vickers
5. Justen Glad
6. Marco Farfan
7. Danny Acosta
8. Matthew Olusunde
In the mix: Tommy Redding, Miles Robinson, Marlon Fossey, James Sands, Reggie Cannon, Jonny Nelson, Danny Barbir, Antonee Robinson
Defense is both one of the team’s strengths and weaknesses. Central defense is pretty loaded with Carter-Vickers, Glad, and Palmer-Brown all top players despite Glad being the only player at the moment earning consistent playing time. That will change over the next year.
Fullbacks, however, are extremely thin with no age-eligible player standing out right now. Surely the next U-23 coach will have to consider at least one overage player for a fullback spot. In the big picture, the lack of quality fullbacks on U.S. youth national teams should be concern for U.S. Soccer and its fans.
In this case, you have Matthew Olusunde, Marco Farfan, and Danny Acosta and with none having played much professionally it is uncertain when or if they will become starting players. The door is currently wide open to any player (even off the radar) who breaks through over the years ahead. It is also possible that Tyler Adams will see time at right back if the position is still thin when qualifying rolls around. This is the weakest area of the field for this team.
Midfielders
9. Tyler Adams
10. Weston McKennie
11. Jonathan Gonzalez
12. Nick Taitague
13. Brooks Lennon
14. Andrew Carleton
15. Paxton Pomykol
16. Christian Pulisic
In the mix: Gedion Zelalem, Jackson Yueil, Chris Durkin, Chris Goslin, Luca de la Torre, Eryk Williamson, Jonathan Lewis, Derrick Jones, Keaton Parks, Mukwelle Akale, Djordje Mihailovic, Josh Perez
This is the strength of this age group. Pulisic is the difference between being a medal favorite and a better-than-average team. But even without the Borussia Dortmund star, Weston McKennie, Adams, and Jonathan Gonzalez are all in good situations playing regularly for their clubs right now.
In a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1, there is a strong emphasis on central midfielders and playmakers. Pulisic has the playmaking job with Pomykol as his backup. The wingers on this roster are young and unproven with Brooks Lennon, Nick Taitague, and Andrew Carleton the top candidates. Taitague and Carleton in particular are prospects at the moment but have a high ceiling and the potential to be difference-makers three years from now.
Forwards
17. Haji Wright
18. Josh Sargent
In the mix: Jeremy Ebobisse, Tim Weah, Emmanuel Sabbi, Coy Craft.
Josh Sargent sealed this job with a very strong U-20 World Cup—a performance that likely secured a potential move to Werder Bremen. Haji Wright should see playing time on loan with Sandhausen despite not playing much for the U-20 team.
This team is likely going to play with a single striker formation so a large number of forwards is unnecessary.
Outlook
With everyone available, this team has the strongest-ever core of any U.S. Olympic team. Sargent, Pulisic, Adams, Palmer-Brown, and Carter-Vickers would be an amazing foundation now, let alone three years out. Of course this list is also very optimistic on the development of Pomykol, Carleton, and Taitague but they remain top prospects despite a lack of first-team minutes so far. And this prospective roster does not factor in any players who emerge quickly in the next three years. This includes players in foreign or domestic academies, college, or the USL.
Like in years past, most top players in Europe won’t be there for qualifying but the 2017 U-20 team won CONCACAF championship without Pulisic, McKennie, Wright, Taitague, and Carter-Vickers. Plus the current U-17 team also has dominated CONCACAF throughout the cycle. This team has more depth than ever before and should be able to qualify even without key players.
But the top question is knowing what we know right now whether this team can win the gold medal, or any other medal, at the Olympics?
If the team gets its players, the gold medal is within reach. The 2017 U-20 team could have won the World Cup if Tab Ramos had his best players. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if the 2017 U-17 team went far at the World Cup this fall. So expectations should be high for the U-23s.
Of course the U.S. will need to overcome its shortcomings at fullback and the current group of goalkeepers is still young and inexperienced. That problem, however, can be fixed with overage players. U.S. Soccer has always used one of its three overage spots on a goalkeeper and that should continue in 2020.
Youth teams are rarely well-rounded and typically always have holes since age groups have different strengths and weaknesses. That is the case here but this team is strong at the most important areas up the middle of the field. Within three years, the U-23 central midfield, playmaking, and central defense roles will feature seasoned veterans.
There are a lot of “ifs” but if the right players are allowed to play, this team has the talent to win the gold.
We'd love to hear your take on Brian's look ahead to the 2020 Olympics. Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.We reflexively instruct our children to always tell the truth. It's even encoded into Boy Scout Law. It's what adults do, isn't it? But do we? Isn't telling the truth too much and too often a bad life strategy – perhaps even dangerous? Is telling children to always tell the truth even itself the whole truth?
One of the most thought provoking articles on the topic, and one I keep returning to, year after year, is I Think You're Fat. It's about the Radical Honesty movement, which proposes that adults follow their own advice and always tell the truth. No matter what.
The [Radical Honesty] movement was founded by a sixty-six-year-old Virginia-based psychotherapist named Brad Blanton. He says everybody would be happier if we just stopped lying. Tell the truth, all the time. This would be radical enough – a world without fibs – but Blanton goes further. He says we should toss out the filters between our brains and our mouths. If you think it, say it. Confess to your boss your secret plans to start your own company. If you're having fantasies about your wife's sister, Blanton says to tell your wife and tell her sister. It's the only path to authentic relationships. It's the only way to smash through modernity's soul-deadening alienation. Oversharing? No such thing. Yes. I know. One of the most idiotic ideas ever, right up there with Vanilla Coke and giving Phil Spector a gun permit. Deceit makes our world go round. Without lies, marriages would crumble, workers would be fired, egos would be shattered, governments would collapse. And yet … maybe there's something to it. Especially for me. I have a lying problem. Mine aren't big lies. They aren't lies like "I cannot recall that crucial meeting from two months ago, Senator." Mine are little lies. White lies. Half-truths. The kind we all tell. But I tell dozens of them every day. "Yes, let's definitely get together soon." "I'd love to, but I have a touch of the stomach flu." "No, we can't buy a toy today – the toy store is closed." It's bad. Maybe a couple of weeks of truth-immersion therapy would do me good.
The author, A.J. Jacobs, is a great writer who made a cottage industry out of treating himself like a guinea pig, such as attempting to become the smartest man in the world, spend a year living exactly like the Bible tells us to, and to become the fittest person on Earth. Based on the strength of this article, I bought two of his books; experiments like Radical Honesty are right up his alley.
Radical honesty itself isn't exactly a new concept. It's been parodied in any number of screwball Hollywood comedies such as Liar, Liar (1997) and The Invention of Lying (2009). But there's a big difference between milking this concept for laughs and exploring it as an actual lifestyle among real human beings. Among the ideas raised in the article, which you should go read now, are:
Telling someone that something they created is terrible: is that cruelty, because they have no talent, or is it compassion, so they can know they need to improve it?
Does a thought in your head that you never express to anyone represent your truth? Should you share it? This is particularly tricky for men, who think about sex twice as much as women.
How much mental energy do you expend listening to a conversation trying to determine how much of what the other person is saying is untrue? Wouldn't it be less fatiguing if everything they said was, by definition, the truth? And when you're talking, always telling the truth means you never have to decide just how much truth to tell, how to hedge, massage, and spin the truth to make it palatable.
In a hypothetical future when every action we take is public and broadcast to the world, is that exposing the real truth of our lives? Should we become more honest today to ready ourselves for this inevitable future?
Always telling the truth can be thrilling, a form of risk taking, as you intentionally violate taboos around politeness that exist solely for the sake of avoiding conflict.
Total honesty can lead to new breakthroughs in communication, where politeness prevented you from ever reaching the root, underlying causes of discontent or unhappiness.
Honesty is more efficient. Rather than spending a lot of time sending messages back and forth artfully dancing around the truth, go directly there.
the truth, go directly there. If people see you are willing to be honest with them, they tend to return the favor, leading to a more useful relationship.
What we often don't acknowledge is that the truth is kind of scary. That's why we have a hard time being honest with ourselves, much less those around us. Reading through all these ambiguous situations that A.J. put himself through, you start to wonder if you understand what truth is, or what it means to decide that something is "true". After summarizing the article in bullet form, I'm surprised there are so many points in favor of honesty, maybe even radical honesty.
But uncompromisingly committing to the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, has a darker side.
My wife tells me a story about switching operating systems on her computer. In the middle, I have to go help our son with something, then forget to come back. "Do you want to hear the end of the story or not?" she asks. "Well...is there a payoff?" "F**k you." It would have been a lot easier to have kept my mouth closed and listened to her. It reminds me of an issue I raised with Blanton: Why make waves? "Ninety percent of the time I love my wife," I told him. "And 10 percent of the time I hate her. Why should I hurt her feelings that 10 percent of the time? Why not just wait until that phase passes and I return to the true feeling, which is that I love her?" Blanton's response: "Because you're a manipulative, lying son of a bitch."
Rather than embrace the truth, as Radical Honesty would have us do, Adrian Tan advises us to be wary of the truth.
Most of you will end up in activities which involve communication. To those of you I have a second message: be wary of the truth. I’m not asking you to speak it, or write it, for there are times when it is dangerous or impossible to do those things. The truth has a great capacity to offend and injure, and you will find that the closer you are to someone, the more care you must take to disguise or even conceal the truth. Often, there is great virtue in being evasive, or equivocating. There is also great skill. Any child can blurt out the truth, without thought to the consequences. It takes great maturity to appreciate the value of silence.
I think he's right. But Radical Honesty isn't altogether wrong, either. Let me be clear: Radical Honesty, as a lifestyle, is ridiculous and insane. Advocating telling the truth 100% of the time, no matter what, is harmful extremism. But it's also wonderfully seductive as a concept, because it illustrates how needlessly afraid most of us are of truth – even truths that could potentially help us. Radical Honesty teaches us to be more brave. That is, when it's not destroying our lives and the lives of everyone around us.
Ask yourself:
What is the purpose of this truth?
of this truth? What effect will sharing this truth have on the other person, on yourself, on the world?
What change will come about, positive or negative, from choosing to voice a particular truth at a particular time?
I believe the true lesson of Radical Honesty is that truth, real truth, is honesty with a purpose. Ideally a noble purpose, but any purpose at all other than "because I could" will suffice. By all means, be brave; embrace the truth. But if your honesty has no purpose, if you can't imagine any positive outcome from being honest, I suggest you're better off keeping it to yourself.
Or even lying.Ever hear the saying “When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns”?
I know I have, the bumper stickers were everywhere in the early 90s. Granted the saying still comes up once in a while, but here’s a great story to remind us of that term.
Recently, a clandestine firearm manufacturing factory has been discovered and dismantled in Michoacán, Mexico. The shop was run by the Cartel Jalisco New Generation which is a major drug cartel.
Unlike the government utopia people like to believe, these guns were NOT crude knockoffs. Rather they were sophisticated fully automatic rifle using military spec components and tolerances. Who would have EVER believed that a drug cartel with millions of dollars could employ engineers to run computer controlled equipment to manufacture firearms that are around 40 years old?
This is absolute further proof that the liberal utopian mindset that government intervention can make easily constructed firearms illegal. This is doubly impossible in an age where technology makes home manufacturing devices like CnC machines, 3d printers and plastic injection affordable for everyone. Of course, in their mindset it might make sense to make these manufacturing devices illegal which will obviously stifle innovation. Although, who really cares when the government is involved, right?Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on LinkedIn +
Sexism is reportedly a big problem in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party. One female member has complained about chauvinistic male behaviour behind closed doors.
Jenna Behrends, a Berlin CDU politician, told the Berliner Morgenpost that senior party members had called her belittling pet names in front of colleagues and asked her inappropriate questions about her sex life.
In an interview with the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, CDU General Secretary Peter Tauber said: “I hear about stories like these again and again, but without names. That makes it hard to do anything about it. We need a new sensitivity in all areas of society, because sexism is not just a problem in politics.”
As reported by Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany’s international broadcaster, Merkel, Germany’s first-female chancellor, has been outspoken against male-dominated corporate culture in Europe’s largest economy.
“It is pathetic that in more than 65 years of the Federal Republic of Germany, it was not possible for the Dax-30 companies to get a few more women on supervisory boards on a voluntary basis,” Merkel told German business magazine Wirtschaftswoche in remarks published on September 25.
She cited the quota introduced this year requiring Germany’s biggest companies to fill at least 30% of their supervisory board seats with women.Excuse me, are you the incoming spokesperson for President Donald Trump? You are? Great. You should hear this: If you try to mislead the American people you will incur the ridicule of Twitter, period. They will take you to task—and they’ll do it with Star Trek references.
First off, some background: Earlier today, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held a press conference—or, maybe more properly, issued a statement—and instead of discussing Trump’s speech to the CIA or the Women’s March events worldwide, Spicer attacked the media for their reporting of the crowd numbers from Inauguration Day. He said magnetometers kept crowds off the Mall in Washington (not true) and that newfangled, never-before-used ground coverings made the empty spaces look more sparse (also not true). And Spicer added that "this was the largest audience to ever witness the inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe."
That final point he backed up with numbers from the WMATA, Washington, DC’s public transportation system. Those numbers were also off, but it was the certainty of the “largest audience to ever witness” quote that Twitter jumped on. Soon after the conference ended, people on social media picked up on the line, recasting it to litigate things that nerds have fought about forever (the best Star Trek movie, the best Matrix film, and so on).
Overall, the Twitter response was relatively tame—especially considering the fact that the press conference was a hot topic on cable news well into the evening. But it was also a sign that even though Trump has transferred from @realDonaldTrump to @POTUS, the medium that he's used for his message is isn't going to give him a pass now that he's president.
The meme is just beginning, but below are some of the finest examples to hit Twitter so far.
https://twitter.com/JosephScrimshaw/status/822992092766949376Someone call the U.N.: There’s a civil war brewing in Canada between two of the country’s biggest stars, British Columbia’s Seth Rogen and Ontario’s Justin Bieber.
Rogen appeared on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live Wednesday night to explain a January Tweet, in which he compared the "Baby" singer to a piece of excrement. It turns out, his words were not taken out of context in the slightest.
“Justin Bieber is a piece of s—,” the Knocked Up star told host Andy Cohen. “He’s obnoxious, he’s ungrateful, he’s insincere.”
Plus, Rogen added, “He puts people’s lives in danger.”
Bieber has not yet responded to Rogen’s charges, but judging from his infamous leaked deposition video, the Canadian pop star will not be a happy camper about it.
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RELATED: Twitterverse Reacts to Justin Bieber’s Deposition VideoAfter a sizable break during the European close season this summer, save a few special edition live recordings down on Fountain Square for the World Cup, the WSOTP Podcast will be back in action here in a few week’s time. And with a sizable bump in the number of followers we’ve acquired due to the game finally catching a gust of wind here in the States, we thought it would be a good time to figure out just how everyone supports the sport of soccer here in the U, S and A.
As such, my podcast co-host and producer, Jeremy Lance, put together a short survey to give us a good look at the American soccer fan. But for us to really get a clear picture, we need as many of you as possible to fill the thing out. Whether a long-time fan or a relative n00b, we want — no, need — you to fill this thing out.
It shouldn’t take you more than a couple of minutes to complete, and it’s completely anonymous. And we’ll be sharing the results on the first episode of the second season of the podcast, which will be available for your listening pleasure the week before the Premier League season kicks off at the end of August.
So hit the link below, and thanks in advance for your data!
CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE “AMERICAN SOCCER FANDOM” SURVEY
AdvertisementsPresident Donald Trump, right, and European Council President Donald Tusk before their meeting at the European Union headquarters in Brussels on Thursday. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
The pictures from Donald Trump’s romp through Europe, which show a long parade of political and spiritual leaders looking visibly uncomfortable in his presence or even snickering to themselves as he spoke, make the point more forcefully than a thousand think pieces: Most Europeans are horrified by the president. They cannot stand his ignorance or his bellicosity, his plebeian manners or the constant bragging about his wealth. And yet, for all of their loudly proclaimed indignation, the barely concealed secret is that Trump makes them, well, happy.
In representing everything Europeans hate about America, Trump simultaneously confirms everything they want to believe about themselves. After all, Europeans have always looked down on Americans in the manner of a learned uncle who cannot conceal his jealousy at the banker nephew with that hot babe on his arm. In other words, they suffer from what psychologists call an inferiority superiority complex.
On the one hand, Europeans are deeply convinced that the world would be a much better place if only ghastly countries such as Iran, Zimbabwe, and the United States could be a little more like Germany or Sweden. This snobbism expresses itself in the arena of world politics: For example, Europeans tend to think that the world would be much safer if every country spent as little on its military as Denmark—conveniently forgetting that it was U.S. military might that kept their own continent peaceful for the past 70 years. But it also expresses itself in the realm of culture and cuisine: When an unsuspecting American friend dared to eat popcorn at a garden party held by my mother in Italy one summer, for example, five different guests walked up to her in quick succession. “American way of life,” each of them sneered.
This deep belief in the continent’s superiority makes it all the more infuriating that even the most patriotic of Europeans has to admit to its inferiority on a number of counts. There is that pesky little matter of the two world wars, of course. But the envy and the embarrassment go deeper than that: America is richer and more powerful. It is the world’s center for fashion and for science, for pop culture and for technological progress. The past may belong to Europe. But the future, it seemed for most of the postwar era, would undoubtedly belong to America.
And that is precisely why Trump’s election has been so soothing for the European soul. Who could seriously deny that Europeans are more cultured than Americans when faced with this ugliest of ugly Americans? Who can maintain that Europe’s political problems are much deeper than America’s when presented with the sheer chaos in Washington? And who, today, can still be so sure that the future of the American republic is much brighter than that of European democracy?
There need not be anything wrong with taking a little mischievous pleasure in the failings and humiliations of one’s friends, I suppose. Yet the schadenfreude many Europeans feel when they look at Trump is dangerous—for it helps to make the continent even more complacent about the degree to which freedom and democracy are now embattled in Europe as well as America.
Europe, of course, has its own share of authoritarian populists to reckon with. And while the populist leaders of Poland, Hungary, Serbia, Macedonia, and Russia are admittedly rather more competent than Trump, their greater political skill should hardly give us succor. On the contrary, the fact that Trump is an ideologue by instinct but not by ideology may be one of the best reasons to hope that American democracy will somehow survive the next four years.
Populists in Central and Eastern Europe have, by contrast, already managed to compromise the institutions of their countries to such a degree that it is doubtful they can ever be removed by free and fair elections. Myriad aspirants in Western Europe now stand at the ready to emulate their playbook.
There is another parallel between Europe and America: The collaboration of mainstream politicians who claim to be impeccable democrats is a big part of the reason why populists could enter government. In the United States, this collaboration took the shameful form of GOP leaders who privately fulminated against Trump yet publicly stood by his side. Most European leaders have not been quite so crass; in fact, it is precisely because the mainstream right sided with centrist Emmanuel Macron over far-right extremist Marine Le Pen that the French managed to avoid disaster in their presidential elections a few weeks ago. Yet establishment leaders in a number of European countries, including Austria and Denmark, have struck U.S.-style pacts with the devil, entering uneasy coalitions with far-right populists to gain power.
More broadly, the European right has been very willing to work closely with populists so long as they were just across the border, especially in the continent’s east. As a result, European leaders have not only proven shamefully passive as Viktor Orbán dismantled Hungarian democracy and begun to shut down Central European University. Outrageously, they still have not expelled Orbán’s Fidesz party from the People’s Party grouping in the European Parliament, which is dominated by mainstream center-right parties like Germany’s Christian Democrats. In other words, out of cowardice or convenience, the very same Angela Merkel who is widely hailed as the new leader of the free world remains the political ally of a man who is in the process of destroying Hungarian democracy.
Finally, many Europeans see Trump’s extreme rhetoric against Muslims and his promise to build a wall along the Mexican border as confirmation of their long-held suspicion that America is vastly more racist than Europe. But this is an all too convenient way to forget that hundreds of attacks on refugee homes took place in Germany every year for the past years; that the inflow of refugees has abated in part because European governments have built hundreds upon hundreds of miles of border fortifications; or that they are so desperate to keep the refugees out that they send vast sums to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, another sworn enemy of democracy, to block the desperate Syrians and Iraqis at Europe’s doorstep.
It is tempting to engage in the narcissism of minor differences between Europe and America. Perhaps I myself have indulged in this guilty pleasure in parts of this essay (and, being both an American and a European citizen, I hope I have managed to dish it out equally to both sides). But our friendly competition should not distract us from a far more serious point: Citizens are deeply disenchanted with democratic institutions on both sides of the Atlantic. As a result, democracy is now under threat on both sides of the Atlantic. Finally, even in this most serious of hours, political elites are failing to stand up for their principles on both sides of the Atlantic. On the only metric that really counts at the moment, Europe and America are, sadly, very much alike.Two police officers were shot in the Bronx Monday night, the New York Police Department confirmed.
Police officials told the Associated Press the two cops' injuries were not life-threatening. Several local news outlets reported the officers were shot while responding to a robbery.
Scene of two NYPD Officers shot in the Bronx- East 184th St. and Tiebout, 46 precinct. MOS at St Barnabas hospital. pic.twitter.com/N0CrOPKAAv — Pearl Gabel (@PearlGabel) January 6, 2015
WNBC in New York reported one officer was shot in the back, but is believed to have been wearing a bullet proof vest that may have saved his life while the second officer suffered a graze wound to the elbow.
The Daily News two robbery suspects fled on foot and that responding officers recovered a revolver at the scene.
Both WNBC and the New York Post reported one robbery suspect first fled in a car and crashed, then fled on foot. No suspects have been taken into custody.
Two NYPD Officers have been shot in the 46 Pct. Please pray for them. — NYPD 121st Precinct (@NYPD121Pct) January 6, 2015
Prayers again for two of our #NYPD officers. — NYPD 67th Precinct (@NYPD67Pct) January 6, 2015
The shootings come just weeks after NYPD police officers Wenjian Liu and Raphael Ramos were fatally shot in Brooklyn on Dec. 20 by a man believed to be seeking revenge for the police-involved deaths of Ferguson teen Michael Brown and Eric Garner of Staten Island.
Earlier Monday New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton held a press conference to announce a dip in crime in the city. Bratton also addressed reports of an intentional work slowdown by NYPD cops angry at the mayor's support of recent anti-cop protests in NYC.
"At this time, I would not use the term slowdown,” Bratton said, adding if he discovers organized effort on the part of police, “we will deal with it very forcefully.”
This is a developing story. Check back for details...The hunt has begun on for the “discovery of the century.”
A team of Italian archeologists announced this week that they have started work on documenting the mysterious Valley of the Kings. Next month the team plans to enter the tomb of the boy-king Tutankhamun and scan the tomb for secret chambers. Their ultimate goal is to find the legendary final resting place of Queen Nefertiti, the Egyptian Queen who helped lead a religious revolution 3,300 years ago.
Franco Porcelli, the director of the Polytechnic University of Turin project, said, “It will be a rigorous scientific work and will last several days, if not weeks… Who knows what we might find as we scan the ground”
The Italian team plans to use radar capable of penetrating up to 32 feet of solid rock to search for the tomb. This is not the first time that scientists have tried to use state of the art equipment to locate Egypt’s lost queen. In 2015, Nicholas Reeves, a British archeologist based at the University of Arizona, published a detailed study of Tutankhamen in which he argued that the king’s burial chamber contained two hidden doorways that had been sealed and plastered over. Reeves used infrared thermography to identify changes in temperature that were suggestive of hidden chambers behind the walls. A subsequent scan conducted by the National Geographic Society, failed to reveal any hidden chambers.
But Nefertiti was surely buried somewhere and now Porcelli and his team are on a quest to map the entire Valley of the Kings and settle the question once and for all.
The discovery of any royal tomb is of tremendous historical significance, but Nefertiti’s burial place would be especially remarkable. Nefertiti (ca. 1370-1330 BCE) was the Queen and Chief Consort of Tutankhamun’s father, Akhenaten. Together with her husband she is believed to have initiated a set of religious reforms that, for a period, turned Egypt monotheistic. Not everyone viewed these reforms favorably and now we have the opportunity to learn more about this extraordinary historical moment. George Washington University archeologist Eric Cline, author of Three Stones Make a Wall: The Story of Archeology told The Daily Beast that this discovery would “surely shed a tremendous amount of additional light on the period, because she was so integral to the reign of her husband Akhenaten, the so-called heretic Pharaoh.”
The tomb has the potential to settle important questions about the extent of Nefertiti’s influence and the transmission of power in the 18th dynasty. Scholars currently believe that Nefertiti was not Tutankhamen’s mother, but his stepmother. Some also think that for a brief period after Akhenaten’s death she ruled Egypt alone. Dr. Caroline Schroeder, professor of religious studies at the University of the Pacific said that the discovery “might tell us more about whether she, a woman, ruled Egypt in her own right.” If she did, it would have made her one of the most powerful rulers of her era, to say nothing of one of the most powerful women in human history.
Even if additional rooms tell us absolutely nothing about Nefertiti and the succession of power, they could still be vitally important for our understanding of ancient Egypt. Cline pointed out that when Howard Carter opened the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922 we did not have the technology to analyze organic matter or DNA that was discovered inside.
“I am personally hopeful,” he added “that more texts, tablets, or other inscriptions will be found, which might give us more details and insight into the amazing years when the Great Powers of the ancient Near East were so interconnected, from the Hittites in what is now Turkey to the Assyrians and Babylonians in Mesopotamia and even across the Aegean to the Mycenaeans of mainland Greece and the Minoans of Crete.” Her tomb could shed light not only on the history of ancient Egypt, but also on ancient political history in general.
Beyond its academic interest, as the Washington Post has noted, a significant archeological discovery has the potential to revivify Egypt’s flagging tourist industry. Terrorist attacks in 2015 deeply impacted the number of visitors to the country, and this find, coupled with relaxed travel guidelines, could bring the crowds back to Egypt.
Given that this is the third attempt to use modern technology to find the tomb of the famous Queen you might wonder if archeologists are on a fool’s errand. But bear in mind that it took Howard Carter and his sponsor Lord Carnarvon a number of years to find the tomb of Tutankhamen. Perhaps, as Cline says, when it comes to Nefertiti, “third time’s a charm.”A round-of Thursday's matches, where Australia and South Korea were made hard to work for victories in the third round of Asian qualifying.
South Korea 3 China 2
Zheng Zhi’s early own goal ultimately condemned China to a 3-2 defeat to South Korea on Thursday despite a spirited fightback in their 2018 World Cup qualifier.
China’s main man became their fall-guy as he inadvertently bundled Son Heung-min’s free kick into his own net on 20 minutes at Seoul World Cup Stadium.
Lee Chung-yong and Koo Ja-cheol both scored to pile on the pain for China but the visitors nearly hauled their way back into it following late strikes from Yu Hai and Hao Junmin.
See also:
• Report: UAE shock Japan 2-1 | Pictures
However, a precious equaliser eluded Gao Hongbo’s men and they start with a defeat as they embark on the year-long final round of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
After Zheng’s own goal, it wasn’t until the 62nd minute that Lee climbed to head South Korea’s second, before Koo slotted their third four minutes later.
Yu’s blistering finish pulled one back for China and when Hao curled in a textbook free kick with 14 minutes on the clock, South Korean nerves were jangling.
Son, fighting for his place at English club Tottenham Hotspur, was in the thick of it in the early exchanges and he shot wide on 18 minutes.
Two minutes later, Zhang Linpeng was booked for bringing down Oh Jae-suk just outside the box. From Son’s free kick, Ji Dong-won’s glancing header went in off Zheng’s shin.
Another Ji header nearly doubled South Korea’s lead shortly afterwards, and the unmarked Lee Chung-yong then missed a great chance when he skied his volley over the bar.
Meanwhile China were getting little joy and it wasn’t until the 28th minute that they had their first clear sight of the Korean goal, when Wu Lei broke down the right before losing his balance and shooting harmlessly wide.
Their best chance of the first half came when Yu intercepted a pass and released Wu one-on-one with goalkeeper Jung Sung-ryong, before the forward again miscued.
China started the second half strongly but it was South Korea who took control of the game when Ji’s cross picked out Lee for a powerful header and a 2-0 lead.
Koo then converted a fine cross by Son for 3-0, seemingly putting the game out of reach for China.
But Yu and Hao had other ideas, leading a strong rally to make the game far closer than the hosts had bargained for.
South Korea hung on for the narrow victory, with goalkeeper Jung making some crucial saves as the clock ticked down.
Australia 2 Iraq 0
Massimo Luongo and Tomi Juric were both on target as Australia overcame a dogged Iraq outfit to win 2-0 in their 2018 World Cup qualifier on Thursday.
The home side were strong favourites to win their opening Group B match but they didn’t have it all their own way until Queens Park Rangers’ Luongo and Luzern striker Juric scored in a seven-minute, second-half burst.
“It was a great way to come back today,” said Juric, who was recalled by Australia manager Ange Postecoglou after missing Australia’s friendlies against Greece in June.
“There definitely could have been a few more [goals] on our side, but it is a great result to start this campaign.”
Although the Australians dominated possession in the first half, the Iraqis were organised in defence while occasionally threatening on the counter-attack.
Juric almost opened the scoring just 10 seconds after the start, but his shot was blocked by the hand of goalkeeper Mohammed Hameed.
Australia’s Mathew Leckie also hit the woodwork with a long-range header, while Iraq’s Ahmed Yasin was unlucky not to win a penalty when pulled down in the box by Brad Smith.
The Australians were desperate to start the final stage of qualifying with a win and the longer the match went on, the more anxious their fans were getting.
The game suddenly opened up 10 minutes into the second half, with Aaron Mooy hitting the crossbar and Australian goalkeeper Mathew Ryan forced into a save from Ali Abbas.
The ball went straight down the other end after the Ryan save and Juric inexplicably missed a peach of a chance from close range.
But just minute later, Luongo eased Aussie nerves when he got behind the Iraqi defence and was left with a relatively simple task to knock in a Juric cross and give Australia the lead after 57 minutes.
Juric had another shot well blocked in the 64th minute, but he finally got his reward from the |
cover-up of the Sauds’ (and Bush’s) behind-the-scenes roles in the 9/11 attacks, because this cover-up protects the aristocracy in each of the two countries. The U.S. Congress has continued with it until now, because none of them was likely to lose his seat for doing so; but, now, continuing further to protect the Sauds would be difficult if not impossible to ‘justify’ to voters back home. The key indicator here for the future, is that neither of the two Presidential candidates is condemning the current President for his vetoing the bill that would lift the legal immunity of the Saud family.
That fact indicates a likely continuation of the culture of aristocratic immunity, which pervades the current U.S. government. This is what one would expect in an oligarchy: there are two classes of people — those who make and stand above and immune from the law, and those who suffer and stand below the law and upon whom it is imposed. It’s the modern version of the master-serf relationship. This describes not only Saudi Arabia, but also the United States, though in different ways, and in differing degrees (because Saudi Arabia is even more of a dictatorship than is the U.S.).
These two nations’ aristocracies are bonded together at the hip. The U.S. President, as their representative (and, of course, especially the representative of America’s aristocracy), is even willing to fight to continue the legal immunity of the Saudi royal family, after 9/11. For some reason, it’s not even hurting him in U.S. opinion polls. Obama apparently has reputational immunity, and not merely legal immunity. He is, after all, protecting not only the chief financial backers of Al Qaeda and of other jihadist groups, but also the world’s chief instigators and sources of jihadists.
In the latest Gallup poll, 51% approve of his job-performance, and 45% disapprove. For comparison, the job-performance of Congress (which is controlled by the ‘opposite’ Party) is 18% approve, and 78% disapprove. The latest favorability rating of «Saudi Arabia» was polled among Americans in 2014, and it was 35% favorable, and 57% unfavorable.
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created ChristianityANALYSIS/OPINION:
The meltdown of the American legacy media is now complete. Conservatives are sadly aware of the decline of The New York Times, the supposed “newspaper of record,” as the benchmark for legacy media in general.
Now, with an election that threatens the status quo for the establishment, the curtain has finally been completely pulled back, leaving no room for imagination about the condition and intention of establishment journalism.
Case in point: an editorial from The New York Times, remarkable not just in the absence of any sort of effort to appear sober in its assessment of Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, but a shocking (even for them) screed targeting his supporters.
“How Can America Recover from Donald Trump?” A strange headline for the editorial considering Mr. Trump has not presided over a record number of Americans dropping out of the workforce, an increase in the number of blacks thrown into poverty, or the rise of a zombie terrorist army scorching the earth and committing genocide.
Considering the dire condition of our country and the world, if one was concerned about recovering from someone, President Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton should be at the top of the list. Instead, The New York Times offers up an unhinged diatribe hoping for Mr. Trump to “go down in flames,” and then noting, “But while that will solve an immediate problem, a larger one will remain. The message of hatred and paranoia that is inciting millions of voters will outlast the messenger. The toxic effects of Trumpism will have to be addressed.”
Really? As though “Trumpism” exists and it’s a virus, or perhaps a disease? Shall we isolate people with this condition who dare to challenge the status quo? Shall we send to re-education camps those who have the gall to finally reject an establishment, including the legacy media, that has protected those responsible for an economic disaster, helping those who perpetuate a culture of lies and corruption?
Historically, arrest and “re-education” have been the preferred choices of leftists worldwide, so it’s no surprise the notion seeps into their panicked diatribes today.
The editorial is the hallmark of projection, or the assignment of your intentions and beliefs to others. They complain about “hatred” from Mr. Trump, yet how about The New York Times editorial opening with an idiotic and vile comparison of Mr. Trump to the Hindenberg (I can hear it now in the editorial board room, “Yeah, great idea! It’s a Nazi thing and people died!”) to going after his supporters in a vein that would make Mr. McCarthy quite proud.
Their main complaint? Mr. Trump’s policies on immigration, which are directly linked, during this time of world war, to his national security platform. His proposal to pause immigration from nations with a history of terrorism, and the implementation of an ideological values test for those seeking visas are things that apparently pushed The New York Times into the abyss.
“[Trump] says he wants to bar immigrants from most of the world, except for a few who pass religious and ideological tests. “Extreme vetting,” he calls it, bringing the Alien and Sedition Acts and McCarthyism into the reality-TV age. Yes, Mr. Trump speaks frontier gibberish. Outright nativism remains a fringe American phenomenon. …”
The Times might be surprised to learn that a majority of Americans agree with Mr. Trump’s immigration proposals. A new Morning Consult poll found most Americans, immigrants and descendants of immigrants, agree with both the pause in immigration from countries with a history of terrorism and the ideological test.
On the issue of the values test for visas, the “all voters” contingent support it 62-23 percent, while immigrants support it 61-26 percent.
On the issue of pausing immigration from countries with a history of terrorism, Morning Consult notes, “Immigrants, or children or grandchildren of immigrants, also hold similar views to the entire electorate on Trump’s proposal to temporarily ban entry to the U.S. from people residing in countries with a history of terrorism. But there were small differences among those voters who differ by generation.”
They find immigrants support the test 52-39 percent. First-generation immigrants support it at 68-22 percent. Second-generation support the policy 59-32 percent, while third-generation immigrants embrace it 55-34 percent.
Despite what the left and their water-carriers like The New York Times would like Americans to believe, their fellow citizens, especially immigrants, also want their families to have a future better than their own; they want to live in peace; they want to know the future will be one of their making, not one of war, fear and violence.
We know America must survive as the Founders intended, not just for ourselves but for all who come after us. The actual nativism and bigotry? Liberal policies destroying this country and her economic and cultural strengths, erasing it as an immigration option for generations to come.
So here’s a news flash for Democrats, The New York Times and all the establishment apologists: Concern for our families transcends race, sex and national origin. We’re Americans, and we know we deserve to survive. Wanting to live in a safe community, demanding law and order, being able to defend our homeland here and abroad, doesn’t describe “hateful, paranoid nativists,” it makes us good parents and decent human beings. And, yes, Trump supporters.
• Tammy Bruce, author and Fox News contributor, is a radio talk show host.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Aydan Özoguz, a member of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the German commissioner for immigration, refugees and integration, cannot hide her dismay. She has no sympathy for DITIB's decision not to take part in a Muslim anti-terror demonstration.
"To be frank, it is no longer understandable. I also believe that DITIB is hurting itself the most, especially its own members who, in part, find this call for action good," she said, adding that these members regard the board's decision as an affront.
Muslims plan to hold a demonstration under the motto "Not with us" in the German city of Cologne on Saturday to promote peace and show that they are against Islamic terror. Organizers who are associated with the liberal Islam scholar Lamya Kaddor are expecting tens of thousands of participants. The event was heavily advertised on social media.
DIBIT, the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs, Germany's largest Islamic organization with a network of around 900 mosques and 800,000 members, regards the demonstration as an affront. In a press release, the group has accused organizers of engaging in sensationalism and expressed concerns that Muslim anti-terror demonstrations would stigmatize Muslims themselves.
Like Aydan Özoguz, Cemile Giousouf also cannot understand DITIB's argument. She is the integration commissioner for the joint parliamentary group of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU). Giousouf does not see an "objective reason to refuse to participate in the planned demonstration against Islamic terror."
The DITIB mosque in Cologne was inaugurated in early June
Accusations of espionage and infighting
DITIB is going through hard times. Imams from the organization allegedly spied on community members in Germany who were suspected of being followers of Fetullah Gulen, the Muslim cleric accused by the Turkish government of being behind the country's failed coup last July. The federal prosecutor's office has begun investigations into the imams. Trouble is also brewing within the organization itself. The entire federal executive committee of DITIB's youth organization quit in mid-May because liberal attitudes were not tolerated.
Turkey expert Christoph Ramm from the University of Bern says the recent disputes have arisen at an inopportune moment.
"In the past, DITIB was sort of regarded as 'everybody's darling,' for example, at the Islam Conference," he said. "It was predictable and based on a secular understanding of Turkey and the people there were familiar. Contrary to other smaller, opaque Islamic associations, it was a welcome dialogue partner for politicians."
In the course of the failed coup in Turkey in the summer of last year, DITIB became one of the "bad guys," according to Ramm. He says that most of all, allegations of espionage and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's policies that were pursued in Germany through DITIB - like the controversial referendum campaign - cast a bad light on the association.
Özuguz says she doesn't understand DITIB's position
Public funding
In Berlin, there is a cross-party consensus on DITIB's refusal to take part in the demonstration. Cem Özdemir, co-chairman of the Green Party, agrees with Özoguz and Giousouf. He described the excuse for DITIB's refusal as "more than flimsy," adding: "It is beyond me why DITIB does not use the opportunity to send a clear signal of solidarity."
To integration commissioner Özoguz the problem lies in the fact that decision-makers in associations like DITIB have never really settled in Germany, "although the members for have, for the most part."
"By that I mean that many were born and raised here," she said. "But the association, especially the board of directors, is still linked to Ankara in many respects and it attempts to somehow also exert its influence abroad."
However, DITIB does not seem capable of surviving only off Ankara's support and without help from Germany. After payments to the association were temporarily suspended because of the espionage affair, the money has been flowing into its accounts again. According to the German Ministry of Family Affairs, "It was decided that funding for projects that have already been approved would resume under consideration of all relevant aspects." DITIB has received around 6 million euros ($6.7 million) in funding from the German government since 2012.Why should the Steam players have all the fun in the summertime? This week is the Steam Summer Sale, and it’s also E3. So we thought this would be a great time to put the tablet version of Sentinels of the Multiverse on sale! (This is in no way related to us missing the cutoff to participate in the Steam Summer Sale, we swear).
Whether you have an iPad, Kindle Fire, Galaxy Tab or Nexus, you can get Sentinels for an amazing 50% off all week!
The sale extends through Sunday the 21st and covers iTunes, Amazon App Store and Google Play. If you’ve been waiting for a sale, this is a pretty good one. We think it’s a great idea to get used to the core game, and maybe even Rook City ahead of the Infernal Relics release (which is coming pretty soon).
The sale is live now, and ends this coming Sunday so go get it! If you already play Sentinels, tell your friends, or why not pick up another copy for yourself for a different platform? If your friends aren’t convinced, just remind them that internet multiplayer is in the works, and maybe show it to them if they don’t believe you.Let's have a little midweek reality check: Almost all of us have almost no control over our own computing.
And for most of us, that fact causes very little mental or emotional distress.
Sure, we might raise hell when a few blogs get contentious about Facebook privacy, and we might shake our heads when Google gets caught collecting user data from its Street View vehicles. But even when it comes to our business practices, very few of us know or care about what it really means to have control over our online activities, identities and data.
And why should we care? Letting others control our computing is inexpensive, convenient and mostly safe... right? Have a look at what Richard Stallman has to say. He started the Free Software Foundation, and he knows a thing or two about what users should be able to do with their own apps and programs.
As a refresher in Free Software 101, Stallman believes the following four tenets hold true for all software you'd need to use to perform everyday work:
Information, such as computer software, should be freely accessible. The information should be free to modify. The information should be free to share with others. The information should be free to change and redistribute copies of the changed software.
Anything that doesn't meet those four criteria is considered proprietary software. An example of free software would be The GIMP image editor or OpenOffice document editor. Proprietary software includes programs such as Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Word. We've talked in the past about how proprietary software robs users of control and freedom.
But another category of software we all know and use is software as a service (SaaS) — a web-based version of proprietary software that ships out all your data across the tubes and lets someone else do the computing for you. SaaS programs range in scope from banking software to e-mail apps, and they're typically used more by small and medium-sized businesses.
When it comes to SaaS, Stallman considers these programs worse than proprietary software. They take away freedom (as defined above), and they require that you relinquish control of your data to "the cloud," a nebulous entity that resides behind a big logo and deep inside an enormous and hypothetically secure data center. But are SaaS applications the best solution for businesses, where control over data and software modifications are even more important than to consumers?
In an essay on SaaS, Stallman writes, "The real meaning of 'cloud computing' is to suggest a devil-may-care approach towards your computing. It says, 'Don't ask questions, just trust every business without hesitation. Don't worry about who controls your computing or who holds your data. Don't check for a hook hidden inside our service before you swallow it.' In other words, 'Think like a sucker.'"
Check out what Stallman has to say in this video, and let us know your thoughts in the comments.
You can check out the previous episodes from our chat with Stallman in our archives.
Note: Stallman asked that we use Ogg Theora, an open format, for encoding this video. To download the original video, go to its Wikimedia page. This video is published under a Creative Commons-No Derivatives license.Credit: CC0 Public Domain Many extreme events—from a rogue wave that rises up from calm waters, to an instability inside a gas turbine, to the sudden extinction of a previously hardy wildlife species—seem to occur without warning. It's often impossible to predict when such bursts of instability will strike, particularly in systems with a complex and ever-changing mix of players and pieces.
Now engineers at MIT have devised a framework for identifying key patterns that precede an extreme event. The framework can be applied to a wide range of complicated, multidimensional systems to pick out the warning signs that are most likely to occur in the real world.
"Currently there is no method to explain when these extreme events occur," says Themistoklis Sapsis, associate professor of mechanical and ocean engineering at MIT. "We have applied this framework to turbulent fluid flows, which are the Holy Grail of extreme events. They're encountered in climate dynamics in the form of extreme rainfall, in engineering fluid flows such as stresses around an airfoil, and acoustic instabilities inside gas turbines. If we can predict the occurrence of these extreme events, hopefully we can apply some control strategies to avoid them."
Sapsis and MIT postdoc Mohammad Farazmand have published their results today in the journal Science Advances.
Looking past exotic warnings
In predicting extreme events in complex systems, scientists have typically attempted to solve sets of dynamical equations—incredibly complex mathematical formulas that, once solved, can predict the state of a complex system over time.
Researchers can plug into such equations a set of initial conditions, or values for certain variables, and solve the equations under those conditions. If the result yields a state that is considered an extreme event in the system, scientists can conclude that those initial conditions must be a precursor, or warning sign.
Dynamical equations are formulated based on a system's underlying physics. But Sapsis says that the physics governing many complex systems are often not well-understood and they contain important model errors. Relying on these equations to predict the state of such systems would therefore be unrealistic.
Even in systems where the physics are well-characterized, he says there is a huge number of initial conditions one could plug into associated equations, to yield an equally huge number of possible outcomes. What's more, the equations, based on theory, might successfully identify an enormous number of precursors for extreme events, but those precursors, or initial states, might not all occur in the real world.
"If we just blindly take the equations and start looking for initial states that evolve to extreme events, there is a high probability we will end up with initial states that are very exotic, meaning they will never ever occur for any practical situation," Sapsis says. "So equations contain more information than we really need."
Aside from equations, scientists have also looked through available data on real-world systems to pick out characteristic warning patterns. But by their nature, extreme events occur only rarely, and Sapsis says if one were to rely solely on data, they would need an enormous amount of data, over a long period of time, to be able to identify precursors with any certainty.
Searching for hotspots
The researchers instead developed a general framework, in the form of a computer algorithm, that combines both equations and available data to identify the precursors of extreme events that are most likely to occur in the real world.
"We are looking at the equations for possible states that have very high growth rates and become extreme events, but they are also consistent with data, telling us whether this state has any likelihood of occurring, or if it's something so exotic that, yes, it will lead to an extreme event, but the probability of it occurring is basically zero," Sapsis says.
In this way, the framework acts as a sort of sieve, capturing only those precursors that one would actually see in a real-world system.
Sapsis and Farazmand tested their approach on a model of turbulent fluid flow—a prototype system of fluid dynamics that describes a chaotic fluid, such as a plume of cigarette smoke, the airflow around a jet engine, ocean and atmospheric circulation, and even the flow of blood through heart valves and arteries.
"We used the equations describing the system, as well as some basic properties of the system, expressed through data obtained from a small number of numerical simulations, and we came up with precursors which are characteristic signals, telling us before the extreme event starts to develop, that there is something coming up," Sapsis explains.
They then performed a simulation of a turbulent fluid flow and looked for the precursors that their method predicted. They found the precursors developed into extreme events between 75 and 99 percent of the time, depending on the complexity of the fluid flow they were simulating.
Sapsis says the framework is generalizable enough to apply to a wide range of systems in which extreme events may occur. He plans to apply the technique to scenarios in which fluid flows against a boundary or wall. Examples, he says, are air flows around jet planes, and ocean currents against oil risers.
"This happens in random places around the world, and the question is being able to predict where these vortices or hotspots of extreme events will occur," Sapsis says. "If you can predict where these things occur, maybe you can develop some control techniques to suppress them."
Explore further: New prediction tool gives 2-3 minute warning of incoming rogue waves
More information: "A variational approach to probing extreme events in turbulent dynamical systems" Science Advances (2017). advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/9/e1701533How much stress are you carrying around? Do you feel burdened by life's circumstances and emotional issues? Becoming more grounded and happy starts with letting go of worry and stress. I learned this in my own journey, through overcoming drug addictions, healing myself from depression, and walking away from a career in corporate to follow my heart and be a successful writer and life coach. In the process, I had to let go of a lot of things to become the person I am today.
Physically, spiritually and emotionally, I had to learn how to let go of the person I thought I should be in order to be the person I really wanted to be. Letting go of anything in life can be a little scary, but it can also be an amazing act of self-love.
Letting go of my worries and stress made a difference for me; of course I still dip in and out of some of my stress jar from time to time, but I've found this list a good reminder of what I need to strive for each day in order to reach unlimited happiness.
Here are 20 things to let go of in order to reach unlimited happiness.
1. Let go of all thoughts that don't make you feel empowered and strong.
2. Let go of feeling guilty for doing what you truly want to do.
3. Let go of the fear of the unknown; take one small step and watch the path reveal itself.
4. Let go of regrets; at one point in your life, that “whatever" was exactly what you wanted.
5. Let go of worrying; worrying is like praying for what you don't want.
6. Let go of blaming anyone for anything; be accountable for your own life. If you don't like something, you have two choices, accept it or change it.
7. Let go of thinking you are damaged; you matter, and the world needs you just as you are.
8. Let go of thinking your dreams are not important; always follow your heart.
9. Let go of being the “go-to person" for everyone, all the time; stop blowing yourself off and take care of yourself first … because you matter.
10. Let go of thinking everyone else is happier, more successful or better off than you. You are right where you need to be. Your journey is unfolding perfectly for you.
11. Let go of thinking there's a right and wrong way to do things or to see the world. Enjoy the contrast and celebrate the diversity and richness of life.
12. Let go of cheating on your future with your past. It's time to move on and tell a new story.
13. Let go of thinking you are not where you should be. You are right where you need to be to get to where you want to go, so start asking yourself where you want to go.
14. Let go of anger toward ex lovers and family. We all deserve happiness and love; just because it is over doesn't mean the love was wrong.
15. Let go of the need to do more and be more; for today, you've done the best you can, and that's enough.
16. Let go of thinking you have to know how to make it happen; we learn the way on the way.
17. Let go of your money woes — make a plan to pay off debt and focus on your abundance.
18. Let go of trying to save or change people. Everyone has her own path, and the best thing you can do is work on yourself and stop focusing on others.
19. Let go of trying to fit in and be accepted by everyone. Your uniqueness is what makes you outstanding.
20. Let go of self-hate. You are not the shape of your body or the number on the scale. Who you are matters, and the world needs you as you are. Celebrate you!
For more inspiration and a guide to help you let go, get this FREE kit on loving life to the fullest.Samuel Johnson said patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. Today the epithet "isolationist" is the last refuge of the warmonger.
Sen. John McCain may be Washington's most enthusiastic hawk -- supporter of war in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, jokester about war with Iran, and advocate of confrontation with Russia during that nation's war with Georgia. If there is blood to be shed, he wants the U.S. involved.
But the Republican presidential candidates are not with him. Several have looked into the fiscal abyss that awaits America and are saying "stop." On ABC's "This Week" McCain complained that the GOP contenders questioned Barack Obama's foolish and illegal war in Libya: "This is isolationism."
McCain's ignorance is striking. He claimed that U.S. intervention stopped a slaughter in the city of Benghazi, even though Libya's Moammar Qadhafi had not committed mass killings in the other cities which he recaptured. And Qadhafi aimed his florid rhetoric at rebel fighters, not civilians. Alas, advocates of the Libya war refuse to let the facts interfere with their propaganda.
Worse, though, is McCain's resort to the standard demagogic tactic of those who favor U.S. intervention everywhere every time. The term "isolationist" once meant something: people who hoped to keep America separate from the rest of the world. They generally wanted few political ties, little trade, minimal immigration, and limited cultural exchange, as well as a restrained military policy.
Such people may still exist today, but they aren't much in evidence in Washington. They certainly weren't represented on the debate stage in New Hampshire, to which McCain referred. And they are largely absent among the people criticizing yet another war and prospective nation-building project in yet another Muslim nation.
Of course, McCain isn't the first uber-hawk who prefers to shout insults than defend intervention. In fact, it is the preferred tactic of those whose policies would leave American permanently at war.
With no congressional authorization based on either the Constitution or War Powers Resolution, the Libya conflict is illegal. The public has turned negative. Most NATO members want as little as possible to do with what is really Britain's and France's war. And things will only get worse the longer the war drags on.
The U.S. and Europe have been bombing Libya for three months and all they have managed to do is extend the fighting, killing more of the civilians who are supposed to be saved. No one knows when the conflict will end or who is likely to take control if the rebels win, since they are divided among themselves, and include former Qadhafi officials, Islamic extremists, along with genuine democratic activists.
McCain likely would have had a different perspective two years ago when he and three other Senators visited Libya. According to the State Department cable reporting on the August 2009 trip, McCain opened a meeting with Muammar Qadhafi's son Muatassim: "We never would have guessed ten years ago that we could be sitting in Tripoli." When the Libyans pressed for military aid, the State Department observer reported: "Senator McCain assured Muatassim that the United States wanted to provide Libya with the equipment it needs for its security." The cable went on to observe: "McCain's meetings with Muammar and Muatassim al-Qadhafi, were positive, highlighting the progress that has also been made in the bilateral relationship."
No doubt then McCain would have accused anyone who opposed military assistance to the Qadhafi government of isolationism. The cable noted: "The Senators recognized Libya's cooperation on counterterrorism and conveyed that it was in the interest of both countries to make the relationship stronger." Only an isolationist would object to aiding a nation guilty of terrorist attacks on Americans.
Of course, that was then and this is now.
For someone like McCain, it doesn't matter what the U.S. is doing so long as it is meddling overseas. You don't want to arm a former terrorist in the war on terror, you are an isolationist. You don't want to bomb an oppressive dictator, you are an isolationist. You want to peacefully advance America's interest, you are an isolationist.
Over the years "isolationist" has been routinely used to libel people who don't want the U.S. government to wander the globe bombing, invading, and occupying other nations and writing checks to assorted corrupt thugs, vicious authoritarians, and incompetent socialists. Isolationist also has been applied to those who believe the Constitution reserves to Congress the authority to start wars. The only way to avoid the epithet is to be a profligate spender and promiscuous warmonger who routinely violates the Constitution.
America, and more important, Americans, should engage the world. Except in highly unusual circumstances, the U.S. government should maintain political relations with other nations. Transnational issues—refugees, environment, proliferation—warrant transnational cooperation. On the rare occasion when America has truly vital interests at stake, military action may be justified.
The most important activities between nations should be between peoples. Trade and investment, culture and sports, education and travel, economic development and humanitarian assistance, and much more. The proper presumption, in a free society at least, is that most human action and exchange take place outside of government. Minimizing political entanglements, as George Washington famously advocated in his Farewell Address, is not isolationism but prudent engagement.
Indeed, prudence is what is missing from the program of those who shout "isolationist" at anyone who opposes their policies for endless intervention and war. It is not isolationist to point out that most conflicts are more expensive and turn out far differently than expected. It is not isolationist to emphasize the human cost at the other end of American bombs. It is not isolationist to warn of how even short wars tend to turn into long occupations.
It is not isolationist to highlight Washington's precarious fiscal situation. It is not isolationist to affirm that the U.S. government's highest duty is to those it claims to represent—and who pay, and sometimes die, for its activities. It is not isolationist to insist that the president follow the Constitution and the law.
It is not isolationist but good sense.
America's natural condition should be peace, not war. Reflexive interventionists like Sen. McCain think otherwise, which is why they routinely smear their opponents as isolationists. With no arguments to make, they have only insults to shout. But the real epithet today should be interventionist.Batman: Arkham Knight Framerate Unlock & Tweak Guide
Batman: Arkham Knight Framerate Unlock & Tweak Guide
| Source: OC3D Price: Author: Mark Campbell
Batman: Arkham Knight Framerate Unlock & Tweak Guide
Batman: Arkham Knight is out today and here we will show you how to get past a few of the games issues with a few simple tweaks.
Before we start I would recommend that you download some new GPU Drivers for this game, as both Nvidia and AMD have both released new drivers for this game over the past 20 hours. For the best performance in this game you will need to be using the latest game drivers.
Disabling Intro Movies/ Cinematics
Many games are plagued with opening cinematics, which after your first boot of the game do nothing but slow down when you just want to game. Your time is limited, so here is how to skip these pesky intro movies.
First you must head into your Batman: Arkham Knight Install directory and find the games "Movies" folder. The folder can usually be found at the below location, if you installed it on your C:\ drive.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Batman Arkham Knight\BMGame\Movies
Once you are there you must find these two files, "Intro_BM3Logo_fire.usm" and "nv_logo.usm". These two file contain the game's intro movies, and all you need to do to disable them is rename them.
We advise that you simply add something like.DISABLE or.OLD to the end of the file names, so that you can easily re-enable the files again if you wish.
Now with this edit you should boot the game directly to the game's start screen.
Disabling the 30FPS Framerate Cap
For most of us PC gamers a 30 FPS framerate cap is far too low, yes on consoles you hardware is fixed and will not be able to go higher, but on PC this is simply not the case.
With the right hardware this game should be able to play at a higher framerate, so why limit yourself or your PC if you do not need too, after all a steady 60 FPS will give you a much better gaming experience.
Firstly you will need to find Batman: Arkham Knight's config folder, which will be found in the below location if you use your C:\ drive for installation.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Batman Arkham Knight\BMGame\Config
Inside this folder you will find a file called "BmSystemSettings.ini", which is where you can edit where the games framerate cap is. You can open and edit this file using Notepad or a different text editor.
When you have opened the file in your preferred text editor, press CTRL+F to open it's search function and use it to find the following line.
MaxFPS=30.000000
Once found you can edit the value of 30.000000 to any framerate that you desire, for example 60FPS if you use a 60Hz display.
MaxFPS=60.000000
You can use this method to change the framerate limit to any framerate that you choose, be it 60, 120 or 144Hz. We do not advise that you place the limit beyond your displays refresh rate to prevent tearing. Alternatively you can set the limit to 9999 if you want to framerate to be "uncapped".
Once you are finished editing your.ini file please save and exit it.
Now your game should now be able to run at your desired framerate, provided that you have the hardware to back it up.
Warning - The game was not designed to run at above 30FPS by default, so some graphical glitches may result by uncapping your framerate.
Disabling Motion Blur
Before the game's first PC patch disabling Motion Blur in the.ini file caused crashes, and many other issues. This has now been fixed, but the option is still yet to be added to the games graphical options menu.
To disable Motion Blur you must enter into the same.ini file that you did to uncap the framerate and change the following values.
MotionBlur=True
Change too
MotionBlur=False
Some users may still experience issues with this fix, but Warner Brothers assures us that this option will no longer cause and game crashes in their patch notes.
Hopefully Rocksteady games will bring these option into the games settings in a later patch, but until then we hope that these fixes will help you get a better gaming experience with Batman Arkham Knight.
You can join the discussion on the Batman Arkham Knight Framerate Unlocking Guide on the OC3D Forums.
Batman: Arkham Knight is out today and here we will show you how to get past a few of the games issues with a few simple... Posted by OC3D on Tuesday, 23 June 2015 Batman: Arkham Knight is out today and with a framerate cap. let's fix that with a few tweaks http://t.co/cO9b273MgS pic.twitter.com/nYTQQMD26t — OC3D (@OC3D) June 23, 2015
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Most Recent CommentsEducation in New Zealand is compulsory for all children before the age of ten, at which point they are expected to find gainful employment in a shearing gang. There are two schools in New Zealand; children from affluent families usually attend the privately funded King’s College in Auckland, while those from lower socio-economic groups attend Waimate Main School.
The competency of all New Zealand students is assessed through a standardised nationwide test, designed to evaluate each student’s literacy, numeracy, ability to think laterally and understanding of their cultural heritage.
2012’s Standardised Year 5 Test; students who achieve more than 50% are awarded their New Zealand School Certificate.
Tertiary:
Tertiary education is pursued by many young New Zealanders wishing to achieve higher qualifications. University study remains popular today, despite growing pressure from government officials and parents to outlaw further education in a desperate attempt to halt the nation’s “brain drain.” A recent survey of Melbourne baristas found that one in five held a doctorate from a New Zealand university, while 100% of those surveyed were earning more than New Zealand’s total workforce combined (excluding surviving members of OMC).By: Chris O'Shea
Through a new virtual reality experiment, scientists have connected the world of humans and animals in a unique way. Scientists at the University of Barcelona and University College London used a method called "beaming" to project humans and rats — that were separated by seven miles — into the same virtual room. The process sounds simple, but the impact could be huge. |
-react-app my-cool-new-app` installs a temporary create-react-app and calls it, without polluting global installs or requiring more than one step!
Have you ever run into a situation where you want to try some CLI tool, but it’s annoying to have to install a global just to run it once? npx is great for that, too. Calling npx <command> when <command> isn’t already in your $PATH will automatically install a package with that name from the npm registry for you, and invoke it. When it’s done, the installed package won’t be anywhere in your globals, so you won’t have to worry about pollution in the long-term.
This feature is ideal for things like generators, too. Tools like yeoman or create-react-app only ever get called once in a blue moon. By the time you run them again, they’ll already be far out of date, so you end up having to run an install every time you want to use them anyway.
As a tool maintainer, I like this feature a lot because it means I can just put $ npx my-tool into the README.md instructions, instead of trying to get people over the hurdle of actually installing it. To be frank, saying “oh just copy-paste this one commands, it’s zero commitment” is more palatable to users who are unsure about whether to use a tool or not.
Here’s some other fun packages that you might want to try using with npx : happy-birthday, benny-hill, workin-hard, cowsay, yo, create-react-app, npm-check. There’s even an entire awesome-npx repo! Go ahead! A command to get a full-fledged local REST server running is small enough to fit in a tweet.
Run commands with different Node.js versions
`npx -p node@<version> node -v` can be used to do one-off runs of node versions.
As it turns out, there’s this cool package by Aria Stewart called node on the npm registry. This means that you can very easily try out node commands using different node versions, without having to use a version manager like nvm, nave, or n. All you need is a stock npm@5.2.0 installation!
The -p option for npx allows you to specify packages to install and add to the running $PATH, so it means you can do fun things such as: $ npx -p node@6 npm it to install and test your current npm package as if you were running node@6 globally. I use this all the time myself — and even recently had to use it a lot with one project, due to one of my testing libraries breaking under node@8. It’s been a real life-saver, and I’ve found it much easier to use for this sort of use-case than version managers, which I always somehow find a way to break or misconfigure.
Developing npm run-script s interactively
`$ npx -p cowsay -p lolcatjs -c ‘echo “$npm_package_name@$npm_package_version” | cowsay | lolcatjs’` installs both cowsay and lolcatjs, and gives the script access to a slew of `$npm_` variables from run scripts.
A lot of npm users these days take advantage of the really cool run-script feature. Not only do they arrange your $PATH such that local binaries are accessible, but they also add a whole slew of environment variables that you can access in those scripts! You can see what these extra variables are with $ npm run env | grep npm_.
This can make it tricky to develop and test out run scripts — and it means that even with tricks like $(npm bin)/some-bin, you still won’t have access to those magical env vars while working interactively.
But wait! npx has yet another trick up its sleeve: when you use the -c option, the script written inside the string argument will have full access to the same env variables as a regular run script! You can even use pipes and multiple commands with a single npx invocation!
Share gist-based scripts with friends and loved ones!
It’s become pretty common to use gist.github.com to share all sorts of utility scripts, instead of setting up entire git repos, releasing new tools, etc.
With npx, you can take it a step further: since npx accepts any specifier that npm itself does, you can create a gist that people can invoke directly, with a single command!
Try it out yourself with https://gist.github.com/zkat/4bc19503fe9e9309e2bfaa2c58074d32!
Note: Stay safe out there! Always make sure to read through gists when executing them like this, much like you would when running.sh scripts!
Bonus Round: shell auto-fallback
Putting the npx auto fallback in.zshrc means you can do `$ ember-cli@latest …` without referencing npx at all!
This awesome feature, added by Félix Saparelli, means that for many of these use cases, you never even need to call npx directly! The main difference between regular npx usage and the fallback is that the fallback doesn’t install new packages unless you use the pkg@version syntax: a safety net against potentially-dangerous typosquatting.
Setting up the auto-fallback is straightforward: look in the npx documentation for the command to use for your current shell, add it to.bashrc /.zshrc /.fishrc, then restart your shell (or use source or some other mechanism to refresh the shell).
Now, you can do things like $ standard@8 --version to try out different versions of things, and if you’re inside an npm project, $ mocha will automatically fall back to the locally-installed version of mocha, provided it’s not already installed globally.
Do It Live!
You can get npx now by installing npm@5.2.0 or later — or, if you don’t want to use npm, you can install the standalone version of npx! It’s totally compatible with other package managers, since any npm usage is only done for internal operations. Oh, and it’s available in 10 different languages, thanks to contributions by a bunch of early adopters from all over the world, with --help and all system messages translated and automatically available based on system locale! There’s also an awesome-npx repo with examples of things that work great with npx!
Do you have a favorite feature? Have you already been using it? If you have something cool to show off that I didn’t list here, share it in the comments! I’d love to hear what other people are up to!
p.s. people keep asking this so I’m just gonna pop it in here: In these gifs, I’m using Hyper with the monokai theme running oh-my-zsh’s spaceship theme, plus the FiraCode font.Mayor of Leiden, Henri Lenferink, will be able to rely on the support of the Council on Thursday, as they will stand behind him in the municipal council meeting about the housing of Benno L. the ANP reports.
The municipality of Leiden had a meeting last week when it appeared that the convicted pedophile lives in Leiden. This led to widespread unrest and protest in the city as well as further afield. On Friday, Lenferink decided that L. could stay in the city anyway.
The local VVD, D66, SP, GroenLinks, PvdA, Party for Animals and City party Leiden Ontzet are stalwartly standing behind mayor Lenferink. They think that he took his responsibility. A "brave" decision, Henny Keereweer of the PvdA called it.
Leefbaar Leiden is criticizing the mayor, however. Daan Sloos, the only council member of the local party, is going to file a vote of no confidence against Lenferink on Thursday. "Ridiculous", says SP-leader Julian van der Kraats. GroenLinks is even filing a motion of censure against Leefbaar Leiden.
The motion of Sloos can rely on one vote for, that of Sloos himself, an 33 against. The CDA with four seats, is not ruling out supporting the motion. "The mayor has acted solo. I await his decision on Thursday" CDA's Patrick Meijer said.
The Christian Union (one seat) does not want to comment on the meeting beforehand.
Despite the support for Lenferink, most parties will no doubt furrow their brows over the mayor's decision to keep Benno L.'s arrival a secret. "It is an illusion that you can keep this a secret in these times", GroenLinks faction President Pieter Kos said.
The Party for Animals (PvdD) thinks that Lenferink could have discussed it before making a decision.
Leefbaar Leiden leader Sloos thinks Lenferink should never have brought Benno L. to Leiden, especially not secretively. "That is simply dangerous and I blame him for that."What is privacy and what is an individual's right to it?
That is the question that renowned linguist and MIT professor Noam Chomsky, National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden, and Intercept co-founding editor Glenn Greenwald sought to answer on Friday evening as the three (virtually) shared a stage for a panel discussion at the University of Arizona in Tuscon.
Coming amid the FBI's public battle against Apple as well as days after the bombings in Brussels last week, which have spurred another round of calls for heightened security and surveillance, the conversation challenged the rhetoric that national security requires that governments can access individual communications.
"Should our government be omniscient?" asked Snowden, who took part in the discussion via satellite from Russia. "That has value, of course, in thwarting nefarious and criminal behavior. But the public has a right to know if the government is going to be omniscient. As it stands, this decision has been made by a few people behind closed doors. That is the problem."
"There are systems of unaccountable power—some of them private, some of them governmental," Chomsky stated, regarding the growing commercialization of the internet. "They don’t care about democracy and have shaped and molded the system. Technology is neutral. It can be used for good or evil. It’s up to us to determine what the future holds."
When asked about the FBI's ongoing effort to force Apple to break into one of the suspected San Bernardino shooter's iPhones, Greenwald stated that the bureau's case against the tech company is "pure deceit."
"[The government] wanted to create a precedent," Greenwald said. "Apple would be forced into involuntary labor to create a backdoor anyone could use. The NSA’s motto is: Collect it all. Not collect a lot of it. It wants to be able to collect and store all communications between humans in the world and eliminate privacy in the digital age."
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Greenwald continued: "The world Orwell is talking about in '1984' is not one in which people are being watched all the time. That world is one in which people could be watched at any moment. One in which there never is a moment when you can communicate beyond the reach of the surveillance arm of the government. That is the FBI case against Apple."
Snowden refuted the notion that governments need to be able to access encrypted data to prevent attacks, such as the one in Brussels. He said that the NSA already has that information and that such attacks are "preventable."
"The NSA gets around encryption every day of the week," Snowden joked. "And twice on Sundays."
Chomsky concluded by saying that what Snowden and Greenwald have done, exposing the breadth of NSA spying, "is great for democracy, and they should be lauded for that."
"You cannot shine the light in dark places enough," said Greenwald. "We cannot start enough debates on the abuse of power, the value of privacy. No matter how powerless you think you are in the face of injustice, all individuals have the power to stand up to the most powerful institutions."
You can watch the two-hour panel discussion, which was organized by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), below or read TruthDig's liveblog of the talk here.In an image that transcends language barriers, Stephen Harper was caught giving Green Party Leader Elizabeth May an epic eye-roll during the leaders' first French debate Thursday.
The moment caught attention on social media, even if it wasn't immediately clear to many what May said to irk the Conservative leader.
It turns out she was just making the small accusation that Harper sold Canada's sovereignty to China by approving the 2012 takeover of Calgary-based oil company Nexen by the China National Offshore Oil Co.
Communications consultant Tom Kott released a Vine of the moment.
Three years ago, May wrote a blog for the Green Party website questioning if investor-state provisions in the Nexen-CNOOC deal could result in Canadian laws being "struck down in hotel room arbitrations launched by the Communist Party of China."
"Losing sovereignty to China makes me nervous. I don't want to be intolerant. But I want us to trade items made in Canada, by Canadians, to China. I don't like the idea of China owning Canada," she wrote at the time.
"It makes it hard for us to point out to the Chinese government that it must start respecting human rights. We need to be really forceful in advocating for religious and political freedom in China. How do we do that when they have veto power over Canadian laws?"
Reaction to Harper's gesture was mixed on Twitter, with some finding it dismissive and others downright hilarious. One national columnist suggested it was an appropriate response because May's remark was "insane."
But the Green leader doubled down Friday morning, telling CBC Radio's Daybreak Montreal that Harper's reaction shows he "has thin skin on his sell-out of our sovereignty to People's Republic of China."
In what may have been her last chance to debate with the rest of the leaders, May also scored some points during a heated discussion about whether Muslim women should be allowed to wear the face-covering niqab while taking the oath of citizenship. May said the entire controversy diverts discussion of much larger issues.
"What is the impact of the niqab on the economy? What is the impact of the niqab on climate change?" she asked. "What is the impact of the niqab on the jobless? It is a false debate meant as distraction from the real challenges for Canada."
She also made a splash on social media by throwing up a peace sign before the debate began. Buzzfeed Canada's Emma Loop caught that moment and gifted the Internet with an unforgettable Vine.
LOL LIZ MAY YOU SASSY GAL https://t.co/H9eQbYxFky — Emma Loop (@LoopEmma) September 25, 2015
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Photo gallery In Photos: Canada Election 2015 See Gallery Harper Lets Slip Eye-Roll After Elizabeth May Says He Sold Canada's Sovereignty To China 1 / 323
In Photos: Canada Election 2015 1 / 323
Like Us On FacebookAn Ontario company has applied for permits that would allow a fibre optic cable through the Northwest Passage to bring vastly improved data service to much of the North.
Arctic Fibre has asked Industry Canada for submarine cable landing licences that would serve seven communities in Nunavut and just over half the territory's population.
The plans are part of a $600-million proposal to stretch a cable from Japan through to Newfoundland, where it would connect to the northeastern United States.
"We have sufficient bandwidth from people in the Canadian North and Alaska to justify the fibre," said Arctic Fibre president Douglas Cunningham.
"But it's primarily the Asian and European carriers and some of the video content distribution networks that are the real keys."
Cable would increase bandwidth, speed up data transmission
Running fibre optic lines under the Northwest Passage instead of to the U.S. coast, across the country, then back underseas again would shave 29 milliseconds off data transmission time between Tokyo and London, Cunningham said.
"That's a light year if you're a financial hedge fund trader or someone trying to watch a TV program with audio and video in sync."
As well, the line would add stability to global information flows by adding another physical route. Current lines run through regions with either geological or political instability, said Cunningham.
"Everyone's looking for physical route diversity. You can't afford to have your networks go down."
Northerners have long complained about the limited bandwidth of their Internet service. Arctic Fibre's plan would bring "virtually unlimited" bandwidth to Cambridge Bay, Gjoa Haven, Taloyoak, Igloolik, Hall Beach, Cape Dorset and Iqaluit.
48 per cent of North would not benefit
That still would leave out 48 per cent of the territory's population — including people in the burgeoning regional business centre of Rankin Inlet.
"I know there are certain people who want absolute equality of service to every community in Nunavut," Cunningham said. "We regard that as a utopian concept."
It's up to telecom service providers to run spur lines to the rest of the communities, he added.
Arctic Fibre's latest plans no longer include bringing the cable ashore at Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T.
No permits are required to lay the cable though the passage and the regulatory hurdles of landing it onshore are expected to be low. Cunningham said customers for the bandwidth have been lined up and he doesn't anticipate problems raising the money to proceed.
"We are not building this on spec. It has to be subscribed from the Canadian perspective and it is."
Cunningham said the cable, if approved, should be in service by November 2014.Frozen Fever is a 2015 American computer-animated musical fantasy short film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is a sequel to the 2013 feature film Frozen, and tells the story of Anna's birthday party given by Elsa with the help of Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf. Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee again served as the directors with Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, and Josh Gad reprising their roles from the first film.
Production on Frozen Fever began in June 2014 and took six months to complete. The film debuted in theaters alongside Walt Disney Pictures' Cinderella on March 13, 2015. It received positive reviews from critics, along with praise for its new song "Making Today a Perfect Day" by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez.
Plot [ edit ]
Elsa plans to give Anna a surprise birthday party with the help of Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf; but while Anna is led on a party treasure hunt by a string that winds through the kingdom, Elsa has caught a cold, and unknowingly produces a group of small living snowmen (known as "Snowgies") with each sneeze, who begin to dismantle the birthday party's decorations while Kristoff tries to stop them. While Elsa takes Anna on the hunt, Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf try to control the snowmen and fix the decorations in time for Anna and Elsa's return. Meanwhile, Elsa's condition rapidly worsens and she becomes delirious with fever. After Elsa nearly falls off a clock tower, Anna convinces her to rest. They walk back to the castle where Elsa apologizes to Anna for "ruining" another birthday, but Anna reassures her that she didn't ruin anything. As Anna goes to lead Elsa to bed, the doors to the castle open to reveal Kristoff, Olaf, Sven, and a mountain of tiny snowmen, who surprise Anna. Elsa sneezes again and finally sees more tiny snowmen that she produced. Despite Anna's protests, Elsa concludes the party by blowing into an alphorn. However, she sneezes into the horn, forming a giant snowball that inadvertently hits Hans overseas (and into a cart of manure, as he was cleaning out the stables as punishment for his previous actions). Elsa rests in bed under Anna's care. Olaf, Kristoff, and Sven escort the small snowmen to Elsa's ice palace, where they stay with her snow-giant doorkeeper Marshmallow.
Cast [ edit ]
Production [ edit ]
On September 2, 2014, during the ABC airing of The Story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic, Walt Disney Animation Studios' chief creative officer John Lasseter announced that a Frozen short film with a new song would be released in the future.[3] On the same day, Variety announced that the short would be released in early 2015 under the title Frozen Fever, with Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee returning as co-directors, Peter Del Vecho returning as producer and a new song by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. Olaf the snowman would also make an appearance in the short.[4][5][6] On December 3, 2014, it was announced that Aimee Scribner would be a co-producer and that Frozen Fever would debut in theaters alongside Walt Disney Pictures' Cinderella on March 13, 2015.[7][8] In late December, the co-directors told the Associated Press "There is something magic about these characters and this cast and this music. Hopefully, the audiences will enjoy the short we're doing, but we felt it again. It was really fun."[9] Around the same time, Dave Metzger, who worked on the orchestration for Frozen, disclosed he was already at work on Frozen Fever.[10]
The short features the song "Making Today a Perfect Day", by Anderson-Lopez and Lopez.[11] At the premiere of Cinderella and Frozen Fever at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California, on March 1, 2015, Josh Gad told USA Today, "I want to apologize to parents everywhere for the fact that children are going to be singing a whole new Frozen song[.]"[12]
The creators started brainstorming possibilities for the short film in June 2014.[13] After early discussions about Olaf, head story artist Marc Smith pitched the idea of what might happen if Elsa had a cold, which became the basis for the short's plot.[13] The directors began working on the short in June and by August were back in the recording studio with the cast to lay down vocal tracks. The production of Frozen Fever took six months.[14] All of the animators from Frozen wanted to come back to animate at least one shot on Frozen Fever, resulting in a large number of animator credits for a short film. They struggled to squeeze the animation phase of the short's production into a tight time slot in fall 2014 after animation wrapped on Big Hero 6 and before the studio's animators had to start working on subsequent features.[15][16]
Release and reception [ edit ]
Frozen Fever premiered in theaters alongside Walt Disney Pictures' Cinderella on March 13, 2015.[7] It was released on Digital HD and Disney Movies Anywhere on August 11, 2015, and was released on the Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection DVD/Blu-ray Combo Pack on August 18, 2015.[17] It was also included on the Blu-ray, DVD, and digital HD releases of Cinderella on September 15, 2015.[18] On November 9, 2015, it was released on an exclusive DVD copy of its own, courtesy of Tesco stores across the UK.[19]
USA Today's Claudia Puig rated the short three stars out of four, and described the new song ("Making Today a Perfect Day") as "pleasant". She concluded that although the short "is not as exhilarating and inventive as the original, it's still a treat to see an abridged tale of these two sisters in a warmhearted spinoff."[11] Writing for BBC, Natalie Jamieson called the new song "catchy and fun".[20] Dan Kois of the Slate called the film "a real bummer, the first recent misfire from Disney's shorts program, and thus the first serious misfire from the Lasseter-led Disney."[21] The Daily Telegraph's Robbie Collin praised the song "Making Today a Perfect Day", stating that "it's a lip-smacking confection, dusted with pure icing sugar, and suggests that songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez are capable of coming up with something special for the forthcoming feature-length Frozen sequel."[22]
CraveOnline's Witney Seibold wrote that the film "is a celebration of the very kind of conspicuous consumerism that Disney is always smearing the landscape with."[23] Mike Scott of The Times-Picayune wrote that "with its blend of sweetness, silliness and tunefullness, this animated Disney short is satisfyingly consistent in vision and in spirit with the original Frozen."[24]After so many episodes focusing on the dark lives of America’s Founding Fathers, Sleepy Hollow has cast Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Michelle Trachtenberg as Abigail Adams, known among historians as America’s Founding Annoying Little Sister. Trachtenberg—a go-to actress for characters others wish would just go away on shows like Buffy and Gossip Girl—joins the Fox series as Abigail, wife of John Adams and mother to John Quincy Adams, relationships she then used to guilt an entire nation for not wanting to spend any time with her. Abigail is also remembered for writing many a poignant letter to John Adams as he lodged many days in Philadelphia, eloquently accusing him of making up this whole “Continental Congress” thing just because he couldn’t stand to be around her.
As is par for the course on Sleepy Hollow, Abigail Adams will also be revealed to have a “secret life” involving Katrina Crane—which means it also presumably involves witchcraft or something, because that’s how that show works. It’s also presumed that America will totally act like Abigail Adams can’t even handle this, even though she’s First Lady, not First Kid. Whatever, Abigail. Go to your room in the White House and let the grown-ups talk.Republican Donald Trump has stunned the world by defeating heavily favoured Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House, ending eight years of Democratic rule and sending the United States on a new, uncertain path.
A wealthy real-estate developer and former reality TV host, Trump rode a wave of anger toward Washington insiders to defeat Clinton, whose gold-plated establishment resume includes stints as a first lady, US senator and secretary of state.
Worried a Trump victory could cause economic and global uncertainty, investors were in full flight from risky assets such as stocks. In overnight trading, S&P 500 index futures fell 5 per cent to hit their so-called limit down levels, indicating they would not be permitted to trade any lower until regular US stock market hours on Wednesday.
The Associated Press and Fox News projected that Trump had collected just enough of the 270 state-by-state electoral votes needed to win a four-year term that starts on January 20, taking battleground states where presidential elections are traditionally decided.
CNN reported Clinton had called Trump to concede concede the election.
A short time earlier, Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta told supporters at her election rally in New York to go home. "Several states are too close to call so we're not going to have anything more to say tonight," he said.
Victorious in a cliffhanger race that opinion polls had forecast was Clinton's to win, Trump won avid support among a core base of white non-college educated workers with his promise to be the "greatest jobs president that God ever created."
His win raises a host of questions for the United States at home and abroad. He campaigned on a pledge to take the country on a more isolationist, protectionist "America First" path. He has vowed to impose a 35 per cent tariff on goods exported to the United States by US companies that went abroad.
Both candidates, albeit Trump more than Clinton, had historically low popularity ratings in an election that many voters characterised as a choice between two unpleasant alternatives.
Trump, who at 70 will be the oldest first-term US president, came out on top after a bitter and divisive campaign that focused largely on the character of the candidates and whether they could be trusted to serve as the country's 45th president.
The presidency will be his first elected office, and it remains to be seen how he will work with Congress. During the campaign Trump was the target of sharp disapproval, not just from Democrats but from many in his own party.
Television networks projected Republicans would retain control of the US House of Representatives, where all 435 seats were up for grabs. In the U.S. Senate, the party also put up an unexpectedly tough fight to protect its majority in the US Senate.
© RAW 2019Arlene Foster confirms she will be having talks with Theresa May about details of arrangement with Northern Ireland party
The Democratic Unionist leader and most recent first minister of Northern Ireland, Arlene Foster, says she wants to “bring stability to our nation” by backing Theresa May and the Conservatives to continue in power.
Foster said in Belfast on Friday afternoon that she was entering discussions with May over the details of any arrangement that would prop up a minority government.
Foster said the election in Northern Ireland, which saw 10 DUP MPs, including two new ones, elected to the Commons, was a “great result” for the union.
What is the DUP? The Democratic Unionist party (DUP) is the largest political party in the devolved Northern Ireland assembly (where it shared power with the Irish republican party Sinn Féin until the start of this year) and with 10 MPs in the 2017 UK general election, its best-ever Westminster performance, the fifth-largest party in the House of Commons. Founded by Ian Paisley, it is led by Arlene Foster and its support of the Conservatives in parliament will allow Theresa May to form a government.
She confirmed that May had been in contact with her on Friday morning about gaining DUP support for a Tory administration.
“I make no apology for wanting the best for Northern Ireland and all of the union,” Foster said at the Stormont hotel in Belfast just across the road from the main entrance to the Stormont parliament, which remains shut down while talks begin next week to restore devolution.
The DUP leader said her party’s triumph and the result in Scotland, where the Scottish National party suffered losses, had “sent a clear and resounding message” to those who wished to tear the UK apart.
DUP figures insist their relationship with May’s team has been close since she became prime minister 11 months ago, and that late-night talks had been driven by their dismay at the possibility of Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister.
A DUP source said: “We want there to be a government. We have worked well with May. The alternative is intolerable. For as long as Corbyn leads Labour, we will ensure there’s a Tory PM.”
It has been reported that the two parties do not believe it necessary to enter a formal coalition to govern.
Senior DUP figures claimed they moved quickly to form an agreement to stop any chance of Corbyn entering No 10.
“The two parties [Labour and DUP] have worked well together for two years. There’s no reason to suppose they won’t continue to do so in future. But the point made time after time to Labour MPs remains: for as long as you allow yourselves to be led by an IRA cheerleader, you exclude yourselves from entering No 10,” said a DUP source.
The DUP’s “price” for propping up a new Tory government will include a promise that there will be no separate post-Brexit status for Northern Ireland, the party’s leader in Westminster has confirmed.
Nigel Dodds, re-elected as MP for Belfast North, said that among the DUP’s conditions would be an insistence that there be no deal that would keep the region with one foot still in the EU.
The DUP fears that separate status after Brexit – a key demand of Sinn Féin – would decouple Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.
With one eye on the Brexit negotiations that begin in the next 10 days, Dodds said: “There are special circumstances in Northern Ireland and we will try to make sure these are recognised. As regards demands for special status within the European Union, no. Because that would create tariffs and barriers between Northern Ireland and our single biggest market, which is the rest of the United Kingdom.
“While we will focus on the special circumstances, geography and certain industries of Northern Ireland we will be pressing that home very strongly. Special status, however, within the European Union is a nonsense. Dublin doesn’t support it. Brussels doesn’t support it. The member states of the EU would never dream of it because it would open the door to a Pandora’s box of independence movements of all sorts. The only people who mentioned this are Sinn Féin.”
The DUP backed Brexit in last year’s EU referendum and regards as sacrosanct the UK’s decision to leave.
Sinn Féin has argued that because the Northern Ireland electorate voted by 56% to remain within Europe last year and that the region is the only one with a post-Brexit land border with the EU, the area should have special status.
When asked about what form of deal the DUP would consider, Dodds ruled out taking ministerial seats in a Conservative-led cabinet. Rather, the DUP is likely to back the Tories in confidence motions and support Conservative budgets.
“No, I am not thinking in those terms, I have to say,” Dodds said when asked about taking a cabinet seat, before joking that he would like to be secretary of state for Northern Ireland.
The DUP could also oppose Tory plans to cut winter fuel payments; Foster has pledged to “resist any assault” on what it sees as an important universal benefit in Northern Ireland.
The party, founded in 1971, maintains its socially conservative positions but has been transformed into an efficient political force by successive leaders since Ian Paisley stepped down in 2008.
While the Ulster Unionist party and the nationalist SDLP, both of which once dominated Northern Irish politics, lost all of their MPs, the DUP and Sinn Féin have flourished since the Anglo-Irish agreement.
Foster has developed close working relationships with ministers in the republic, though Sinn Féin has refused to return to the Stormont assembly while she is first minister.
Sinn Féin won seven seats in the election but Corbyn would not be able to rely on the support of those MPs as the party will continue its historical policy of boycotting Westminster.
Late on Thursday night, Gerry Adams, the Sinn Féin president, said his MPs would not be going to the House of Commons.
A senior Sinn Féin spokesman later told the Guardian there “wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell” of the party ditching its abstentionism regarding Westminster.WOODSTOCK – A McHenry County sheriff’s deputy shot last year in the line of duty died Monday, the sheriff’s office confirmed.
Deputy Dwight Maness still was recovering from injuries he sustained less than a year ago in a shooting in Holiday Hills. The sheriff’s office didn’t confirm any other details on Maness’ death. He was 47.
Maness, of McHenry, and his wife, Sue, recently marked Dwight’s 47th – the first birthday since the night he and a partner were ambushed in Holiday Hills. His birthday fell on the same night as the vigil for Fox Lake Police Lt. Joseph Gliniewicz, another law enforcement officer who was shot Sept. 1.
There was nowhere else Maness wanted to be.
“We went to celebrate life,” he said in a Sept. 3 interview with the Northwest Herald. “Not to mourn, but to celebrate [Gliniewicz’s] life, as well as mine.”
PHOTOS: McHenry County Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Maness dead at 47
A former U.S. Army Ranger, Maness vowed recovery. He was committed to walking again, and told the Northwest Herald in that interview he was eager to return to work and eventually hop on the motorcycle. Maness’ doctors told him he was healing better than anticipated.
He and his partner, Deputy Khalia Satkiewicz responded to Holiday Hills on Oct. 16, 2014, for a reported domestic situation. Shooter Scott B. Peters fired more than a dozen rounds through the front door as he yelled: “Airborne!” Peters continued firing on the deputies as they retreated for safety.
Peters eventually was sentenced to 135 years in prison.
Maness was shot in the back and leg and remained dependent on a wheelchair or walker. Satkiewicz also survived, and both deputies received the county’s first and only Purple Hearts from the sheriff’s office.
Maness, a 7-year, 11-month veteran of the sheriff’s office, spent 20 years with the U.S. Army and saw combat in Iraq in 1990-91. He retired from the military with the rank of sergeant first class.
“I’m the real Airborne Ranger right here,” Maness said after Peters was found guilty on all 15 felonies. “I have the determination. I will put in the hard work. I will walk again.”
In a statement, Sheriff Bill Prim said his office reported Maness’ death “with profound sadness.”
Shortly after 6 p.m. Monday, more than 50 sheriff’s squad cars and other law enforcement vehicles traveled from McHenry to Woodstock via Route 120 with their lights on and sirens off. A police source said they were bringing Maness’ body to the morgue.
“I came to know Deputy Maness during my nine months as sheriff,” Prim said. “I had a conversation with him about a week ago, and he was enthusiastic about regaining his strength and returning to patrol. This news is devastating to the law enforcement community here in McHenry County.”
Maness served as a field training officer, a member of the SWAT team and a first aid instructor, according to the sheriff’s office. In a recent interview with the Northwest Herald, he blasted the rash of police shooting deaths in the weeks leading up to the Fox Lake shooting that killed Gliniewicz.
“It just has to stop,” he said. “Stop targeting police officers. We’re there to do a job to protect a community and to come home to our families. We’re not out there to die.
“I went to work every day,” Maness continued. “I wanted to serve the community and do right by the community. And just like every police officer that puts on the uniform, that’s all they want to do is serve their community and protect it.”
The Northwest Herald interview with the Manesses bounced between emotional and jovial as Dwight and Sue Maness reflected on the Holiday Hills shooting that forever changed their lives, and what their future held.
The couple would have celebrated five years of marriage on Sept. 29. It was the second marriage for both. The pair met at a motorcycle fundraiser, and Dwight recalled being instantly smitten.
“We’ve been together ever since,” Maness said. “And we’ve been happy. Both of us finally made that connection.
“She’s the love of my life.”Schiff, FBI obstructing justice in wiretap scandal?
Larry Klayman calls on AG to impanel grand |
their work freely and candidly. On the other hand, the dissenting judge, Judith Rogers, pointed out that the CIA had not clearly shown that its decision-making capacities would be adversely affected by the public release of what she described as a “historical volume”. She added that the CIA had previously expressed assurances that the so-called “Volume V” expressed nothing more than the view of Jack Pfeiffer, the historian who authored it. It is believed that the National Security Archive, which brought the lawsuit against the CIA, is now considering petitioning the US Supreme Court to hear the case.
AdvertisementsThe CW’s Arrow let loose with a long-awaited reveal when Laurel not only became privy to Oliver’s secret identity, but then found herself in the Arrowcave, encouraging her emotionally defeated ex to keep fighting the good fight. As the hit comic-book drama serves up Season 2’s penultimate hour (airing Wednesday at 8/7c), TVLine invited Katie Cassidy to assess enlightened Laurel’s new role, ponder one day picking up the Canary baton and tease the bejesus out of the May 14 finale.
RELATED | May Sweeps Scoopapalooza: 99+ Spoilers on 23 Series’ Season-Ending Episodes
TVLINE | Did you know ahead of time that Laurel would be finding out Oliver’s secret, or is that something you read for the first time in the script?
It’s something that I read in the script; I definitely had no idea. And I was absolutely excited when I found out, though it was like, “Great, now that I’ve found out who the Arrow is, something drastic is going to happen to my character! And I have no idea what it’s going to be — something bad, or something good.” But it ended up being something good.
TVLINE | Plus, now you get to “play with the cool, masked crime-fighting kids.” I imagine the past season-and-a-half has been a bit of an exercise in patience in that regard.
I still don’t know what’s going to happen [as far as Laurel’s role on Team Arrow], but yes, I definitely have been looking forward to getting more involved in the action. But you never know. We’ll see what happens!
PHOTOS | Arrow‘s Laurel With a Bow and More Photos From the 24-Style ‘Streets of Fire’
TVLINE | What has learning the truth done for Laurel’s impression of Oliver? Do you think it was 100-percent surprising for her?
It was definitely a shock for her, but it makes the way she looks at him… She loves him that much more. Like Tommy says [to Oliver] in Season 1, “You’re supposed to be with Laurel because you are who she thinks you are.” She loves him so much for [being Arrow], because he is doing good, and she’s a good-doer.
TVLINE | How would you describe the current state of the Laurel/Sara relationship? Are you glad they steered away from the catty aspect of it?
Yes, I am, because I give 100 percent of myself when I work. [Laughs] I love that this season they wrote some really great scenes and great episodes for me and my character; I was really fortunate enough to have been able to do that. But I’m also glad that I’m not crying on set every single day now! Laurel loves her sister, and I think Sara feels the same way. Laurel’s smitten by her. She thinks she’s pretty incredible.
TVLINE | I understand the two of them have a very important scene coming up….
We’ll see…. There’s a lot of good stuff happening, that’s for sure.
TVLINE | All told, what is Laurel’s role with Team Arrow moving forward, in these last two episodes?
You’ve seen Laurel grow throughout this season; this definitely was her season of evolving. And so you get to see her get stronger. You get to see her and the Arrow interact with one another, even more so now that she knows [who he is]. There’s just a lot of big, changing things that happen for her. You get to see her stand up to disaster, or tragedy, or trauma, instead of hiding. Instead of being the “damsel in distress,” you get to see her fight back a bit and be a survivor and help protect other people. It’s a really nice layer for her.
TVLINE | And in one of the photos that’s out there, we’ll even get to see her hold Arrow’s bow.
Yeah! She has the bow. Whether she knows how to shoot it or not…. You’ll find out. [Laughs]
TVLINE | I was recently remarking to Caity Lotz how well she has been received by the viewers, which as we know is no easy feat with comic book enthusiasts. Does that make it all the more intimidating for you to take the baton as Black Canary, at some point down the road?
It’s definitely intimidating, because I want to make the fans happy. And because of the way that I am and the way that I study my craft, I will do a ton of research. I’ll read as many of the comics as I can, bone up on Black Canary…. Everybody has asked me if I have done that already, but I’m not Black Canary at this point, so no, I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I need to be true to the moment and what my character’s state of the mind is. So as soon as, and if, and when that happens, yes, I definitely will try to portray her in the best way possible.
TVLINE | Without revealing what it is, have the producers confided in you the longterm plan for Laurel? And is it something that has you excited?
Yes, yes, yes — they have. And no, I’m not telling!
TVLINE | Lastly, chose any series of adjectives to tease the Season 2 finale.
Action-packed… jaw-dropping… shocking… fantastic… beyond entertaining. I mean, “entertaining” isn’t even the word to describe it. It’s a whirlwind of events that are huge plot points, and pivotal twists in our story. It’s really good.
TVLINE | Will the very final scene serve up one last little stinger before we go into summer?
I think the fans will be very happy!
Want more scoop on Arrow, or for any other show? Email insideline@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.Turley on Russia: 'Allegations Against Clintons Could Potentially Be Criminal'
Conway: Uranium One Deal Is Why Americans Think Clinton is Dishonest
Sean Hannity was joined last night by Gregg Jarrett to discuss what laws were potentially broken regarding the Uranium One deal and the now-infamous Trump dossier.
Jarrett said that it appears that in exchange for millions of dollars in donations to her foundation and cash to her husband, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton approved the controversial 2010 uranium deal, which gave Russia control of one-fifth of America's uranium supply.
Obama-Era Russian Uranium One Deal: What to Know
He said it's a crime to use a public office to confer a benefit to a foreign government in exchange for money, which is often referred to as “pay-to-play.” He said it can be prosecuted under a variety of anti-corruption laws passed by Congress, including the federal bribery statute (18 USC 201-b), the federal gratuity statute (18 USC 201-c), the mail fraud statute (18 USC 1341), the wire fraud statute (18 USC 1343), the program bribery statute (18 USC 666) and the Travel Act (18 USC 1952).
As for the dossier, Jarrett said it's a violation of federal law to pay foreign nationals to impact a U.S. political campaign (52 USC 30121), and it's also a violation to file a false or misleading campaign report (52 USC 30101). He said it appears the Clinton campaign did just that by financing the dossier through a series of middle men.
"I've been hearing Democrats say, 'Oh, those are just civil penalties.' They are not," Jarrett said. "The government produces a book - it's 319 pages - outlining the federal election laws and all those who have been criminally prosecuted and ended up in prison."
Read About the Trump Dossier Scandal
Hannity asked how the Clintons seem to always get away with this kind of "corruption" and if they have finally been caught this time.
"The Clintons are escape artists that would make Houdini proud," Jarrett said. "Whenever they are caught dangling their feet over the edge of illegality, they usually dummy up."
He pointed out that when Hillary Clinton spoke with FBI investigators about her private email server last year, she said "I cannot recall" something no fewer than 39 times.
"She pretends like she's dumber than a bucket of hair when it serves her purpose and the brightest person in the room when it helps her," Jarrett said.
Watch more above.
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Tomi Lahren: Jeff Flake Is a Reminder Why the Swamp Needs to Be Drained
Ron Reagan: 'Deeply Damaged Human Being' Trump Was 'Vomited into WH' By Electoral CollegeBefore being software developers, we are people - and thus creatures of habits. It’s hard for someone to change one’s own habits, it’s harder for someone to change someone else’s habits - and for some of us, it’s even harder.
This, week, during a code review, I stumbled upon this kind of structure:
public class MyStructure { private String myProp1 ; private String myProp2 ; // A bunch of other String properties public MyStructure ( String myProp1, String myProp2 /* All other properties here */ ) { this. myProp1 = myProp1 ; this. myProp2 = myProp2 ; // All other properties set there } public String getMyProp1 () {... } public String getMyProp2 () {... } // All other getters public void setMyProp1 ( String myProp1 ) {... } public void setMyProp2 ( String myProp2 ) {... } // All other setters }
Note: it seems like a JavaBean, but it’s not because there’s no no-argument constructor.
Looking at the code, I see that setters are never used in our code, making it a nice use-case for an immutable data structure - and saving a good number of lines of code:
public class MyStructure { private final String myProp1 ; private final String myProp2 ; // A bunch of other String properties public MyStructure ( String myProp1, String myProp2 /* All other properties here */ ) { this. myProp1 = myProp1 ; this. myProp2 = myProp2 ; // All other properties set there } public String getMyProp1 () {... } public String getMyProp2 () {... } // All other getters }
At this point, one realizes String are themselves immutable, which leads to the second proposal, which again save more lines of code:
public class MyStructure { public final String myProp1 ; public final String myProp2 ; // A bunch of other String properties public MyStructure ( String myProp1, String myProp2 /* All other properties here */ ) { this. myProp1 = myProp1 ; this. myProp2 = myProp2 ; // All other properties set there } }
Given that attributes are final and that Java String are immutable, the class still safe against unwanted changes. Note that it works only because String are immutable by definition in Java. With a Date property, it wouldn’t work as Date are mutable.
The same can be done with stateless services, with embedded services that needs to be accessed from children classes. There’s no need to have a getter:
public class MyService { // Can be accessed from children classes protected final EmbeddedService anotherService ; public MyService ( EmbeddedService anotherService ) { this. anotherService = anotherService ; } }
Note this approach is 100% compatible with for Dependency Injection, either Spring or CDI.
Now, you cannot imagine the amount of back and forth comments this simple review caused. Why? Because even if that makes sense from a coding point of view, it’s completely different from what we usually do.
In that case, laziness and IDEs don’t serve us well. The latter make it too easy to create accessors. I’m pretty sure if we had to code getters and setters by hand, the above proposals would be more in favor.Perfectly located in the most protected area at Wategos, The Wing House is a real masterpiece of both architecture and engineering. Shape and function go hand in hand to create a unique combination of steel, timber, concrete and glass.
Part of the dramatic beauty of the house is given by its surroundings with the Byron Bay Lighthouse Reserve, the breathtaking views over Wategos Beach, the ocean and Julian Rocks before it.
With its two levels, the building makes magical use of space and light. The main level upstairs mimics a series of timber boxes with a large timber door which opens into a magnificent open plan space with high curved ceilings and nice views to the ocean.
The main piece of the kitchen is its timber island bench. The kitchen windows look straight over the lap pool and the Byron Bay Lighthouse above.
The lower level of the house is made up by a guest suite incorporating a quite spacious living space and an ensuited bedroom. Beside it there is an outdoor bath, a gymnasium and another bedroom. By a step ladder you get access to an office which also incorporates a perfect sleeping space. It is also on this level where one is offered outdoor entertaining and access to the pool and gardens around the home.
Another characteristic feature of this luxury home is the inclinator which provides an easy alternative to the timber stairs connecting the levels of the house.Not many people could claim director James Cameron's attention to detail. But with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, the man has met his match.
The director of "Avatar" apparently made only one change to his re-release of the three-hour-plus drama "Titanic": the sky. And he did this following the incessant lobbying of one very annoying astrophysicist.
As recounted by Tyson, he noticed that in a pivotal scene with (SPOILER ALERT) Kate Winslet as Rose clinging to a piece of the boat under the night sky, the left half of the sky was a reflection of the right half. In other words, not the stars she would have seen that night, but a Hollywood fake-out.
Tyson mentioned the story at a panel discussion back in 2009, saying, "There she is looking up. There is only one sky she should have been looking at... and it was the wrong sky! Worse than that, it was not only the wrong sky; the left half of the sky was a mirror reflection of the right half of the sky! It was not only wrong, it was lazy! And I'm thinking, 'This is wrong.'"
Since Cameron went to such lengths to get so many details of the ship and that night right, Tyson felt justified in complaining about the sky, even if the only people who notice the error are astronomers.
As James Cameron confirmed with Discovery, "Neil deGrasse Tyson sent me quite a snarky email saying that, at that time of year, in that position in the Atlantic in 1912, when Rose (Kate Winslet) is lying on the piece of driftwood and staring up at the stars, that is not the star field she would have seen."
He added, "And with my reputation as a perfectionist, I should have known that and I should have put the right star field in." As the director told the U.K. magazine Culture, "So I said, 'All right, you (so and so), send me the right stars for the exact time, 4:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, and I'll put it in the movie.' So that's the one shot that has been changed."
The new 3D version of the film, with the right night sky, is out this week.
Watch clips from 'Titanic':
Heart of the Ocean Flying Rose and the Axe Hold OnThere are plenty of potentially world-altering things going down this week, i.e. shit that actually matters. But, hey, I guess we'll talk about Azealia Banks appearing to confess to sacrificing chickens on Instagram in what some are calling the "grand finale" of this bullshit year:
Azealia Banks via instagram, cleaning the closet she's been performing brujeria for 3 years in. pic.twitter.com/0OsoSdJynw — AZEALIA BANKS VIDEOS (@AzealiaVideos) December 30, 2016
Banks' Instagram story Thursday showed the Slay-Z artist discussing the difficulties of brujería cleanup. "You know I gotta scrape all this shit up," Banks said. "I got my sandblaster and my goggles. It's about to go down." Later in the Instagram story, Banks added: "Real witches do real things."
Azealia Banks is in her IG story cleaning out her closet where she made chicken sacrifices for 3 years. Cc: @peta pic.twitter.com/Cpf9AZt6mh — ㅤ (@allisjah) December 30, 2016
And that's the end of this article! Nah, just fucking around. You know the formula by now. Here are tweets from various human beings reacting to this:
Azealia is wild for this lmao 😭💀 pic.twitter.com/3P2AQ5B3pT — Swang (@joyridethealbum) December 30, 2016
Just when you thought 2016 was over Azealia banks hopped out the closet sacrificing chickens pic.twitter.com/T8Qss2aDar — Poor Peoples Podcast (@poorpeoplespod) December 30, 2016
azealia banks confessing 2 sacrificing chickens in her bedroom closet is the grand finale of 2016 — 😤 (@tylerplanet8) December 30, 2016
When you see the reason why Azealia Banks is trending. pic.twitter.com/LIKRuVxmOr — Ian (@IanM_81) December 30, 2016
Azealia Banks Instagram story is her cleaning out a closet where she’s been sacrificing chickens for 3 years… wtf — Lux (@Callux) December 30, 2016
you guys really thought 2016 could end any other way than finding out azealia banks been sacrificing chickens in her closet? —. (@john__daniel) December 30, 2016
it makes sense that 2016 ends with us finding out that azealia banks has been sacrificing chickens in her closet for 3 years — chelsey (@chlsymthws) December 30, 2016
GO LOOK AT AZEALIA BANKS INSTAGRAM STORY!!! ITS HER CLEANING OUT HER CLOSET WHERE SHES BEEN SACRIFICING CHICKENS FOR THREE YEARS NOT JOKING. — Aaliyah (@Aaliyah_jx) December 30, 2016
Azealia Banks is sandblasting 3 years worth of blood and feathers off her floor from sacrificing chickens and i can't stop laughing pic.twitter.com/hz2hQVEMMW — PESADILLA KARDASHIAN (@fauxdeity) December 30, 2016
Others have taken umbrage with the location of these alleged sacrifices:
doesn't azealia banks know you're supposed to sacrifice chickens on an ALTAR??? — arby's witch (@holybowlers) December 30, 2016
Earlier this month, Banks spoke recklessly about Nicki Minaj and received a punctual clapback from the Barbz. Days later, Banks declared 2017 the year of no pettiness:Eminem kvetches through a classic midlife crisis on his latest CD. On this, the first album the rapper has released since he turned — gasp! — 40, just over a year ago, Em goes into full regression mode.
True to today’s holiday, Halloween, the new music — which leaked on Wednesday, six days before its scheduled release date — finds Em dressed in his scariest old clothes.
He signaled this direction early on. Two of the three songs released prior to the full disc referred to the past. “Berzerk” reverted to early white rap by sampling the Beastie Boys. “The Monster” recycled Em’s earlier hit with Rihanna on 2010’s “Love the Way You Lie,” offering a similar, dual salute to the dark side. Even the CD’s title sets itself up as a sequel, referencing Eminem’s 10-million-selling “Marshall Mathers LP” from 13 long years ago.
Luckily, “Marshall Mathers 2” isn’t a mere retread of the earlier album. It’s a portrait of a middle-aged man who has no idea how to grow up — as well as one who admits he wouldn’t want to, even if he could.
In the process, the album offers a resounding return to the gory comedy and free embrace of psychosis that first made Em the antihero of our age. It’s his funniest album in years, as well as his fastest, verbally. The speed rap in “Rap God” alone could make every other emcee tie their tongue in shame.
Vintage fans may find all this a relief after the heaviness of his last work, 2010’s “Recovery.” That disc found the star in his most earnest mode, as well as his most apologetic. He even stopped complaining about his mother.
Em more than makes up for that this time. While he kept his homicidal alter ego of Slim Shady to the shadows on “Recovery,” here his ravings rule the roost.
“I’m a prime example of the power of rhyme falling into the wrong hands,” he raps at one point.
Eminem is back to his playful self on "The Marshall Mathers LP 2." (PR NEWSWIRE)
“With great power, comes absolutely no responsibility,” he declares in another.
In one of the album’s most wittily nihilistic tracks, “Rhyme or Reason,” Eminem both samples and inverts the classic Zombies track “Time of the Season.” It turns it from a summer of love ode into a platform for the winter of Em’s discontent. The chorus cynically sneers, “there’s no rhyme or reason for anything.”
The rhythmic interplay between the original song and Em’s vicious rewrite makes for a thrillingly evil piece of theater.
Of course, the regressive aspects of the album also speak of a certain desperation. More, it means a revival of his ancient and rancid homophobia, even if it’s now delivered more often in character. Em admits in many places that he doesn’t know how to progress in his persona. That means more whining about his dad leaving the family as well as his mom’s ongoing problems. Is there anything more embarrassing than a middle-aged man complaining about his parents?
At least that would seem so if Em weren’t so brilliant at being an angry mess unable to let the past go. For what it’s worth, he has made a few strides. In “Headlights” he briefly forgives his mother while in “Stronger Than I Was” he offers his most positive sentiments. Tellingly, they’re the CD’s two dreariest pieces.
Em is far more thrilling in a cut like “A--hole,” where he spins head-turning raps over a cool drum line. Likewise, in “Love Game” his interplay with guest Kendrick Lamar features some of the most dense wordplay in rap history. The cut also boasts yet more fresh switchups in Em’s flow, already one of the most agile and changeable instruments in hip hop.
In the last song, “Evil Twin,” Em goes as far as he can with his anti-charm campaign, stating that he and his odious alter ego are one and the same. As always, it’s more complicated than that. But the fact remains that, for Eminem, resentment, vengeance and fear are not just his shtick but also his muse.
jfarber@nydailynews.com
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This feature is a part of Complex's "Finally Rich" Week.
Written by David Drake (@SoManyShrimp)
Early afternoon, November 15, 2012; Las Vegas, Nevada.
Inside Joe’s Crab Shack at the Forum Shops at Caesar’s Palace, a team from Interscope Records is awaiting the early-afternoon arrival of 17-year-old Chief Keef in Las Vegas. They have just discovered that Keef missed his flight and won’t be arriving until around 3 p.m. They seem unsurprised.
Chicago rapper Chief Keef—born Keith Cozart—is the most talked-about new talent of 2012, and one of the most hated new rappers in recent memory. While some rap critics consider him a hands-down pick for rookie of the year, others insist he can’t rap, or worse, that he's a harmful influence on the culture. Still, his sudden rise from obscurity to superstardom has had a fairytale-like arc. Keef is heading to Las Vegas to film the video for “Hate Being Sober” from his major label debut, Finally Rich; the song, produced by Keef’s go-to Chicago heatmaker Young Chop, has the potential to be a major smash, even without its guest spots from established superstars 50 Cent and Wiz Khalifa. The cost of the shoot is reportedly, at minimum, $30,000. The production stands in stark contrast to the teenage star’s low-budget videos, many of which were shot in his grandmother’s Washington Park apartment. The plan is for today’s shoot to take place in the Nevada desert, about an hour outside of Vegas. 50 Cent has taken a personal interest in the production, hand-picking the video crew. All Keef has to do is show up.
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Just under one year earlier, on November 24, 2011, Chief Keef performed his first-ever concert, a surprise appearance in a south suburb of Chicago called Markham, Illinois. The venue was Adrianna’s, a hot spot for both local and touring artists over the past two years. Keef performed four songs from his solo mixtape Bang, including his first viral smash of the same name. His main producer at the time, a Japanese immigrant named DJ Kenn, captured the frenetic show on video. Watching the clip, it was clear that Keef had already become a local superstar to a large subsection of teenagers on Chicago’s South Side. Adrianna’s that night was divided into two different sections by age; during Keef’s performance, one concertgoer estimated that more than 800 kids in the under-21 section were shouting Keef’s lyrics back at him.
Two days later, on November 26, Keef performed his second concert. Initially scheduled for The Harambee House, the show was shut down by police, who were reportedly concerned about Keef’s gang affiliations. (The show was moved at the last minute to Cafe Peninsula in Riverdale, Illinois.) His lyrics are full of references and shout-outs to specific sets, cliques and blocks. For many Chicago teens, where you’re from and who you represent is of great significance, particularly in certain South Side neighborhoods. On November 28, videographer D.Gainz published “Aimed At You,” his second collaboration with Chief Keef on his YouTube channel. He described the shoot to Complex earlier this year: “It wasn’t anybody out there when we pulled up [in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood]. It was just me, him, and his manager Dro. I just remember turning around and hella people came out there all of a sudden, trying to get in the video.” The people he speaks of were mostly school-age kids. “I was seeing the little kids singing and knew the words to the song. They brought a gun, I was like, What the hell? It was crazy to me, and it was like, I wanted people to see what I was seeing.”
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50 Cent has taken a personal interest in the production, hand-picking the video crew. All Keef has to do is show up.
A week later, on December 4, Chicago police responded to a report of gunshots in the Washington Park neighborhood. Reportedly, a suspect had pointed a gun at one of the officers. Although no one was hurt, Keef was arrested, and false rumors began swirling on Twitter that he had been involved in a shootout with police. He was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. He read about himself from juvenile detention. “You can’t get on the Internet, they block a lot of shit, but somehow I got a little Mac,” he recalled later. He wanted to show his people the performance at Adrianna’s, but it wasn’t easy. “I was maxin’ shit, I got a Mac laptop. Somehow this one let me get on—normally, you type in Google, you can’t get on Google, Bing, Yahoo!, shit!.... I checked on Facebook it didn’t work, I checked on YouTube, it didn’t work, but it worked on Google and it worked on Twitter. I get on Twitter. I typed in “Chief Keef performs at Adrianna’s”—somehow that article [on Keef’s arrest] came up.”
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At the top of 2012, Chief Keef, a 16-year-old high school dropout, was sentenced to 30 days’ house arrest, followed by 30 days of home confinement. In the meantime, his star continued to rise amongst local teens. “Bang” was already the most popular video on D.Gainz’ YouTube channel, and “Aimed At You” was buzzing as well. On January 2, a video of one of his enthusiastic young fans rapping along to “Aimed at You” hit Worldstar Hip Hop. Suddenly, an artist who had been a secret amongst Chicago teenagers was thrown onto a wider stage. Collaborations followed, as Lil B and Soulja Boy reached out to the rapper. Making good use of his house arrest, Keef met demand by completing his Back from the Dead mixtape, which was released on March 12.
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Dominoes began to fall. Kanye West remixed his biggest song to that point, the catchy, aggressive “I Don’t Like,” pushing him further into the spotlight. (Producer Young Chop didn’t like the remix, which features Ye, Pusha T, Jadakiss, and Big Sean, and said he felt disrespected that West changed the beat without speaking to him first.) Meanwhile T.I. was calling Keef “the voice of the youth.” On June 17, it was revealed that Keef had signed to Interscope Records as part of a multi-million-dollar label deal that included film rights and Beats By Keef headphones. His buzz grew louder throughout the year, with “Hate Being Sober”—an over-the-top party anthem featuring one of 50 Cent’s strongest verses in recent memory—promising to be Keef’s big potential crossover moment.
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Which brings us back to the video shoot in Vegas. Keef still has not arrived, but he has become a dominant conversational flashpoint. Talking about Keef involves pushing forward tidbits of knowledge like puzzle pieces, as if with enough data, we could possibly comprehend the Keef phenomenon. One Interscope rep reveals that soon after this writer’s Gawker article was published on Keef on March 12, there was a major-label bidding war for the 16-year-old star.
Part of the fascination stems from his mysterious relationship to violence and street culture as well as the epidemic of crime now gripping Chicago. Homicides in the nation’s third-largest city are up 38 percent in 2012, when it was already twice as violent as Los Angeles and three times as deadly as New York. Somehow, Keef has become a poster boy or a scapegoat for all this violence, as if a 17-year-old kid held all the answers. As if stopping his rise from the streets to a successful career would stem the tide of bloodshed.
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Oddly enough, one Chicagoan has managed to make it to his Vegas gig; former Bears legend Dick Butkus is signing autographs on the Forum’s first floor. The spectacle of the Forum, like much of Vegas, has a perverse beauty, considering it is more or less a glorified shopping mall, with stores for virtually every designer brand represented. Vegas might be a timeworn metaphor for America, and it’s already a notorious locale in hip-hop. But the garish proximity between the glamorous decadence and the hopeless desperation feels particularly apropos.
By 3 p.m., word comes down that Keef has missed his flight again, and won’t be arriving until around 6 p.m. The camera crew, 50 Cent, and Wiz Khalifa have been waiting on his arrival for hours. The shoot in the desert is scrapped, and if any production will happen tonight, it will take place in the evening, at a location not far from the gleaming Vegas strip, as soon as Keef arrives.
April 13, 2012; Congress Theater, Logan Square, Chicago
Chief Keef and the Glory Boyz Entertainment crew make their way through security at the main entrance to the Congress Theater’s tiled floor lobby, amongst regular ticketholders. After particularly rigorous pat-downs from security guards clad in neon green vests, Keef steps through first. He’s wearing a gray designer shirt and cargo shorts that reveal a black GPS tracking device attached to his ankle. Despite this memento of his recent legal problems, a judge has granted him permission to attend the show. He’s followed by the rest of the crew, including Lil Durk, Ballout, DJ Kenn (hoisting a digital camera), Lil Reese, SD, and Fredo, whose prominent tattoo of an upside-down cross on the bridge of his nose makes him immediately distinguishable. The audience has just begun to fill the 3,500-seat auditorium for a show headlined by Twista, King Louie, and Meek Mill. The GBE crew, followed by a massive entourage from the neighborhood, make their way through the backstage entrance at stage left. The crowd swells to meet them.
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Shortly before Keef hit the stage, the Chicago Police, on orders from Alderman Proco Joe Moreno, blocked anyone from entering the Congress Theater.
For Keef’s climactic performance, the stage is packed. This footage captured the full scope of the cultural movement that propelled Keef to national notoriety. It’s been referred to as the drill movement, and is often mischaracterized as a particular production style. Instead, "drill" is about the entirety of the culture: the lingo, the dances, the mentality, and the music, much of which originated in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Dro City. Throughout the theater, different performers can be identified by crew affiliation, as spelled out on their shirts; King Louie rocks a MUBU Gang shirt (MUBU stands for “Man Up, Band Up,” a phrase he coined); Glory Boyz Entertainment members wear GBE shirts, while Durk’s identifies him as a member of OTF (“Only the Family”). Sometimes, a person’s Twitter handle will be emblazoned on their clothes. As Keef performs, his manager Dro hurls copies of Back from the Dead from behind the massive crowd on stage, and they slice through the air and rain down upon the audience. Fredo, shirtless, sports a bandage on his chest; he later claimed that a spider bite had caused an infection on a recent tattoo.
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Meek Mill is the biggest name on the bill, and when he hits the stage the crowd is fully unified. But the most electric moments during this long night came during the performances of King Louie and Chief Keef, who bring the culture of the drill scene out in full force. Louie was riding high on a year of local singles spread via mixtape and YouTube, including the then-unreleased “Val Venis” and a chorus-free anthem called “Bars,” which many audience members rapped along with word-for-word. Rapper Boss Woo, looking a full head taller than many of the teens on stage and clad in white-framed sunglasses, cut a striking figure, windmilling his arms around like propellers, doing the money dance. Keef’s set, though, had the most energy. “We had like, 30, 40 of us,” recalled Dro City rapper Big Homie Doe after the show. “When Keef and them walked in the door, there was damn near a hundred of them.”
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Shortly before Keef hit the stage, the Chicago Police, on orders from Alderman Proco Joe Moreno, blocked anyone from entering the Congress. Fights had broken out between Mexican gangbangers in the theater, and, in the wake of police concerns about Keef’s gang affiliations, and the Alderman’s long-standing antipathy toward the theater, it was a virtual inevitability.
Keef’s relationship with police has always been rocky; even now, they’ve had to fend off accusations of picking on Keef’s street team. But Keef’s negative press only seems to magnify his buzz. On November 19, the same day D.Gainz uploaded the video for Keef’s “Love Sosa,” the Chicago Sun-Times ran a headline: “Chief Keef belongs back in jail for his own safety, police say.” “We’ve got that video for ‘Love Sosa’ going up on YouTube,” says Merk Murphy, who works with Keef’s management team. “But at the same time he’s getting so much hate.”
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And it’s not just the police giving Keef negative attention. Since he blew up nationally, Keef has attracted considerable negative energy from listeners. When 18-year-old Chicago rapper Joseph “Lil Jojo” Coleman was shot dead while riding a bicycle on September 3—after trading gang-related dis songs with Lil Durk and having words with Lil Reese—Keef tweeted “Its Sad Cuz Dat Nigga Jojo Wanted To Be Jus Like Us#LMAO.” While a police investigation into whether Keef was involved in the murder turned up nothing, the online reaction was intense.
“I’m gonna tell you like this,” says one drill scene insider. “Everybody in Chicago is a Chief Keef fan. Everybody. Even JoJo knew—that’s why Keef made that comment that he did. They |
organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other USG agencies on technology, science, economic, trade, energy, and environmental issues both domestically and overseas.
Management Officers are resourceful, creative, action-oriented “go to” leaders responsible for all embassy operations (large or small) from real estate to human resources, from budget to security.
Political Officers analyze host country political events and must be able to negotiate and communicate persuasively and effectively with all levels of foreign government officials.
Public Diplomacy Officers engage, inform, and influence opinion leaders, local non-governmental groups, the next generation of leaders, academics, think tanks, government officials, and the full range of civil society in order to promote mutual understanding and support for U.S policy goals.
Who can become a Foreign Service Officer?
To be eligible, the U.S. Department of State requires that you be:
A U.S. citizen on the date you submit your registration package
At least 20 years old and no older than 59 years of age on the day you submit your registration
At least 21 years old and not yet 60 on the day you are appointed as a Foreign Service Officer
Available for worldwide assignments, including Washington, D.C.
Even though you are not required to know a foreign language to become an officer, proficiency in one or more languages will enhance your competitiveness for selection.
If you are a capable, healthy and dedicated candidate who is prepared to step up to the challenges facing our country and the world, we want to talk to you.
Are you ready to make a difference? Click here to review 13 dimensions sought in all Foreign Service candidates and explore the traits needed for a successful and fulfilling career.Happy Fourth of July! We here at the Ralphie Report love fireworks and freedom more than Jason Pierre-Paul, and we’re here to celebrate with you. On this holy day that commemorates this proud and glorious nation’s Independence — capital I — from an oppressive ruling body, we ask ourselves, “Why isn’t Colorado football free?” Better yet: “Why aren’t they Independent from conference alignment?
I’m an expert on both politics, history and college football, so I can answer that expertly.
Colorado is, and always has been, better than the Pac-12.
Colorado Buffaloes football has never been characteristically Pac-12. When the Buffs came to the Pac-12 in 2011, just about every team in the Pac-12 was a threat to win their respective division, if not compete for the Pac-12 or National Championship. But Colorado wasn’t about that action. Instead, Jon Embree wanted to have the worst product on the field just to spite their new conference. More importantly, the CU administration saw that the Pac-12 was at a critical period in securing a substantial TV deal, so Embree and his superiors decided to protest the conference and create the most unwatchable games possible. No one would watch Buffs games because the game would be over by the end of the first quarter. Surely, this horrid on-field product subverted the Pac-12’s goals, because what else could explain the Pac-12 Networks (limited) existence?
But Colorado’s protesting only began with the Embree Era. Flash-forward three years to 2016. The Pac-12 as a whole seemed to agree to have the worst season they could draw up — no one is quite sure why, but I have a theory that they needed some head coaches, most notably Mark Helfrich, to leave the conference. The Pac-12 deciding to derail itself explains the tragicomedy of UCLA and Cal, the fall of Stanford and Arizona, the horror of Oregon State and Arizona State, Oregon’s pass defense, and why USC spent their first few weeks with Sam Darnold on their bench. Of course, the Buffaloes (and Huskies) weren’t having it. They didn’t want to conform to the misery of their counterparts. Led by Sefo Liufau and Chidobe Awuzie, the Buffs turned “CU” into “F-U”. They had their best season in over a decade, won the Pac-12 South over USC, would’ve beat Michigan and USC and eventually make the Playoff if Sefo didn’t get injured, and reached the relatively prestigious Alamo Bowl, which they still would’ve lost but it wouldn’t have been a blowout if Sefo didn’t get injured again.
So why would Colorado go independent? It’s simple: Colorado doesn’t like the conformity of the Pac-12, and the Pac-12 certainly doesn’t like the counter-cultural behavior latent in the Boulder attitude. CU shouldn’t be forced into a relationship they’re unhappy with, and like my ex-girlfriend once said, “It’s not you it’s me. I want to feel free again, and with you being so clingy and insecure, it’s difficult to feel like I’m worth anything. Please, please stop crying.”
Notre Dame can do it, so why can’t CU?
Notre Dame, as you may have heard, finished 4-8 last season. The Fighting Irish were a disaster in just about every aspect of the game, and they somehow ended up cycling through just as many quarterbacks as they did coaches, even though neither of which could have possibly helped mitigate such a disaster. Magnanimous head coach Brian Kelly somehow found himself on the hot seat, even though he had absolutely nothing to do with the team’s collapse. But despite everything on the field, Notre Dame was always on national TV.
The reason Colorado should care about this? Notre Dame is an Independent team, so they’re afforded certain privileges in college football. The 2016 Fighting Irish finished their worst season since 2007, but they still got to be on NBC every Saturday. A national TV audience was there to witness every DeShone Kizer overthrow in HD and there was no stopping it. Now, Colorado doesn’t have the name recognition or alumni base as Notre Dame, but it logically follows that if the Buffs left the Pac-12 to be on their own, they would stand to make massive amounts of money on a TV deal. It could be Altitude, Root or even Boulder Channel 8, but hey, at least it couldn’t be the Pac-12 Networks.
The Buffs couldn’t get screwed over by the Rose Bowl Committee again
CU won the Pac-12 South, were rightfully next in line for the Rose Bowl after Washington got into the College Football Playoff, and had nearly beat USC on the road without their starting quarterback, but noooooo, the Rose Bowl Committee — which I can assure you was supported by the Pac-12 — wanted better attendance, better TV ratings, and more USC alumni to fill their pockets with donations, so they made the “executive decision” to invite whichever team was ranked higher in the final CFP Poll, and of course USC was going to ranked higher because not only is it impossible to beat Washington without your star quarterback, but the CFP committee is likely corrupted to some degree, and USC and the Pac-12 have significant influence in college football, so the Buffs should leave the Pac-12 because the conference is obviously fixed and biased towards the premier teams with the wealthiest donors and largest TV base.
You can’t get screwed over by the Pac-12 if you’re not in it.RICHMOND, Calif. -- Cora Wilcots' life unraveled in just 20 minutes.
She was at work in downtown San Francisco on Dec. 7, on the phone with Fred Thompson, her only son, a 6-foot-4, 317-pound defensive tackle for Oregon State. A "big teddy bear" who intimidated people with his size and melted them with his smile, Thompson was planning a surprise trip home from Corvallis to celebrate his 20th birthday in Oakland four days later.
He never made it.
Thompson cut the call short that evening because it was his turn to join a pickup basketball game at the Dixon Recreation Center on OSU's campus. He said he would call Wilcots back.
"Love you," he told her.
"Love you more," she responded.
Twenty minutes later, Wilcots' phone rang again. But this time, it was Ryan Murphy. Frantic, Thompson's best friend described what was going on: Thompson had collapsed playing basketball, and medical personnel were working on him.
He's not breathing, Murphy said, but I'm going to stay on the phone with you.
"A minute later I heard this coldness in Ryan's voice," Wilcots says, her own voice catching at the memory. "And in that moment, I knew I had lost my whole world."
*****
Athletes and heart attacks
Are more student athletes dying of heart attacks or does it just seem like it because of media coverage?
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Eleven months later, Murphy still aches for his best friend.
He knows Thompson isn't coming back, but still feels a little lost without him. Thompson would have loved this season, Murphy says, a nod to the No. 15 Beavers' surprising success, sitting at 7-2 in a year everyone wrote them off. From offseason workouts through last week's game back in Thompson's native Bay Area, his legacy has played a key role in inspiring his teammates to exceed expectations.
The night before Thompson died, to celebrate the end of fall term, he and Murphy had stayed up late, talking about football and life and video games. They slept in the next morning, then decided to clean their apartment before heading to Oakland for winter break. But Thompson got bored quickly, and suggested they go play basketball. After much cajoling, Murphy relented.
"Sometimes," he says now, "I just wish we would have kept cleaning."
When Thompson fell to the court at Dixon, teammates initially thought he was messing around. But when he didn't move, players panicked. Someone called for help, and backup quarterback Richie Harrington dialed Mark Banker, Oregon State's defensive coordinator. Almost every OSU coach was on the road recruiting. But when news was relayed that Thompson had died, everyone headed home.
In the days that followed,
that Thompson suffered from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart becomes thicker than usual, putting people at risk for heart attacks, especially young athletes who work out extensively. Wilcots says doctors told her that Thompson had developed an extra layer of skin over his heart, a result of excessive weight lifting workouts. They also said that even if medical personnel had been on the sideline, they probably wouldn't have been able to save Thompson.
But late that Wednesday, all Murphy knew was that he had to deliver awful news to a woman he considered his second mom.
The thought made him sick. How do you call a mother and shatter her world? Surrounding him in the waiting room, other Oregon State football players wept. Brandon Bennett-Jackson, another defensive tackle, screamed and yelled, heartbroken. Murphy picked up the phone and dialed, not knowing what to say.
"That was the worst phone call of my life," he says softly. "I didn't want to do it. But I didn't want her to hear it from the doctor."
It would become the first of many calls between Murphy and Wilcots where they talked about Thompson. Almost one year after Thompson's death, his mom and his best friend are still figuring out how to move on.
"When we talk, I always bury my hurt," Wilcots says. "It's so hard, because every time I talk to him, I think Fred is supposed to be right there with him. But I bury that, because I'm the adult, and he's the kid. I don't know how he grieves.
"Some days I wonder if he has."
*****
Like any mother, Wilcots worried about sending her baby so far from home for college. But she knew that with Murphy, Thompson would be safe.
Thompson and Murphy were fast friends when they met freshman year of high school at Oakland Tech, bonding over a shared loved of sports and video games and the Oakland Raiders. Both children of single mothers, Murphy says he and Thompson "fathered each other through high school," something that became truer when Thompson's dad died from sleep apnea when Thompson was 16.
Wilcots worked the graveyard shift at a desk job most of Thompson's life, scraping together a living. Sometimes, when Murphy's mom would give him $20 for the week for lunch money he would immediately give half of it to Thompson. From the beginning, they looked out for each other. "We got close because we were all each other had," Murphy says.
Because of that, Wilcots knew going to college together was the best thing for both.
"I knew Fred would get homesick going to Oregon, but if he went with Ryan, it would be like he was home," Wilcots says. "They were always together. They were supposed to be together."
*****
At first, Murphy and Thompson had no intention of being a package deal.
Thompson was a junior when Oregon State coaches first saw him on video. Banker was impressed by someone with a big frame who was light on his feet, but doubted Thompson would consider OSU.
"We watch the film, and it's sort of grainy and hard to see, but you can tell, this is a Division-I athlete," Banker recalls. "I looked around the room and said, 'C'mon, are you kidding me? Isn't everyone after this kid?'"
For whatever reason, everyone wasn't. So Keith Heyward, then an Oregon State assistant, built a relationship with Thompson, and convinced head coach Mike Riley to go take a look in person. And when Riley went down to meet Thompson and saw Murphy, a safety, he instantly offered both.
Suddenly, playing college football together, and getting out of a violent neighborhood, was a possibility.
"Coming from Oakland, it's rough," Murphy says. "We had friends who had died from guns, died from drugs, guys who were staring down life sentences in prison. We needed something different."
Thompson and Murphy took three official visits together: Oregon State, UCLA and Arizona State. But from the beginning, Thompson "just fit" with the Beavers, Banker says. Murphy followed suit.
"Other schools show you the glitter but here, we felt like family," Murphy says. "From Day 1, when we visited, it was like, 'You're part of us.'"
*****
If Wilcots can take any comfort in Thompson's death, it's knowing that "I didn't lose him to something bad. He died doing something he loved, in a place he loved."
But Delton Edwards, Thompson's coach at Oakland Tech, doesn't see it that way.
"Fred was survivor," Edwards says. "How is it he made it out of here, and we've got kids on the streets dealing drugs, shooting at each other, and they're still alive? How is that fair? It eats away at me every day that he's gone."
Haunted by Thompson's death, Edwards went to administrators at Oakland Tech and said he didn't want to coach any more, fearful of growing close with another player only to lose him. But he came back, his spirits lifted when he saw
at the school. In the crowd was a visibly shaken Riley and his players. Heyward, whom Thompson talked to every day, was especially overwhelmed.
"I sat in Cora's living room and promised her that Fred would come home with his degree," says Heyward, now an assistant at Washington. "And now he wasn't going to do it. I had to leave midway through his service because I was crying so hard. He was one of my boys. It was so hard. It still is."
In a strange way, Wilcots found peace watching Oregon State coaches and players mourn the loss of her son. Knowing that coaches and the university cared deeply about players, and that Thompson wasn't just another cog in the giant college football machine, reinforced to Wilcots that Thompson had been at the right place.
But the hurt doesn't go away. Wilcots moved out of her apartment in Oakland because she couldn't bear to stay in the same house he had been. She busies herself with work and school, taking classes at Contra Costa College. She talks to Murphy regularly, and finds joy in how the Oregon State community continues to celebrate Thompson.
Players have dedicated the 2012 season to Thompson, and commemorate him with a No. 92 sticker on their helmets. After big wins that have often included dominant defensive performances, players just smile when asked where this has come from, saying they're doing it all for Thompson.
"When I came up for the Wisconsin game for the coin toss, boy, it was emotional because it's the last place he was," she says. "But the love OSU has for him, all the fans and all the players, it's amazing."
But she worries, constantly, about Murphy.
*****
If he could have one more conversation with his best friend, Murphy would make a point to tell Thompson thank you.
"I never told him, but I wanted to do it -- to make it in college, to go to the NFL -- for him," says Murphy, a sophomore, tearing up. "If I could tell him one last thing, it would be that I appreciate him for this opportunity to play in college. Oregon State saw me because they saw him first. So I play in honor of him now. I'm going to do this for us."
Watching your best friend die, someone you consider a brother, is not something you get over, Murphy says. Instead, he tells himself each day that he won't let Thompson's death destroy his life, too.
"Growing up in Oakland you see a lot of people who have lost someone," he says. "And you see a lot of people go south because of it -- they drop out of school, get into using and selling drugs, turn to violence. I want to show people there's another way to deal with it."
So he wears the No. 92 sticker on his helmet. And he keeps Thompson's blacklight posters up in their apartment, which he now shares with another friend, Jabree Hunt, from high school. He writes "FT" on his wristband. He is smack in the middle of every defensive huddle when they break by shouting "Brick Squad!" Thomspon's nickname. And every day, he says a prayer for Wilcots.
"It's hard to talk to her, because I know I remind her of Fred," he says. "I want to be strong for her. I worry about her all the time. I don't want her to get lonely. Fred was her best friend."
Though she had always considered him another son, Wilcots' relationship with Murphy runs deeper now. They will share a bond forever, a constant reminder of what the other lost, and that they have to keep going for each other.
This season, Wilcots says she has cheered for Murphy as loud as she would have for Thompson. She "goes crazy, like one of those people you see on commercials" when watching the Beavers on TV. And clearly, her presence in the stands gives Murphy a lift.
He has two interceptions this year -- they came against Wisconsin and Stanford, the two games Wilcots attended.
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; follow meWASHINGTON — A federal judge in California said Wednesday that the wiretapping law established by Congress was the “exclusive” means for the president to eavesdrop on Americans, and he rejected the government’s claim that the president’s constitutional authority as commander in chief trumped that law.
The judge, Vaughn R. Walker, the chief judge for the Northern District of California, made his findings in a ruling on a lawsuit brought by an Oregon charity. The group says it has evidence of an illegal wiretap used against it by the National Security Agency under the secret surveillance program established by President Bush after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The Justice Department has tried for more than two years to kill the lawsuit, saying any surveillance of the charity or other entities was a “state secret” and citing the president’s constitutional power as commander in chief to order wiretaps without a warrant from a court under the agency’s program.
But Judge Walker, who was appointed to the bench by former President George Bush, rejected those central claims in his 56-page ruling. He said the rules for surveillance were clearly established by Congress in 1978 under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires the government to get a warrant from a secret court.
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“Congress appears clearly to have intended to — and did — establish the exclusive means for foreign intelligence activities to be conducted,” the judge wrote. “Whatever power the executive may otherwise have had in this regard, FISA limits the power of the executive branch to conduct such activities and it limits the executive branch’s authority to assert the state secrets privilege in response to challenges to the legality of its foreign intelligence surveillance activities.”It’s well known by now that African-Americans as a community are the most religious ethnic community in America. In a Pew Research Center poll from 2009, almost 80 percent of Blacks said religion was a very important aspect of their lives, compared to just 56 percent of American in general. Also, while only about 40 percent of Americans attend religious services at least once a week, more than half of Blacks do so. From the fiery Black Baptist preacher to the young Black Muslim convert, the stereotypes people have of religious Blacks are well established in American culture. But a new subculture is emerging and trying to push back on that pigeonholing.
Say hello to the Black atheists. Profiled in a recent New York Times article, the African-American atheist community is growing, and some say they wish to remain silent no more. However, it’s not an easy road for the Black atheist, who is both racially different from most of America and then religiously different from most of his or her own community. One man, Ronnelle Adams, even told the Times it was harder for him to tell his extremely religious mother about his atheism than his homosexuality:
“My mother is very devout,” said Mr. Adams, 30, a Washington resident who has published an atheist children’s book, “Aching and Praying,” but who in high school considered becoming a Baptist preacher. “She started telling me her issues with homosexuality, which were, of course, Biblical,” he said. “ ‘I just don’t care what the Bible says about that,’ I told her, and she asked why. ‘I don’t believe that stuff anymore.’ It got silent. She was distraught. She told me she was more bothered by that than the revelation I was gay.”
Though the number of Black atheists is still small — less than half a percent — atheism has a growing following in America, so it’s likely more will join the non-believing ranks in the coming years. In the meantime, there are already a number of internet destinations for Black atheists, including blogs like “Godless and Black.”
While many Black Christians might be disappointed at the rise of atheism in African-American communities, I can’t help but think it’s a good thing, regardless of your religious affiliation. For one, with fewer than one percent of Blacks subscribing to atheism, it’s not as if they’re in danger of “corrupting” all of Black America, even if they wanted to (which they most certainly don’t). Beyond that, more — and, increasingly vocal — Black Atheists will help eliminate the notion that all Black people are Bible- or Koran-thumping maniacs out to destroy things like gay marriage and reasonable sex education, things many churches have been against for years now. It’s important to remind America that the Black community is broad and diverse, and that diversity now includes atheism.
BET National News — Keep up to date with breaking news stories from around the nation, including headlines from the hip hop and entertainment world.Whether it was athletes stepping up their game off the field, rappers saying goodbye to gaudy excess, or actors actually giving a shit, 2012 was the year famous guys finally got serious about taking risks and looking good. These are best-dressed gents we saw on every red carpet, big event, and beyond this year, continuing today with numbers 10 through 6
Pattinson's year was spent crisscrossing the globe in promotion of three flicks, giving the actor plenty of opportunities to break out his preferred Gucci suits, which he did in rapid, colorful succession. But it's not just tonal suit and shirt pairings the now former vampire got right; his grunge 2.0 getups have us wondering how much flannel we'll see on the Fall '13 runways.
Plain and simple, our August cover man slayed it when it came to dressing for his Dark Knight Rises and Premium Rush premieres. JGL nails modern proportion and fit like a pro—and as if to show off, maintains it across every suit silhouette out there.
While other athletes can't sprint fast enough to the big-brand luxury houses, Chandler is happy to rock a steady diet of downtown favorites, from Rick Owens to Alexander Wang—and most importantly, pull it off. He knows his away around the more formal stuff, too, but when the Knicks big man is in his edgy element, he's in a league of his own.
Theroux makes one of the best cases for uniform dressing that we've seen in a while. The actor/writer/Aniston beau favors tough, black-heavy duds and shitkickers during off-duty time, but can spiff up with the best of them for an event without losing his edge.
Older brother Joe may be the more adventurous one when it comes to fashion, but this year Nick earned our praises with a steady showing of dressed-up and -down looks that impressively walked the line between youthful and refined.
Not only is Neal Caffrey, his character on White Collar, easily one of the best-dressed men on the small screen, but Bomer could easily be mistaken for the natty con artist in real life. He rarely missteps, turning up in impeccably cut menswear that's always occasion-appropriate but never dull.
In a league where every big-name player believes himself a fashion plate, Wade is the rare exception: a man with great personal style who doesn't beg for attention. The Miami superstar has a way of putting together sartorial getups with effortless flair (like the Heat!) and a lot of depth (uh, kind of like the Heat?).
Like Mr. Cohen, Lauer dresses to impress every day, but at an hour when most of us are still asleep. The Today show anchor sticks with a formula that just works; Italian-tailored suits that fit like a glove, crisp white shirts, and subtly patterned ties.
It helps that Hammer just plain looks good in clothes, but the reason we keep taking a second look at the rising star is how he makes the classics feel modern. An essential navy suit? On Hammer, it's a low-stance one-button number, paired with a fresh plaid shirt. The perfect tux? Hammer goes sleek with an accompanying sliver of a bow tie, for a minimal look with maximum style.
Seated firmly on the throne, Jay-Z focused on his other big business ventures in 2012, which meant a wardrobe that consistently crossed over from black tie to cool streetwear and back again. The mogul even ditched blue jeans all together, opting instead for an arsenal of coated denim five-pockets and his beloved Baldwin camos, proving serious and stylish are not mutually exclusive.
Hosting a live show five nights a week for the better part of nine months out of the year is a hell of a lot of looks, and we have to give Cohen props for being consistently well put-together and smart about relying a wardrobe of classic Ralph Lauren Black Label and Hugo Boss suits while mixing and matching shirt and tie combos underneath.
For the man who had menswear's undivided attention in 2011, Gosling was basically in hiding for the past twelve months. When he did step out though, it was to remind us why he deserved our tween-level adoration in the first place. See that picture on the right? That's what Gosling looks like buying cheese.
Our Spidey senses started tingling (sorry) when the actor embarked on his Amazing Spider-Man global press tour looking smart in razor-sharp Balenciaga and Burberry suits one minute, then nailing casual cool rigs, like this striped McQueen sweater, the next.
The artist formally known as Mos Def's unique look is mash up of proper old-man suits, high-waisted trousers with loafers, and just damn cool accessories that make him stand out from the pack. And whether he was rhyming for Vuitton about the Greatest or collaborating with LES brand Ale et Ange this year, the musician and actor did it in a style truly all his own.
2012 was the year Adam Levine quit dressing like a Mad Max extra and started looking like the wealthy rock star turned jack-of-all-trades he actually is.
There's a reason rappers and Rick Owens have been mentioned together this year, and that's all thanks to A$AP. The fashion-forward musician wears Margiela and Balmain with ease, but is never flashy with it. Case in point? Showing up to the more-is-more BET Awards in a slick, understated black rig.
**So what if he's animated? The spy knows his way around a gray Don Draper suit and dinner jacket better than almost anyone. Plus, he takes our advice when it comes to tie bars.
Anderson's only entries this year came over the course of 48 hours in Cannes, but it was enough to remind us that the man knows how to dress with panache that's part original hipster, part Tom Wolfe, and all Anderson (i.e. wearing a red micro-gingham shirt under a black velvet evening jacket).
**Westbrook may get flack for his more adventurous postgame looks, but the Thunder player isn't just about loud prints. The man knows how clothes should fit, and we have to applaud any guy not afraid of working pattern into his wardrobe—even if he did not, as he claims, " invent wearing glasses."
**2012 was all about Ocean coming into his own as an artist. And when it came to dressing, the singer carved out a niche by mixing high-end goods with streetwear in visually interesting combos, usually finished off with a pair of old-school Vans.
**24. Russell Westbrook **Westbrook may get flack for his more adventurous postgame looks, but the Thunder player isn't just about loud prints. The man knows how clothes should fit, and we have to applaud any guy not afraid of working pattern into his wardrobe—even if he did not, as he claims, "invent wearing glasses."
23. Wes Anderson Anderson's only entries this year came over the course of 48 hours in Cannes, but it was enough to remind us that the man knows how to dress with panache that's part original hipster, part Tom Wolfe, and all Anderson (i.e. wearing a red micro-gingham shirt under a black velvet evening jacket).
**22. Archer **So what if he's animated? The spy knows his way around a gray Don Draper suit and dinner jacket better than almost anyone. Plus, he takes our advice when it comes to tie bars.
**21. A$AP Rocky ** There's a reason rappers and Rick Owens have been mentioned together this year, and that's all thanks to A$AP. The fashion-forward musician wears Margiela and Balmain with ease, but is never flashy with it. Case in point? Showing up to the more-is-more BET Awards in a slick, understated black rig.
20. Adam Levine 2012 was the year Adam Levine quit dressing like a Mad Max extra and started looking like the wealthy rock star turned jack-of-all-trades he actually is.
19. Yasiin Bey The artist formally known as Mos Def's unique look is mash up of proper old-man suits, high-waisted trousers with loafers, and just damn cool accessories that make him stand out from the pack. And whether he was rhyming for Vuitton about the Greatest or collaborating with LES brand Ale et Ange this year, the musician and actor did it in a style truly all his own.
18. Andrew Garfield Our Spidey senses started tingling (sorry) when the actor embarked on his Amazing Spider-Man global press tour looking smart in razor-sharp Balenciaga and Burberry suits one minute, then nailing casual cool rigs, like this striped McQueen sweater, the next.
17. Ryan Gosling For the man who had menswear's undivided attention in 2011, Gosling was basically in hiding for the past twelve months. When he did step out though, it was to remind us why he deserved our tween-level adoration in the first place. See that picture on the right? That's what Gosling looks like buying cheese.
16. Andy Cohen Hosting a live show five nights a week for the better part of nine months out of the year is a hell of a lot of looks, and we have to give Cohen props for being consistently well put-together and smart about relying a wardrobe of classic Ralph Lauren Black Label and Hugo Boss suits while mixing and matching shirt and tie combos underneath.
15. Jay-Z Seated firmly on the throne, Jay-Z focused on his other big business ventures in 2012, which meant a wardrobe that consistently crossed over from black tie to cool streetwear and back again. The mogul even ditched blue jeans all together, opting instead for an arsenal of coated denim five-pockets and his beloved Baldwin camos, proving serious and stylish are not mutually exclusive.
14. Armie Hammer It helps that Hammer just plain looks good in clothes, but the reason we keep taking a second look at the rising star is how he makes the classics feel modern. An essential navy suit? On Hammer, it's a low-stance one-button number, paired with a fresh plaid shirt. The perfect tux? Hammer goes sleek with an accompanying sliver of a bow tie, for a minimal look with maximum style.
13. Matt Lauer Like Mr. Cohen, Lauer dresses to impress every day, but at an hour when most of us are still asleep. The Today show anchor sticks with a formula that just works; Italian-tailored suits that fit like a glove, crisp white shirts, and subtly patterned ties.
12. Dwyane Wade In a league where every big-name player believes himself a fashion plate, Wade is the rare exception: a man with great personal style who doesn't beg for attention. The Miami superstar has a way of putting together sartorial getups with effortless flair (like the Heat!) and a lot of depth (uh, kind of like the Heat?).
11. Matt Bomer Not only is Neal Caffrey, his character on White Collar, easily one of the best-dressed men on the small screen, but Bomer could easily be mistaken for the natty con artist in real life. He rarely missteps, turning up in impeccably cut menswear that's always occasion-appropriate but never dull.
10. Nick Jonas Older brother Joe may be the more adventurous one when it comes to fashion, but this year Nick earned our praises with a steady showing of dressed-up and -down looks that impressively walked the line between youthful and refined.
9. Justin Theroux Theroux makes one of the best cases for uniform dressing that we've seen in a while. The actor/writer/Aniston beau favors tough, black-heavy duds and shitkickers during off-duty time, but can spiff up with the best of them for an event without losing his edge.
8. Tyson Chandler While other athletes can't sprint fast enough to the big-brand luxury houses, Chandler is happy to rock a steady diet of downtown favorites, from Rick Owens to Alexander Wang—and most importantly, pull it off. He knows his away around the more formal stuff, too, but when the Knicks big man is in his edgy element, he's in a league of his own.
7. Joseph Gordon-Levitt Plain and simple, our August cover man slayed it when it came to dressing for his Dark Knight Rises and Premium Rush premieres. JGL nails modern proportion and fit like a pro—and as if to show off, maintains it across every suit silhouette out there.During the summer of 1979, the rhesus monkey breeding colony of the La Parguera facility of the Caribbean Primate Research Center was shipped to Morgan Island, South Carolina. During six shipments in 1979, and three more in 1980, over 1400 animals were translocated. Mortality from shipping, primarily in infants, was approximately 0.65%. Although the monkeys were not shipped in intact social groups, they restablished their groups shortly after subunits were released onto Morgan Island (MI). Since 1979 the colony has grown almost four-fold and now numbers almost 4000 animals. There has always been a strong female bias in the colony and today females comprise 75% of the total population. That portion of the colony comprising the aged animals, especially females, has grown steadily and today is 13% of the total. Except for the first year, when the colony was translocated during its mating season, reproduction at MI has been good, with a pooled average pregnancy rate of almost 80% and live birth rate of 71%. Juvenile females have also reproduced well, averaging 76% pregnancy and 70% live birth rates. This experience demonstrates that with proper planning and execution, a large, free-ranging colony can be moved long distances with minimal stress, trauma, mortality or disruption of social structure and reproduction.These deals represent a colossal public subsidy to select private companies, all hidden from the taxpayer
“…apparent savings [from PFI] now could be countered by the formidable commitment on revenue expenditure in years to come.” Alistair Darling, 1997
(As transport secretary 2003-2006, Alistair Darling supported major new PFI projects)
The government’s use of PFI [the private finance initiative] has become totally discredited… George Osborne, 2009
(Last year alone George Osborne backed 61 new PFI projects, at an estimated value of £7 billion)
PFI schemes [are] taking NHS trusts to brink of financial collapse Andrew Lansley, earlier this week
Britain’s public services are in debt to the private sector. Under a scheme known as the Private Finance Initiatives (PFI), the NHS is making annual payments of around £1.25 billion to a group of private sector companies, as payment to use its own hospitals. The figure that is slowly rising. Currently, the PFI costs for the NHS will come to £65bn (about 3% of the entire country’s GDP), for infrastructure worth just £11.3bn. The debts will not be paid off until 2048.
The NHS is not alone. PFI is very big business: costs total to around £267 billion (close to 12% of GDP) and annual payments total around £8.6 billion, for around 700 projects. These projects have a value of just £63 billion. But, new PFI projects start every year since 1992, by the Conservative, Labour and Coalition governments. Last year alone, 61 new PFI projects were procured, with a total value |
Public Health’s website will go live Tuesday morning.
Related Headlines Gov. Nathan Deal signs medical marijuana bill
An emotional Deal says parents of kids with severe seizure disorders were the driving force for him signing the bill into law.
“On a personal level, trying to put ourselves in their place, it would be difficult for anybody to have to watch their child have multiple seizures every day,” Deal said.
For the past several months, Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, Georgia’s commissioner of the Department of Public Health, and her team have been working to come up with a secure, tamper proof system.
“The application has to be submitted by your doctor,” Fitzgerald told Geary.
Patients will not be able to get approval for the cards on their own.
To qualify for the cannabis oil, patients must suffer from one of eight conditions including cancer, Multiple sclerosis, sickle cell anemia, Crohn’s Disease, Mitochondrial Disease, ALS, Parkinson’s and severe seizure disorders.
“It’s not like you leave the doctor’s office with a prescription. You visit a doctor. The doctor sends the information to us electronically, then we let you know where that card can be obtained,” Fitzgerald said.
State Rep. Allen Peake, who spearheaded the effort to legalize cannabis oil in Georgia, pointed out access is still an issue.
Patients must either travel out of state or get it shipped in by companies willing to break federal law.
As Peake works with state leaders on a plan to grow medical marijuana in Georgia, he also says there’s an easy federal fix.
“My message to our congressmen and senators is change the damn law. It’s that simple; lives are at stake here,” Peake told Geary.
Patients needing cannabis oil with less than.3 percent THC, the part of the plant that gets you high, can possibly get it shipped into Georgia, because it’s considered hemp.
Peake says folks who need a higher THC level, including those who suffer from cancer or MS, would more than likely have to travel out of state and bring the cannabis oil back.Shipments of Pudgy Monsters have begun to leave Tatuaje headquarters. While the cigars are now leaving, many of the details surrounding the cigars remain publicly scarce.
Pudgy Monsters is a 10-count sampler based on the Tatuaje Monster Series, the popular Halloween-themed release that Pete Johnson introduced in 2008. The Monsters Series is not just named after popular monster characters like Dracula and Frankenstein, but it also features big, bold and oftentimes gritty-looking cigars. Johnson provided a different take on the series in 2012, when he introduced Little Monsters, petite versions of the first five releases in the Monster Series.
Pudgy Monsters was once referred to as “Fat Little Monsters,” which is arguably the easiest way to describe them. It takes the length of the Little Monster sizes and combines them with the ring gauge of the original Monster Series releases.
Five cigars follow this form exactly.
The JV-13 was released last year and as such was not part of Little Monsters. It will be 5 1/2 x 52, based on The JV-13 (7 1/2 x 52). Each of these six cigars will be represented once in each of the 10-count boxes.
Two completely new cigars will be included in Pudgy Monsters, Chuck and Tiff—based on the characters of Chucky and Tiffany from Don Mancini’s Child’s Play films, specifically Bride of Chucky. Both cigars are 4 x 50 and each box of Pudgy Monsters will include two Chuckys and two Tiffs. Johnson declined to comment as to the blend details behind the cigars.
The suggested retail price for each 10-count box is $95. There will be 20,000 boxes produced with shipments expected to last well into summer.
Unlike with Little Monsters, where Johnson previewed The Mummy blend in June 2012 before its October release, there is no preview for this year’s Monster Series release. Chucky and Bride of Chucky were once thought of as a possible Monster Series release, but that changed last year. Johnson has not officially announced this year’s Monster Series release.Beirut - On Sunday night, Ali was busy serving coffee from a makeshift stall fixed to the back of a scooter on the corner of Martyr's Square in downtown Beirut. At his feet lay two large coolers containing bottles of iced water.
Within five minutes, he had sold nine cups of coffee and 12 bottles of water before taking a quick break to call a friend waiting on a scooter nearby to replenish his stock. Between serving customers, Ali, 64, reflected back to the times he spent in downtown Beirut and at Martyr's Square before Lebanon's 15-year civil war that began in 1975.
"When I was a child, my father brought me to Beirut to show me downtown," said Ali, who grew up in a small village near Marjayoun in southern Lebanon.
"It was a centre of activity and commerce before the war. There were street vendors, trams, cafes, banks and cinemas, and a pleasant park. I remember it fondly."
Across the street from where he stood, two ice cream vans were also thriving, while further down the street, vendors flogged ka'ak warmed by the embers of dying coals, and potato crisps, freshly fried by the roadside.
Street vendors have become an increasingly significant presence in downtown Beirut since protests, which are targeting the state's failure to solve the city's waste crisis and Lebanon's broader political malaise, began in late July.
On Tuesday, a third round of national dialogue, due to be held at the Lebanese parliament, was expected to attract another wave of anti-government protests.
During Lebanon's civil war, Beirut's downtown area - once a thriving cosmopolitan hub and officially known as the Beirut Central District (BDC) - became the main dividing line between east and west Beirut.
The BDC became a graveyard of abandoned buildings, sniper posts, and concrete and sand barriers, as local neighbourhoods in both east and west Beirut became increasingly self-contained as the war rumbled on.
People do not feel welcome in downtown Beirut. They feel it does not represent them and reflects the political classes' disinterest in public demands. Joseph Kamel, 34-year old salesperson
In recent weeks, as large crowds of protesters have gathered at Martyr's Square, interactions between people from different backgrounds and social strata have inspired nostalgia for the cosmopolitan city centre, as depicted in old sepia photographs displayed in many of the capital's bookshops. And on Facebook pages, Lebanese residents have bemoaned Beirut's loss of its architectural heritage.
The post-war reconstruction of Beirut's downtown was handled by Solidere, a private development company founded by Lebanon's second post-war Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
But reconstruction efforts have long been maligned by civil society activists, former tenants, and heritage groups, who allege the company prioritised private interests - and profits - over public interests.
In particular, critics often point to the transformation of the city centre's once-bustling markets into a modern, high-end, air-conditioned shopping arcade, claiming the area has become an exclusive zone for those few locals and tourists able to afford the area's sky-high rents and exorbitantly priced luxury items.
"People do not feel welcome in downtown Beirut," said Joseph Kamel, a 34-year-old salesperson from Ashrafiyeh, as he walked past the crumbling edifice of an old French art-deco apartment in Gemmayzeh, en route to Martyr's Square on Sunday afternoon.
"They feel it does not represent them and reflects the political classes' disinterest in public demands," he told Al Jazeera.
This past weekend, protesters gathered in downtown Beirut's Riad al-Solh Square to set up a flea market after Nicholas Chammas, head of the Beirut Traders Association, said the presence of regular protests in the BDC was "cheapening" the area.
As the assembled crowds browsed stalls selling irons, books, clothes, Polaroid photographs, snacks, movie posters, and satirical screen-prints criticising the country's established political elite, security forces looked on.
Bilal Abboud, a journalist and one of the organisers of the market, said the remarks by Chammas served to reinforce the perception that the general public was not welcome in downtown Beirut.
"When the authorities construct barriers to block access to public spaces, this causes resentment," Abboud told Al Jazeera. "We are deprived of public space here in Beirut."
Some Lebanese activists, however, expressed objections to the market, as an implicit criticism of Hariri. Altercations have taken place during largely peaceful protests in recent days when protesters have vocally, or through posters and banners, criticised particular political leaders.
RELATED: Lebanon dialogue 'a move to stifle protest momentum'
Such realities highlight the difficulties faced by the fledgling protest movement led by the YouStink campaign, a group of civil-society activists, when it comes to maintaining cohesion in articulating criticisms of the country's political establishment.
However, Lina Khatib, former director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, viewed initiatives such as the market in Riad al-Solh Square positively.
"This was the first time since the end of the [civil] war we have seen an impromptu, popular, grassroots market in the area," said Khatib, who set up a clothes stall at the market.
"During the war, the area was out of bounds because of conflict, and in the post-war era, it has remained out of bounds because of its exclusivity. In the same way the protests bring people together regardless of social backgrounds, so did the market."
By Sunday night, Chammas appeared to have walked back his previous comments, pledging in a news conference to help "anyone who wants to implement public events" in downtown Beirut.
However, these sentiments have not been mirrored by Lebanese officials.
By Monday evening, a set of concrete breeze blocks had been installed at the entrance of Weygand Street, opposite of where Ali had stood the previous night - a barrier aimed at dissuading protesters from trying to access Nejmeh Square, home to the country's parliament and where national dialogue sessions were taking place.The BRICS group of emerging economies is becoming a “serious factor” in global politics and the European Union and the United States are concerned about it, Russia’s envoy to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said Friday.
MOSCOW, August 1 (RIA Novosti) - The BRICS group of emerging economies is becoming a “serious factor” in global politics and the European Union and the United States are concerned about it, Russia’s envoy to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said Friday.
“The emergence of such intercontinental entity of five states, which includes one quarter of the global population, is a serious factor that cannot but bring about certain concerns in the European Union, the United States and other traditional centers of global influence,” Chizhov said.
The group, comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has adopted a declaration that sets out the nations’ common goals on the global arena, seeking a unified approach to international affairs. The BRICS are also seeking cooperation in other sectors.
In July, during a BRICS summit the members of the group signed a deal on the establishment of the New Development Bank (NDB) and the Contingency Reserve Agreement (CRA), which are intended to help emerging economies borrow funds for infrastructure projects.
The BRICS have already demonstrated that they seem to be on the same page politically, with the leaders of the five countries calling on the conflicting sides in Ukraine to de-escalate the situation and seek a peaceful resolution to the existing issues.SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – A number of Faili Kurds report being forced out of their homes in Baghdad. They have left their homes and properties behind and moved to the Kurdistan Region.Harassment of Faili Kurds in Baghdad intensified after the Kurdistan Region set a date for its independence referendum. Some of those who were threatened said that an unknown group approached them in broad daylight and told them to leave Baghdad or be killed.“Life became difficult for us the Failis in Baghdad after the decision was made to hold the referendum in southern Kurdistan,” said a Faili Kurd from Baghdad now living in Sulaimani. Southern Kurdistan refers to the Kurdistan Region in Iraq.“They tell us not to live in Baghdad, go out, and go to Kurdistan. ‘You are a Kurd, why are you living here?’ they say,” Salah Hassan told Rudaw.“We had been living in Baghdad for a while. We have work there. They don’t accept that we stay in Baghdad nowadays. Hence, we have come to Kurdistan. Where else should we go to, other than Kurdistan?”Faili Kurds are Shiites who have mainly lived in the south in Baghdad and some of the disputed areas on the southern edge of the Kurdistan Region. They have been threatened and killed for decades.Nazira Ismail has been forced out of Baghdad twice. She was an oil engineering department teacher and ran on the Kurdistan Alliance list in recent elections. In 2010 she received a threatening letter.“They had put a letter on the front of my door, which read: ‘We will be cutting you into pieces if you don’t leave Baghdad within 24 hours. You are a Kurdish and American spy.’”“I am not a spy,” she said.An estimated 2,000 Faili families live in Sulaimani. Many support the referendum despite threats against them. Some have formed an organization in Sulaimani to deal with their affairs. Their group has 650 members.The president of the organization told Rudaw that the more they are pressured, the more they will support a ‘Yes’ vote on September 25.“It is unthinkable for a Kurd who is truly a Kurd, who wants the interests of the Kurdish nation, and knows about the hardship of the Kurdish nation, not to support the referendum,” said Ezra Mohammed.“Faili Kurds are Kurdish and are all in general supporting the referendum, although you might not be able to say that you support the referendum if you live outside the Kurdistan Region. Every Faili Kurd supports the referendum as far as I know.”Duterte: I am sure they cannot pass a law banning fake news
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday said he doubts that Congress could pass a law prohibiting the proliferation of fake news, arguing that such a move would impair the people’s freedom of expression.
Duterte made the remarks as Senate started an inquiry into the spread of false news on social media.
“I am sure they cannot pass a law diyan sa fake news,” Duterte said during his meeting with family of hazing victim Horacio Castillo III in the Malacañan Palace.
“Ah, patay. That seems to be… Patayin ang freedom of expression. Hindi lulusot iyan. Kaya magtatanong ka,” he added.
The era of fake news may soon be over if a bill filed in the House of Representatives becomes a law.
READ: Stiff penalties vs creators, purveyors of fake news sought
The measure seeks fines and imprisonment of up to six years for creators and purveyors of fake news, which is increasingly becoming prevalent on social media.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte, author of House Bill 6022, said his proposed law aims “to rid both the traditional and social media of fictitious or misleading reports that are being manufactured and passed on to the public as legitimate information.”
He said his bill “penalizes not only the creation of false content and its malicious distribution but also failure to remove such content once it has been published.”
Despite his opposition to any measure that would ban fake news, Duterte urged the public to be “responsible.”
“Ngayon, kung gusto mo, pass a law increasing the penalty tutal you have slander, you have libel, civil case. Marami diyan,” he said.
“But to prescribe a set of groups of what is proper or not, wala ito. Hindi lulusot iyan. Pati ako pagdating sa akin,” he added.Welcome Greeting
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Apologies for mixed picture quality from a rubbish smartphone and not so bad digital camera. Photo quality aside,this was my first ever flight with KLM and my worst ever in 30 years of flying. I was so excited to fly KLM and was brought right down to earth by a paranoid set of crew. The KLM Facebook team who treated me like a celebrity,dissappeared as soon as I was unhappy with KLM.Hopefully you will see how much my Flight Reports have evolved since this dark day in 2014 and not knowing about FR.* 737-700 * PH-BGT (named Hen Harrier/BlauweKiekendief )STD/STA 1340/1600 > Aircraft Fully boarded at 1330pm Pushback 1343pm ATD 1357/ATA 1545pmBear in mind this was my first ever flight on KLM. I had to say Good Afternoon to a tired looking Junior Stewardess first,she then said it back. I felt as if I had forced her to say Good Afternoon.Brand new carpet and curtains and the aircraft itself was only 3 years old in September 2014. The aircraft smelt new however the divider curtain by the window was worn out and the window pane had been marked in ink.£12.00 paid for an Economy Comfort seat to be first off the aircraft in Schiphol. Seat could not go fully upright and I felt slouched in it for the duration of the journey. Economy Comfort on shorthaul flights is basically a few rows of seats at the front of Economy with Orange headrest covers instead of the Blue headrest covers for standard Economy. No extra legroom on shorthaul flights,just a chance to disembark first.Unbelievably the seat was on a row normally used for Europe Business and I hated to think how a Business passenger on a longer flight operated by this aircraft would fee. The headrest cover was blue leather as opposed to Orange fabric for Economy Comfort. Due to negative actions by the crew I may have been one of the first to leave the aircraft but I was the last to leave Schiphol from this flight.Drop down tv monitors which show Airshow,tracking the flight’s progress. Screens went back up 10 minutes to landing. Perhaps as the Captain was flying off course. Not sure why there is an IFE control panel in the seats when no IFE is offered on this aircraft. Choice of newspapers for Europe Business Class passengers and the Holland Herald magazine for all passengers in the seatbacks/seatpockets.3 Stewardesses wore a jacket for boarding and the rearmost Stewardess didn’t. All crew except the Purser wore serving jackets during inflight service. Purser seen holding a pair of her shoes before commencement of inflight service.Informative announcements about electronic equipment allowed,Skyteam,FlyingBlue,KLM Facebook/Twitter,however the mouthpiece was held too close and there was a cackling noise as a result. I liked the useful message to check tv screens on arrival in Schiphol in case of a gate change.Very Poor. Stewardess at back avoiding eye contact with passengers and looking very unhappy as passengers boarded which I found very unprofessional. Stewardess in front cabin kept looking at me from her jumpseat during takeoff and landing which made me feel very awkward. Purser,after take off came and shook my hand and then asked me not to take photos of the crew as “one girl felt uncomfortable” to which I denied having done so and was deeply offended and hurt at the accusation. The letter I had handed on boarding referring to the fact this is my first KLM flight was not mentioned nor was I made to feel valued as a first time KLM flyer. Other passengers viewed me with suspicion and I felt that I had committed a crime by taking pictures,so this trip report wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for my passion.During boarding,I had asked a Stewardess of possible Antillean origin if she could hang up my suit jacket and she smiled and said “ I am sorry,we do not have cloakrooms anymore,I can lay it flat for you in the overhead locker?” to which I agreed.A Dutch Stewardess from the rear cabin with a beaming smile came to offer me a snack and asked if I would like sweet,salty or both? I opted for Nachos, a Punsellie Stroopwaffel (syrup waffle) and a canned Apple Juice. No ice was available when I asked for it.35 minutes into the flight the Captain came on to advise the weather in Holland,wished us a pleasant flight and day. I presume he made his announcement so late into the flight as he was too busy alerting Schiphol Authorities to my arrival. On landing in what seemed a field, the Captain advised due to extreme weather we had landed on a further than usual runway.Captain and Purser were outside Cockpit door and I chose not to say bye and not look at them due to the offence caused on the flight. This is nothing compared ot being met by security at Schiphol and almost being arrested if it wasn't for a nice security officer who saw I am genuine. I dreaded my flight home. I really did.Airports I have seen KLM in or have flown with KLM from/toAMS/MAN/KWI/JFK/LHR/BKK/NRT/ICNThe Taliban have released 235 villagers held since the fighters seized control of an area in northern Sar-e Pul province five days ago, Afghan provincial officials said on Wednesday.
Local authorities believe the capture of the area was jointly carried out by the Taliban and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) fighters. If confirmed, this will mark the first time the two rival groups have joined forces in battle.
The information was gleaned after some of the freed villagers told local media that they saw both the Taliban's white banner and ISIL's black flag flying together during the attack.
The civilians were released after negotiations between the Taliban and tribal elders.
Speaking from Kabul, Al Jazeera's Jennifer Glasse said that the freed villagers were instructed by their hostage-takers not to say anything to the media because at least 18 people were still being held hostage.
"They say that two different groups had approached the village from two different sides, and that one group was far more brutal than the other, killing everything in its path and burning some 30 houses," Glasse said.
READ MORE: Officials - Taliban, ISIL coordinated Sar-e Pul attack
In Sar-e Pul, the fighters defeated Afghan local police forces after almost two days of intense fighting and took control of the area early on August 5, Zaib Amani, the spokesman for the provincial governor, said.
Most of the civilians are staying in local mosques or with relatives in the city and provincial officials are trying to provide food and other necessities for them before finding a long-term solution, he added.
Amani also said that since the fighters took control of the area, 52 civilians, including women and children, have been killed in the village of Mirza Olang in Sayad districts. The victims were mostly Shia Muslims and minority Hazaras.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the killings in Mirza Olang.
"I will promise that our brave security forces will take revenge," Ghani said during a ceremony at the presidential palace, broadcast live on TV.
Provincial governor Zahir Wahdat said as many as 450 families had fled the fighting, which has underscored the lack of government control in many areas of Afghanistan and deepened public anger at the growing insecurity.
Sayed Ismail, a man who said he had been detained and then released by ISIL, told Reuters news agency he had lost three members of his family, including a son and grandson.
"Government officials put their hands on the holy Quran to provide security for us, but they have their security guards and armoured cars and do not think of their people," he said.
"We were with Daesh for four days," he said, using a common Arabic name for ISIL. "Some of our relatives were buried without shrouds and their dead bodies were spoiled in open weather. We are tired of our government."
Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, confirmed the fighters had seized the area but denied civilians were killed in Mirza Olang.
So far, ISIL has not commented on the attack or said whether it had joined forces with the rival Taliban.
There have been reports of battles in the past months between the Taliban and the ISIL affiliate in Afghanistan in several provinces. Afghanistan's ISIL affiliate is made up mostly of disenfranchised former Taliban members.
Two women shopping at market shot and killed
Meanwhile, gunmen opened fire on a group of four female employees at the Bagram airfield, the main US military base in the country, killing one and wounding a second woman, said Zaman Mamozai, the provincial police chief.
He said that two suspects were later arrested in connection with the shooting.
Abdul Shukor Qudosi, governor of northern Bagram district, told Anadolu Agency that a group of four women guards employed at the airbase were shopping at a nearby market at around noon time when they came under attack.
"Four women employees of a private security firm stationed at the outer first entry point of the base were shot at in the market," he said, adding one of the women died on the spot, while a second one succumbed to her wounds on the way to hospital.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.This article aims to show you how to attract users and make them hungry for more. Who is this post for? Anyone with a website. Not all of the items listed below will apply directly to you and your business; however, they are, at the very least, an excellent source for inspiration.
1. Write Fresh and Catchy Content
If you have good content, people will always come back for more. One of the most important things about content is to keep it fresh and up-to-date. But, just like Smashing Magazine, make sure to archive your content for people to refer back to.
2. Listen to Your Community
If you are already lucky enough to have a community—even just some regular users—listen to them. You can do this by emailing your users directly, setting up comment forms, live chat, or even user feedback systems such as UserVoice, which allow users to vote on site issues and functionality. By listening to your community, you can determine exactly what they want.
3. Monitor How Your Site is Used
Knowing how users use your site is vital. This allows you to target their needs better. The best way is to keep a close eye on your analytics data; check what country/area your users are coming from, what search terms are working well for you and what sites are giving you the best referrals.
Find out how users navigate your site via heat maps. These help you alter your site so that it is easier for your visitors to use and find what they want. This keeps your users happy and more likely to return.
4. Take Part in the Online Community
When you read your favorite blog or read an article of interest, leave a comment with your name, email address and website link. Ensure you are an active member of a relevant forum discussion or networking group. Of course, make sure you are an active member of your own site's online community sector.
Smashing Magazines commenting system making it easy to take part.
5. Submit to Directories and Galleries
This should be an ongoing process since there are many local, national and worldwide directories. Your first stop should be DMOZ.org. Following this, submit to the local directories and those specializing in your site's business sector.
If you are designing web sites and are proud of your work, submit your site to web design galleries. These directories—such as CSS Beauty and CSS Elite—feature beautiful and creative designs and ask users to comment on and rate each design. Once people see your work, they may become your visitors.
6. Use Email Signatures
Whenever you send out an email, make sure you have your URL in the email signature. It's a simple idea, but it's effective.
7. Have Business Cards at Hand... Always
Ensure you always have business cards to hand out. If you meet someone needing your services, it always pays to have a striking and memorable business card to exchange. It is worth spending time on your business card to make it creative and memorable, otherwise you may just be left at the bottom of the pile with the rest.
8. Use Company Stationery
Put your website address on everything: pens, letterheads, flyers, and anything that represents your company. Make sure it is clear and pushes people to visit your web site. For example, you could say, "For more information on our new product, check ourwebsite.com"
9. Win an Award
Winning an award is not easy, but it can lead to a flood of new visitors for your site. Even if you are a runner up, people will be curious and want to find out who you are. The winner of the.net magazine Interactive Site of the Year in 2009, www.ecodazoo.com, received huge amounts of visits from the www.thenetawards.com site. Choose your competition wisely and remember, winning is not everything, but getting your URL in front of as many readers as possible is.
Ecodazoo pushes the boundaries of 3D design on the web
10. Run Competitions
On the flip side of winning an award, running a competition can be just as beneficial to your analytics stats. This could be as simple as coming up with a new name for your latest product, or as complex as designing a new logo. Either way, this will attract more users to your site and show that you are giving back to your users as well as taking.
The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet.
11. Optimize for Search Engines (SEO)
Effective SEO, common sense and web standards go together. The idea is to create semantic, valid code that uses the right tool for the job. This means using the right HTML tags and having a unique title and appropriate meta data for each page. Ensure search engine spiders can correctly index your site. And don't forget that good content is a must. Remember, the most important way to climb the search engine ranks is through quality links. For more information on this, visit the Google Webmasters/Site owners guidelines.
12. Pay for Advertising
Pay per click advertising can drive a great deal of traffic to your site, if you correctly target your keywords. Placing your banner or link on relevant sites will vastly improve the chance of you getting noticed.
The most effective advertising gets your message to a relevant audience. The most effective advertising gets your message to a relevant audience.
13. Write Articles
Writing articles for other sites as well as your own is a fantastic way to get noticed. If you work with web technologies, consider writing a tutorial for Nettuts+. If you sell power tools, consider writing an article about the best router for making coffee tables. Target the niche that you're after. Just make sure you add your URL next to your name. If it's well-written, people will want to know more about you.
14. Create a Blog
As you know, blogs are big and they are continuing to thrive as people want quick, useful information about a product, service or general news. WordPress has been at the forefront of blogging and gives us the tools to make rich, search engine-friendly blogs with beautiful designs. Of course, it is up to you to fill your blog with fresh and catchy content.
15. Join Online Community Websites
In the past year, we have seen the social web boom and many sites have reaped huge benefits. Creating your own Facebook page, uploading your work to Deviant Art or creating your own Squidoo page all help build your online presence.
16. Get on Twitter
We all know the power of Twitter by now, and much has been said on the subject of using Twitter as a marketing tool. But the fact remains: it is a very effective way of getting noticed. Get the most out of Twitter by choosing one of the many tools available. Keep inside your niche area, follow people that matter to your website, and make it personal. Do not just spout marketing spiel or you will quickly lose followers. If you are part of a niche area consider setting up your own Twibe (a group of Twitter users) or use Twitter's list feature.
17. Record Podcasts and Videocasts
If you have something to say and you think others will be interested, then consider making a podcast or videocast. Boagworld.com has been a leader in this area for the web design field and Paul Boag has said that the majority of his new clients have come through the podcast. Here are eight tips to remember when thinking about podcasting:
Invest in a good microphone.
Reduce background noise.
Prepare, but do not read a script.
Follow a consistent format.
Invite guest speakers.
Have regularly-scheduled podcasts.
Enjoy the process and relax!
18. Offer Newsletters and RSS feeds
Users sign up for your newsletter and you have your captive audience. If used properly, newsletters can be very effective tools for driving people to your site. Check out Smashing Magazine's best practices article before embarking on your campaign. When you are ready, use a service like MailChimp to monitor your success.
Similar to newsletters, having an RSS feed of your content is another way to keep users noticing your web site. They are easy to set up and a good way to keep your users up-to-date on your website. Make sure you keep your feeds relevant, interesting, informative and easy to find.
19. Send Seasonal Cards and E-Cards
Send out cards to your clients either by snail-mail or email. This is not only a nice gesture but also keeps your website address firmly imprinted in their mind. Using services like Cards Direct is a quick and easy way to spread the holiday cheer with your website address attached to it.
20. Run an Event
Running an event is a fantastic way to both market your business and connect with your customers, clients and experts in your sector. For example, the Future of Web Design events are run all around the world featuring many professionals from the web design community. Your event does not have to be about web design; it can be focused on your site and your business' sector, in order to to raise awareness of you and your site.
Alternatively, you can be one of the speakers. This form of marketing has worked very well for people like Brett Welch, Danny Somekh and Folkert Gorter who spoke at the FOWD London 2009.
21. Sell Branded T-shirts
Do your own marketing: have t-shirts, bags, folders and other items sporting your website address clearly.
Joomla raises peoples awareness with its online shop.
22. Create a Mobile App
Can your service be provided via a mobile app? Would customers want to purchase your product on the go? If so, consider creating your own mobile application. If you want to tap into the vast iPhone / iPad market, you can consider selling your app on the iPhone app store. You can create the app yourself or use a company like Siruna to create the mobile application for you.
23. Help with Charity Work
You can donate directly to a charity or run a charity event. There are many charities out there, so choose wisely and carefully.
24. Sponsor a College and University Project
Many courses require a student to get a set amount of work experience or do a final year project. Contact your local college and/or university and offer them a project that you would like their students to help on. My final year project was to create a new search engine-optimized template for a local business directory. The directory benefited from the new template tremendously and we learned a great deal as a team.
Submitting proposals for college and university projects not only supports your website, but it also helps students gain real-life experience in their chosen field. Here are a few examples:
25. Place Your Content Elsewhere
Your website is not the only place to put your content. If you sell a product, you can also list it on eBay. If you are a band, why not put your songs on Last.fm? If your site publishes tutorials, you can also submit a tutorial to other sites, like Nettuts+. Once people notice your content they will be more inclined to visit your site, hungry for more.
26. Give Away Free Stuff
In the case of Vista Print, they offer free business cards; the cards have your logo and details on one side and theirs on the other. Here is a list of ideas you can give away:
27. Sponsor Something
Sponsorship can be a remarkable way of getting your website in front of hundreds or thousands of eyes. When choosing a sponsorship project, keep to ones that will reflect well on your company as well as being relevant |
BY: I was a good student in the subjects that I wanted to be good in. The curriculum in my section was excellent. I have a good sense of history.
GROTH; Now, can you tell me what your family life was like? Were you close?
KIRBY: My family life was close. They were a wonderful family.
GROTH: I understand that as a kid you were something of a bookworm.
KIRBY: Yes.
GROTH: You had to sort of hide that fact from the other neighborhood kids. It wasn’t considered—
KIRBY: I did.
GROTH: How did you come to be interested in reading in such a tough neighborhood?
KIRBY: I came out of school one day, and there was this pulp magazine. It was a rainy day, and it was floating toward the sewer in the gutter. So I pick up this pulp magazine, and it’s Wonder Stories, and it’s got a rocket-ship on the cover, and I’d never seen a rocket-ship. I said, “What the heck is this?” I took it home and hid it under the pillow so nobody should know I was reading it. And of course, if the fellows caught me reading it or doing anything academic outside of school...
GROTH: Now, you read pulps. Did you also read newspaper strips?
KIRBY: Yes I did. I loved the newspaper strips. I loved Bamey Google. I think that’s what brought me into journalism. The comics are so large and colorful. The pages are extremely large, and I used to love that. And Prince Valiant, of course, it was astonishing to see this beautiful illustration in the newspaper, and it was so different from the ordinary comic.
GROTH: Let’s talk about how you learned to draw, I understand that at age 11, you began getting how-to-draw books at a local library and started —
KIRBY: Yes I did. In fact, I was drawing for a small syndicate. I was drawing editorial cartoons for the syndicate, and I drew a thing called “Your Health Comes First.” I was called in once for drawing an editorial cartoon when Chamberlain made that pact with Hitler. “Where does a young squirt like you,” he says, “get the nerve to do an editorial cartoon on Chamberlain and Hitler?” And I told him I know a gangster when I see one, see? Hitler was gobbling up all of Europe.
GROTH; Now what year would that have been? Would that have been around ’38?
KIRBY: Even earlier. That was around ’36. I was drawing any kind of comic strip art.
GROTH: What actually started you drawing? What gave you the idea you could draw?
KIRBY: I wanted to. I felt that I could. I’d been drawing all along because I felt anybody could do that. All human beings have the capability of doing what they want, what they’re attracted to.
GROTH: I think at the age of 14 you enrolled at the Pratt Institute.
KIRBY: Yes, I did.
GROTH: Can you tell me how you went about doing that? You were a kid in a tough neighborhood enrolling in the Pratt Institute. That’s got to be pretty unusual.
KIRBY: I went to the Pratt Institute, but I didn’t go there for long. I didn’t like places with rules.
GROTH: How long did you go to Pratt?
KIRBY: I went to Pratt a week. [Laughter.] I wasn’t the kind of student that Pratt was looking for. They wanted patient people who would work on something forever. I didn’t want to work on any project forever. I intended to get things done. I did the best drawing I could, and it was very adequate — it had viability, it had flexibility. The people in the art class kind of sympathized with me, and yet they couldn’t abandon their own outlook toward art.
GROTH: Would you say the Pratt Institute represented a fine art outlook?
KIRBY: Yes. It was a fine art outlook, it was a formal outlook, and it was a respected outlook. I respected it too. I had very high respect for the Pratt Institute, but I thought that I had done my best, and that was not their version of the best.
GROTH: So, after Pratt you taught yourself how to draw.
KIRBY: I taught myself how to draw, and I soon found out it was what I really wanted to do. I didn’t think I was going to create any great masterpieces like Rembrandt or Gauguin. I thought comics was a common form of art and strictly American in my estimation because America was the home of the common man, and show me the common man that can’t do a comic. So comics is an American form of art that anyone can do with a pencil and paper.
GROTH: It’s a democratic art.
KIRBY; It’s a democratic art. It’s not a formal art, I feel a fine artist is never through with his work because it’s never perfect to him.
GROTH: Don’t you think you achieved a sort of perfection in your own work?
KIRBY: Yes, I did. I achieved perfection, my type of perfection — visual storytelling. Storytelling was my style. I was an artist, but not a self-proclaimed great artist, just a common man who was working in a form of art which is now universal. I get letters from people of my own status.
GROTH: How did you teach yourself how to draw? Did you use books?
KIRBY: I used any method I could, really.
GROTH: Did you go outside and sketch from life? I’m trying to find out how you actually learned to draw, how you learned anatomy.
KIRBY: My anatomy was self-taught. I feel everybody has that ability. I drew instinctively. Mine was an instinctive style.
GROTH: Did you ever in your life think of taking any formal art training?
KIRBY: No. I tell young people that it’s advantageous to study art...
GROTH: Did you learn anatomy, where muscles are, and how they connect, and so on?
KIRBY: I searched it out, and I made my own muscles and I made my figures as powerful as Icould.
GROTH: How did you learn perspective?
KIRBY: You learn perspective... well, if you’re brought up in the city, if it doesn’t look right you’ll know it. But, if you grow up in a city and see the city, you’ll get a city as it really is with all the detail that you remember. If you’re drawing a Western town, you can duplicate that Western town from instinct alone. Some artists may take it from other illustrations or duplicate what you’ve drawn, but it will never have that gut reality that’s instinctive in the artist.
GROTH: What artists did you admire in your teen years?
KIRBY: I admired them all. I admired anybody who could make a buck with his drawing. [Laughter.]
GROTH: You must have had an eye for quality work.
KIRBY: I like quality work. Comics like Prince Valiant. I loved Milton Caniff and his work. Everybody did. If a man was good he was universally liked.
GROTH: Were you a very independent personality as a teenager?
KIRBY: Yes, I was.
GROTH: Where do you think you got that? Was that from your father?
KIRBY: No, just growing up on the Lower East Side.
GROTH: Did you see a lot of movies when you were a kid?
KIRBY: Yes. I was a movie person. I think it was one of the reasons I drew comics. They galvanized me. When Superman came out it galvanized the entire industry. It’s just part of the American scene. Superman is going to live forever. They’ll be reading Superman in the next century when you and I are gone. I felt in that respect I was doing the same thing. I wanted to be known. I wasn’t going to sell a comic that was going to die quickly.
GROTH: I understand you got a job with a small newspaper syndicate when you were 18.
KIRBY: Newspaper Features.
GROTH: What were you doing for them?
KIRBY: I was doing editorials. Like I said I did “Your Health Comes First”. I did another daily comic. On each comic strip I put a different name: I was Jack Curtis, Jack Cortez... I didn’t want to be in any particular environment, I wanted to be an all-around American. I kept Kirby. My mother gave me hell. My father gave me hell. My family disowned me.
GROTH: You actually changed your name to Kirby?
KIRBY: When I began doing the strips.
GROTH: Why did you change your name exactly?
KIRBY: I wanted to be an American. My name is Kurtzberg.
GROTH: Why didn’t you think Kurtzberg was an acceptable American name?
KIRBY: I felt if you wanted to have a great name it would be Farnesworth, right? Or Stillweather. I felt Jack Kirby was close to my real name.
GROTH: You’re Jewish. Was there anti-Semitism back then?
KIRBY: Yes. A lot of it. They were confrontational days when people of different backgrounds had to live together. And it hasn’t changed. There’s anti-Semitism today.
GROTH: Were you an Orthodox Jew?
KIRBY: My father was Conservative. We were never Orthodox, but we were Conservative. I went to Hebrew school. It was above a livery stable, the Hebrew school.
Until the day I die I’ll never forget that wonderful table we used to sit at. Hebrew school was a rough place. An airplane flew over one day and I ran over to the window and everyone was pushing and shoving each other, and some guy really shoved me out of the way — I knocked him clean out.
GROTH: How old were you?
KIRBY: I was about 12. Because I wasn’t bar mitzvahed yet. They had to pick him up. But, I was so eager. That was such an innovation to hear the sound of the motor of an airplane flying overhead. I just had to get there in front. I was attracted by everything that seemed to be new and advanced. I saw the Time Machine.
GROTH: Did you see Chaplin’s films?
KIRBY: Yes. I saw the Chaplin comedies, Buster Keaton. I saw the Marx brothers on a stage when they weren’t even in the movies.
GROTH: Was this on vaudeville?
KIRBY: This would be vaudeville. I’d go to the Academy of Music on 14th Street in New York. It might still be there for all I know. The Marx brothers came on stage and they did their act. I saw them in the movies. I loved the Marx brothers. I wanted to go to California and my mother said, “No, you can’t go to California.” Of course standards were different in those days — the mother was unassailable.
(continued)27. October 2015
The geospatial media industry is really negligible. Some blogs here, some magazines there. Luckily their authors are very hard-working. This article will introduce a magazine called “Geospatial World” (formerly known as GIS Development magazine).
Since 1997 the magazine investigates geo-related topics and writes about present viewpoints of experts, worldnews, case studies, reviews, upcoming technologies and more.
Besides the monthly free downloadable and printable PDF-magazine, geospatialworld.net offers a latest news section a blog and possibilities to stay updated via email-newsletter.
latest stories
Latest title stories from 2015:
– Food Security
– National Mapping Agencies
– BIM+GIS
– Mining and Safety Management
– Smart Data for Smart Cities
– Convergence – Intergration of Technologies
– Powering Up Grid 2.0 – Special focus on Electric Utilities and GIS
– The Google Geo Business Mantra
– Readers’ Survey
– Annual Edition
Here you get the overview for years in the past.
structure
The latest volumes are structured in different sections, which empowers its readability and clarity.
– editorial
– news (sometimes separated in world regions)
– cover story
– articles
– reports
In fact Geospatial World magazines contain a lot of advertisement but nevertheless its worth reading, because you get a lot of topical news and expertise.
What’s your favorite geospatial magazine?As many as 51 MPs and MLAs have declared cases of crime against women, including of alleged rape and abduction, a study said on Wednesday.
Of the 51, 48 are Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) and three are Members of Parliament (MPs), said a study by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a non-government organisation working for electoral reforms.
Giving party-wise details, the study stated that among various recognised parties, the BJP has the highest number of MPs and MLAs (14), followed by the Shiv Sena (7) and the All India Trinamool Congress (6) who have declared cases related to crime against women.
“There are 51 MPs and MLAs who have declared cases of crime against women such as charges related to assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty, kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage, rape, husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty, buying minor for purposes of prostitution and word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman,” the ADR study said.
ADR and National Election Watch have analysed 4,852 out of 4,896 election affidavits of current MPs and MLAs. This includes 774 out of 776 affidavits of MPs and 4,078 out of 4,120 MLAs from all the states of India.
Out of the analysed 1,581 (33%) MPs and MLAs with declared criminal cases, 51 have declared cases related to crimes against women, it said.
Besides, 334 candidates analysed who had declared cases related to crime against women were given tickets by recognised political parties, ADR said in the study.
Among these candidates, 40 were given tickets by parties for Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha elections. Various recognised parties have given tickets to 294 candidates with cases related to crime against women for state assembly elections.
It added that the analysed 122 independent candidates with declared cases related to crime against women had contested for the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha and state assembly elections in the last five years.
In the last five years, 19 independent candidates with declared cases related to crime against women contested in the LS and RS elections. Similarly, 103 independent candidates with declared cases related to crime against women contested in the state assembly polls.
The study further said that among major parties, over the last five years, 48 candidates with declared cases related to crime against women were given tickets by the BJP.
The second highest number of candidates (36) who had declared cases related to crime against women were given tickets by the BSP, followed by 27 candidates from the INC which had contested for LS/RS and state assemblies elections.
Among the states, Maharashtra has the highest number of MPs and MLAs (12) who have declared cases of crime against women, followed by West Bengal (11) and Odisha (6).
Also, among the states, Maharashtra has the highest number of candidates (65) in the last five years, followed by Bihar (62) and West Bengal (52) (including independents) who were given tickets by political parties even though they declared cases related to crime against women in their affidavits, the study added.
First Published: Aug 30, 2017 21:51:07WASHINGTON, March 23, 2017 -- Scientists, in four plenary talks, will explore a variety of subjects related to the "Advanced Materials, Technologies, Systems & Processes" theme of the 253rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. The meeting will take place April 2 to 6 in San Francisco.
The presentations, which are among more than 14,000 scheduled to take place at the meeting, will be held on Sunday, April 2, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. PDT, in the Gateway Ballroom 103/104 of the Moscone Center. The plenary talks, as well as all thematic programming, are organized by Kathryn Beers, Ph.D., of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The talks will highlight the critical impacts that advances in materials, technology, systems and processes have had on energy, the environment and health, as well as the importance of collaboration between industry and academia. The titles of the plenary talks are listed below:
Peter Green, Ph.D.: "Clean energy challenge: An integrated approach involving basic research, innovation and human factors"
Jeffrey Linhardt, Ph.D.: "Technology at the interface of microelectronics, life sciences, and big data: Materials challenges"
Ann-Christine Albertsson, Dr.Sc.: "From design and synthesis to advanced properties and sustainable polymeric materials"
Keith Watson, Ph.D.: "Fostering industrial and academic partnerships"
###
The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With nearly 157,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. ACS does not conduct research, but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
To automatically receive press releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.
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Green :
Title
Clean energy challenge: An integrated approach involving basic research, innovation and human factors
Abstract
The Paris agreement, adopted in December 2015, with its goal to limit the increase of the average global temperature of the planet to less than 2 degrees, has important implications on immediate and long-term targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and associated scientific and technological advances for research on renewable energy sources and energy efficiency.
The consensus, based on a number of recent studies, is that all strategies to achieve this 2 degree limit must include a combination of three things: (1) improved efficiencies (buildings, transportation, industrial) and conservation, (2) decarbonization of electricity and fuels, (3) use of low carbon end-use alternatives. Analyses of various scenarios reveal that there are many 'pathways' to achieving the goal. All pathways are necessarily collaborative, involving policy makers, economists, scientists, engineers and consumption behavior. One of the key actions will involve the integration of large amounts of renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal) into the electric grid. This presentation will address the scientific/technological advances by NREL researchers and collaborators in renewable energy: hydrogen production, low carbon fuels, new materials and processes for solar. Advances and remaining challenges in renewable energy as well as the synergy between basic and applied R&D, analysis and deployment, together with an understanding.
Albertsson :
Title
From design and synthesis to advanced properties and sustainable polymeric materials
Abstract
Biomacromolecules journal is a forum for the dissemination of cutting-edge research at the interface of polymer science and biology. Most covered topics in Biomacromolecules include: polymer synthesis, sustainable chemistry, monomers and polymers based on natural and renewable resources, polymeric drugs, in vitro and in vivo biocatalysis, biomacromolecular assembly, biomimetic materials, bioprocessing, bioactive surfaces, drug-delivery, polymers in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, polymeric scaffolds and hydrogels. In this context, some of our research interests at KTH Royal Institute of Technology involve the design, synthesis and surface modification of biomaterials, molecular architecture for sustainable renewable materials, and degradable polymers.
Watson :
Title
Fostering industrial and academic partnerships
Abstract
In 2011, The Dow Chemical Company greatly increased its investment in chemical-related research at several academic institutions across the United States as part of its University Partnership Initiative (UPI). The intent of this initiative is to strengthen research in traditional scientific fields such as chemical engineering, chemistry, and material science that are important to Dow, to industry, and to addressing some of the world's most pressing challenges. In addition to expanding research in areas of immediate industrial relevance, the program also offers numerous other incentives, including the development of a pipeline of PhD researchers for future industrial careers and the enhancement of collaboration between Dow and Academia that will foster future innovation for years to come. Learnings from the first five years of UPI will be discussed. Specific focus will be placed on the methodologies that were used to foster a collaborative environment between Dow and Academia to meet the needs of both parties. Highlights of technical success, the positive effects that have been observed beyond technology, as well as the associated challenges will also be reviewed. Finally, Dow's vision for the future of industrial and academic partnerships and how the greater chemical community can ensure these type of partnerships continue to flourish will be addressed.MUMBAI: State Bank of India slashed interest rates to the lowest in about a decade, forcing rivals to follow suit in the fight for market share, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged lenders to broaden their focus to the vast range of poorly served borrowers from the poor to the middle class.The country’s largest bank cut rates by 0.9 percentage point, or 90 basis points (bps), making its loans the cheapest among all lenders. The government-owned SBI pegged its marginal cost of lending rate (MCLR) — the benchmark for its best customers — at 8 per cent for one year, down from 8.90 per cent, on Sunday.SBI's prospective home loan borrowers will be charged 8.65 per cent (8.60 per cent for women), on a floating rate loan. The bank is offering fixed rate loan for two years at 8.55 per cent (8.50 per cent for women borrowers). With this SBI is bringing back teaser rate loans which was discouraged by the Reserve Bank a few years ago.State-owned Union Bank of India and Punjab National Bank also announced cuts ranging from 60 to 90 basis points. Delhi-based PNB will charge 8.45 per cent for a year while Union Bank will charge 8.65 per cent. The new rates will be effective for new borrowers. The old borrowers will get the benefit of new rates at the end of the lock-in period, when rates are revised in line with prevailing levels. The lock-in could vary from one month to three years, depending on the loan agreement.Bank executives said Housing Development Finance Corp, the largest home financier, and private lenders like ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank, which are more profitable than their rivals, will likely match SBI’s rates to ensure that they do not lose customers.IDBI Bank and State Bank of Travancore had led the field by cutting rates on Friday evening itself. ET reported on Friday that banks, nudged by the government, will announce steep cuts in lending rates in the first week of January.The move has become necessary to fuel consumption that has slumped after the November 8 demonetisation, besides encouraging a revival in investment. Prime Minister Modi had called on banks to take advantage of the flood of money they had got in the form of deposits after Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were demonetised. The deadline for such deposits was December 30.“History is witness that the Indian banking system has never received such a large amount of money in such a short time,” Modi said in his December 31address to the nation.“While respecting the autonomy of the banks, I appeal to them to move beyond their traditional priorities, and keep the poor, the lower middle class and the middle class at the focus of their activities.”This series of rate reductions is among the sharpest in one shot since the cuts that followed the 2008 financial crisis. In the past, banks have typically lowered lending rates by increments of 5 to 10 basis points as they transmitted monetary policy or the cost of funding dropped.Sources said CEOs of five large banks—SBI, Union Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Dena Bank and Central Bank of India— had a held a closed-door meeting 10 days ago to discuss the possibilities of a sharp reduction in rates to boost investment sentiment.Banks collected about Rs 12.44 lakh crore in deposits in the month after demonetisation. That compares with the average Rs 9 lakh crore they get by way of incremental deposits in a fiscal year.However, demand for loans, reflecting investment activity, has almost dried up. Reserve Bank of India data show bank credit rose 1.2 per cent to Rs 73 lakh crore in the fiscal year to date — April 1 to December 9 — much slower than the 6.2 per cent rise to Rs 69.6 lakh crore in same period a year ago.Deposits rose 13.6 per cent to Rs 105.9 lakh crore compared with a 7 per cent rise to Rs 91.8 lakh crore in the year earlier.The death of Joe Cinque occurred in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory on 26 October 1997. Cinque's coffee was laced with rohypnol, a sedative, at a dinner party, after which he was injected with a lethal dose of heroin by his girlfriend Anu Singh, who was a law student at the Australian National University at the time.
Singh was convicted in 1999 of manslaughter. She was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, but was released early in 2001. Since her release, she has undertaken criminology research.
The crime was portrayed in Helen Garner's celebrated non-fiction book Joe Cinque's Consolation (2004), which was later adapted into a film of the same name.
Singh's relationship with Joe Cinque [ edit ]
Cinque and Singh met in Newcastle, New South Wales in 1995. The following year, Singh and Cinque were living together in Canberra while she was a law student at the Australian National University. During the 1998 trial, one of Singh's friends testified that she had been highly obsessed with her self-image, particularly her body, since 1991 and had briefly taken ipecac after Cinque mentioned it, something she was later angry with him for. Singh was reportedly obsessed with fad diets and would spend hours working out at the gym—she had told friends "she'd rather be dead than fat".[2][3]
Death of Cinque [ edit ]
In May 1997 Singh told a friend that she wanted to kill several people, including Cinque, her ex-boyfriend Simon Walsh[4] and her doctors.[5]
Singh's close friend Madhavi Rao invited acquaintances to two dinner parties in October 1997 and told them that a crime would be committed.[6] Witness Sanjeeva Tennekoon reported that the first dinner party on 24 October was normal and that Singh and Cinque appeared loving.[7] However, another witness told the court that Rao had told her afterwards that Singh had tried to kill Cinque that evening but did not deliver a sufficient dose, and that the witness had threatened to go to the police.[8] The day after the first dinner party, Singh and Rao went to a friend, Len Mancini, and told him they had given Cinque drugs the previous evening.[9]
Cinque died on 26 October 1997, the morning after the second dinner party. Toxicology reports showed high levels of heroin and rohypnol in his body.[10]
Witness Ross Manley claimed that Singh bought more heroin from Manley's friend on the morning of 26 October.[11][12] Singh called an ambulance for Cinque at 12:10pm on 26 October, and the ambulance officers found that he had had a cardiac arrest.[11] Singh made it difficult for the ambulance to respond quickly, giving a false address.[13] Singh told police at the scene that she had administered drugs to Cinque.[14] Police reported that when they arrived at the scene, Singh was hysterical and struggled with police and ambulance officers when they took her away from Cinque's body.[15]
Trial [ edit ]
Singh first appeared in court on 28 October 1997, charged with murder. She had told police that she had injected Cinque with heroin so that he would not interfere with a suicide attempt.[16] Rao was charged with conspiracy to commit murder and released on bail on 5 November.[17] The prosecutor noted that both Singh and Rao had been indiscreet about their actions.[6] Singh applied for bail in December, and a psychiatrist presented evidence of a personality disorder.[18] The prosecution pinpointed Singh as someone who embodied strong narcissistic traits.
Singh and Rao were tried jointly in October and November 1998, but this trial was aborted on 11 November, with Justice Ken Crispin saying that one of the pieces of evidence was problematic as it was unclear as to which of Singh or Rao it was admissible against.[19] For the second trial, Singh elected to stand trial by judge alone, forgoing a jury. Justice Crispin ruled that Singh and Rao should be tried separately in the interest of fairness.[20]
—Singh, speaking in 2016[21] "There's no rational motivation at all. I was mentally unwell, and I still grapple with that. I still grapple with the whys. One of the psychiatrists mentioned a state of disassociation, perhaps, like disassociated from reality. I don't know. There’s no rational explanation."—Singh, speaking in 2016
In her 1999 trial, Singh's defence presented evidence that she was mentally ill and had diminished responsibility, proposing an insanity defense.[22] The court was told that Singh believed she was dying from a muscle wasting disease, complained of "not being able to feel her head on her body" and was bulimic.[21] The prosecutors called an expert witness to testify that Singh had appeared rational and assertive on the night she was arrested.[23] On 23 April Justice Crispin found Singh guilty of manslaughter[24] and the following day sentenced her to ten years' imprisonment with a minimum four years non-parole period.[25] Cinque's mother was deeply unhappy with the short sentence.[26] In Rao's second trial, she was charged with murder, manslaughter, attempted murder, and administering a stupefying drug[27] and was acquitted of all charges.[28]
Singh was released on parole in October 2001 after four years imprisonment, including time she had served on remand since 1997.[21] She was returned to jail in April 2004 after breaching her parole conditions by smoking marijuana[29] and re-released on 5 August 2004 after challenging her re-imprisonment on a technicality.[30][31]
Anu Singh [ edit ]
Early life [ edit ]
Anu Singh was born in India on 3 September 1972 to Indian Australian parents, Pradyumn "Paddy" and Surinder Singh, both doctors.[2] The family emigrated from India to Sydney in 1973, when Singh was a baby. They settled in the suburb of Strathfield. Singh attended a Catholic high school in Newcastle, where she was the dux of year 10 in 1988.[2] She graduated high school in 1990 and moved to Canberra the following year to begin studying a double degree in Economics/Law at the Australian National University. Singh missed her life in Sydney, engaged in recreational drug use while living in Canberra, and frequently called home to her parents.[2] As a result, she deferred her studies for one year to return to her family in Sydney.[4]
Singh's early life was relatively unremarkable, and her father remarked on her as a "happy-go-lucky child" albeit one with some attachment issues,[4] who gradually descended into mental illness in her twenties. According to Paddy Singh, Anu's problems escalated in 1995. It was around this time she had an affair with Joe Cinque. After Singh's break-up with an ex-boyfriend, Simon Walsh, as a result of her brief affair with Cinque, she began to use recreational drugs daily, developed insomnia and would pace the house at night.[33] Singh's break-up with Walsh was referred to as a "significant life event" in the court transcripts of her trial.
Alan called again. He definitely worships the ground I walk on and I love it. I have all these negative things and yet, any guy I want, I can have. —The teenage diary entries of Anu Singh, unearthed during the criminal trial[34]
During her relationship with Cinque, she was dieting excessively and would obsess about her weight.[4] Singh's problems appeared to stabilise briefly during the early days of her relationship with Cinque, but soon returned after they moved in together. Her university attendance became sporadic, and on the rare occasion when she was seen by her peers, she appeared to be "dishevelled" and "poorly dressed"—in contrast to her earlier generally immaculate and prideful dress sense.[4] Singh's father took her to various psychologists and psychiatrists for help, who opined Singh's problem was "psychological", not "physical", as she had indignantly believed.[4] In her teenage diary entries unearthed during the trial, Singh described herself as a "confirmed bitch, vain, materialistic, self-opinionated, lascivious".[35] She further wrote about the power she believed she had over men, treating them as commodities and using them for her own gratification.
After release [ edit ]
– Miranda Devine, Sydney Morning Herald[36] Out of Anu Singh's mouth it all comes, her detached recollections, her banal theories on crime, her desire to practise law, particularly "criminal law, human rights, jurisprudence". And yet there is not a skerrick of remorse for Joe Cinque or his parents. It's all about her. She can't explain why she killed him because there is no explanation, except, as she told Wyndham, "it was like doing a university assignment".– Miranda Devine,
Singh has completed a masters in criminology at Sydney University, having attended classes on day release from Emu Plains Correctional Centre.[29][37]
In June 2005, concern was expressed in the New South Wales Parliament about Singh's employment with the Cabramatta Community Centre.[38] The public was reassured that Singh was not employed to distribute clean injecting equipment and that her employment was on a time-limited project.[39]
In 2010 Singh began research at the University of Sydney Faculty of Law,[40] and in 2012 was awarded a doctorate for her thesis Offending Women: Toward a Greater Understanding of Women's Pathways Into and Out of Crime in Australia. It outlines "five major pathways that led [female prisoners] to crime: unstable upbringings, sexual and physical abuse, drug use, economic marginality and mental illness".[41] An edited version was released as a self-published e-book in 2016.[21]
She met her current partner, Aaron Erbacher, a fellow ex-convict, while in the Belconnen remand centre in 1998.[42] They have been in a relationship since then.[43]
In literature and other adaptations [ edit ]
The crime has been adapted into works by several authors and filmmakers. The most well-known example is Helen Garner's 2004 book Joe Cinque's Consolation, published in the same month as Singh's re-release from prison, which was a widely publicised account of Singh's crime and trial, together with the Cinque family's response to it. Singh gave interviews shortly after the release of the book, recounting her own memories of the killing and expressing regret at rejecting Garner's request for an interview.[29] She told interviewers that she wished to redress some of the book's imbalance towards her.[1]
In 2005, a documentary was being made about Singh by James Ricketson which covered her employment in Cabramatta. The documentary was reportedly to be called Atonement.[31]
In 2012, it was announced that Garner's book would be turned into a film to be directed by Canberran Sotiris Dounoukos. Dounoukos was at ANU studying law at the same time as Singh;[44] she was "a friend of friends".[45] The film was partially funded by Screen Australia.[46] The film, also called Joe Cinque's Consolation, was given a cinematic release on 13 October 2016 to generally positive critical attention.[47] Singh was portrayed by actress Maggie Naouri.
Other works based on the death of Joe Cinque include:
Criminology, a play by Tom Wright and Lally Katz, performed at Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre in August 2007. [48] [49]
, a play by Tom Wright and Lally Katz, performed at Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre in August 2007. The Dinner Party, a psychological thriller film starring Lara Cox, released in 2009 and produced by SilverSun Pictures, a video, TV and film production company in Canberra.[50]Girl's diary of life in concentration camp published in English
A unique account of life in a concentration camp, written by a young girl during World War II and shortly thereafter, has been translated into English by an academic from the University of Sheffield and is set to be published by Penguin this week (14 February 2013).
Although many books and memoirs have been written about the Holocaust, Helga’s Diary is truly special. Unlike the harrowing account of Anne Frank which ended before her life in Auschwitz, this diary, written by eight year old Helga Weiss, takes readers inside a concentration camp – Terezín, in what is now the Czech Republic.
Other than the diary of Anne Frank, which has sold 25 million copies, a book of such length and quality, written by a young woman at the time, is almost unheard of. It has been translated from Czech into English by Professor Neil Bermel, Head of the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Sheffield.
In 1938, when her diary begins, Helga is eight years old. Alongside her father and mother and the 45,000 Jews who live in Prague, she endures the Nazi invasion and regime: her father is denied work, schools are closed to her, she and her parents are confined to their flat. Then deportations begin, and her friends and family start to disappear.
In 1941, Helga and her parents are sent to the concentration camp of Terezín, where they live for three years. |
the potential impact on startups of the copyright reform, although it’s fair to say that the loudest complaints are coming from big U.S. tech companies that appear to be core targets in the European Commission’s draft proposal, on account of the size and power of their content-sharing platforms.
In the supporters’ camp, EU sources argue that the Commission’s proposals will help European creative and copyright-centered industries flourish in a Digital Single Market, and European authors reach new audiences — while making regional works widely accessible to EU citizens and across borders.
“The aim is to ensure a good balance between copyright and relevant public policy objectives such as education, research, innovation and the needs of persons with disabilities,” one EU source told us. “We trust that the discussions in the Council and the European Parliament will aim to maintain this ambition and will facilitate access to and use of copyright-protected content online and ensuring a well-functioning copyright marketplace.”
At the launch of the draft proposals last year, Andrus Ansip, VP for the Digital Single Market, summed up the balance the EC is seeking to strike thus: “Europe’s creative content should not be locked-up, but it should also be highly protected, in particular to improve the remuneration possibilities for our creators.”
Neighboring rights for news
Among the most controversial elements of the proposals are an extra copyright provision for using snippets of journalistic content online — a so-called “neighboring right” for news sites, which critics describe as an attack on the hyperlink.
This could apply to link previews generated by news aggregators like Google News, for example, or social network sites like Facebook linking out to news articles. But there are also suggestions it may disproportionately impact startups in the news aggregation and/or media monitoring space.
Although EU sources emphasize there is no requirement that publishers levy a charge for their content — rather, it is up to publishers to decide on conditions for use of their content, with the argument being that the neighboring right would give publishers a stronger legal basis to negotiate with third parties.
A similar law was enacted in Germany in 2013, but uncertainty remains about what actually constitutes a snippet — and local publishers ended up offering Google free consent to display their snippets after they saw traffic fall substantially when Google stopped showing their content rather than pay for using them.
Spain also enacted a similar ancillary copyright law for publishers in 2014, but its implementation required publishers to charge for using their snippets — leading Google to permanently close its news aggregation service in the country. A subsequent economic study found the significant drop in traffic associated with the shuttering of Google News in Spain mostly affected smaller, niche or newcomer publishers. But even large media entities there have come out against the law.
Content monitoring
Another highly controversial portion of the copyright proposal is a requirement on websites that host large amounts of user-generated content to monitor user behavior to identify and prevent copyright infringement. So, in other words, to shift from reviewing reported content after it has been published to proactively scanning at the point of upload to try to prevent copyright infringements happening in the first place.
Critics complain this approach would compel private companies to police the internet on behalf of rights holders. They also suggest it’s a surveillance risk and that requiring indiscriminate monitoring of citizens’ online activity is disproportionate and therefore potentially violates fundamental EU privacy rights.
Countering these criticisms, EU sources emphasize that the Commission’s proposals are specifically targeted at services that store and give access to “large amounts of copyright protected content” — pointing out that such platforms have become important players on the content market.
“Due to the nature and significance of these services for the distribution of copyright protected content, they are required to take certain measures to allow a better functioning of the content market,” one source told us.
Measures taken must also be “proportionate,” and should not be “ unnecessarily complicated or costly for the service providers,” according to the source. Nor are specific technologies or solutions imposed.
“ It is for the services to find the appropriate and proportionate measures, which could be developed either internally or using for example third party services, as done by a number of services already today,” the source added, arguing that the proposal “strikes a balance between different interests.”
“It imposes obligations on platforms with large amounts of copyright protected content, which can be expected, due to their role on the content market, to have certain responsibilities. It also introduces safeguards for businesses and users. It does not introduce a general obligation to monitor content.”
Text and data mining
The copyright reform also proposed to establish a new EU-wide exception for text and data mining — but only for research institutions conducting scientific research, which has raised questions over whether commercial data-mining activity might suddenly be considered to lie outside the law.
Responding to this concern, EU sources argue that the proposal does not regulate or extend access to data for any stakeholders, nor does it change the current situation for other users of text and data mining — adding that these users “can continue exercising their activities under the same conditions as today.”
There has also been disappointment among copyright reformists that the EC has not sought to harmonize rules across the EU to recognize and put beyond legal doubt digital remix culture, such as the ability to create GIFs, memes, supercuts etc. — types of digital content which may currently, at least technically, be copyright infringements in some EU member states.
The European Parliament has been debating the copyright reform proposals for the past few months, as it formulates its official reaction to the draft proposals and seeks to push for specific changes. And this week members of the European Parliament submitted their amendments to the Commission’s proposals, as part of that process.
I’ve submitted my amendments to the #copyright reform. At least 78 MEPs have tabled amendments against #Ancillarycopyright to #SaveTheLink! pic.twitter.com/VKINqfFIqe — Julia Reda (@Senficon) April 13, 2017
TechCrunch spoke to MEP Julia Reda, a long-running proponent for copyright reform — who has called for bold and ambitious reforms, yet instead finds herself fighting a set of proposals that she argues could usher in additional restrictions on web users — while also disadvantaging regional startups.
TC: What was the original impetus for the EU’s digital copyright reform, and what did the Commission eventually propose?
Reda: When EU first announced the copyright reform it was saying that the purpose was to really make life easier for everybody — businesses who wanted to scale up throughout the entire EU but also for citizens or consumers who wanted to access different services across borders. And what would be needed for that would be a more European copyright. We’re currently stuck with 28 different national laws that are often contradictory, and that’s often causing problems in the online environment. So when the Commission came out with this proposal there was very little of this ambition to be found. There are a few exceptions that the Commission is proposing to make mandatory across the EU when it comes to teaching — so use of digital content in teaching, and preservation copies being made by libraries and archives, but this is really — while it’s a step in the right direction, it doesn’t really do much more for the market.
At the same time, when it comes to the measures that are proposed on the marketplace I think they are actively harmful, so on the one hand you have a provision that would force any company or not even company any host provider that is basically giving users the possibility to upload content on their own an obligation to monitor what the users are doing — and this is not only extremely costly for all the providers, it could be anyone from Wikipedia to GitHub to photo communities, but it’s also a violation of fundamental rights. In the past the European Court of Justice has made it very clear that member states are not allowed to impose a general obligation on internet providers to monitor what users are doing. And this is exactly what this law would do. But this is the one big criticism that I think is relevant when it comes to how this would affect the internet ecosystem.
The other one is the proposal to extend copyright for press publishers and allow them to ask for licence fees for the reproduction of even the smallest snippets of content — so, for example, the headline of a news article. This directly interferes with the possibility to link to content on the internet because of course if you’re linking to something you want the link to be meaningful, and at the very least to include the title of the article you’re linking to.
TC: How have we arrived here? Who most stands to benefit from the most controversial proposals?
Reda: I think both of these proposals are examples of really blatant industry lobbying. So in the case of these content monitoring provisions, this has been very clearly pushed for by the music industry. And it’s actually a parallel development to the discussions that are going on in the U.S. So the music industry has quite successfully convinced a lot of lawmakers that they basically need to be paid more by YouTube. The entire purpose of this article is really to settle a fight between music labels and YouTube. The problem with this proposal is of course that its effects would go far beyond YouTube. And, in fact, probably YouTube would be one of the only hosting websites that could easily comply with this website because they already have a content monitoring facility in place. So even though it’s intended to strengthen the position of the music industry when it’s negotiating with YouTube, probably the collateral damage on other hosting websites would be a lot higher. But this is simply not something that the Commission has been thinking about when it was drafting this law. It’s very clear that they had a very specific type of website and a very specific type of content in mind, where such automated filtering may be more realistically possible.
Because if you’re trying to find a music recording, at least technologically this is comparatively simple because a music recording is more or less unique. But copyrighted content is a lot more than that. And if, for example, software would have to detect any type of copyright infringement — which is basically what this law is saying — the technology for that doesn’t even exist. So it could be things like being able to transfer to detect translations of a text that can be a copyright infringement, or pictures of a sculpture from different angles. It can be compositions rather than just musical recordings. So it’s really a huge technological challenge and it’s very clear from the fact that in all its reporting documents the Commission is only talking about the music industry that this is really what they had in mind. And there has been quite clear lobbying from the industry for this.
And in the case of the extra copyright for press publishers, it’s not even the publishing industry in general that’s in favor of this. It’s a relatively small number of — in particular two German publishing houses — that want to have this. And everybody else is a bit more puzzled by it. But because we had a German commissioner at the time that this proposal was being produced, they had very easy access to the highest levels of the Commission. But there are a lot of publishers who are actually quite critical of this proposal because they are saying that being able to be found on news aggregators and being able to be linked to by people on social media is absolutely crucial to their business model and to finding their audience. So it’s not like the entire publishing industry is in favor of this either.
[In Germany an ancillary copyright] was passed into law in 2013, and since then there has been court battles going on about what it actually means. Like how many words are you allowed to use before it becomes an infringement? And none of these questions has been solved by now. But a number of startups who have been doing media monitoring and stuff like that have had to go out of business because of the legal uncertainty, and they just can’t get funding — if they don’t know whether what they are doing is legal. And they’re probably not going to find out for several years.
TC: Setting aside the problem of a lack of ambition in the reform, it sounds like it has been overly broadly drafted –- could the Commission fix what it has, or do you think it should be scrapped entirely?
Reda: I think it should be scrapped because there’s not one problem with the proposal but several ones. So I think it’s a fundamentally bad idea to write content recognition technology into law. Not just because it’s extremely invasive but because it systematically ignores users’ rights. So the way that copyright is designed in Europe is that we have exclusive rights, and then have a list of specific exceptions under which users are allowed to use copyrighted content. So, for example, in most member states of the EU you are allowed to use works for purposes of quotation, within certain limits of course. The technology is not able to distinguish between a lawful use of copyrighted content under an exception, and an unlawful use –- so it simply takes down every use of the content that is not licensed. And this of course leads to takedowns of lots of EU content and it systematically undermines the purpose of the exception, which is usually the protection of freedom of expression. So I think as long as this proposal talks about forcing anyone to use content recognition technologies it’s systematically undermining the copyright exceptions and it’s basically throwing the copyright system even more out of balance. So I find it very difficult to imagine how this could be fixed.
I think it’s a fundamentally bad idea to write content recognition technology into law. Not just because it’s extremely invasive but because it systematically ignores users’ rights.
The other problem is that it’s trying to misrepresent the legal status of hosting providers in the EU. Because at the moment, if a user uploads something to a platform it’s primarily the user who is responsible for it, so they are the ones who have to check whether the content they are uploading is legal and so on — and this make sense because otherwise it wouldn’t be possible to run a platform that has a lot of user-uploaded content. If you had to check every YouTube video before it’s uploaded or every picture before it can be used on Wikipedia, these platforms simply wouldn’t work the way that they work today. And so that’s why there is a limited liability for these host providers that, no, they don’t have to pro-actively check everything that is uploaded. But in return they have to take down content once they’re informed, or once they learn that there’s something illegal there. And they’re doing this. So I think that as long as the proposal first of all doesn’t recognize this legal regime and this limited liability, and at the same time speaks about content recognition, I don’t see how it can be fixed.
TC: At the moment in the EU there’s a lot of political pressure on social platforms to get better and faster at taking down problem content such as hate speech, terrorist propaganda and child abuse imagery — including governments talking about wanting the tech companies to build tools to help automate this process. Might this sort of thinking be feeding into the Commission’s proposals on copyright, too?
Reda: I think the problems associated with copyright infringement, with hate speech and with images of child abuse, are fundamentally different. So, first of all, with hate speech, the biggest problem is that according to numbers by the Council of Europe, only 15 percent of hate speech is even illegal in the first place. So the companies are often being asked to take down content that is technically legal. And then of course it’s extremely difficult because then the problem is not that the companies are not complying with their obligations under the limited liability regime, but the problem is that the laws are not fit for purpose to actually address hate speech –- so there we have a problem, and it’s the problem with the criminal provisions in the member states and not with the enforcement of the law by the platforms.
Then in the case of images of child abuse, it’s relatively clear — the legal situation is essentially the same all around the world. These images are illegal to spread and therefore if you have an exact copy of the same content then it’s very easy for a platform to say this is illegal, this needs to be taken down. And there I think the use of automated recognition of these images can be justified. And then it can be taken down at the source. The problem is this doesn’t work for copyright because with the copyright exceptions, just because something is using copyrighted content does not mean that it is actually infringing. And the problem is of course if you start putting in place infrastructure for one type of content — perhaps it’s justified with terrorism — then there will invariably be a strong push to use it for all types of other content where it is not justified. And I think — well, there are lots of examples for this — but I think for copyrighted content these automated tools simply undermine copyright exceptions. And they are not proportionate. I mean we are not talking about violent crimes here in the way that terrorism or child abuse are. We’re talking about something that is a really widespread phenomenon and that’s dealt with by providing attractive legal offers to people. And not by treating them as criminals.
TC: How do you believe startups might be disadvantaged by the current proposals for the EU copyright reforms? Big companies like Google have some clear risks but also big resources to respond to new laws. What specific risks do you see for startups?
Reda: There’s a certain cognitive dissonance among a lot of the regulators in Europe because on the one hand they are kind of upset about the fact there are so few European startups and they’re wondering how we can better compete with the U.S., but at the same time they’re putting in place laws that are targeted at the big U.S. tech giants but that actually end up hitting the domestic startups a lot harder because they have to comply with pretty strict regulations from the start that they’re not equipped to actually deal with, and that often hampers their possibility to get funding.
I mean something that an investor certainly does not want to have is legal uncertainty. And a big flaw of the proposals that are put on the table by the Commission is that they are unclear. If you took, for example, the neighboring rights for press publisher by its word you would have to conclude that taking a single word, or even a single letter from a publication would be an infringement because, unlike copyright, neighboring rights do not have a threshold of originality. But at the same time, of course, common sense dictates that you cannot have an exclusive right on a single word or a single letter. So it’s clear that interpreting what exactly this law protects would be up to the courts. And probably the courts in different countries would come to different conclusions. So this is a huge source of legal uncertainty and it’s particularly hitting those who are trying to create new and innovative business models. And I think this is quite tragic. It’s precisely startups that have the possibility to actually find the new business models that the cultural sector so dearly needs. It’s just that the large incumbents — such as those two publishing houses that are behind the press publishers’ rights, they don’t have a particular interest in having new competitors on the market that might be more efficient at bringing the news to people. So they have a clear interest in introducing this law. Even if they don’t think that they’re actually going to get any money from Google for using their snippets — it’s simply about making it more difficult for new market entrants to compete with them.
For the neighboring right [the biggest impact will be on] news startups, everybody who is dealing with news analysis. We had a couple of examples of startups like that that are, for example, trying to find ways to detect fake news, or to give people different sources or propose different sources to try to corroborate a story. Things like that would be extremely difficult with the neighboring right. It would also affect companies that are engaged in big data mining, because there is a new exception in the proposal that explicitly allows text and data mining for research organizations but not for anybody else. So this is an area where it’s currently quite unclear whether big data mining constitutes copyright infringement in the first place. But if you explicitly allow it for some then it kind of implies that it’s forbidden for others.
And I think the third kind of startup that is particularly affected by this is any kind of platform for sharing user-generated content. For example, we had an example of a Belgian startup called MuseScore, which is quite a popular platform for people to exchange sheet music — and it’s usually people simply sharing their own compositions. But of course there is no software that could automatically detect copyright infringements in sheet music because it’s not simply somebody copying the sheet music one on one. But rather whenever a composition to which the person who uploads the sheet music doesn’t have the rights, is included there this would constitute a copyright infringement so you would have to somehow technologically make the leap from a particular melody to that melody being expressed in sheet music and that technology is not available.
TC: Could this reform mean companies using large amounts of data for building AI models might technically be committing a copyright infringement — if they’re using copyrighted data to train a machine learning algorithm?
Reda: Yeah, if they’re, for example, learning to detect cats in pictures and using a bunch of cat pictures from the internet to train their algorithms, then the argument goes that by copying these images they are using a copyrighted work and they would need a license for that. In most countries it’s kind of clarified either that this kind of use is fair use or there’s specific exceptions for text and data mining — for example Japan has introduced a text and data-mining exception that clarifies that it’s not a copyright infringement. But there’s also the question should this be covered by copyright in the first place? Because you are not using the work as an intellectual creation you are just using the data in the work. For example, if you’re mining text and you’re looking for particular patterns, you’re not really interested in what the text means, you’re interested in how often a particular word is used or something like that. So arguably this is not actually a use of the work as such but rather just of the data that’s carrying this work. So if we introduce a text and data-mining exception only for certain organizations and startups are not included in that, then we’re basically saying that any kind of startup that if you’re using copyrighted content for training their AI would be performing a copyright infringement.
TC: On the flip side, you could argue that while algorithms may not be using the work itself there is a kind of value exchange going on, based on extracting something useful (and potentially profitable) from the data…
Reda: Copyright law was never designed to be based on whether or not you are commercially benefiting from the use or not — I mean, if this were the case then all non-commercial use of copyrighted works should be legal, but it’s not. It’s always based on whether or not you’re performing certain protected uses such as making a copy. And in the digital world you just need to make copies a lot more than in the analogue world. I think that would have been perfectly legal in an analogue content — such as reading a book and counting the number of times a certain word is used is not a copyright-relevant act in any way. And just when you’re using a computer to do the same thing, then it suddenly is.
The other issue is that it only makes sense to require people to get a license if it’s actually possible to get a license. But how would this work? If somebody’s just scraping loads of images off social media, for example, the rights holders of those images are spread all over the world — there are millions of them, and if you actually contacted them and said “hey I want to use your cat picture that you posted on Twitter for training my AI, can you please given me a license,” they would not know what the hell you’re talking about. The transaction cost of actually trying to do this legally would be so high that it would simply not pay to do this kind of research anymore. So basically by saying this is something that requires a license you are guaranteeing that it is simply not going to be done legally. But you’re not actually creating new business opportunities for anyone.
TC: I haven’t personally heard many European startups voicing concerns about the EU copyright reform — do you think there’s an awareness problem here? Or maybe they don’t yet realize the potential implications down the line?
Reda: I have a somewhat different impression. Because when we invited some startups to come to Brussels to speak about their experience it was extremely easy to find startups that were concerned about this, and had very specific concerns about either the neighboring right or the content monitoring. Of course, if you’re a startup founder you probably don’t have the resources to lobby in the same way that a large company does because you’re basically spending all of your time on developing your product, but nevertheless there are a number of startups that are actually coming to Brussels and talking to policymakers. They have formed a business association — Allied for Startups — which is also organizing their activities. And they focus quite a lot on copyright — so for example Allied for Startups has done this startup manifesto — scale up manifesto — that they have presented to the European Commission where they are extremely critical of these proposals. So of course I don’t expect every startup founder in the EU to know about this because it is still quite a complex legislative process. But I wouldn’t share the impression that they’re not concerned about this. My impression is more that if they know about it they are concerned.
TC: What arguments are you hearing from larger tech companies — like Apple, Google, Facebook, Spotify — about the copyright reform?
Reda: Apple, I have to say, has not been particularly active on this. And also Google. They’re mostly active through their business associations. So it’s extremely difficult to say what exactly is the position of which particular players. Google was invited to one of the hearings that we had in the legal affairs committee. And they were basically spending their time explaining how Content ID works, what they’re already doing voluntarily, and kind of also explaining the limits of what the technology can do — so, for example, they were quite open about the fact that it’s not capable of interpreting copyright exceptions and limitations.
Generally I would say the tech companies have been most concerned about the content-monitoring provision. Because it really affects a very broad range of companies, where the neighboring right is more targeted at a specific kind of company that is active in the news sector in some way.
I met with Apple this week but they were more concerned about the Electronic Communications Code, so the telecoms review that is going on at the moment. They did have concerns about the content-monitoring provision… I’ve spoken to SoundCloud and they are really quite concerned about this, and they were quite open in saying that if this kind of provision had existed when they started out, they would have never managed to survive. And nevertheless, they are kind of a licensed service nowadays and are able to work with the rights holders. So they’ve been quite active on this… I’ve met with Facebook at some point. And I mean they were just reiterating their concerns about the content monitoring and the neighboring right. It’s certainly on their radar.
I think generally [the big tech companies are] trying to emphasize that they’re already doing a lot of things on a voluntarily basis.
TC: You’ve personally been pushing for copyright reform for years — and made it your legislative priority. Why is that? And what would you really like to see happen? What would be your ideal copyright reform?
Reda: I think that copyright reform is absolutely crucial for access to knowledge and empowerment of people. I think the cultural sector is just one small element of this. I think where the negative effects of the copyright system are much more apparent is the academic sector, where basically you have a small number of extremely powerful publishing companies that have profit margins of upwards of 30 percent, that are basically living off getting articles for free from researchers at universities and then selling them back to the universities at astronomical prices. And I think this is an extremely unhealthy system, it’s contributing to global inequality because basically universities in developing countries and increasingly also in industrialized countries are not able to afford access to the content that is actually necessary to get a good education. So this is really what my motivation behind this copyright reform is.
Copies that are made in a digital environment should not be treated the same way as copies in the analogue age.
I’ve worked as a student assistant at a university — and I know firsthand the problems that exist with simply being able to access the knowledge that has been produced with public money because of the way that the copyright system is set up. What I would really like to see — I think where a huge mistake has been made in translating the copyright system to the digital world is that copies that are made in a digital environment should not be treated the same way as copies in the analogue age. If you have 20,000 copies of a digital book in your basement it’s very clear that your intention is to distribute them and so it’s kind of a short cut of the law to simply make the copies themselves illegal, and not just the distribution. But with digital technology that’s completely different because any kind of use of digital technologies requires the making of copies and it is not implied that just because you’re making copies your intention is to give those copies to somebody else.
Just to give you an example, a friend of mine has a digital hearing aid — a cochlear implant which is basically implanted into his brain and it translates an audio signal into a digital signal, and that’s why he’s able to hear again. And if there were no exceptions to copyright that allow for example this copy from analogue to digital then he would be committing a copyright infringement every time he’s listening to music. And this obviously doesn’t make any sense. So what I would really like to see would be a reform that simply does not take digital copies as the basis for what is considered to be a copyright infringement anymore.
TC: What do you see as the likely result of the copyright reform process — are you hopeful of being able to make substantial changes to the proposals?
Reda: I’m quite optimistic that we’re going to be able to defeat the neighboring right. It’s a wildly unpopular measure wherever it has been introduced in Germany and in Spain. The parliament has already voted against it several times. I’m of course concerned about the really intense lobbying from some publishers who are trying to shift the position of the parliament. But so far most of the parliament reports that have come out, including the Legal committee, they have all been proposing to get rid of the neighboring right.
I am more pessimistic when it comes to the content-monitoring provision because there it’s extremely difficult to change this proposal into something that is not harmful. It’s a very complex ecosystem and I think not everybody is aware of the problems associated with content recognition technologies. And as you were saying, it’s kind of mixed up with the discussions around terrorism and hate speech. And I think that’s always a very bad starting point for having a really targeted copyright reform that it’s not mixing up a lot of different issues. So there I’m a lot more skeptical.
TC: What happens next? What’s the timeline from here?
Reda: The European parliament has presented its report, and the deadline for amendments to that is actually today [last Wednesday]. So after everybody has tabled their amendments the person who wrote the report, the rapporteur, is going to take those amendments and form them into compromises. Then we’re going to vote on it in the committee, probably in June or July, and then it will go to the plenary vote and to negotiations with the Council. So a final text could be expected maybe in a year or so.
TC: So there’s still a chance for substantial amendments?
Reda: Basically so far the proposal from the Commission is only the starting point. And nobody is bound by what the Commission has proposed. And actually Council as well — there are a lot of national governments who are completely unconvinced by the neighboring right, and are asking a lot of critical questions, so it’s very possible that we can get rid of these proposals if we’re keeping up the public pressure and it’s convincing also national governments that this is also not in their interest.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.Gwinnett Braves 7, Charlotte Knights 5
Box Score
Gwinnett Braves 1, Charlotte Knights 5
Box Score
Rio Ruiz, 3B: 1-3, BB, run,.268/.355/.377
Blake Lalli, C: 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI,.256/.302/.320
Matt Wisler, SP: 7 IP, 8 H, 5 R (3 ER), 0 BB, 4 K, 3.71 ERA
Aaron Blair, SP: 2 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 4.59 ERA
Gwinnett had a full day with a double header that they split with Charlotte by scores of 7-5, 1-5. Matt Wisler was okay in his start, lasting the full 7 innings to help preserve the bullpen. Giving up 5 runs (3 earned) is less than ideal especially since he did give up another long ball, but it was good to see him put together a long outing. Aaron Blair, on the other hand, seems as though he is not in a great place as a pitcher. He was missing up and cannot seem to locate his fastball anywhere close to the level he was when he was tearing up AAA earlier this season. The result is a guy leaving high-80s,, low-90s stuff up and in the middle of the plate which results in the lines you see above.
There weren’t really any standout offensive performances from Gwinnett, with Blake Lalli being arguably the best with RBIs in both halves of the doubleheader. Rio Ruiz only played in one game but reached base twice in the game before Gwinnett gave Kyle Kubitza a start at third.
Mississippi Braves 0, Pensacola Blue Wahoos 1
Box Score
Mississippi Braves 1, Pensacola Blue Wahoos 2
Box Score
Ozzie Albies, 2B: 0-6, BB,.328/.402/.450
Dustin Peterson, LF: 2-6, BB,.292/.350/.448
Michael Mader, SP: 7 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 0.69 ERA
Evan Phillips, RP: 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 2.20 ERA
Offense was scarce in this doubleheader as Mississippi was swept by Pensacola 0-1, 1-2. Ozzie Albies was held hitless although he did reach base with a walk and Dustin Peterson had a hit in each half of the doubleheader. Unfortunately, Dustin’s hit output was a full 25% of the hits Mississippi managed in the entire doubleheader.
Michael Mader was a tough luck loser (insert obligatory “the win stat is stupid” note here) as he pitched a complete game in the first half and gave up just the one run. He has given up just one run total in the two starts since he was acquired from the Marlins. The second game was a patchwork affair (so that Mississippi can keep their rotation on schedule) that Pensacola won by scoring two runs in the top of the 9th off of David Peterson to steal the second game and secure the sweep.
Carolina Mudcats 1, Wilmington Blue Rocks 2
Box Score
Kade Scivicque, C: 2-4, RBI
Travis Demeritte, 2B: 0-4, 3 K,.200/.362/.413
Matt Withrow, SP: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, 4.00 ERA
Offense was scarce yet again as Carolina fell to Wilmington 2-1. It was a shame that the offense didn’t show up because Matt Withrow pitched a great game. Withrow pitched 6 shutout innings with 9 Ks, but unfortunately 2 unearned runs under Sean McLaughlin’s watch being the deciding runs in the game. Raymar Navarro ended Carolina’s day with an inning of scoreless relief.
The newly acquired Kade Scivicque had his first two hits as a Brave in this game while Travis Demeritte had a less good game, going 0-4 with 3 Ks. He has struck out 34 times in the 21 games he has played since he has joined the Braves (along with walking 19 times). Braxton Davidson has recorded just 4 hits over his past 9 games (32 at-bats) while striking out 19 times and walking just twice.
Rome Braves 3, Asheville Tourists 1
Box Score
Austin Riley, 3B: 1-4, run,.259/.315/.447
Jonathan Morales, C: 2-4, HR, 3 RBI,.276/.325/.368
Mike Soroka, SP: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, 2.98 ERA
Mike Soroka keeps doing Mike Soroka things as Jonathan Morales backed yet another strong outing from Mike with a 3-run homer that proved to be the difference in Rome’s 3-1 win. Despite giving up just the third homer of his professional career (a solo shot), Soroka continued to just be excellent and finds areas of improvement in each start. His ERA in his past 10 starts is 3.05 and thats with a rare off outing where he gave up 6 runs in 5 innings of work. Just turning 19 a couple weeks ago, Mike has already displayed the ability to dominate full season ball batters and still has room to grow as a pitcher. Corbin Clouse would later come in and secure the save with yet another multi-K inning of relief.
On offense, it was pretty quiet until Jonathan Morales brought the big wood and clubbed a three run homer that accounted for all of Rome’s runs in the game. Morales has slashed.322/.372/.416 in the second half this year and is right up there with Dustin Peterson as one of the system’s hottest hitters right now. Juan Yepez and Kevin Josephina joined Morales with multi-hit games of their own, although only Morales was able to capitalize on the having some baserunners to drive in.
Danville Braves 0, Greeneville Astros 2
Box Score
Derian Cruz, SS: 1-4,.173/.189/.250
Marcus Mooney, 3B: 1-2, BB,.285/.384/.349
Joey Wentz, SP: 4.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 5 BB, 4 K, 6.55 ERA
Tought night for Danville as they were shutout by Greeneville 2-0. Joey Wentz had a weird start where he did go 4.2 innings and gave up just 2 hit and 1 earned run. That was good. However, the 5 walks was less than good, but it was nice to see him pitch out of trouble when needed. Offense was scarce in this game, although Marcus Mooney reached base twice and Derian Cruz added a hit in the hopes of getting on track in the higher levels of rookie ball.
GCL Braves 3, GCL Phillies 6
Box Score
Anthony Concepcion, LF: 1-4, |
much damage on the top of the buildings.”
Zooming in on three different sections of the same Homs neighborhood to show before-and-after images of the destruction, King says: “Now obviously, we’re not there, but this powerful satellite imagery tends to support the accounts from activists that there’s a lot of shelling and fighting going on in the city, and a lot of fires.”
There is only one problem with his account. Most of the alleged fighting, shelling, destruction and killing reported widely in the international media took place in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs, southwest of the city, and an anti-regime stronghold.
But all three satellite images shown by King are in al-Zahra neighborhood, a pro-regime area consisting mainly of Alawis, who belong to the same Muslim minority sect as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
That is a stunning revelation. Pro-regime civilians in Homs and other Syrian areas have complained of attacks, kidnappings and killings by armed opposition groups for months now, with little attention received by foreign media.
And it completely undermines Ford’s contention that: “There is no evidence that the opposition…has access to or has employed such heavy weapons. “
Let’s look at some screenshots from CNN’s presentation and compare it to screenshots taken from Google Maps. The first visual is of King pointing to the three highlighted areas of destruction in Homs:
CNN’s satellite images have been turned 90 degrees clockwise in their own presentation of the photos, so in this next screenshot, we have shifted their visuals so that they are north facing – to help with comparison to our pictures in a normal north-south format. This will also make things easier for those readers compelled to rush out and conduct their own web search on the area.
Zooming into one highlighted area of destruction, you can see that the two photos – CNN’s and ours – are an exact match. To the north of the horizontal road is a lot marked by a large tree to its left. South of that same road, buildings are positioned at a distinct diagonal angle. This area is inside Homs’ al-Zahra neighborhood.
This next screenshot zooms out so that you can see the placement of CNN’s three areas of damage – all clearly within al-Zahra, which is marked by a red circle. In the bottom left hand corner of the shot is a circular area that we included as a marker to help readers distinguish al-Zahra’s location in proximity to other areas in Homs. This is where the Citadel of Homs is located.
The final screenshot is of Homs from a distance so that it is possible to view the distance between Baba Amr (circled in blue) to the left of the picture, and al-Zahra, to the right. The Citadel in the previous shot is between the two neighborhoods.
An image is no longer worth a thousand words
Photos and video footage showing scenes of violence have been streaming out of Homs since reports of heavy fighting first broke on February 3. It is hard to glean much from these because there is not enough information in the visuals to confirm the source of gunfire or shelling. The satellite images posted by the State Department on February 6 – according to the Moon of Alabama blog – do not actually show the Syrian army engaged in battle, as suggested by Ambassador Ford when he claims:
“Satellite photos have captured both the carnage and those causing it -- the artillery is clearly there, it is clearly bombing entire neighborhoods.”
But his statement about armed opposition groups not having the weaponry to fight from afar is now questionable given the CNN shots of damaged buildings and “burn craters” in the road – yet even this is not conclusive.
If you don’t believe an image any longer, what do you do about this kind of allegation by Ford? One of the few videos I find credible – and that, only because in it we see the death of an actual “known” person that has not been contested – is this footage of Gilles Jacquier (warning: graphic images contained), the France 2 cameraman killed while participating in a government-sponsored tour of Homs. Jacquier was killed in the pro-regime neighborhood of Akrama, home mainly to a mix of Alawis and Christians who originally migrated from rural areas. Pro-opposition journalist Omar Idilbi had once dubbed this area “the castle of the regime.”
When allegations flew left and right about the source of the projectile that killed Jacquier and reportedly eight others that day, the Arab League monitors on the ground in Syria investigated and concluded: “mission reports from Homs indicate that the French journalist was killed by opposition mortar shells.”
Syria has destroyed for me all faith in the images I once trusted. People on both sides of this conflict are manipulating visual media to propagandize toward their political goals. The problem with this is that many genuine documented stories are now disregarded because of the skepticism of readers like myself.
Governments and media should be taken to task for their complicity in the dissemination of false information. There are lives at stake, after all – the very lives that fuel their pitiful “outrage.”
Many thanks to Adel Alsalman for the screenshots in this blogStockport County Football Club is a semi-professional football club in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. Formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, the team adopted their name in 1890 after the County Borough of Stockport.[1][2] They have played at Edgeley Park since 1902,[3] traditionally in blue and white, and are nicknamed The Hatters after the town's former hat-making industry.[4]
Stockport County joined the Football League in 1900 and competed in it continuously from 1905 to 2011. The team spent most of their history in the lower reaches of the Football League, but the 1990s were more successful with the club competing in the First Division (now known as the EFL Championship) for five seasons, whilst they also reached the League Cup semi-finals in 1996–97. However, instability on and off the pitch eventually led to Stockport falling back to the lower divisions. The club started the 2011–12 season in the Conference National, having been relegated from Football League Two for the first time in their history at the end of 2010–11.[5] At the end of 2012–13, Stockport were relegated to the Conference North.[6]
History [ edit ]
Stockport County was formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers by members of the Wycliffe Congregational Church,[4] and played their first recorded game in October the next year. The club adopted The Hatters as their nickname,[1] owing to Stockport's history as the centre of the Victorian hat-making industry, a nickname that is shared with Luton Town.[4] Stockport played in the Lancashire League until 1900, when they gained admission to the Football League Second Division.[7] Stockport's first Football League match was against Leicester Fosse which ended in a 2–2 draw.[2] Stockport left their Green Lane home in 1902 and moved to Edgeley Park where they currently reside.[3]
The club finished in the bottom three for their first four seasons, and at the end of 1903–04 they failed to gain re-election.[8] They spent one year in the Lancashire Combination (a league which they won)[9] and the Midland League. At the end of the season, they were re-admitted to the Football League after being re-elected through the Midland League.[10] In their first season back in the Football League, Stockport reached the first round of the FA Cup for the first time; however, they were knocked out by Lincoln City. Stockport finished the league in 10th position that season.[12]
Photo of the 1913–14 Stockport County team
Stockport remained in Division 2 of the Football League for seven years until 1912–13 when they again had to seek re-election. Stockport gained 22 votes and was therefore re-elected.[13] Despite an unsuccessful 1920–21 campaign that saw Stockport end the season bottom of the Second Division, which would normally have seen them face re-election however, they were placed in the new Third Division North.[14] After winning five of their first six matches; along with going unbeaten from New Years Day 1921 to Easter Weekend 1922;[15] Stockport set the standard for the division and gained their first Football League title when they beat Darlington in front of 18,500 fans at Edgeley Park. Albert Williams (the then manager) was presented with the trophy seven days later before the home game with Lincoln City.[16][17] This title win began a remarkable coincidence which has occurred in each of Stockport's title winning seasons where Lincoln City have been the last opponents in each of those seasons.[15] Joe O'Kane; who joined Stockport the previous season, was a major factor in the clubs promotion although he left the club at the end of the season.[15]
Once Stockport returned to Division 2, they struggled and survived an automatic relegation by one point.[18] The 1923–24 season saw Stockport County finish 13th, one place above Manchester United. This is the only time in history Stockport has achieved better than Manchester United.[19] During this campaign Stockport goalkeeper Harry Hardy was called up to play for the England national team and kept a clean sheet in a 4–0 win against Belgium.[20][21] He is the only player to be capped at full level by England while on Stockport's books.[22][23][24] Two seasons later (1925–26) Stockport returned to the bottom division after finishing bottom of the league and only picking up 25 points.[25] Stockport finished 6th the next season (1926–27) but suffered a 2-point deduction and £100 fine for fielding an ineligible player after the registration documents for Joe Smith were not received by the Football League.[26]
Stockport closed out the 1920s in Division Three North with a 3rd-placed finish in 1927–28.[27] Joe Smith was Stockport's and the division's leading goalscorer in this particular season contributing to 38 of Stockport's 89 goals.[27] Stockport also finished second on two occasions, one in 1928–29;[28] Where Stockport amassed 62 points, scored over 100 goals in a season and averaged 10,000 fans for the first time, it was a memorable season, but one that in the end had been disappointing after Stockport won nine of their last 11 matches it had still not been enough to win the league.[15] Stockport also finished second the following season; 1929–30[29] with an even better record than in the previous season, finishing four points behind the champions Port Vale despite beating them 2–1 away on Christmas Day and 4–2 on Boxing Day, 1929.[15] Frank Newton was Stockport's and the division's leading goalscorer in this particular season contributing to 36 of Stockport's 106 goals.[29]
From the start of the 1930s, Stockport County played in a home strip of white and black and were nicknamed the 'Lilywhites'.[2] The 1933–34 season saw them achieve 115 goals. These included a 13–0 home win over Halifax Town on 6 January 1934; Joe Hill made his debut for Stockport scoring twice to making the score 2–0 at half time. Hill completed his hat trick on 51 minutes also Percy Downes make a notable performance scoring four of Stockport's goals on this day.[15] This record victory still stands as a Football League record today.[30] Over the course of the 1933–34 season Alf Lythgoe scored 46 goals for Stockport.[31] Both of these records still stand in the club's history.[30] Another first for Stockport was also seen during this season when Stockport's 2–1 home defeat to Crystal Palace in the second round of the FA Cup was shown on television.[31] Stockport finished third in this season.[32]
The Main Stand of Edgeley Park, which in 1935 was made of wood, burned down in a fire, destroying all of Stockport County's records before 1935. Besides having to rebuild a significant section of the ground, the club had to piece together historical information. The current Main Stand, was built a year later in 1936 and officially opened by Charles Sutcliffe, then President of the Football League.[3] In 1936–37 County won the Third Division North, gaining 60 points and 23 wins.[33] Towards the end of this season, Stockport had a ten-game unbeaten run that included seven victories before a last-day title decider against Lincoln City in which more than 27,000 fans watched.[34] The following season, Stockport finished 22nd out of 22 in the Second Division and were relegated to Division 3 (North) after only earning 31 points.[35]
During the 1939–40 season football was stopped following Britain's declaration of war and was not resumed until the end of World War II. This was because most British men were sent to the army. Stockport played only two matches in the 1939–40 season before war was declared, losing both and being bottom of the league.[36] Regional league competitions were set up; appearances in these tournaments do not count in players' official records. Due to teams having a depleting number of players most teams resigned from football, the clubs that were left to compete used guest players to make up their numbers. The FA Cup was also suspended and replaced with the Football League War Cup.
In the first war league after the outbreak of World War II (1940–41) Stockport finished in 35th place overall in the Northern Regional League after playing 29 games. League standings were calculated by goal average over the course of games played, with some teams playing more than others.[38] In 1945–46, English football still did not have a football season; however, The FA Cup competition was resumed. Stockport was eliminated from the 1945–46 FA Cup in the first round after a 3–2 aggregate loss to Rochdale.[40] The first post-war league season 1946–47 saw Stockport finish fourth in Division 3 (North) with 24 wins and 50 points.[41]
Chart of yearly table positions of Stockport County in the English football league system
The 1950s brought little league success, but were notable for goal-scoring by Jack Connor, whose 140 goals in five seasons are still a club record. These included 13 hat-tricks (three of which were consecutive – once against Crewe Alexandra and twice against Chester), two instances of four goals in a match (against Workington and Carlisle United), and two of five goals in a match (against Bradford Park Avenue and the Tranmere Rovers).[42] When the regional Third Divisions were to be combined into national Third and Fourth Divisions after the 1957–58 campaign, Stockport finished in the top half of the Third Division North and so were placed in the following season's national Third Division.[43]
Stockport spent one season at this level before the club was demoted.[44] Stockport played in the first League Cup competition in 1960–61, beating Carlisle United in the first round,[2] but the club was eliminated in the second round after a 3–0 defeat against Manchester City.[45] In the 1964–65 FA Cup run Stockport were drawn against reigning Football League champions Liverpool at Anfield. Stockport footed the 4th Division table. Stockport pulled off a shock 1–1 draw at Anfield after deservedly taking the lead with enough chances to have won.[46] Unfortunately the replay was a 0–2 home defeat after another excellent performance against top class opposition. Despite Stockport's ability to match the 1964–65 European Cup semi-finalist they finished bottom of the 4th division and survived re-election in the 1964–65 season. After finishing bottom of the league with 27 points, the club was re-elected by gaining 45 votes.[47] During the 1964–65 season, then Stockport Chairman Vic Bernard re-introduced the royal blue strip, colours they still play in.[2] Two seasons later Stockport returned to Third Division by winning the Fourth Division in 1966–67 after gaining 64 points.[48]
After the club was relegated in 1969–70, the 1970s, and 1980s consisted of little other than mediocrity and struggling against re-election.In February 1984 Stockport competed in their first Associate Members' Cup match against Crewe Alexandra in a competition their chairman at the time' Dragan Lukic' helped create. The matched finished 2–2 after extra time and as so was decided in a penalty shoot-out; the first in Stockport's history. Stockport went on to lose 3–0 on penalties. The introduction of automatic promotion and relegation between the Football League and the Conference was not a good sign for Stockport, and in 1986–87 they had just six points from 13 games and faced a real prospect of non-League football, exemplified by being eliminated from the FA Cup by Caernarfon Town. Colin Murphy was brought in for his second spell as manager. Stockport gained 45 points from their final 31 games and survived, although Murphy left shortly after the end of the season.[1]
Danny Bergara was appointed as manager in March 1989, quickly transforming the team, and automatic promotion was gained in 1990–91. The next three seasons saw Stockport make the play-offs, losing 2-1 to Burnley in 1994. Stockport finishing with 9 men after Michael Wallace was sent off for spitting at Ted McMinn and Chris Beaumont was dismissed. There was trouble in the stands due to the manner of the defeat. In March 1995 Bergara was sacked after an altercation with then-chairman Brendan Elwood,[50] and Dave Jones was appointed manager in April of that year.[51] A new all-seater, Cheadle End, holding just over 5,000 in capacity, was opened at the start of the 1995–96 season.[3] Although this particular season was unremarkable, the club reached the third round of the FA Cup, where they faced holders Everton. Stockport reached a 2–2 draw with Everton at Goodison Park,[52] and for the replay ten days later over 11,000 gathered at Edgeley Park to witness Everton's late winner in a 3–2 victory.[53]
The 1996–97 campaign proved to be the most successful in the club's history. They finished second in the Second Division and reached the semi-final of the League Cup, knocking out three Premiership teams (Blackburn Rovers, Southampton and West Ham United) on the way before losing to Middlesbrough 2–1 on aggregate. Before the start of the 1997–98 season, Dave Jones left for Southampton. Gary Megson left Blackpool to take over as manager and in his first season Stockport finished eighth, just two places off the playoffs to reach the Premiership – the club's best ever league placing.[54]
However, the following 1998–99 season saw Stockport finish 16th, winning just 3 of their final 14 matches. A 5–0 defeat at relegated Oxford United on the final day signaled the end of Megson's time at Edgeley Park.[55] The club decided to promote from within and Andy Kilner was soon put in charge. He had an encouraging start to his management at County having defeated Manchester City, 2–1 at Maine Road;[56] And by Boxing Day the club were sixth, holding a playoff spot.[57]
After their win over Manchester City, the team then went a club-record 19 games without a victory, eventually finishing the 1999–2000 season 17th,[58] with two late wins helping stave off relegation. The 2000–01 season saw them again narrowly avoid relegation, finishing 19th overall.[59] The 2001–02 season turned out to be the club's worst ever season at the time. With Stockport already bottom of the league, a 4–0 home defeat to Millwall saw manager Kilner sacked.[60] Former England international Carlton Palmer was appointed in November 2001.[61][62][63] Palmer subsequently failed to stop Stockport being relegated in 2001–02[64] or to build a team capable of challenging for a return the next season.[65]
The summer of 2003 saw the club change ownership, as Elwood sold the club to Sale Sharks owner Brian Kennedy in a move that would see Sale play their home games at Edgeley Park. A new company was created, called 'Cheshire Sport',[66] which would have ownership of Stockport County, Sale Sharks and the Edgeley Park stadium. The 2003–04 season saw Palmer sacked after another poor start to the season, following home defeats to Hartlepool and Blackpool in the space of a week. John Hollins, who had been Director of Football during Palmer's reign, took over as caretaker manager,[67][68] but was replaced full-time by former Northern Ireland manager Sammy McIlroy. [69] Following more relegation worries, an 11-match unbeaten run saw the club again climb to safety at the end of the season. Sammy McIlroy continued as manager in the 2004–05 season; poor results led to his sacking and the appointment of Chris Turner one year later.[70]
2005–06 saw Stockport County change owners again. After reportedly losing £4m,[71] Cheshire Sports chairman Brian Kennedy handed ownership of the club to the Supporters Trust, whose aim was to rescue the club from revenue loss, eventually break even and turn Stockport County into a community based football club. However, another relegation followed, and Turner resigned after one year in charge after a 6–0 defeat to local rivals Macclesfield Town that left County five points adrift of safety and facing a third relegation in four years.[72]
Former player Jim Gannon was placed in charge, initially as caretaker-manager.[73] He led the club to safety in 2005–06,[74] and County sustained a promotion challenge the next season, eventually missing out on the League Two playoffs on goal difference.[75] The club also set a new Football League record on 3 March 2007 when they beat Swindon Town 3–0, recording nine consecutive wins without conceding a goal.[2][76]
At the start of the 2007–08 season it was learned that former manager Danny Bergara had died.[77] Stockport County continued their success, despite losing an FA Cup first round replay away to non-League Staines Town on penalties.[78] The early months of 2008 saw Stockport equal a league record of eight consecutive away victories.[79] Approaching the end of the season, they had an outside chance to qualify for promotion automatically but missed out, finishing the season in fourth place.[80] However, after beating Wycombe Wanderers 2–1 on aggregate in the play-off semi-final,[81] Stockport played Rochdale at Wembley in the final, coming from behind to secure a 3–2 victory and earn promotion to League One for the next season.[82][83]
During the 2008–09 season, Stockport defied the odds by challenging for a play-off place, but their form dipped during the final months of the season, which saw them slip to mid-table. Gannon was approached by Brighton & Hove Albion and the approach was accepted by Stockport, but after talks with the chairman of Brighton, Gannon rejected the job and stayed at Stockport.[84]
On 30 April 2009, Stockport County was placed into administration following a battle to repay creditors.[85] This followed a petition by a creditor to repay a loan of around £300,000.[86] The club had also struggled to repay a tax debt of £250,000 to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.[87] On 16 December 2009 the team's training ground was put up for sale.[88]
On 12 June 2009, Leonard Curtis, administrator of Stockport County Football Club, announced that they had agreed to terms with the Melrose Consortium for the sale of the club.[89] Paul Reeves, one of the joint administrators, commented that, "Whilst a deal has been agreed, it is subject to the Melrose Consortium obtaining landlord approval. This is a positive step to safeguarding the club's future." The Melrose Consortium, consisting of "a group of businessmen with a sporting background" headed by ex Manchester City player Jim Melrose said, "We look forward to developing a fruitful relationship with Sale Sharks and Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council which will provide the basis for a successful future for Stockport County Football Club."[90]
The immediate aims of the Melrose Consortium were described as being to "...guarantee football at Edgeley Park next season and to secure the services of redundant manager, and Stockport legend, Jim Gannon". On 3 July 2009 Administrators agreed to a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) with previous shareholders and creditors.[91] Gannon took over as manager at Scottish Premier League side Motherwell, causing Stockport fans to worry that he would be poaching Stockport's young players in the forthcoming weeks. Gary Ablett, former manager of Liverpool reserves, was appointed manager on 8 July 2009 following talks with the (prospective) new owners,[92] although they had still not taken over, and in fact never did take over the club. In March 2010 it was announced that a new consortium, the '2015 Group', had been given exclusivity to work towards a takeover of the club.[93]
The 2015 Group was approved by the Football League at its May 2010 meeting, On 17 June 2010 at an 11pm press conference, the takeover of Stockport County by the group was announced. It was also revealed that Ablett had been relieved of his duties as manager after one season in charge, which saw the club relegated from the third division of the English Football League, (League One), with five wins from 46 league matches.[94] It was widely reported that Gannon, who was made redundant in April 2009, would return to the club, but he decided to take a break from the game. Following the takeover of the club by the 2015 Group, the consortium pledged to "rebuild the club from top to bottom".[95]
On 12 July 2010, former Carlisle United manager Paul Simpson was unveiled as Ablett's successor as the new manager of the club at a press conference at Edgeley Park.[96] Simpson's assistant manager was Peter Ward, who was previously assistant manager at the club between 2005 and 2009 under Gannon, and who also played over 100 games for the club in the 1990s. On 4 January 2011 Simpson was sacked, his place taken by Peter Ward on a caretaker basis. Ward was replaced by Ray Mathias after 12 games and two wins. Stockport's relegation from the Football League after 106 years was confirmed after a 2–0 away defeat against Crewe Alexandra.[97]
Stockport County players celebrate a goal in 2011
The 2011–12 season started with the team appointing Ray Mathias as permanent manager.[98] However, before any matches took place, he was replaced by former Liverpool, Newcastle United, Bayern Munich and German international midfielder Dietmar Hamann.[99] This was after Liverpool-based businessman Tony Evans attempted an ultimately unsuccessful takeover of the club.[100]
Hamann did poorly, winning just three games out of 19, and resigned in November citing the failed takeover as the reason.[101] He was replaced by Gannon, who returned to the club as Director of Football and First Team Manager through the 'Your Town Your Team' Group.
In Gannon's first match back at the club, the team lost a match 2–1 to joint-leaders Fleetwood Town, who achieved a record attendance in the fixture at Highbury.[103] Gannon managed Stockport to their first back-to-back wins in over three years, since his last stint as manager, with successive 1–0 victories over Wrexham[104] and Darlington.[105] Gannon steered Stockport away from the drop zone, winning eight of the last 15 league games – when the side had only managed to win nine games throughout the whole of the 2010–11 campaign – to finish 16th in the final table.[106] Gannon again focused on youth development, inducing young players such as Danny Whitehead, Cameron Darkwah, Danny Hattersley and Ian Ormson into the starting eleven. County regained sole tenancy of their Edgeley Park stadium for the first time in nine years from the beginning of the 2012–13 season, after Sale Sharks relocated for a second time, this time sharing with Salford City Reds at Barton.[107][108]
The Stockport County squad, April 2012
On 15 January 2013 former fcbusiness magazine editor Ryan McKnight was named as the new Chief Executive Officer at the club, becoming the youngest CEO in UK football.[109][110] Fourteen months into his second spell at Edgeley Park and with County in the relegation zone, Gannon was fired as Stockport County boss[111][112] following the 3–1 home defeat by Mansfield Town on 16 January 2013. He was replaced by Darije Kalezić,[113] who initially saw an upturn in results, but left the position himself two months later following a poor run that left the club in serious danger of relegation to the Conference North.[114] Ian Bogie in turn succeeded Kalezić,[115] but was unable to turn the club's form around, and they were relegated to the Conference North on the final day after a defeat to title challengers Kidderminster Harriers.[116]
Former Vice-Chairman Spencer Fearn made an offer to the shareholders in later August 2013, claiming that he would "write off his loans to the club, in exchange for the remaining shareholders to do likewise". The board took this proposal on board and stated it was a beneficiary of the football club.[117] Stockport gained one point from their first four games of the 2013–14 season, which led to Bogie's resignation as manager on 31 August, with the club second-bottom of the Conference North. Alan Lord then took charge of the team in a caretaker capacity.[118] Ryan McKnight announced his resignation from the position of CEO at the football club on 8 April 2014, stating he would leave in early May 2014.[119] Alan Lord remained in the manager's position until he stepped down to become the club director of football, three games before the end of the 2014–15 season.[120][121]
In the summer of 2015 Neil Young was named as Stockport's new permanent manager after having previous successes and experience in the Conference North.[122] Young was sacked on 12 January 2016 (along with other members of his backroom staff) following a poor run of results. A week later Jim Gannon returned to Edgeley Park for a third spell as manager, following a successful period at Northwich Victoria.
Future aspirations [ edit ]
In February 2015, The Stockport County board of directors issued an open statement about the future aspirations of the football club, named as the 'Moving Forward' Document.[123] This document focused on four key points- stability, sustainability, stadium and success-and outlined the following aspirations for the next five years:[124][125]
Return to the Football League and full-time status by 2020. Potentially consider full-time status upon return to the Conference National
Generate £1.5m in commercial revenue in the next five years
Have a credible plan in place to again own Edgeley Park:
Edgeley Park was purchased by the local authority five months after the'moving forward' document was released.[127] Stockport County are currently still renting the ground
Acquire and develop a permanent training ground before 2020
Maintain regular communication with the Supporters Group
Edgeley Park being a protected asset and as such not being used to leverage debt against the club
Colours, crests and traditions [ edit ]
Stockport County's traditional kit colours are blue and white, although they have played in other colours throughout their history. Originally competing in blue and white striped jerseys and white shorts, they experimented with red and white stripes in the early 1900s, and from the mid-1930s to mid-1960s played in white jerseys and black shorts.[2][128] No set pattern has been established for the club's use of blue and white as main colours, as they have played at various times in a white jersey with a blue band and blue shorts and a blue jersey with white pin stripes and white shorts. They made a short experiment with an Argentina-style kit, light blue and white stripes with black shorts, after the 1978 World Cup. This was abandoned after the outbreak of the Falklands War,[4] and the club returned to blue and white striped tops with blue shorts in the 1980s. County marked their 125th anniversary during 2008 by bringing in a third kit – a gold colour with black trim.[129] The kit was worn on 17 occasions, all away trips. The strip was retired 'undefeated' at the end of the year, having been worn for 13 victories and 4 draws.[130] The kit was also worn during a match against Chester City which was abandoned after 59 minutes.[131]
The club crest, which was used for many years until 2010 when the club exited administration, was based on the achievement of arms of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It was altered in 2006 to resemble the town's arms more closely, including the Latin motto Animo et Fide, which loosely translated, means With Courage and Faith.[132] The blue shield is taken from the coat of arms of the 'de Stokeport' family, from whom Stockport derives its name.[132] The twin-towered castle above the shield is Stockport Castle, which stood until 1775.[133]
After the completion by the 2015 Group takeover of the club, a new crest was adopted. It was still based on the Stockport coat of arms, though the Animo et Fide motto was removed, along with a patch of green at the base of the badge; the flag of Cheshire, featuring a sword and three wheatsheaves, replaced the golden lozenges and crosslets in the shield. The medals hanging from the lion's rampant (which represented Cheshire and Lancashire, owing to Stockport's location astride the Mersey which forms the historic border between the two counties) were removed. It also saw the return of a football on the shield. This change was made in part because as of the 2010–11 season, Stockport County was sponsored by the Metropolitan Borough Council.[134]
The crest was altered in 2011 to re-include the town motto. The new version added two white ribbons – one at the top, with Animo et Fide, and one at the bottom with Stockport County F.C.. In addition, the football was again removed from the shield. The Stockport County Supporters' Co - Operative used the blue on white cross symbol from the 1978 badge as the main identifier in their company logo. County's kit was supplied by local manufacturer Umbro who supplied all three of County's kit for the 2013–14 season, replacing Nike, thus making County the only senior club in the UK to wear the Umbro strip in the 2013–14 season.[4][135] For the start of the 2014–15 season, County again changed their kit manufacturer, this time from Umbro to Spanish-based manufacturer Joma which supplied County with a new Home, Away and Third kit along with training wear.[136][138]
[128]
Grounds [ edit ]
Heaton Norris Rovers originally played home matches at the Heaton Norris Recreation Ground, then at various locations in Stockport until settling at a park on Green Lane, Heaton Norris, in 1889. The nearby Nursery Inn served as the team's home, with players using a barn as changing rooms.[1] Green lane remained the clubs home for its first two seasons in the Football League.
In 1902 the club required a larger ground and moved to Edgeley Park, then home of the rugby league club Stockport, who went out of business three years later.[150] Green Lane was retained for use by the club's reserve team, and one further first team game was played at the ground on 18 April 1903 when Edgeley Park was being used by the rugby club.[15] The site was later used for housing. Stockport County have played home games at Edgeley Park since the start of the 1902–03 season,[15] celebrating the centenary in 2002.
In late 2000 the chairman considered moving the club to Maine Road, the former home of rivals Manchester City. The potential move was unpopular with supporters, and protests were staged after it was suggested that the club would change its name to Man-Stock County after the move.[152] Ultimately Manchester City Council decreed that Sale Sharks would make better tenants.[153] Maine Road has since been demolished to make way for a housing estate and Edgeley Park was then shared with Sale whose Parent Company Cheshire Sports owned the ground.[154]
There was once again a rumour that Stockport would leave Edgeley Park in 2012; which was dismissed by then chairman Lord Peter Snape,[155] before Sale Sharks confirmed that they would be moving to Salford City Reds' new stadium.[107][108] This meant that Stockport County would again be the only tenants at Edgeley Park, having sole use of the pitch and various revenue-generating aspects of the stadium.[156] The Stockport County board then negotiated a 65% rent reduction in November 2012.[157] On 23 May 2012, it was announced that Stockport County were to rename the Main Stand "The Danny Bergara Stand" in honour of the late Danny Bergara who managed the team during a successful period in the 1990s.[158]
In the summer of 2015, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council purchased the stadium in order to prevent it from being demolished and redeveloped.[159] After a plea from fans to safeguard the stadium,[160] an emergency council meeting was held and the stadium was purchased for £2 million. It is currently leased back to the |
for the stupid European Union guys. You know, they were all focused on how many deaths… And they threatened us, they said they will have us expelled from the UN,” Duterte said in a speech.
“My God, do it, stupid. Do it now,” Duterte said in a speech during the inauguration of the newly-renovated press briefing room in Malacañang.
The President made the statement after a human rights group called for the ouster of the Philippines from UN over the continued killings of drug suspects either in vigilante-style street executions or police operations related to Duterte’s war on drugs.
On October 9, New York-based Human Rights Watch on warned that the Philippines would be at risk of being removed from the UN Human Rights Council because of alleged human rights violation in the country.
Not EU
The EU had no statement calling for the Philippines’ removal from the UN but a seven-member delegates from the Progressive Alliance and the Party of European Socialists visited the country and called on the Duterte administration to stop killing suspected drug addicts and silencing its critics. /idl
READ: Int’l groups press probe of drug kills
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MOST READYou often know politicians are having fun by the level of their indignation.
The higher the level of indignation, the more fun they’re actually having.
I call it “fundignation.”
And we saw it on full display Monday afternoon at the Alberta legislature.
The NDP is indignant over comments made last week by Progressive Conservative Leader Jason Kenney who seemed to suggest that teachers “out” gay students to their parents if the students join gay-straight alliances in their schools.
“I … believe parents have a right to know what’s going on with their kids in the schools unless the parents are abusive,” Kenney told the Calgary Herald editorial board. “I don’t think it’s right to keep secrets from parents about challenges their kids are going through.”
Kenney’s comment immediately landed him in hot water with anyone afraid that if he ever became premier he’d be forcing teachers to denounce closeted gay and lesbian children to their parents. And, by the way, what is his definition of “abusive” parents?
NDP MLAs are upset with Kenney’s statement — but they are also happy he made it in the first place.
This would seem to be an oxymoron, being able to be both sincerely furious and having fun at the same time. But politicians are masters of the oxymoron.
The government is busily using Kenney’s statement, that he has since tried to clarify, to paint him as a right-wing, anti-gay zealot who would make life miserable, even dangerous, for vulnerable LGBTQ students.
On Monday, even before the session began, Culture Minister Ricardo Miranda held a scrum in the hallway outside question period to attack Kenney.
Miranda, an openly gay politician, didn’t just slam Kenney’s comments from last week, but tried to pile indignation upon indignation by raising comments Kenney made as an MP 19 years ago.
Back then, Kenney himself was indignant (but not in a fun way) over a landmark decision from the Supreme Court of Canada involving an Edmonton teacher, Delwin Vriend, who had been fired from his job with a Christian school because he was gay.
The court ruled in Vriend’s favour and ordered sexual orientation be protected under Alberta’s human rights legislation.
Kenney was not happy and in the House of Commons on April 3, 1998, accused the Supreme Court of launching “an unprecedented attack on democracy and on our constitutional order in what can only be described as an exercise of raw judicial power.”
Kenney — who was a staunch opponent of same-sex marriage, too — saw the court decision as trampling on religious rights.
This week, the NDP is happily mining Kenney’s history of LGBTQ-unfriendly comments in an attempt to demonstrate that the Kenney who’d like to out gay students in 2017 is much like the Kenney who slammed protection for gays in 1998.
To drive home the point, after Miranda attacked Kenney in the hallway, another openly gay NDP MLA used a members’ statement to slam Kenney in the assembly. (And at the same time, take a shot at Kenney’s ongoing plan to unite conservatives into one party).
“As an MP, Jason Kenney spoke out constantly against the Vriend decision. In Parliament, he stated the usual excuse that the human rights of LGBTQ plus Canadians should be lower on the roster than others,” said MLA Michael Connolly. “He called for a new party with far-right, anti-LGBTQ ideology. I wonder where Albertans have seen that before?”
Kenney might be PC leader, but he is not an elected MLA and was therefore not in the assembly to defend himself.
Instead, he issued a statement Monday afternoon criticizing the NDP for dredging up “controversies from decades ago” and saying his views have evolved just as “social mores and law change over time.”
That’s not going to stop the NDP’s attacks against Kenney.
Government MLAs will continue to dredge up comments from his past as they also dissect his more recent statements for any evidence of intolerance.
They’ll manage to do it while being both overtly furious and quietly gleeful.
I call it “gleefury.”
gthomson@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/graham_journalU.S. President Donald Trump boards Air force One at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey on July 3, 2017 | Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images Trump boosts free trade — outside the US Europe and Japan secure landmark deal that seemed a long shot before US president’s election.
Turns out U.S. President Donald Trump can make huge trade deals happen.
They just don't involve America.
Japan and the EU are the first economic powerhouses to jump onto the free-trade bandwagon in reaction to Trump pulling up the protectionist drawbridges in Washington. On Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe is set to sign a political agreement in Brussels on what would be the world's biggest free-trade deal, covering almost 30 percent of global economic output.
That is a massive turnaround from the past few years, when even some senior EU officials were ready not only to write off the Japan deal but even pen the obituary of the bloc's entire trade policy. Things hit rock bottom last October, when a supposedly easy deal with Canada looked set to be torpedoed by opposition in the Belgian regional parliament of Wallonia.
Exasperated by anti-trade rhetoric steering European politics, Ottawa's then-Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland fought back tears outside the Walloon assembly in Namur and questioned whether the EU was able to strike an accord with any country on earth if it could not deal with one "as kind, as patient" as Canada. The EU-Canada deal survived by a whisker but Europe's appetite for free trade appeared fatally shattered.
Then Trump happened, storming to electoral victory in November partly by playing to fear of free trade in Rust Belt states.
The EU-Canada deal survived by a whisker but Europe's appetite for free trade appeared fatally shattered. Then Trump happened.
The more Europe's ultimate bogeyman railed against free-trade deals, the easier they were to sell in the EU, Asia and Latin America.
“For quite some time, people thought that things would return to normality [after Trump's election],” said Ulrich Speck, a senior foreign policy analyst at the Elcano Royal Institute think tank. “Instead, the Trump shock is still there. This has created a whole new urgency for the EU and Japan.”
Catalyst for action
The newly found enthusiasm for a Japan deal owes almost everything to Trump. Over recent years, the Tokyo-Brussels agreement often seemed close to collapse, with Japan stubbornly reluctant to open its agricultural sector in return for greater access to Europe's car market.
Japan's priority instead was the Trans-Pacific Partnership with the U.S. and 10 other Pacific Rim states, but when Trump issued an order to pull out, it was clear to Japan's leaders the world had changed.
“There was a huge gap [between Tokyo and Brussels],” said André Sapir, a trade expert at the think tank Bruegel. “But then within a short time, it has been bridged. You needed the Trump effect to jump over that hurdle so remarkably fast.”
Before his departure for Brussels, Japan's Abe left no doubt about why he was pushing the deal so strongly and made an unambiguous reference to Trump. "It is important for us to wave the flag of free trade in response to global moves toward protectionism by quickly concluding the free-trade agreement with Europe," he told his ministers.
A senior EU official also agreed the deal “was probably helped by what we both see as a deterioration of the international climate” in terms of trade and investment.
Still smarting from the shock of the U.S. withdrawal from the Pacific deal, Abe visited European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in March to inject high-level political will into the talks and wrap them up before the summer.
An even more decisive meeting took place a few days earlier, when Abe met German Chancellor Angela Merkel. After that meeting, a resolute Merkel told reporters: “We want [the Japan deal] soon because that could be the right statement” in response to Trump's policies.
European diplomats close to the trade talks said Merkel instructed Juncker to deliver the Japan deal as soon as possible. The leader of Europe's economic powerhouse, which also hosts the G20 summit this Friday and Saturday in Hamburg, wants to use the Japan agreement as a direct rebuke to Trump.
“My aim is that the G20 summit sends out a strong signal for open markets and against protectionism,” Merkel told the German parliament last month.
Tokyo's tightrope
For Tokyo, negotiating a trade deal with Brussels was always a balancing act between economic interests and geostrategic concerns.
On the macroeconomic front, Japan's prime minister styled free trade and opening up the economy as a key part of his "Abenomics" reforms to haul the economy out of decades of stagnation. The Asian country also is keen to win better access to the European market for its car exports, particularly after its arch-rival South Korea won better terms for cars under a 2012 EU trade deal.
But Japan was prevented from leaping into closer ties with Europe by its military dependence on the U.S., particularly in terms of its desire for protection against an increasingly bellicose North Korea and Chinese naval expansion.
Abe was the first foreign leader to visit Trump after his election in November, and in February he cozied up again with the president by visiting his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to play golf. Tokyo was long unwilling to take Trump's opposition to TPP at face value.
On the trade front, this meant Japan had to tread a very precarious tightrope.
“The Japanese were worried about making far-reaching concessions [that the EU wants on dairy or meat imports] because of the implications this could have on U.S. demands,” said Petr Ježek, the chair of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with Japan. Slashing agriculture tariffs for both Brussels and Washington would be politically toxic in Japan, because the country's elderly and influential farmers fear they will be wiped out by a tide of international competition.
Trump's retreat on trade almost miraculously solved that impasse, Ježek said. “Now that it has become obvious that TPP — or any alternative trade deal with Washington — is put on the back burner for quite some time, it seems no longer a serious problem to move forward with Europe,” he said.
The political deal to be signed Thursday covers more than 90 percent of the issues, and EU officials will try to finalize the accord by January 2018.
In fact, one European diplomat said Japan was willing to offer Europe the same sort of agricultural access it had originally envisaged giving to the U.S. in TPP.
"The EU just walked in where the U.S. left," he said.
Not over yet
Despite the unexpectedly rapid political agreement, observers cautioned against premature triumphalism. Several noted that it was still too early to say whether the EU-Japan deal would really be spared the populist headwinds that rocked the Canada accord.
"We don't know yet how this trade deal will be ratified, [and] if regional parliaments could again threaten to block it," Bruegel's trade researcher Sapir said. Diplomatic sources in Brussels said the European Commission is working on a proposal to split trade deals into two — essentially carving out contentious clauses on investment — to prevent them from falling hostage to national and regional assemblies.
However, Sapir said the Trump effect has already caused many trade skeptics to question their rejection of such agreements. A recent poll showed that in Germany, the heartland of opposition to EU trade deals last year, support for globalization has gone up from 50 to 63 percent within the first six months of this year.
The political deal to be signed Thursday covers more than 90 percent of the issues under discussion and EU officials say they will try to finalize the accord by January 2018, while the Trump effect still boosts their cause.
Pedro Silva Pereira, the European Parliament's rapporteur on the Japan deal, called the trade agreement a "strategically and economically very important achievement." Still, he warned that both sides would now have to continue their close work in the coming months to wrap up everything by January.
"This is not the end of the road," he said.
Simon Marks and Jakob Hanke contributed reporting.Tajjour v. State of New South Wales
Hawthorne v. State of New South Wales
Forster v. State of New South Wales
Case No.
S36/2014; S37/2014; S38/2014
Case Information
Catchwords
Constitutional law - Limitation on State legislative power – Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) ("Act") s 93X - Implied freedom of association – Whether s 93X of Act impermissibly burdens implied freedom of association.
Constitutional law – Limitation on State legislative power – Implied freedom of political communication – Whether s 93X of Act impermissibly burdens implied freedom of political communication.
Constitutional law – Commonwealth executive power conferred by s 61 of the Constitution – Exercise of executive power ratifying International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights article 22 – Whether s 93X of Act undermines executive power of Commonwealth in circumstances where it restricts exercise of freedom of association.
Short particulars
Documents
14/02/2014 Hearing (Removal, Sydney)
21/02/2014 Cause removed
05/03/2014 Hearing (Single Justice, Canberra v/link to Sydney)
26/03/2014 Written submissions (Plaintiff - Forster)
26/03/2014 Chronology (Plaintiff - Forster)
28/03/2014 Written submissions (Plaintiffs - Tajjour & Hawthorne)
28/03/2014 Chronology (Plaintiff - Tajjour)
28/03/2014 Chronology (Plaintiff - Hawthorne)
10/04/2014 Written submissions (Australian Human Rights Commission seeking leave to intervene or appear as amicus curiae)
14/04/2014 Written submissions (Defendant)
28/04/2014 Written submissions (Attorney-General for the State of Victoria intervening)
28/04/2014 Written submissions (Attorney-General for the State of South Australia intervening)
28/04/2014 Written submissions (Attorney-General for the State of Western Australia intervening)
29/04/2014 Written submissions (Attorney-General for the State of Queensland intervening)
12/05/2014 Reply (Plaintiff - Tajjour)
12/05/2014 Reply (Plaintiff - Hawthorne)
12/05/2014 Reply (Plaintiff - Forster)
05/06/2014 Amended written submissions (Plaintiff - Forster)
10/06/2014 Hearing (Full Court, Canberra) (Audio-visual recording)
11/06/2014 Hearing (Full Court, Canberra) (Audio-visual recording)
08/10/2014 Judgment (Judgment summary)The Dark Souls series is done for now according to the game’s director, Hidetaka Miyazaki. Luckily, he’s currently working on several titles that could appeal to the public.
Game director and From Software President Miyazaki revealed as much in an upcoming interview in Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu.
Related Déraciné (PSVR) Review – Six Young Souls and One Kind Faerie
As covered by Japanese blog Esuteru, and translated by Twitter user “BlackKite”, Miyazaki was asked about the future of the Dark Souls series following the release of the Ringed City DLC for Dark Souls 3. The From Software President stated that the series is done for now, and that there currently no future plans for another Dark Souls title.
Hidetaka Miyazaki: Dark Souls series is completely done as of DS3: The Ringed City. At least for now we don't have any future plans for it. pic.twitter.com/M3LlZ1gTHB — 黒凧 BlackKite (@bk2128) March 28, 2017
The game director expressed that he doesn’t believe that he has implemented all he envisioned in the Souls games, but that the series is a blessed one in general, although each Souls title surely has its flaws.
Miyazaki: I dont think I've implemented all I wanted. Each Dark Souls games have their own mistakes but I think overall its a blessed series pic.twitter.com/fzp1hCDZrf — 黒凧 BlackKite (@bk2128) March 28, 2017
While there’s currently no future for a new Souls game, the From Software President did confirm that he’s currently working on several titles that should appeal to gamers. Further details weren’t shared, but From Software isn’t concerned whether these games resemble the Dark Souls series or not.
Related Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice New Game+ Planned, Story Easier to Understand Than Dark Souls
From Miyazaki: Currently working on a number of games that should be interesting. We're not concerned about whether they resemble DS or not. pic.twitter.com/7mMcF26qsL — 黒凧 BlackKite (@bk2128) March 28, 2017
The Ringed City DLC for Dark Souls 3 was released earlier this week as the second and final expansion for the game.
At the close of the Age of Fire, as the world ends and all lands converge upon themselves, a lone adventurer descends into the madness of the earth and uncovers the secrets of the past. Players will make their way to the fabled Ringed City where they will encounter ancient beasts, a new cast of characters teetering on the edge of insanity, new armor, weapons, magic, and at the bottom of it all, a long lost city filled with new horrors for players to overcome. Team up and take down fellow players with updates to Undead Match, a dedicated multiplayer mode first found in DARK SOULS III: Ashes of Ariandel™. Players who own either Ashes of Ariandel or The Ringed City will be able to play the new content found in Undead Match. DARK SOULS III: The Ringed City also contains two additional maps and an all-new feature enabling players to team up with two other friends who also enjoy battling each other in feats of wits and strength.
Dark Souls 3 and its expansion are available now for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Our very own The Ringed City DLC review can be read here.Copyright by WNCN - All rights reserved Thomas Shoemaker accused of filming girl in bathroom.
Copyright by WNCN - All rights reserved Thomas Shoemaker accused of filming girl in bathroom.
WHTM/WNCN - LANCASTER, Pa. (WHTM) - A Quarryville, Pennsylvania, man was arrested and charged after a 10-year-old girl told her mother that she caught him watching her as she used the bathroom.
James Thomas Shoemaker, 19, faces one count of invasion of privacy in connection with the April 14 incident at the Sheetz in the 1100 block of Manheim Pike.
Employees at the store said Shoemaker had been in the bathroom for about an hour.
Police caught Shoemaker inside of a stall in the women's bathroom in possession of a phone as described by the victim.
Investigators determined that Shoemaker was watching porn before using his camera to look over at the stall next to him.
Shoemaker has been released from custody with a summons to appear in court. His phone is being forensically analyzed.“What can the harvest hope for, if not for the care of the Reaper Man?” That’s a line from the Discworld book called, well, Reaper Man, and it’s always stuck with me. It’s spoken by Death himself, who is a major character in the Disc books. Anthropomorphic personifications of Death are no rare thing; the idea of the Grim Reaper is a tremendously common one, in particular.
The idea of the personified Death is a broad enough one to allow for a lot of variation. Sometimes Death is cruel, sometimes they’re aloof and uncaring, and sometimes, they are very very kind. This is the case with both Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Death, and the Death of the Endless in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. Now, Pratchett and Gaiman are a match made in heaven, in terms of authorial compatibility. I desperately wish we’d gotten more works like Good Omens, a collaboration between the two. But sometimes it’s enough that there are similarities, such as their portrayals of Death.
Death of the Discworld is a kindhearted, well-intentioned personification. He seems to genuinely like mortals, or at the very least, is fascinated by our ways. As a being who is powered purely by belief, by the laws of the Disc, he appears as most people expect him to – a skeleton in a black cloak with a scythe. In Mort, he has adopted a human daughter, and takes on a human apprentice. Their daughter is Susan, the granddaughter of death, who has inherited some of his powers, and is implied to be his successor when he “retires”. He loves cats, which is why they have nine lives. In Reaper Man, he briefly becomes mortal himself, giving him an even greater empathy for mortals, especially when the Auditors of Reality try to replace him with a cruel, almost sadistic Death. The best is in Hogfather, when the Discworld’s version of Santa Claus is incapacitated, and Death steps up to bring holiday joy to all the little girls and boys. Of course, that is also the book where Death delivers what is, to me, the defining moment of the Discworld – “Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.”
Death of Sandman is also powered by human belief; technically they are not ‘personifications’ per se, they just are their functions. But, my vote is that they still fall in the same general category, so they’re fair game here. Of course, the Endless Death is just such an impossibly cool character. Where Discworld’s Death is admittedly kind of a dork, Sandman’s Death is chill and relaxed, possibly because she’s vastly older than the Disc Death. See, this Death is THE Death. When the last living thing dies, she will be the one to turn everything off and leave. The scene where Gaiman discusses this is actually quoted nearly verbatim in Reaper Man, where Disc Death meets Azrael, the death of everything. Oh yes, and this Death is portrayed as female. A kind of hip, perky goth girl in fact, which fits pretty well, I think.
So, on the surface, you’d think these Deaths are pretty different. But the thing that makes them the same is that they are the kindest, most compassionate portrayals of Death I have ever seen, in any media. They care about their duty, they care about the lives they collect. The quote at the top of this post is when Death is convincing Azrael to let him stay in his post, as the New Death does not care, whereas old Death sees the lives as an intrinsically good and valuable thing. At one point, a witch challenges him to a round of poker for a newborn baby’s life. She wins, it lives; he wins, it dies. Only thing is, he throws the game intentionally, allowing the child to live. As the Hogfather, he is able to twist the rules just enough to grant a sick little girl the gift of a future, again sparing an innocent young life.
In the first volume of Sandman, Death is seen comforting and reassuring the recently deceased, kicking her brother Dream into shape, and generally being the most soothing presence seen after a fairly harrowing story. At one point, she does complain that “Mostly they aren’t too keen to see me. They fear the sunless lands. But they enter your realm [the Dreamlands] each night without fear.” Dream acknowledges then that he is “far more terrible” than she is, which I think says something big.
Of course, a big part of these personifications’ empathy is how close they are to humanity. Disc Death, like I said, always had an affinity for mortals, adopting some and then briefly becoming one. He understands what it’s like (and to his credit, when he becomes mortal he doesn’t go all crazy like the last unicorn – “I can feel this body dying all around me” my ass). Sandman Death is explicitly stated to be mortal for one day of the year, specifically to keep in touch with mortality. And there’s one detail that could only come up in the comics medium – Death’s lettering, her speech bubbles and font, are the only ones without some significant affectation to them, the only ones that do not in some way indicate her Endlessness. Her speech bubbles (and thus, her voice) are the same as any normal human’s.
I think that modern portrayals of a kindly Death indicate a cultural shift in perspective to some extent. In the cultures where Death is more often personified as a woman, she is often a fearsome, wicked hag; in ones where Death is male, he can be violent, callous destroyers. There were certainly some non-evil deaths around the world – in Korean mythology, Death is a stern bureaucrat, who escorts all to the same Netherworld when the time comes. There are even some good ones: La Santa Muerte, or La Catrina, in Mexican culture is venerated and respected, even granting favors to her devotees.
But the idea of Death as a shepherd, as a friend, as a person, as all that rolled into one I think is something different. Disc Death points out that people are often relieved to see him, as “the other shoe has dropped”, so to speak. I think there’s something wonderfully comforting in that, as someone who has never really believed in an afterlife, to think that there may be some kindly spirit there to help me figure it out when the time comes. This has all been on my mind quite a bit these last few days, as my grandmother passed away recently. I hope she met such a compassionate, humane Death, and I hope we all do, when the time comes.
Like this: Like Loading...false positives
risk for total surveillance
potential for abuse
people don't necessarily know they're being watched
the evidence on its own won't hold up in court
can't change face if "hacked" Is it the most significant policing technology since DNA testing or the next privacy disaster waiting to happen, setting us on the path towards, as The Guardian's editor puts it, "total surveillance"? Australian researchers believe they have solved the "holy grail" problem of face recognition. The battle lines have been drawn over face recognition technology, development of which Australia is at the forefront. While NSW Police is keeping mum, the Australian Federal Police called face recognition a "potent tool" for linking criminals to crime while Customs said it could allow airport security clearances to be carried out in a more seamless fashion.
Private companies such as Google, Facebook and Apple are also investing heavily in face recognition. University of Queensland professor Brian Lovell, project leader at federal government body NICTA's advanced surveillance project, earlier this month won a global Asia-Pacific ICT Alliance award for his team's five-year project, which he says solved the "holy grail" problem of face recognition. University of Queensland professor Brian Lovell won an international award for applying face recognition to low-quality CCTV footage. For the first time, Lovell says he and his team have been able to use grainy, low quality CCTV video footage to identify individuals from databases and even find and track people as they move around an area. "Our 'face search' is like a Google search in that we can search through very large databases very fast," said Lovell.
Facebook's "Tag Suggestions" feature. "We do recognition in real-time so you walk up to a system and you're recognised; it can search a database of 10,000 or 50,000 instantaneously and do the matching." You won't know you're being watched But further to that, the technology doesn't even need to have people looking into the camera for it to work, which is a current limitation of the SmartGate technology at airports. "What we specialise in is non-cooperative surveillance, that means the person doesn't have to be aware that they are being photographed to be recognised," said Lovell.
Lovell said movies had given the false impression that police have long been able to do face recognition but in reality they can only do it when the image quality is extremely high and on a very limited basis. "We're working with police... we're in Canberra at the moment – virtually all the local agencies that you'd be thinking of we're probably talking to them," he said. Lovell, who wouldn't give specifics about formal trials in Australia, said that for example if there was an assault on a taxi driver the police could use low quality footage from the surveillance camera inside the cab to match against its photo database and identify the assailant. It could also be used by police for automated pro-active policing rather than checking CCTV footage after a crime has been committed or getting humans to monitor footage in real time. 'Privacy disaster waiting to happen'
Privacy advocates are already up in arms while the Australian Privacy Commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim, has expressed concerns. "Face recognition is the next personal information security and privacy disaster waiting to happen," said David Vaile, executive director of the UNSW Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre, adding that once your face has been hacked there is nothing you can do. "The extra dimension of face recognition is that it is a form of biometric identifier. Unlike passwords or credit cards, they cannot be'revoked' and replaced if hacked – see the surgery Tom Cruise needed in Minority Report when the baddies were after him." Both Vaile and the head of the Australian Privacy Foundation, Roger Clarke, expressed concerns surrounding the accuracy of face recognition including the potential for significant "false positives". But Lovell said he recently conducted a trial at an unnamed airport and out of 4000 passengers from all over the world, his technology was able to pick out 11 of 12 persons of interest.
He said performance of the system depended largely on capture conditions; in airports it could obtain "close to 100 per cent" accuracy but at night performance would be lower. "At CeBit Sydney we had virtually no errors in three days of testing and demonstration," said Lovell. He said his technology was the natural progression of the SmartGate system at Australian airports but in addition to keeping a lookout for people on a watchlist it could also be used by airports to track how long it takes passengers to move through the terminal. Google is one of the largest technology industry players working on face recognition and related technologies. This year it acquired face recognition firm PittPatt and it has previously bought another similar biometric firm, Neven Vision. Already, Google Images allows people to search using photos, including images of people; however Google says this is not true face recognition. Additionally, the latest version of Google Android allows people to use their face to unlock their phone but users have already tricked the security tool using photographs. Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt remarked recently that face recognition technology now had "surprising accuracy" but such accuracy was "very concerning" due to the privacy implications.
'Formidable infrastructure for total surveillance' The editor-in-chief of The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, in his 2011 Orwell lecture earlier this month, revealed that he had a conversation with a "senior Google figure" who was musing about the potential of Google face recognition software, "whose effects are so far reaching the company can't quite yet decide what to do with it". Rusbridger said the Google exec told him the software could match a face to a name with any images sitting anywhere on the web, as long as one match had been made. "What made this so troubling he said, is that digital spiders could then crawl the web and find every picture in the public domain and match it with an identity," he said. "So the moment one match is made it would be possible to scan every street or crowd scene over several decades to see where a particular individual was. Link that to the sort of all-pervasive CCTV systems we have in this country [Britain] and you have a formidable infrastructure – current, but also historical – for total surveillance."
Google refused to comment on this. Facebook is also working heavily on face recognition and uses the technology in its "Tag Suggest" feature, which is able to automatically tag friends in photos that users upload. And last year, Apple bought Swedish face recognition firm Polar Rose. Former cyber cop turned private security consultant Nigel Phair said there were "lots of good national security and law enforcement reasons" for adopting face recognition but the private sector should be careful, pointing out that Google learned the hard way via several Street View court cases that business interests did not outweigh the rights of individuals over their own image. "The concept obviously does not sit well with civil liberties as personally identifying information (a person's face) is being captured, analysed, matched and retained against their knowledge," said Phair. Significant privacy impacts: Privacy Commissioner
The Australian Privacy Commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim, said biometric technology including facial recognition was a "rapidly evolving area that may have significant privacy impacts, particularly when combined with CCTV and other public surveillance technology". Pilgrim said privacy was not an absolute right and needed to be balanced against other considerations including national security and law enforcement. "However, given the potential for facial recognition technology to be privacy invasive, I believe that the adoption of this technology by government agencies or organisations must be carefully considered," said Pilgrim added that he expected agencies and organisations to conduct "privacy impact assessments" before rolling out face recognition. Customers should be informed with full details about any surveillance done. NSW Deputy Privacy Commissioner John McAteer, who oversees NSW public sector agency privacy matters, said law enforcement bodies like the NSW Police were broadly exempt from NSW privacy law and state law already provided broad police powers when it came to surveillance.
He did not have a problem with state agencies using face recognition for specific crime fighting or other purposes (i.e. to look into a suspect after a crime has been committed). A similar tool, automatic numberplate recognition, was now widely used in NSW. "However to run an application against the general populace (without their knowledge or consent) which identifies the individual person where they are in effect being investigated across the world wide web (unless they are a suspect in a matter), would appear contrary to the general functions of police or law enforcement bodies," said McAteer. "Collecting broad criminal intelligence is one thing, but manipulating a huge information database to match it to random individuals (or large sectors or groups of the populace) not under investigation would offend the basic principles of privacy and privacy law." Lovell said he was talking to agencies in Australia, including airports, but he expected his face recognition technology to be rolled out overseas first, pointing to significant demand for use at events like the 2012 London Olympics. "In terms of international deployments I'm expecting two airports within the next few months, maybe 10 airports in the next 12 months," he said.
He swatted away privacy concerns, saying people did not have the right to privacy in places such as airports. Further, he said places like the Middle East and Northern Ireland and the West in general could actually use it to increase people's freedoms. "If you want to just go about your business without being bothered surveillance is a much kinder technology than anything else – the alternative is basically having guards everywhere who are checking your records making sure you are who you say you are," said Lovell, adding that places like Britain were safer at night largely due to surveillance. Lovell said people would struggle to find abuses of surveillance systems in Western societies. He said anything could be abused, pointing to the Nazis' use of technology in death camps. "It's up to the government and the people running these things to use the technology sensibly," he said. A 'potent tool' for investigations
A Customs and Border Protection spokesman said it was interested in all technologies relevant to its role on the border including emerging technologies such as "face-in-the-crowd" and "face-on-the-fly". "These types of technology could potentially allow certain border clearance processes to be conducted as the traveler is moving through the airport while continuing to maintain the security of the border," the spokesman said. However, Customs said it had not yet bedded down plans to trial or implement face recognition. Asked whether face recognition technology was as significant for policing as the introduction of DNA testing, the Australian Federal Police said it was one of many tools that could enhance its investigations but performed a different function to DNA. The AFP noted that while DNA could provide definitive proof of an individual's identity, facial recognition could merely "assist" this process.
"Facial recognition is a potent tool for investigations and intelligence to detect and investigate criminals," said the AFP. "Its capabilities enable improved detection of criminals, linking of criminals to multiple crimes such as cold cases where only a facial image exists associated with the crime, and identification of aliases and false identities. However, the AFP said face recognition technology could not be relied on in court as it "does not have the same power of identification" as fingerprinting and DNA. "It does however assist in finding images to guide and inform an investigation to which experts or witnesses can then provide the requisite level of forensic identification," the AFP said. The AFP said it had already developed its own facial recognition system to assist with identity crime investigations but refused to comment further due to the "risk of revealing police methodology".
Loading The NSW Police did not respond to several requests for comment. This reporter is on Twitter: @ashermosesChump Change
I’m not much of a gambler, unless it’s a guaranteed win or I know I can at least break even. There’s something quite endearing about this idiot who’s playing the Change Machine at the casino. He’s another example of my favorite type of “moron” or “slow thinker” and it’s one who has no concept of just how stupid he is.
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Political wrangling
Despite the demonstrations, the Egyptian president has remained defiant, refusing to step down immediately, as per the protesters' demands.
However, the leadership of Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) resigned en masse on Saturday, according to state television.
Opposition Demands Hosni Mubarak must go
Dissolve parliament
Lift state of emergency
Transitional unity cabinet
Constitutional amendments
Fair and transparent trials
Hossam Badrawi has been appointed the new secretary-general of the party, replacing Safwat El-Sherif, a Mubarak loyalist, in that post. Badrawi, seen by many as a liberal voice in the NDP, will also replace Gamal Mubarak, Hosni Mubarak's son, as head of the party's policies bureau.
Other new appointees include: Dr Mohamed Ragah Ahmed, Dr Mohamed Ahmed Abd El-Illah, Maged Mahmoud Younes El-Shirbiny, Mohamed Ahmed Abd El-Salam Hebah and Dr Mohamed Mostafa Kamal, according to an NDP press release.
Officials in the administration of Barack Obama, the US president, welcomed the resignation of Gamal Mubarak, terming it a "positive" move.
But the administration has continued to insist upon an orderly and peaceful transition in Egypt.
Frank Wisner, who has acted as an envoy for Obama by carrying a message to Mubarak, said on Saturday that the Egyptian president "must stay in office to steer" a process of gathering "national consensus around the preconditions" for the way forward.
PJ Crowley, the US state department's spokesman, has said, however, that Wisner was speaking as a private citizen, and that his views did not represent those of the US government.
"The views he expressed today are his own. He did not co-ordinate his comments with the US government," Crowley said on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the president of Israel, Shimon Peres, voiced his support for Mubarak on Saturday, saying the Egyptian leader saved lives by "preventing war in the Middle East".
"He saved lives of Egyptians, of Arabs, of Israelis by not allowing to renew a war. No matter what is now the criticism against him, his contribution for peace, as far as I'm concerned, will never be forgotten."Steve Kamb decided he wanted to travel the world for as little money as possible. This map is his travel plan: 35,000 miles, visiting four continents, nine countries and 15 cities for just $418. Here's how he got it:
"I have to tell you sir, this is easily the most ridiculous itinerary I've ever put together," said the American Airlines operator the other night as I finalized plans for a worldwide adventure that would make Marco Polo blush. "Well, that makes two of us!" I replied.
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And just like that, I had committed myself to almost nine months of international travel.
Yes, that picture above is my actual itinerary.
Beginning this January, I'll start an epic journey that will take me across four continents, through at least nine countries, and into more than fifteen cities. I'll fly on fifteen flights covering a total distance of 35,000 miles. To put that in perspective, that's almost 1.5 times the circumference of the globe. While visiting these locations, I should be able to cross off over a dozen goals from my Epic Quest of Awesome.
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Oh, and all of these flights are costing me a grand total of $418.36.
My itinerary
Although I plan to get to Sydney much sooner should a flight open up (and in turn extend some of my SE Asia stops), here is my rough itinerary for 2011:
• The Rock Boat – Jan 6 – 10
• Los Angeles—Jan 14 – Feb 13
• Sydney, Australia – Feb 15-20
• Auckland, New Zealand – Feb 20 – Mar 20
• Brisbane, Australia – Mar 20 – Apr 9
• Alice Springs, Australia – Apr 9 – 12
• Perth, Australia – Apr 12 – 14
• Singapore, Malaysia – Apr 14 – 16
• Bangkok, Thailand – Apr 16 – May 9
• Hong Kong – May 9 – 12
• Shanghai, China—May 12 – 22
• Tokyo, Japan – May 22 – May 27
• San Francisco – May 26 – Jun 3 (yes I go back in time on the flight home)
• Portland – Jun 3 – 7 (World Domination Summit!)
• Boston/Atlanta – Jun 8 – Jul 30
• Chicago – Jul 30 – Aug 4
• Dublin, Ireland—Aug 5 – Sep 2
• Madrid, Spain – Sep 2 – Oct 10
• Buenos Aires, Argentina? – Oct 15 – Nov 30 (not booked yet, but I still have enough miles to make it happen).
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Unreal, right? If I were to pay for this adventure with cash and book individual flights, it would cost almost $6,000 (using the cheapest option for each leg on Expedia.com). The best part is, the dates of this adventure aren't set in stone – as long as I don't change WHERE I'm going, I can change the date and time of each stop without penalty.
Here's how I got this incredibly flexible itinerary for only $418.
The beauty of travel hacking
After buying travel guru Chris Guillebeau's Frequent Flyer Master e-book last fall, I became addicted to travel hacking, acquiring TONS of frequent flyer miles for various airlines through an assortment of lucrative credit card deals. I have excellent credit, generally get the first year fee waived, use the card for EVERYTHING, pay off each card in full, and receive a certain number of miles for spending enough money to receive the bonus.
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In the past eleven months alone, I've earned without flying:
• 130,000 American Airline miles
• 105,000 British Airways Miles
• 40,000 Starwood Preferred Guest points
• 25,000 American Express points
I use these points to book insane trips around the world…like this one! To answer your first question, I didn't buy ANYTHING outside of what I would normally purchase to get these bonuses – I've lived extremely frugally over the past year. For example, to earn 100,000 British Airways points, I had to spend $2,000 in six months – after prepaying my car insurance for the year, and putting all of my other payments (gas, food, cable, gym, etc.) on the card for a few months I hit the bonus with ease.
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For me to complete this particular trip, I had to use a combination of American Airline miles and Starwood Preferred Guest points. I had already used 32,000 AA points for my trip to Peru last month, so I simply transferred 40,000 Starwood Preferred Guest points into my AA account (complete with a 10,000 point transfer bonus), which gave me the 140,000 points needed to book my trip.
If you're interested in learning more about frequent flyer credit card programs and last-minute deals, head over to Frugal Travel Guy and check out the different cards listed in the right hand column. Rick runs THE best frequent flyer website out there, so start checking it daily if you're looking to take some fun trips for dirt cheap – his site is one of the sites I make sure to visit every morning.
Keeping an eye on special offers
The best deal right now is American Airlines Citi cards: first year fee waived, spend $4,000 within 6 months for 75,000 points.
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This used to be only $1500 as early as a month ago, but it recently changed. Sign up for one (or two..or three) of those cards, hit the spending limit (by putting EVERYTHING YOU BUY on the card and paying it off in full), and you've just earned 75,000 points without ever stepping foot on an airplane. If you're a frugal spender, try doing things like pre-paying your car insurance, buying gift cards, or do a little research and to find out about some of the other methods for hitting spending limits. My friend Tyler got mighty creative…
You just have to keep an eye out for special deals (which is where Frugal Travel Guy comes in handy). Worried about your credit score? If you carry no credit card debt, pay off your cards in full, and then negotiate for fee-free cards after your first year your score will not be affected negatively. If you decide to cancel the cards after a year, depending on your credit history it can take a hit of a few points before rebounding. Do the research; it's not as terrifying as you'd imagine!
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How to Use a OneWorld Award
As of three weeks ago, my plan was to book a one-way flight to Sydney and figure the rest out after that. However, after reading posts from Sean Ogle and Cody McKibben about Thailand, I knew I had to swing through Southeast Asia to check it out. I calculated that using points to go from Los Angeles to Sydney to New Zealand to Thailand back to Los Angeles would cost me around 110,000 points.
After looking at these beaches in Thailand, I knew I had to go:
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So it was settled—I was going to Thailand.
I then discovered OneWorld Awards and my plans for 2011 exploded.
OneWorld Awards are flights that are based on how many TOTAL miles you fly instead of dealing with individual flights. They also allow you to fly on most of American Airlines' worldwide partners, and you can make a total of SIXTEEN STOPS.
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According to their award chart, for only 120,000 points (10,000 more points than I would have used the other way) I could fly up to a total of 25,000 miles and make 16 stops anywhere along the way. However, for only an additional 20,000 points, I could fly up to 35,000 total miles instead…
Which got the gears turning in my head.
Because I had 140,000 AA points at my disposal, I decided to tack on a visit to both Dublin and Spain for next fall! Obviously it was a big decision to add a Europe portion to my trip, but it only cost me an additional 20,000 points, round-trip. Considering a round-trip flight to anywhere in the states is 25,000 points…I'd say it's a pretty good deal!
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The funky rules of travel hacking
Now, there were some funky rules that I had to work around for my itinerary:
• I can't stopover in the same city twice, which is why I'm flying out of LA, then back in through San Francisco. It's also why I'm flying out of Chicago and back in through Boston when going to Europe.
• I can only have one open gap on the trip, which counts as one of my 16 ‘stops' but doesn't factor into the mileage calculation – my open segment is a gap between San Francisco and Chicago. I'm responsible for getting myself from San Fran to Chicago next summer.
• I can't change what airlines I fly and where I stop, but I can change the dates and times of ANY of the flights free of charge (as long as there is availability).
• I have to complete the whole trip within 12 months.
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I have to give a HUGE shout out to the incredible community over at Flyer Talk.com for helping me put together this trip and answering my questions. That is the place to be if you have any sort of interest in frequent flyer programs, travel hacking, and such. It can be quite intimidating due to the sheer amount of information on there, but once you get your feet wet it's easy to navigate and you can pretty much find an answer to ANYTHING.
How to build your award travel flight
If you're interested in seeing how many miles your dream flight would be, check out Great Circle Mapper. Simply plug in your airport codes and it will tell you how long your flight is! Here is my crazy itinerary. I'm not kidding when I say that I spent probably more than 24 total hours in the past three weeks having a blast on this thing creating itineraries, checking mileage, and figuring out where the heck I could go without going over the limit.
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Here's another invaluable tool: OneWorld "Who Flies Where?". This is where you can find out which OneWorld alliance airlines fly where, so you can put together a legitimate itinerary.
A few other tips:
• Try to book your trip either WAY in advance (flights open up generally 330 days in advance), or last minute like I did. If you NEED to go on specific days, book it as far in advance as possible, as each plane only has so many "award seats" available. When booking last minute, you might need to be flexible with your dates as often the most popular legs have already been filled.
• If you sign up for a Qantas FF number (you don't need miles or to fly them), you can search their database to see which flights have available award seats. You can also do the same for British Airways for flights that don't show up on Qantas (and vice versa). Between those two I was able to line up all of my flights before calling American Airlines to book them.
• When booking, it's a crap shoot how helpful your phone operator will be. I had to call back three times to get an agent that could help me re-calculate a segment of the trip that AA's computer had screwed up. It's not the agents' fault, some just happen to be more knowledgeable with this type of flight than others. If the one you have doesn't help, simply hang up and call back!
• Flights change. New award seats open up last minute, and these types of itineraries are free to change as long as you don't change the airline or destination. I plan on getting to Australia much sooner than February 13th when a flight opens up while I'm in Los Angeles.
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Now, if you have your points in other airlines like Delta or United, they are part of their one worldwide alliances who ALSO offer flights like these…visit their websites, look up their alliances, and start planning.
How I am able to afford 6 months of adventure travel
Next week, I will be moving out of my apartment in Atlanta, and I have no plans to actually RENT a place in the United States until at least 2012. I will also be selling my car, and I don't expect to own a car until 2012 either. Once I'm not paying rent, car insurance, car payments, or fuel…my financial ties will be minimal (just some student loans and health insurance). When I don't have my money promised elsewhere, I can use the rest of my money to live VERY CHEAPLY overseas (hostels, couch surfing, etc.).
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I am certainly not rich, but I'm incredibly fortunate to be 100% in control of my time and location because I am my own boss. I can operate Nerd Fitness from anywhere with an Internet connection, so I'll be working the entire time while traveling, connecting with readers, writing about my adventures, creating more awesome workout videos, and inspiring others to also do stuff that scares the crap out of them.
The Rebel Fitness Guide is still selling well, t-shirts are flying off the digital shelves, and I'm hard at work on my second e-book as well.
Because I'm traveling so cheaply, I'll be able to use the majority of my money to cross off some of the more expensive things on my Epic Quest list. These are the things I hope to accomplish in 2011:
• Skydive in New Zealand
• Scuba-dive the Great Barrier Reef
• Something Lord of the Rings-related in New Zealand
• Visit Ayers Rock in Australia
• Exercise on the Skybridge of Petronas Tower in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia
• Visit the Great Wall of China
• Find the Ninja Warrior Course in Japan
• Kiss the Blarney Stone in Ireland
• Party on the island of Ibiza in Spain
• Wear a Tuxedo and gamble in Monte Carlo
• Climb the Eiffel Tower in Paris
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Why this trip scares me
Eight months ago, I was sitting at a desk job dreaming about going to Australia "some day." Last night, I booked a trip that will not only take me halfway around the world, but it will keep me on the road for pretty much nine months. This scares the crap out of me.
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Here's why:
• I speak English and Spanish, but I certainly don't speak any of the languages used in Southeast Asia, China, or Japan. I envision lots of things getting lost in translation. Looks like it's time to start reading everything Benny The Irish Polyglot's ever written.
• I'll be traveling alone. So much for strength in numbers!
• I'm a picky eater. Who KNOWS what kinds of situations I'm putting myself into!
• I have a feeling I will get mighty homesick, as I've never been out of the country for more than three weeks…which was my trip to Peru a month ago.
• I'm worried that something bad will happen that I can't get out of. Not that I plan on doing anything illegal (I don't use drugs and didn't even start drinking until 3 months after my 21st birthday), but I REALLY don't want to end up in a Cambodian jail strung up by my toes.
Now, fortunately the same reasons that I scare me also excite me. I don't speak the languages in Asia, so I'll have to start learning them. I also have to become resourceful, rely on my instincts, learn to navigate foreign environments, operate outside my comfort zone, expand my horizons when it comes to food, learn to deal with homesickness, and talk my way out of various situations. I have this vision in my head of me becoming a real life Jason Bourne (hopefully without the assassination stuff), and this is a fantastic way to find out what I'm made of.
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I understand that not everybody can just pack up and leave for nine months, so I know this is the opportunity of a lifetime. I figure I might as well do this now when I'm 26, no wife, kids, or mortgage, because who knows what will happen a year from now. I plan on packing Nerd Fitness full of awesome stories, both good and bad, about the whole adventure. I'm looking forward to working on the road, exercising in unique locations, meeting amazing people, and going on some pretty epic adventures.
If you happen to live in one of these cities, or know a good friend that lives in one of these countries, shoot me an email and maybe we can meet up!
Steve Kamb is the nerd-in-chief of NerdFitness.com, a site dedicated to helping nerds, desk-jockeys, and averages Joes level up their lives. You can sign up for the Nerd Fitness Newsletter here and follow him on Twitter.This article is over 5 years old
The UK and Netherlands ranked joint second and Australia ranked fifth in first ever LGBT Military Index
New Zealand has topped a new global index ranking armed forces for inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexuals and transgender soldiers, with Australia rating in fifth place.
The LGBT Military Index assesses admittance, tolerance, exclusion or persecution of homosexual people to measure 103 armies worldwide, the Hague-based Centre for Strategic Studies think-tank said.
New Zealand topped the index and the Netherlands and UK ranked joint second with Sweden coming in fourth.
The US, at 40th, ranked below Romania. Nigeria came last in the survey.
The thinktank noted that New Zealand had produced a video for the “It Gets Better” project, which reached out to young people struggling with their sexuality.
In the video, introduced by then defence force chief Lieutenant General Rhys Jones, nine defence force members spoke of being scared to tell their friends and family about their sexuality.
“I was gay, and that was how it was, and it wasn’t going to change for me,” says a corporal.
“Could I just live with a girl anyway, and still have the kids and the dog and the white picket fence?” says a flight lieutenant.
The video ends with each member saying things get better.
At the start of the video, the NZ defence force says it is proud to be an organisation that accepts its LGBT staff.During a worldwide hunt for National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, the United States has accidentally stumbled upon the whereabouts of long-sought-after international fugitive Carmen Sandiego.
Sandiego, who has been on the run from authorities for nearly 30 years, is wanted in connection with the theft of a large number of extremely valuable objects, including the Olympic Flame, the Silver Pagoda, and Nairobi International Airport.
Of the many countries who have issued warrants for her arrest, the United States has been the most active in pursuing Sandiego, but until now has been desperately starved for leads. Observers say that the failure of U.S. intelligence officials to locate Sandiego was likely because they did not know enough about geography.
But all of this has changed today after a group of CIA agents discovered Sandiego while sweeping a Moscow hotel room in hopes of finding Edward Snowden. Sandiego has been placed in custody by Russian police, and is awaiting extradition to the United States.
President Barack Obama announced the capture in a live speech that interrupted late night programming across the entire nation.
“Good evening,” said Obama, his demeanour conveying the enormity of the moment as he approached the podium in the West Wing. “Tonight I can report to the American people, and to the world, that the United States has conducted an operation that captured Carmen Sandiego, thief of Gandhi’s glasses and the River Nile.
“Today we are reminded of the strength and resolve of our brave intelligence officials, who work tirelessly and without recognition to achieve results such as the one we have seen today.
“Make no mistake; this triumph for justice will not miraculously heal the wounds of the last thirty years, it will not get back the Liberty Bell or the Willis Tower, nor will it repair the lives of those who have lost at the hands of Sandiego. But it is an important first step in a process of healing that, as Americans, we all must share in.”
The White House is winning praise both from inside the U.S. and around the world this evening, and is fielding nonstop calls from countries curious to know whether their stolen objects have been located as a result of the capture. Obama has promised that Sandiego will be interrogated as soon as possible, and says he is committed to helping as many countries as he can to “get back all their things.”
While the success of the operation has been welcomed, it has also raised questions about why similar progress is not being made in the hunt for stripe-suited eccentric Wally, something the White House says is complicated because “there are just too many people who look like him.”This photo illustration shows hands typing on a computer keyboard on Wednesday Feb. 27,2013. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Internet users in Europe have something Internet users in the U.S. don't have: a right to be forgotten online. Thanks to a 2014 court case, Europeans can ask search giants to remove results that are outdated, inaccurate, or irrelevant -- giving them more control over their online reputations.
But now, one consumer group is asking the Federal Trade Commission to make Google bring that privacy protection to Americans. In a formal complaint to be sent to the agency Tuesday, Consumer Watchdog argues that withholding that ability from U.S. Internet users is unfair and deceptive -- two types of business practices the FTC is charged with protecting consumers against. The letter urges the FTC to "investigate and act" on the situation.
[Opinion: The ‘right to be forgotten’ online is really a right to be forgiven]
The right to be forgotten, or the right of relevancy, has gained new urgency in the digital age, the group argues in the letter to the FTC. "Before the Internet if someone did something foolish when they were young – and most of us probably did – there might well be a public record of what happened," the letter says. But then, those indiscretions required digging to bring up years or decades down the line -- and now they're "instantly available with a few clicks on a computer or taps on a mobile device."
The right to be forgotten gives back a level of the privacy by obscurity that people enjoyed before the Internet age, Consumer Watchdog argues. But Google has been unwilling to extend the practice beyond where it's currently explicitly required -- a state of affairs John Simpson, the director of the organization’s Privacy Project, believes puts it on the wrong side of the FTC's mandate to protect consumers.
[Opinion: America, where you get only one strike]
"Google holds itself out as so concerned about users' privacy, but denies this fundamental privacy protection -- that's deceptive," Simpson said in an interview. He also argued that depriving Americans of the right to request the removal of irrelevant search responses meets the FTC's definition for unfairness: a practice that causes harm to consumers that they can't reasonably avoid and isn't outweighed by other benefits.
The European right to be forgotten has been controversial -- with some critics arguing that it has the potential to conflict with freedom of expression or the press.
But extending the right to be forgotten to the U.S. doesn't mean that Google would approve all take down requests, said Simpson. Nor would it amount to censorship, he argued, because the information would still be available online if Google removed search results -- it would just become harder to find.
A Google spokesperson declined to comment on the complaint. The company's transparency report says it has removed around 41 percent of URLs evaluated under the European right to be forgotten.
The company will currently remove some kinds of highly sensitive personal information, like Social Security numbers and credit card numbers, from search results for people around the world. And it recently announced that it would be allowing victims of so-called "revenge porn" -- the sharing of explicit images without a subject's consent -- to request results be taken down.
The company's approach to that kind of content "underscores the unfairness" of letting Europeans have a right to be forgotten, but withholding it from Americans, Consumer Watchdog argues in its complaint.May 2, 2008 Aurora Flight Sciences has revealed the design of the aircraft it hopes will achieve the ambitious goals set out in DARPA's ambitious Vulture program: sustained uninterrupted flight for over five years at altitudes of 60,000-90,000 feet. Known as Odysseus, the solar-powered concept aircraft is as radical as the mission it is designed to accomplish, combining three self-sufficient “constituent aircraft” in a unique Z wing configuration that spans almost 500 feet (150 meters). The modular design provides several advantages - the shape of the aircraft can be adjusted to maximize the solar collection properties during the day and spread flat for aerodynamic efficiency at night-time, when energy stored in onboard batteries is used to drive the aircraft's electric motors. Because each of the constituent vehicles is capable of autonomously docking at altitude, the design also facilitates the replacement of one section of the plane whilst it is still aloft, meaning continuous flight can be maintained even if something goes awry.I‘ve been reading a lot of discussion lately surrounding the topic of having kids, and whether a couple should wait to have children until they get out of debt. I thought it was an interesting debate as just about everyone has a different take on the topic.
A recent poll on BabyCenter.com asked, “ Should people get out of debt before having kids?“. 48% said “Yes“, 40% said “No“, and 12% said “I'm not sure“. When asked if they had waited until they were out of debt to have children 68% said “No” and 32% said “Yes”. So as you can see, there is a pretty even split when it comes to those who think you should and shouldn't wait, yet quite a good number of people who thought that waiting was a good idea, nonetheless went ahead and had kids without being out of debt.
I should throw in the disclaimer that my wife and I ended up having our son only after we had gotten rid of all of our debt, but it wasn't necessarily because we believed we should wait. To the contrary I'm one of those who believe that having children shouldn't necessarily be purely a financial decision. Sure it should factor in to some degree, but there are a host of other things to consider.
Today I thought I'd look at some reasons why I think it isn't always the best idea to wait to have kids until you're completely out of debt.
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The Joy Of Having Children
Having children has been one of the single most joyful things to ever happen to my wife and I. It's amazing at how much having a son has changed our lives, and how much happiness and joy it has brought us (I mean, look at that face above!). It has brought our family closer together. There is nothing quite like walking through the door at home and having a smiling happy little boy running towards you for a hug. Why deny your family that same joy?
If You Wait Too Long, You May Have Increased Health Risk Or Infertility
One very real concern that a lot of folks have is that the risks of having children grow the longer you wait. The risks for someone having a child in their mid to late 30s versus in their 20s are quite different, for the mother and the child. The child ends up having higher risks of certain birth defects, while the mother may having higher risks of miscarriage and infertility issues. Both the mother and father may have infertility issues as both the number of egg and sperm tend to decreases after the age of 30.
Babies Aren't As Expensive As You Might Think
One objection to having kids I hear quite often is that they're so expensive, and that having them while you're in debt could jeopardize a debt reduction plan. What I've found in our lives is that our son isn't nearly as expensive as I thought he would be. Yes, there is the baby food, regular doctor visits, clothes and other things, but the costs aren't nearly as high as I might have thought. We also didn't have to pay for childcare, so that is something to consider.
I've also found that there are a ton of ways to cut back on baby spending – and I've discovered that a majority of the baby spending is often to please the parents – and not the child. There are a ton of ways to cut back on baby expenses if need be. Yes, when the children get older the expenses will rise, but hopefully by that point you've been working on that debt reduction plan and are in a better place financially.
Having Kids Can Help Focus Your Efforts
Having kids can really give you the reason you need to kick things into high gear and fast track your debt reduction plan. I know when we had our son, even though we were debt free, it was still a wake-up call that we needed to get certain areas of our finances under control. Having kids really has the effect of focusing your efforts, and giving you the added determination and inspiration you may need to make necessary changes. You don't want your kids to have to suffer for your poor planning or efforts, and I know it gave me the inspiration to work extra hard.
There Is Never A Perfect Time To Have Kids
If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done. Ecclesiastes 11:4-10
Life is almost always going to be busy and hectic, and there most likely is never going to be a perfect time to have kids. Waiting for the perfect time could mean that you'll be waiting for a long time. If it isn't a problem with too much debt, it may be a problem of attending grad school, or not having enough money saved for an emergency fund, or wanting to travel before having kids, and on and on. There will probably never be a perfect time. You can try to choose the ideal time, but you can make yourself crazy finding reasons why the time just isn't right.
Make Sure To Plan Ahead If You Do Decide To Have Children
While I'm firmly in the camp that says that it's OK to have children while in debt, I'm also a big proponent of making sure that you do plan ahead for parenthood when you've decided to head down that road. Make sure you're doing your best to plan for the expenses of having a child, getting your finances in as good a place as you can, and making sure you know what you're in for, especially if you'll be living on one income. Also make sure that you're in a good place in your relationship with your spouse and that having children is something both parents agree to.
So what are your thoughts on the topic? Should people wait until they're out of debt to have children? Did you wait or are you planning to wait?Earlier today, the People’s Daily reported that five people were detained in connection with a gang rape that happened Sunday in a Beijing hotel.
A source has just informed the South China Morning Post one of those detainees is the 17-year-old son of a famous PLA singer.
A source close to Beijing police told the South China Morning Post on Friday that Li Tianyi, also known as Li Guanfeng, was detained on Thursday night for allegedly participating in the gang rape. The source did not elaborate on the crime or its victim. …Several major Chinese news portals, including Sina.com and Ifeng.com, have also confirmed Li Tianyi’s detention, citing police sources and family members.
Li’s father is 74-year-old Li Shuangjiang, a singer for the People’s Liberation Army who has a non-commanding rank of Major General.
This is not the younger Li’s first brush with the law. In 2011, at the age of 15, he was sentenced to a year in a youth reformation centre after he and another young friend assaulted a couple near his Beijing home. This incident occurred after a minor collision between their cars. Li was driving a souped-up BMW without a licence because he was too young to drive.
More details as they become available.
UPDATE, 2/23, 11:59 am: Li Tianyi, he of the infamous BMW, was involved in a nasty assault in 2011 in which he shouted at bystanders, “Don’t you dare call police.” Via BBC:
The teenage boy, who is too young to drive legally, was behind the wheel of a BMW car with no licence plates when he found a middle-aged couple in another vehicle blocking his way in Beijing. Li Tianyi and a second teenager, who was driving an Audi, leapt from their vehicles and, it is reported, assaulted the couple while shouting at shocked bystanders: “Don’t you dare call police”. Many in China saw it as yet another example of the children of the rich and powerful acting as if they were above the law, our correspondent adds.
Li’s father bailed him out that time, according to Global Times:
Ma Weiguo, a Beijing lawyer, told the Global Times Monday that even though Li Tianyi cannot be punished due to his age, his parents should bear responsibility for his actions. “According to China’s Tort Liability Law, Li Shuangjiang has to compensate the injured with medical fees and possible income,” Ma said.
We’ll see if Li Shuangjiang has any sway left. Can Li Tianyi be punished due to his age this time?
General’s son detained in connection with gang-rape (SCMP)
UPDATE, 3/13: The latest report, via SCMP, is that Li Tianyi has lied about his age — that he’s actually 19 and should be tried as an adult.After years of standing empty and abandoned, the original site of Saint Michael’s Medical Center is finally getting a new lease on life.
The 90,000 square-foot structure, located on Central Avenue in Newark’s Central ward, is to be turned into a mixed-use building, with plans to include six floors of shared-housing residences, along with two floors of commercial space.
The property was acquired in January by real estate developers Jeffrey Crum, director of real estate at the Community Asset Preservation Corporation (CAPC); Anthony Gibbons of Crawford Street Partners; and the Hanini Group.
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The project, which will include 92 fully-furnished shared-housing apartments, along with commercial space dedicated to art-focused nonprofit organizations, will be the first of its kind in the city.
Partners in the project have redeveloped both commercial and residential buildings throughout the city.
CAPC, a nonprofit organization that acquires vacant and abandoned properties, has partnered with local community builders to restore abandoned buildings throughout the area, and is responsible for rehabbing hundreds of Newark properties.
In addition, Crawford Street Partners has developed a number of properties throughout Newark, including the Newark Educator’s Community Charter School, while the Hanini Group has redeveloped several of Newark's landmark buildings, such as downtown's Hahne mixed-use building, along with First National Bank, a Beaux-Arts structure that was turned into Newark’s first boutique hotel, Hotel Indigo.
Commercial spaces will occupy the first two floors of the building, with the residence portion occupying the remaining six floors.
Restoration of the structure is a welcome development to the neighborhood after several years of turbulent times for the once-beleaguered hospital.
In May 2016, Prime Healthcare completed the $62 million acquisition of the 358-bed facility after a bankruptcy judge approved the sale. Trinity Health, the previous owners of the hospital, filed for bankruptcy in 2015.
With threats of a shutdown, city officials, religious leaders and residents rallied together and signed petitions to save the hospital and and its 1,400 jobs.
At the time of the purchase, Prime promised to spend $50 million on capital improvements and to maintain the facility as a hospital for a minimum of five years.
The hospital, which is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its founding this year, has already invested more than $20 million to upgrade the facility, including a new systems for electronic health care records, new monitoring devices and the latest cancer treatment equipment.
Prime Healthcare did not purchase the older portion of the hospital complex and the group of developers worked out the sale directly with the creditors committee as part of the bankruptcy proceedings, Crum said.
Development of the building will bring in new market tax credits programmed to revitalize distressed communities, Crum said. In addition, the partners have registered to have the property declared an historic site in order to obtain historic tax credits.
“It’s a great building,” Crum said. “We’re seeking to preserve it.”
Since acquiring the building, some demolition has been done, as well as a necessary subdivision in November.
“There was some significant disrepair,” Crum said. “Right now, we’re doing building stabilization work, roof and structural repair and removal of asbestos. We’ll get started in earnest in 2018.”
The project should |
can we hope to achieve this ideal, and not through some process of incubation.
In this Wisdom, in the words of R.H. Blyth, things are beautiful — but not desirable; ugly — but not repulsive; false — but not rejected. What is inevitable, like death, is accepted without rage; what may not be, like war, is the subject of action skillful and the more effective because, again, it is not powered and blinded by rage and hate. We may recognize an oppressor and resolutely act to remove the oppression, but we do not hate him. Absence of hatred, disgust, intolerance or righteous indignation within us is itself a part of our growth towards enlightenment (bodhi).
Through our practice, both in the world and in withdrawn meditation, the delusion of a struggling self becomes more and more transparent, and the conflicting opposites of good and bad, pain and pleasure, wealth and poverty, oppression and freedom are seen and understood in a Wisdom at once serene and vigilant. This Wisdom partakes of the sensitivity of the heart as well as the clarity of thought.
As we have noted, the significance of social action as mindfulness training is, of course, incidental to that profound compassionate impulse which more — or less — leads us to seek the relief of the suffering of others. Our motives may be mixed, but to the extent that they are truly selfless they do manifest our potential for Awakening and our relatedness to all beings.
Social action as a training in self-awareness (and compassionate awareness of others) may be a discipline more appropriate to some individual temperaments, and, indeed, to some cultures and times, than to others. We are not concerned with advocating it for all Buddhists, but simply to suggesting its legitimacy for such as choose to follow it. For Buddhism has always recognized the diversity of individual temperaments and social cultures that exist, and has offered a corresponding diversity of modes of practice.
The above remarks are about taking social action. They refer to the potential benefits of social action for individual practice. They are less "reasons" for social action than reasons why a Buddhist should not desist from social action. The mainspring of Buddhist social action lies elsewhere; it arises from the heart of a ripening compassion, however flawed it still may be by ego needs. This is giving social action, with which we shall be concerned in the next section.
It is open to us, if we wish, to extend our active daily life to include various possible forms of social action. This offers a strong immediate kind of experience to which we can give our awareness practice. Less immediately, it serves to fertilize our meditation — "dung for the field of bodhi." Thirdly, it offers wider opportunities for the cultivation of sila — the habituation to a selfless ethic.
"We need not regard life as worth [either] boycotting or indulging in. Life situations are the food of awareness and mindfulness... We wear out the shoe of samsara by walking on it through the practice of meditation" (Chogyam Trungpa, 1976, p. 50). The same message comes across forcefully in the Zen tradition: "For penetrating to the depths of one's true nature... nothing can surpass the practice of Zen in the midst of activity... The power or wisdom obtained by practicing Zen in the world of action is like a rose that rises from the fire. It can never be destroyed. The rose that rises from the midst of flames becomes all the more beautiful and fragrant the nearer the fire rages" (Zen Master Hakuin, 1971, p. 34).
Different traditions of Buddhism offer different paths of spiritual practice. But all depend ultimately upon the individual becoming more deeply aware of the nature of his experience of the world, and especially of other people and hence of himself and of the nature of the self. "To learn the way of the Buddha is to learn about oneself. To learn about oneself is to forget oneself. To forget oneself is to experience the world as pure object — to let fall one's own mind and body and the self-other mind and body" (Zen Master Dogen: Shobogenzo). Meditation both reveals and ultimately calms and clarifies the choppy seas and terrifying depths of the underlying emotional life. All the great traditions of spiritual practice, Buddhist — and non-Buddhist — emphasize the importance of periods of withdrawal for meditation and reflection. Their relative importance is not our present concern. However, in all Buddhist traditions the training emphasizes a vigilant mindfulness of mental feelings in the course of active daily life, as well as in periods of withdrawal. It all advocates the parallel development of habitual forms of ethical behavior (sila).
The answer to these questions is both yes and no. This does not mean half-way between yes and no. It means yes and no. It means that the answer to these fundamental questions of Buddhist social action cannot ultimately be logical or rational. For the Buddhist Middle Way is not the middle between two extremes, but the Middle Way which transcends the two extremes in a "higher" unity.
Our train of argument began with the anxiety, the profound sense of unease felt by the individual in his naked experience of life in the world when not masked by busyness, objectives, diversions and other confirmations and distractions. Buddhism teaches that all suffering, whether it be anxiety, or more explicitly karmic, brought-upon-ourselves-suffering, or "external" suffering, accidental and inevitable through war, disease, old age and so on — arise ultimately from the deluded belief in a substantial and enduring self. In that case, what need has the individual Buddhist for concern for other individuals, let alone for social action since his prime task is to work on himself in order to dissolve this delusion? Can he only then help others?
Buddhism is essentially pragmatic. Buddhism is, in one sense, something that one does. It is a guide to the transformation of individual experience. In the traditional Buddhist teaching, the individual sets out with a karmic inheritance of established volitions, derived from his early life, from earlier lives and certainly from his social environment, a part of his karmic inheritance. Nevertheless, the starting point is the individual experiencing of life, here and now.
In short, Buddhist social action is justified ultimately and above all by the existence of social as well as individual karma. Immediately it is simply concerned with relieving suffering; ultimately, in creating social conditions which will favor the ending of suffering through the individual achievement of transcendent wisdom. But is it enough, to take a beautiful little watering can to a flower dying in sandy, sterile soil? This will satisfy only the waterer. But if we muster the necessary plows, wells, irrigation systems and organized labor, what then will become of the spiritual life amongst all this busyness and conflict? We must next consider this fundamental question.
Thus we see that modern social organization may create conditions of life which not only give rise to "objective," non-volitionally caused suffering, but also tend to give rise to "subjective," volitionally caused karmic suffering, because they are more likely to stimulate negative karmic action than do other kinds of social organization. Thus, some of us are born into social conditions which are more likely to lead us into following the Buddhist way than others. An unskilled woman factory worker in a provincial factory town is, for example, less likely to follow the Path than a professional person living in the university quarter of the capital city. A property speculator, wheeling and dealing his samsaric livelihood anywhere is perhaps even less likely than either of them to do so. However, all three may do so. Men and women make their own history, but they make it under specific karmic conditions, inherited from previous generations collectively, as well as individually. The struggle is against nurture, as well as nature, manifested in the one consciousness. "The present generation are living in this world under great pressure, under a very complicated system, amidst confusion. Everybody talks about peace, justice, equality but in practice it is very difficult. This is not because the individual person is bad but because the overall environment, the pressures, the circumstances are so strong, so influential" (Dalai Lama, 1976, p. 17).
"These cravings," argues David Brandon, "have become cemented into all forms of social structures and institutions. People who are relatively successful at accumulating goods and social position wish to ensure that the remain successful... Both in intended and unintended ways they erect barriers of education, finance and law to protect their property and other interests... These structures and their protective institutions continue to exacerbate and amplify the basic human inequalities in housing, health care, education and income. They reward and encourage greed, selfishness, and exploitation rather than love, sharing and compassion. Certain people's life styles, characterized by greed and overconsumption, become dependent on the deprivation of the many. The oppressors and oppressed fall into the same trap of continual craving" (Brandon, 1976, 10-11). It should be added that communist revolution and invasion have created conditions and social structures which no less, but differently, discourage the spiritual search.
Capitalist industrial society has created conditions of extreme impermanence, and the struggle with a conflict-creating mood of dissatisfaction and frustration. It would be difficult to imagine any social order for which Buddhism is more relevant and needed. In these conditions, egotistical enterprise, competitive conflict, and the struggle for status become great social virtues, while, in fact, they illustrate the import of the three root-causes of suffering — greed, hatred, and delusion.
Human societies, too, suffer the round of birth and rebirth, of revolution and stability. Each age receives the collective karmic inheritance of the last, is conditioned by it, and yet also struggles to refashion it. And within each human society, institutions, social classes, and subcultures, as well as individuals, all struggle to establish their identity and perpetuate their existence.
The social karma — the establishment of conditioned behavior patterns — of a particular culture is and is not the aggregate of the karma of the individuals who comprise the culture. Individuals share common institutions and belief systems, but these are the results of many different wills, both in the past and the present, rather than the consequence of any single individual action. It is, however, individual karmic action that links the individual to these institutions and belief systems. Each individual is a light-reflecting jewel in Indra's net, at the points where time and space intersect. Each reflects the light of all and all of each. This is the mysticism of sociology or the sociology of mysticism!
Individual karmic behavior patterns are created by the struggles of the individual human predicament. They condition the behavior of the individual and, in traditional Buddhist teaching, the subsequent rounds of birth and rebirth. We suggest, however, that this karmic inheritance is also expressed as social karma. Specific to time and place, different social cultures arise, whether of a group, a community, a social class or a civilization. The young are socialized to their inherited culture. Consciously and unconsciously they assimilate the norms of the approved behavior — what is good, what is bad, and what is "the good life" for that culture.
In this section we have introduced the special and distinctive quality of Buddhist social action. In the remainder of Part One we shall explore this quality further, and show how it arises naturally and logically from Buddhist teaching and practice.
The charge of fatalism is sometimes supported by reference to the alleged "social backwardness" of Asia. But this ignores the fact that such backwardness existed also in the West until comparatively recent times. Surely, this backwardness and the alleged fatalistic acceptance of it stem from the specific social and political conditions, which were too powerful for would-be reformers to contend with. But apart from these historic facts, it must be stressed here that the Buddha's message of compassion is certainly not indifferent to human suffering in any form; nor do Buddhists think that social misery cannot be remedied, at least partly. Though Buddhist realism does not believe in the Golden Age of a perfect society, nor in the permanence of social conditions, yet Buddhism strongly believes that social imperfections can be reduced, by the reduction of greed, hatred and ignorance, and by compassionate action guided by wisdom.
We have already suggested one source of the widespread belief that Buddhism is fatalistic and is indifferent to humanistic social action. This belief also appears to stem from a misunderstanding of the Buddhist law of Karma. In fact, there is no justification for interpreting the Buddhist conception of karma as implying quietism and fatalism. The word karma (Pali: kamma) mean volitional action in deeds, words and thoughts, which may be morally good or bad. To be sure, our actions are conditioned (more or less so), but they are not inescapably determined. Though human behavior and thought are too often governed by deeply ingrained habits or powerful impulses, still there is always the potentiality of freedom — or, to be more exact, of a relative freedom of choice. To widen the range of that freedom is the primary task of Buddhist mind training and meditation.
Buddhism offers to the individual human being a religious practice, a Way, leading to the transcendence of suffering. Buddhist social action arises from this practice and contributes to it. From suffering arises desire to end suffering. The secular humanistic activist sets himself the endless task of satisfying that desire, and perhaps hopes to end social suffering by constructing utopias. The Buddhist, on the other hand, is concerned ultimately with the transformation of desire. Hence he contemplates and experiences social action in a fundamentally different way from the secular activist. This way will not be readily comprehensible to the latter, and has helped give rise to the erroneous belief that Buddhism is indifferent to human suffering. One reason why the subject of this pamphlet is so important to Buddhists is that they will have to start here if they are to begin to communicate effectively with non-Buddhist social activists. We should add, however, that although such communication may not be easy on the intellectual plane, at the level of feelings shared in compassionate social action experience together, there may be little difficulty.
Thus, from the experience of social conditions there arises both physical and psychological suffering. But more fundamental still is that profound sense of unease, of anxiety or angst, which arises from the very transience (anicca) of life (viparinama-dukkha). This angst, however conscious of it we may or may not be, drives the restless search to establish a meaningful self-identity in the face of a disturbing awareness of our insubstantiality (anatta). Ultimately, life is commonly a struggle to give meaning to life — and to death. This is so much the essence of the ordinary human condition and we are so very much inside it, that for much of the time we are scarcely aware of it. This existential suffering is the distillation of all the various conditions to which we have referred above — it is the human condition itself.
Lonely, alienated industrial man has unprecedented opportunities for living life "in the context of equipment," as the philosopher Martin Heidegger so aptly put it. He has a highly valued freedom to make meaning of his life from a huge variety of more or less readily available forms of consumption or achievement — whether career building, home making, shopping around for different world ideologies (such as Buddhism), or dedicated social service. When material acquisition palls, there is the collection of new experiences and the clocking up of new achievements. Indeed, for many their vibrating busyness becomes itself a more important self-confirmation that the goals to which it is ostensibly directed. In developing countries to live thus, "in the context of equipment," has become the great goal for increasing numbers of people. They are watched sadly by Westerners who have accumulated more experience of the disillusion and frustration of perpetual non-arrival.
This struggle may not be so desperate in certain countries which enjoy a high material standard of living spread relatively evenly throughout the population. Nevertheless, the material achievements of such societies appear somehow to have been "bought" by social conditions which breed a profound sense of insecurity and anxiety, of restlessness and inner confusion, in contrast to the relatively stable and ordered society in which the Buddha taught.
The experience of suffering is the starting point of Buddhist teaching and of any attempt to define a distinctively Buddhist social action. However, misunderstanding can arise at the start, because the Pali word dukkha, which is commonly translated simply as "suffering," has a much wider and more subtle meaning. There is, of course, much gross, objective suffering in the world (dukkha-dukkha), and much of this arises from poverty, war, oppression and other social conditions. We cling to our good fortune and struggle at all costs to escape from our bad fortune.
Buddhism, however, is a humanism in that it rejoices in the possibility of a true freedom as something inherent in human nature. For Buddhism, the ultimate freedom is to achieve full release from the root causes of all suffering: greed, hatred and delusion, which clearly are also the root causes of all social evils. Their grossest forms are those which are harmful to others. To weaken, and finally eliminate them in oneself, and, as far as possible, in society, is the basis of Buddhist ethics. And here Buddhist social action has its place.
In modern Western society, humanistic social action, in its bewildering variety of forms, is seen both as the characteristic way of relieving suffering and enhancing human well-being and, at the same time, as a noble ideal of service, of self-sacrifice, by humanists of all faiths.
In the past two hundred years society in the West has undergone a more fundamental transformation than at any period since Neolithic times, whether in terms of technology or the world of ideas. And now in the East while this complex revolution is undercutting traditional Buddhism, it is also stimulating oriental Buddhism; and in the West it is creating problems and perceptions to which Buddhism seems particularly relevant. Throughout its history Buddhism has been successfully reinterpreted in accordance with different cultures, whilst at the same time preserving its inner truths. Thus has Buddhism spread and survived. The historic task of Buddhists in both East and West in the twenty-first century is to interpret perennial Buddhism in terms of the needs of industrial man and woman in the social conditions of their time, and to demonstrate its acute and urgent relevance to the ills of that society. To this great and difficult enterprise Buddhists will bring their traditional boldness and humility. For certainly this is no time for clinging to dogma and defensiveness.
It is thus essential to attempt to distinguish between perennial Buddhism on the one hand and, on the other, the specific social prescriptions attributed to the historical Buddha which related the basic, perennial teaching to the specific conditions of his day. We believe that it is unscholarly to transfer the scriptural social teaching uncritically and with careful qualification to modern societies, or to proclaim that the Buddha was a democrat and an internationalist. The modern terms "democracy" and "internationalism" did not exist in the sense in which we understand them in the emergent feudal society in which the Buddha lived. Buddhism is ill-served in the long run by such special pleading. On the other hand, it is arguable that there are democratic and internationalist implications in the basic Buddhist teachings.
From the evidence of the Buddha's discourses, or suttas in the Digha Nikaya, it is clear that early Buddhists were very much concerned with the creation of social conditions favorable to the individual cultivation of Buddhist values. An outstanding example of this, in later times, is the remarkable "welfare state" created by the Buddhist emperor, Asoka (B.C. 274-236). Walpola Rahula stated the situation — perhaps at its strongest — when he wrote that "Buddhism arose in India as a spiritual force against social injustices, against degrading superstitious rites, ceremonies and sacrifices; it denounced the tyranny of the caste system and advocated the equality of all men; it emancipated woman and gave her complete spiritual freedom." (Rahula, 1978). The Buddhist scriptures do indicate the general direction of Buddhist social thinking, and to that extent they are suggestive for our own times. Nevertheless it would be pedantic, and in some cases absurd, to apply directly to modern industrial society social prescriptions detailed to meet the needs of social order which flourished twenty-three centuries ago. The Buddhist householder of the Sigalovada Sutta [1] experienced a different way of life from that of a computer consultant in Tokyo or an unemployed black youth in Liverpool. And the conditions which might favor their cultivation of the Middle Way must be secured by correspondingly different — and more complex — social, economic and political strategies.
In the East, Buddhism developed different schools of "traditions," serving the experiences of different cultures, ranging from Sri Lanka through Tibet and Mongolia to Japan. Buddhism may thus appear variously as sublime humanism, magical mysticism, poetic paradox and much else. These modes of expression, however, all converge upon the fundamental teaching, the "perennial Buddhism." This pamphlet is based upon the latter, drawing upon the different oriental traditions to present the teachings in an attempt to relate them to our modern industrial society.
Buddhism is a pragmatic teaching which starts from certain fundamental propositions about how we experience the world and how we act in it. It teaches that it is possible to transcend this sorrow-laden world of our experience and is concerned first and last with ways of achieving that transcendence. What finally leads to such transcendence is what we call Wisdom. The enormous literature of Buddhism is not a literature of revelation and authority. Instead, it uses ethics and meditation, philosophy and science, art and poetry to point a Way to this Wisdom. Similarly, Buddhist writing on social action, unlike secular writings, makes finite proposals which must ultimately refer to this Wisdom, but which also are arguable in terms of our common experience.
By "social action" we mean the many different kinds of action intended to benefit mankind. These range from simple individual acts of charity, teaching and training, organized kinds of service, "Right Livelihood" in and outside the helping professions, and through various kinds of community development as well as to political activity in working for a better society.
It is the manifest suffering and folly in the world that invokes humane and compassionate social action in its many different forms. For Buddhists this situation raises fundamental and controversial questions. And here, also, Buddhism has implications of some significance for Christians, humanists and other non-Buddhists.
2.1 Giving and helping
All social action is an act of giving (dana), but there is a direct act which we call charitable action, whether it be the UNESCO Relief Banker's Order or out all night with the destitutes' soup kitchen. Is there anything about Buddhism that should make it less concerned actively to maintain the caring society than is Christianity or humanism? "Whoever nurses the sick serves me," said the Buddha. In our more complex society does this not include the active advancement and defense of the principles of a national health service?
The old phrase "as cold as charity" recalls numerous possibilities for self-deception in giving to others and in helping them. Here is opportunity to give out goodness in tangible form, both in our own eyes and those of the world. It may also be a temptation to impose our own ideas and standards from a position of patronage. David Brandon, who has written so well on the art of helping, reminds us that "respect is seeing the Buddha nature in the other person. It means perceiving the superficiality of positions of moral authority. The other person is as good as you. However untidy, unhygienic, poor, illiterate and bloody-minded he may seem, he is worthy of your respect. He also has autonomy and purpose. He is another form of nature" (Brandon, 1976, p. 59).
There are many different ways in which individual Buddhists and their organizations can give help and relieve suffering. However, "charity begins at home." If a Buddhist group or society fails to provide human warmth and active caring for all of its members in their occasional difficulties and troubles — though always with sensitivity and scrupulous respect for privacy — where then is its Buddhism? Where is the Sangha?
In our modern industrial society there has been on the one hand a decline in personal and voluntary community care for those in need and, on the other, too little active concern for the quality and quantity of institutional care financed from the public purse that has to some extent taken its place. One facet of this which may be of particular significance for Buddhists, is a failure to recognize adequately and provide for the needs of the dying. In recent years there has been a growing awareness of this problem in North America and Europe, and a small number of hospices have been established by Christian and other groups for terminally ill people. However, only a start has been made with the problem. The first Buddhist hospice in the West has yet to be opened. And, less ambitiously, the support of regular visitors could help many lonely people to die with a greater sense of dignity and independence in our general hospitals.
2.2 Teaching
Teaching is, of course, also a form of giving and helping. Indeed, one of the two prime offenses in the Mahayana code of discipline is that of withholding the wealth of the Dharma from others. Moreover, teaching the Dharma is one of the most valuable sources of learning open to a Buddhist.
Here we are concerned primarily with the teaching of the Dharma to newcomers in Buddhism, and with the general publicizing of Buddhism among non-Buddhists.
Buddhism is by its very nature lacking in the aggressive evangelizing spirit of Christianity or Islam. It is a pragmatic system of sustained and systematic self-help practice, in which the teacher can do no more than point the way and, together with fellow Buddhists, provide support, warmth and encouragement in a long and lonely endeavor. There is here no tradition of instant conversion and forceful revelation for the enlightenment experience, however sudden, depends upon a usually lengthy period of careful cultivation. Moreover, there is a tolerant tradition of respect for the beliefs and spiritual autonomy of non-Buddhists.
Nevertheless, a virtue may be cultivated to a fault. Do we not need to find a middle way between proselytizing zeal and aloof indifference? Does not the world cry out for a Noble Truth that "leads to the cessation of suffering"? The task of teaching the Dharma also gives individual Buddhists an incentive to clarify their ideas in concise, explicit, everyday terms. And it requires them to respond positively to the varied responses which their teaching will provoke in others.
It will be helpful to treat the problem on two overlapping levels, and to distinguish between (a) publicizing the Dhamma, and (b) introductory teaching for enquirers who interest has thus been awakened.
At both the above levels activity is desirable both by a central body of some kind and by local groups (in many countries there will certainly be several "central bodies," representing different traditions and tendencies). The central body can cost-effectively produce for local use introductory texts and study guides, speakers' notes, audiocassettes, slide presentations and "study kits" combining all of these different types of material. It has the resources to develop correspondence courses such as those run by the Buddhist Society in the United Kingdom which offer a well-tried model. And it will perhaps have sufficient prestige to negotiate time on the national radio and television network.
Particularly in Western countries there are strong arguments for organizations representing the different Buddhist traditions and tendencies to set up a representative Buddhist Information and Liaison Service for propagating fundamental Buddhism and some first introductions to the different traditions and organizations. It would also provide a general information clearing house for all the groups and organizations represented. It could be financed and controlled through a representative national Buddhist council which, with growing confidence between its members and between the different Buddhist organizations which they represented, might in due course take on additional functions. Certainly in the West there is the prospect of a great many different Buddhist flowers blooming, whether oriental or new strains developed in the local culture. This is to be welcomed, but the kind of body we propose will become a necessity to avoid confusion for the outsider and to work against any tendency to sectarianism of a kind from which Buddhism has been relatively free.
Local groups will be able to draw upon the publicity and teaching resources of national centers and adapt these to the needs of local communities. Regular meetings of such groups may amount to no more than half a dozen people meeting in a private house. Sensitively handled it would be difficult to imagine a better way of introducing a newcomer to the Dharma. Such meetings are worthy of wide local publicity. A really strong local base exists where there is a resident Buddhist community of some kind, with premises convenient for meetings and several highly committed workers. Unfortunately, such communities will, understandably, represent a particular Buddhist tradition or tendency, and this exclusiveness may be less helpful to the newcomer than a local group in which he or she may have the opportunity to become acquainted with the different Buddhist traditions represented in the membership and in the program of activity.
In many countries the schools provide brief introductions to the world's great religions. Many teachers do not feel sufficiently knowledgeable about introducing Buddhism to their pupils and may be unaware of suitable materials even where these do exist. There may be opportunities here for local groups, and certainly the Information Service suggested above would have work to do here.
Finally, the method of introductory teaching employed in some Buddhist centers leaves much to be desired both on educational grounds and as Buddhist teaching. The Buddha always adapted his teaching to the particular circumstances of the individual learner; he sometimes opened with a question about the enquirer's occupation in life, and built his teaching upon the answer to this and similar questions. True learning and teaching has as its starting point a problem or experience posed by the learner, even if this be no more than a certain ill-defined curiosity. It is there that teacher and learner must begin. The teacher starts with the learner's thoughts and feelings and helps him or her to develop understanding and awareness. This is, of course, more difficult than a standard lecture which begins and ends with the teacher's thoughts and feelings, and which may in more sense than one leave little space for the learner. It will exclude the teacher from any learning.
It follows that unless the teacher is truly inspiring, the "Dharma talk" is best used selectively: to introduce and stimulate discussion or to summarize and consolidate what has been learned. Dharma teachers must master the arts of conducting open discussion groups, in which learners can gain much from one another and can work through an emotional learning situation beyond the acquisition of facts about Buddhism. Discussion groups have become an important feature of many lay Buddhist and social action organizations in different parts of the world. They are the heart, for example, of the Japanese mass organization Rissho Kosei Kai, which explores problems of work, the family and social and economic problems.
2.3 Political action: the conversion of energy
Political power may manifest and sustain social and economic structures which breed both material deprivation and spiritual degradation for millions of men and women. In many parts of the world it oppresses a wide range of social groupings — national and racial minorities, women, the poor, homosexuals, liberal dissidents, and religious groups. Ultimately, political power finds its most terrible expression in war, which reaches now to the possibility of global annihilation.
For both the oppressors and the oppressed, whether in social strife or embattled nations, karmic delusion is deepened. Each group or nation emphasizes its differences, distinguishing them from its opponents; each projects its own short-comings upon them, makes them the repository of all evil, and rallies round its own vivid illusions and blood-warming hates. Collective hating, whether it be the raised fist, or prejudice concealed in a quiet community, is a heady liquor. Allied with an ideology, hate in any form will not depart tomorrow or next year. Crowned with delusive idealism, it is an awesome and murderous folly. And even when victory is achieved, the victors are still more deeply poisoned by the hate that carried them to victory. Both the revolution and the counter-revolution consume their own children. Buddhism's "Three Fires" of delusion (moha), hatred and ill-will (dosa), and greed and grasping, (lobha), surely burn nowhere more fiercely.
Contrariwise, political power may be used to fashion and sustain a society whose citizens are free to live in dignity and harmony and mutual respect, free of the degradation of poverty and war. In such a society of good heart all men and women find encouragement and support in making, if they will, the best use of their human condition in the practice of wisdom and compassion. This is the land of good karma — not the end of human suffering, but the beginning of the end, the bodhisattva-land, the social embodiment of sila.
This is not to be confused with the belief common among the socially and politically oppressed that if power could be seized (commonly by an elite claiming to represent them), then personal, individual, "ideological" change will inevitably follow. This absolutely deterministic view of conditioning (which Marx called "vulgar Marxism"), is as one-sided as the idea of a society of "individuals" each struggling with only his own personal karma in a private bubble hermetically sealed off from history and from other people.
Political action thus involves the Buddhist ideal of approaching each situation without prejudice but with deserved circumspection in questions of power and conflict, social oppression and social justice. These social and political conflicts are the great public samsaric driving energies of our life to which an individual responds with both aggression and self-repression. The Buddha Dharma offers the possibility of transmuting the energies of the individual into Wisdom and Compassion. At the very least, in faith and with good heart, a start can be made.
Buddhists are thus concerned with political action, first, in the direct relief of non-volitionally caused suffering now and in the future, and, secondly, with the creation of social karmic conditions favorable to the following of the Way that leads to the cessation also of volitionally-caused suffering, the creation of a society of a kind which tends to the ripening of wisdom and compassion rather than the withering of them. In the third place, political action, turbulent and ambiguous, is perhaps the most potent of the "action meditations."
It is perhaps because of this potency that some Buddhist organizations ban political discussion of any kind, even at a scholarly level, and especially any discussion of social action. There are circumstances in which this may be a sound policy. Some organizations and some individuals may not wish to handle such an emotionally powerful experience which may prove to be divisive and stir up bad feeling which cannot be worked upon in any positive way. This division would particularly tend to apply to "party politics." On the other hand, such a discussion may give an incomparable opportunity to work through conflict to a shared wisdom. Different circumstances suggest different "skillful means," but a dogmatic policy of total exclusion is likely to be ultimately unhelpful.
In this connection it is worth noting that any kind of social activity which leads to the exercise of power or conflict may stir up "the fires" in the same way as overtly political activity. Conflict within a Buddhist organization is cut from the same cloth as conflict in a political assembly and may be just as heady, but the Buddhist context could make such an activity a much more difficult and delusive meditation subject. The danger of dishonest collusion may be greater than that of honest collusion (to borrow one of the Ven. Sangharakshita's aphorisms). The dogmatism and vehemence with which some Buddhists denounce and proscribe all political involvement is the same sad attitude as the dogmatism and vehemence of the politicians which they so rightly denounce.
To be lost in revolution or reform or conservatism is to be lost in samsara and the realm of the angry warrior, deluded by his power and his self-righteousness. To turn one's back upon all this is to be lost in an equally false idea of nirvana — the realm of the gods no less deluded by spiritual power and righteousness, "You do not truly speak of fire if your mouth does not get burnt."
Effective social action on any but the smallest scale will soon involve the Buddhist in situations of power and conflict, of "political" power. It may be the power of office in a Buddhist organization. It may be the unsought for leadership of an action group protesting against the closing of an old people's day care center. It may be the organizing of a fund-raising movement to build a Buddhist hospice for care of the dying. It may be membership of a local government council with substantial welfare funds. It may be joining an illegal dissident group. In all these cases the Buddhist takes the tiger — his own tiger — by the tail. Some of the above tigers are bigger than others, but all are just as fierce. Hence a Buddhist must be mindful of the strong animal smell of political power and be able to contain and convert the valuable energy which power calls up. A sharp cutting edge is given into his hands. Its use we must explore in the sections which follow.
2.4 Buddhist political theory and policy
Buddhism and politics meet at two levels — theory and practice. Buddhism has no explicit body of social and political theory comparable to its psychology or metaphysics. Nevertheless, a Buddhist political theory can be deduced primarily from basic Buddhism, from Dharma. Secondly, it can be deduced from the general orientation of scriptures which refer explicitly to a bygone time. We have already argued, however, that this can be done only in a limited and qualified way.
Whatever form it may take, Buddhist political theory like other Buddhist "theory" is just another theory. As it stands in print, it stands in the world of the conditioned; it is of samsara. It is its potential, its spiritual implications, which make it different from "secular" theory. When skillfully practiced, it becomes a spiritual practice. As always, Buddhist "theory" is like a label on a bottle describing the contents which sometimes is mistaken for the contents by zealous label-readers. In that way we can end up with a lot of politics and very little Buddhism.
This is not to decry the value of a Buddhist social and political theory — only its misuse. We have only begun to apply Buddhism as a catalyst to the general body of Western social science and most of the work so far has been in psychology. Such work in allied fields could be extremely helpful to Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike.
The writings of some Buddhists from Sri Lanka, Burma and elsewhere offer interesting examples of attempts to relate Buddhism to nationalism and Marxism (not to be confused with communism). Earlier in the century Anagarika Dharmapala stressed the social teaching of the Buddha and its value in liberating people from materialistic preoccupations. U Nu, the eminent Burmese Buddhist statesman, argued that socialism follows naturally from the ethical and social teachings of the Buddha, and another Burmese leader, U Ba Swe, held that Marxism is relative truth, Buddhism absolute truth. This theme has been explored more recently in Trevor Ling's book "Buddha, Marx and God," (2nd ed., Macmillan, |
2011 is disclosed in the 'All Other Compensation' column in '—2011 Summary Compensation Table.'"
Zuckerberg's "Other Compensation" in 2011 totaled $783,529, the filing said, with about $692,679 going "to personal use of aircraft chartered in connection with his comprehensive security program and on which family and friends flew during 2011." The remaining $90,850 was for "costs related to estate and financial planning during 2011," the filing said.
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Photo: Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's co-founder and chief executive, speaks at the company's F8 developers conference in San Francisco in September 2011. Credit: David Paul Morris / BloombergOregon Gov. Kate Brown came out again on Friday in a debate with her Republican opponent, but this time it wasn’t about her sexuality.
The out bisexual shared that the she is also a survivor of domestic violence, after an audience member asked about the recently released “Count Her In” report from the Women’s Foundation of Oregon, which reveals that more than half of Oregon women and girls experience domestic or sexual violence during their lifetime.
“I know what it feels like to be a victim of domestic violence,” Brown said. Her campaign confirmed that she experienced domestic violence, declining to provide additional details except to make clear that the perpetrator was not Brown’s husband Dan Little, whom she married in 1997.
Brown became governor in 2015 after the four-term Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned amid scandal, making her the first openly bisexual governor in the country. She must be elected this November to stay in office through the end of the term.
Despite Brown’s clear personal expertise on the topic, Republican candidate Dr. Bud Pierce suggested that only poor or uneducated women are vulnerable to abuse.
“A woman that has a great education and training and a great job is not susceptible to this kind of abuse by men, women or anyone,” Pierce said to loud boos from the audience.
Brown quickly busted the pervasive myth that having financial resources or a college education shields women from domestic violence. While a survivor’s relative personal and family wealth can certainly impact their access to resources like legal representation and housing, having a good job or a flush bank account does not in itself prevent abuse.
Even when survivors of intimate partner violence come from middle or upper class families, have well-paying jobs or high levels of education, the very nature of abuse may prevent them from accessing the protections their background would seem to afford. Abusers often take over control of their partner’s finances, cause them to miss work, and interfere with their education.
“I’m honestly not even sure where to start. I grew up in a middle class family. I went to law school,” Brown replied. “This is not just about [having access to] power. This is about making sure women are not discriminated against because of their gender, because of their race, and because of their sexual orientation.”
And it’s because of that discrimination women like her are at even greater risk of experiencing domestic violence.
While one third of heterosexual women report experiencing domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking in their lifetime, more than half (61 percent) of bisexual women do, according to the CDC. Bisexual men also report higher rates of abuse, with 37 percent saying they’ve experienced these types of violence, compared to 29 percent of heterosexual men.
Pervasive stereotypes that paint bisexual people as unfaithful or untrustworthy are often used by abusers to keep their partners down, and these damaging attitudes are further reinforced by the discrimination bisexuals face from straight and gay folks alike in society at large. Case in point: the mainstream and tabloid media response to bisexual actress Amber Heard’s allegations of domestic violence against ex-husband Johnny Depp.
Because both bisexual folks and survivors of intimate partner violence are often made invisible by stigma and shame, Gov. Brown’s personal declaration is especially powerful.
“We believe we will see more people coming out, seeking support, finding their bi community, and literally saving their own lives because of Gov. Brown sharing her story,” says Lynnette McFadzen, an Oregon bisexual activist who serves on the board of BiNet USA and produces the BiCast. “Considering our high rates of physical and sexual violence it is crucial in bringing awareness to our disparities.”
McFadzen, who is an organizer with the Portland-based advocacy group BiBrigade, emphasizes the importance of having community resources specific to the bisexual community. While many LGBTQ organizations claim to include the concerns of bisexual people, the vast majority of time, money, and attention go to gay—and to a lesser extent, transgender—causes.
“I sincerely hope to see an increase in ‘bi specific’ programming and support for bi, pan, fluid, queer (bi+) communities in the Pacific Northwest soon,” McFadzen explains. “Oregon has always been progressive around LGBTQI issues and has been presented a unique opportunity to raise awareness and create change for the bisexual+ community.”
The first shelter for victims of domestic violence on the west coast, Bradley Angle, is also the Oregon’s only domestic violence agency providing culturally-specific support for LGBTQ survivors.
If you or someone you care about is experiencing abuse in their relationship, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or chat with an advocate online.
This Story Filed UnderTo make typing more easier, Google introduced their own standalone app, the Google Keyboard for the Android devices last year. Google did pack an interesting feature inside the Google Keyboard called gesture typing, which allows users to drag your finger from single letter to another to form a word of their own choice.
Since it has been a long time any update rolled out for the app, Google finally decided to bring an update to their own Android keyboard with an additional new feature called “Personalized Suggestions”. If you are thinking that the “Personalized Suggestions” is the same thing what you called a personal dictionary, already available in todays Android phones, then let we make you clear that the “Personalized Suggestions” feature is synchronized with various devices over Google cloud.
This means the Google Keyboard now brings all the personalized suggestions by picking all your usage of other Google products. Once you update the app, the “Personalized Suggestions” feature is turned on by default, however the app does offer a popup indicating to turn on the feature. Also, if the user does not want to use the feature, they can turn off the feature. The updated app is not available in the Google Play Store, but if you are eager to download it, users can head over to this link to download the APK file. Stay tuned for more updates.
SOURCE: androidpoliceWestern consumers have reached their limits for “buying stuff.” That verdict comes from an unlikely place: IKEA, the Swedish furniture goliath. Speaking at The Guardian’s Sustainable Business debate, Steve Howard, IKEA’s head of sustainability, said:
In the West, we have probably hit peak stuff. We talk about peak oil. I’d say we’ve hit peak red meat, peak sugar, peak stuff … peak home furnishings.
IKEA may have a point: sales for furniture and lighting are at their highest since the financial crisis. With oil now cheaper than an actual barrel, is home furniture the next tipping point?
Either way, Howard doesn’t seem to be too startled by what he refers to as “peak curtains.” He suggests that on a global basis “most people are still poor and most people actually haven’t got to sufficiency yet. There is a global growth opportunity… but it’s a distribution issue.”
IKEA has reported an annual net profit of $3.5 billion last month, an increase of 5.5% on the previous year, as the company ventured into new territory. To stick to their plan to almost double their sales by 2020, IKEA says it will try to adapt to changing consumer preferences and focus more sustainable products. “We will be increasingly building a circular IKEA where you can repair and recycle products,” Howard said.
IKEA is not just focused on selling flat pack furniture; it’s also quite serious about going green. The company pledged to invest $1.1 billion in renewable energy while also taking concrete steps to help poor nations cope with climate change.
So what comes after peak curtains? Peak peak, of course.Donald Trump is radically reshaping the same federal courts that have been the biggest bulwark against his agenda – by picking mostly white, conservative men
Donald Trump has sustained more than his fair share of political losses during the first 10 months of his presidency, mostly at the hands of the federal courts.
It was the federal courts that struck down his “Muslim travel ban” on three separate occasions, that blocked his ban on trans people in the military and that did the same to his attempt to defund so-called sanctuary cities.
But the makeup of America’s judges is quietly becoming the site of one of Trump’s most unequivocal successes: nominating and installing judges who reflect his own worldview at a speed and volume unseen in recent memory. Trump could conceivably have handpicked more than 30% of the nation’s federal judges before the end of his first term, his advisers have suggested, and independent observers agree.
How an obstruction of justice case may be shaping up against Trump Read more
“The president himself has said that he expects this to be one of his major legacies. He is going to reshape the bench for generations to come,” said Douglas Keith, counsel with the fair courts arm of the Brennan Center for Justice.
“I do think this deserves more attention given the consequence, the significance of what will eventually be a wholesale change among the federal judiciary,” he continued.
Much has been made of Trump’s failure to get legislation through Congress and received wisdom suggests that he has little to show for his first 10 months in power. However, the lasting impact that court picks have on the lives of Americans means that Trump’s choices – and the sheer numbers involved – will help reshape America for the next half-century.
Until recently little attention has been paid to Trump’s judicial appointments. But Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware and a member of the Senate judiciary committee, identified the importance of these appointments early on. In June he said: “This will be the single most important legacy of the Trump administration. They will quickly be able to put judges on circuit courts all over the country, district courts all over the country, that will, given their youth and conservatism, have a significant impact on the shape and trajectory of American law for decades.
The lack of diversity in Trump’s picks was highlighted by the Associated Press. They ran the numbers on the 58 people nominated by the Trump administration to lifetime positions on appeal courts, district courts, and the supreme court. Of those, 53 are white, three are Asian American, one is Hispanic and one is African American.
Forty seven are men and 11 are women.
Since a disproportionate percentage of non-white Americans find themselves at the sharp end of the judicial system this means that in many cases it will be white male judges passing judgment on Americans of color. They will also have extensive input on all manner of civil rights, environmental, criminal justice and other disputes across the country.
All presidents appoint federal judges who are philosophically aligned with their own party and ideology. Casual observers will be familiar with how this dynamic plays out in relation to supreme court nominees, the rarefied picks that most presidents only make a handful of times. But supreme court justices represent just a small percentage of the broader federal judiciary, with roughly 850 seats in regional federal courts nationwide. In many cases, it is these jurists that have the final say on the law of the land in the US, since the supreme court only hears a relatively small number of cases every year.
And for these posts, Trump’s candidates have been whiter, more male and, according to the American Bar Association, less qualified than any incoming cohort in decades.
“I think the goal is to end the progressive state as we know it,” said Baher Azmy, Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a progressive-leaning legal advocacy group.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest People walk out after the US supreme court granted parts of the Trump administration’s emergency request to put his travel ban into effect immediately while the legal battle continues. Photograph: Yuri Gripas/Reuters
Perhaps the most brazen of Trump’s early picks is Brett Talley, an Alabama attorney just three years out of law school who has yet to try a case. The American Bar Association gave Talley a unanimous rating of “unqualified” for the post but that did not stop him from breezing through a confirmation hearing in the Senate judiciary committee. Neither did the fact that Talley appears to have blogged favorably about the KKK and statutory rape on message boards and failed to disclose in his questionnaire that his wife is a staffer in the White House.
Trump is “appointing hacks and cronies which I think is either intentionally or just has the effect of signaling contempt for legal process”, Azmy said.
Some of the other stand-out Trump picks include Jeff Mateer, a Texas attorney who has openly admitted that he discriminates against LGBT people, and Thomas Farr, who has spearheaded multiple legal efforts to suppress the black vote in his home state of North Carolina.
“It is no exaggeration to say that had the White House deliberately sought to identify an attorney in North Carolina with a more hostile record on African-American voting rights and workers’ rights than Thomas Farr, it could hardly have done so,” wrote the Congressional Black Caucus in a letter to Trump urging him to withdraw the nomination.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jeff Mateer. Photograph: Texas Attorney General office
One thing Mateer, Talley and Farr all have in common, like a startling 74% of Trump’s nominees, is that they are all white men. According to the Associated Press, if Trump continues on this trend through his first term, he will be the first Republican since Herbert Hoover to name fewer women and minorities to the court than his GOP predecessor.
“This is a striking move in the direction away from diversity that is not just attributable to them wanting to appoint more conservative judges,” who will tend to be whiter and more male than the general population, said Douglas Keith.
And the impact that can have for generations is hard to overstate. “Federal courts shape laws, they shape the constitution, they affect people’s rights, and at core they impact how our democracy functions,” Keith said. “Conservatives have understood the importance of these courts, they’ve been organizing around them for decades, and have been able to move their supporters in ways that the left hasn’t.”
That has involved, first and foremost, building a pipeline of potential conservative candidates, Keith said. Conservative groups like the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation have become de facto clearing houses for Republican presidents and they absolutely have Trump’s ear.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Thomas Alvin Farr. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP
According to the Hill, of the 13 judicial nominees confirmed since President Trump took office, 10 are either current or former Federalist Society members or regular speakers at its events.
The organization describes itself as “a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order”, and operates on the premise that “law schools and the legal profession are currently strongly dominated by a form of orthodox liberal ideology”. Clarence Thomas, Jeff Sessions and the late Antonin Scalia are among the society’s more well-known alumni.
The non-partisan American Bar Association, which for decades had offered the White House its opinion on the qualifications of nominees was removed from the process by Trump in favor of Federalist Society influence. So far they have rated four of Trump’s nominees unqualified, four more than they ever did under the previous administration.
Thus far the Republican-controlled Senate judiciary committee has been little more than a rubber stamp for Trump’s nominees, having advanced all of his picks through hearings so far. This drew scorn from Democratic committee member Sheldon Whitehouse who earlier this month called the hearings “a joke” and complained that candidates had been studiously coached on “how to withstand all of five minutes of questioning by senators”.
Trump also inherited a massive cache of over 100 judicial openings when he came into office, more than twice that of his predecessor Obama in 2009. That’s because, even as Trump has routinely lambasted Democrats as the party of obstruction, it was Republicans for most of Barack Obama’s term who slowed the confirmation of judicial nominees to a slow crawl. Since his inauguration the number of openings has grown to more than 160 – that’s about half the 323 regional federal judges Obama nominated and had confirmed during his full eight years in office, and Trump has only been in office for 10 months.
It is true that, even as Republicans have picked up the pace of confirmations, Trump cannot fill all those 160 openings overnight. But after sweeping Democratic election wins in races earlier this month, anxious conservatives are going to start pushing Trump to get as many nominees as possible through before the 2018 midterms.
“Obviously, who gets nominated and the pace of confirmations … changes dramatically if the Senate were to flip back to the Democrats,” said John Malcolm, a former justice department lawyer and now an analyst at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. Republicans “should be paying particular attention to pushing through as many nominees as they can”.
Reuters contributed to this reportSuper Bowl Sunday is a particularly problematic day for drunk driving and Rockland County announced earlier this week that Rockland police agencies will participate in a special enforcement effort to crackdown on impaired driving from Feb. 1 - 4.
One company is hoping to help alleviate this problem for its customers by keeping them safe and off the road.
Wyckoff-based StearClear, the smartphone app designated driver service, will be on high availability come Super Bowl Sunday across multiple counties in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. This service gets you and your car home safely if you've had one too many.
StearClear just came into Rockland County and Matt Elling is the franchisee owner of StearClear North Jersey, which will be servicing Rockland now. Defiant Brewery in Pearl River is an official sponsor of StearClear for Rockland County.
"Bars and restaurants are going to be standing room only come Sunday and StearClear is working closely with establishments across Nyack, Piermont and Rockland County to help them keep their customers safe," said Elling. "Bartenders, servers and owners can contact StearClear and we will provide them out with brochures, collateral, posters, etc. so they can help their customers get home safely after the Super Bowl festivities."
StearClear franchisees will be adding drive teams and expanding on-call hours to meet demands across Bergen County, as well as in Mercer, Morris, Hunterdon and Somerset counties, according to officials with the company.
"Unfortunately, many people opt to drive their car home rather than risk leaving it overnight somewhere after having a drink or two," said Craig Sher, CEO and co-founder of StearClear. "We saw that it was a big problem and created StearClear in order to provide a safe, efficient and reliable alternative to driving yourself home after you have had a drink."
In recent years Super Bowl Sunday has rivaled other big holidays for drunk driving in the U.S., according to a company representative.
In 2010, according the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 40 percent of the fatal crashes on Super Bowl Sunday were related to drunk driving. In that year, alcohol contributed to a fatal accident every 52 seconds.
StearClear is available on the iPhone and Android platforms and is the first app of its kind that connects customers directly with drive teams that pick them up and get them and their car home safely.
About STEARCLEAR
STEARCLEAR is a technology company dedicated to providing "last mile" services to consumers and businesses using smartphone applications and sophisticated GPS technology. Its flagship designated driver service provides customers with one-touch access to local driver teams that pick them up and get them and their car home safely and responsibly.
The company is currently featured on SeedInvest.com, an equity based crowdfunding platform. STEARCLEAR franchise opportunities are available across North America, EMEA, Australia and South Africa. More information can be found at www.stearclear.com.
In addition to the smartphone app (best and fastest way to StearClear!) customers without a smart phone can call 201-579-0005 to request a StearClear pickup.There was a TV ad for deodorant that said, "Never let them see you sweat." The John McCain campaign has just showed the world that it is drenched.
Selecting Sarah Palin as its choice for a vice presidential candidate is perhaps the worst such choice in American History. To be fair, maybe there are worse choices, but I don't know how bad William O. Butler was when he ran with Lewis Cass against Zachary Taylor.
But it's far worse than Dan Quayle, who was a sitting senator. Worse even than Geraldine Ferraro, who at least served in Congress for three-terms. And far worse than William Miller, a choice so obscure when selected by Barry Goldwater that he (honestly) later did an American Express commercial asking, "Do you know me?" And that ad was after the election. But even Miller had been a Congressman for 12 years. And been a prosecutor during the Nuremberg War trials against Nazis. Sarah Palin lists her credits as a hockey mom.
There was a point during the Republican primaries when I was trying to figure out who I hoped got the presidential nomination. Someone so weak he'd be easy for the Democrats to beat, or someone more challenging who at least wouldn't be a disaster for America. I decided on the latter because America has to resolve its serious problems and can't afford risking some glitch where another George Bush got elected. And so I felt that John McCain, for all his weaknesses, was the lesser of all evils and was glad he got the nomination. Throw that out the window. McCain-Palin is an unthinkable disaster.
I completely understand the reasoning behind the decision for John McCain to select Sarah Palin. Absolutely. It's the thinking that settled on Sarah Palin that's missing.
No doubt John McCain will get some women to vote for him who wouldn't have otherwise, and even some independents. But he will also probably lose as many Republicans uncomfortable with a woman on the ticket - let alone a woman with so little experience as Sarah Palin. Not to mention that the choice will cause many undecided Democratic women to be aghast and push them back to following their Democratic beliefs. And further, it will lose all the independents who look at the GOP ticket and say "This is who I'm supposed to give my vote for the next four years to lead and protect America??" It may even appeal to right-wing evangelicals for her strong pro-life stance and get some to vote - but that position and others related to it are specifically what loses even more women voters. And men. Ultimately, the nomination will lose far, far more votes than it gains.
But this is not the reason the decision is so terrible.
It's always said that the most important decision a presidential candidate makes is their pick for vice president. It shows their thinking and judgment. John McCain, in his first decision, has just told the world that he believes Sarah Palin is the most qualified person to be a heartbeat from the presidency. Forgetting all the available men for a moment, if John McCain felt it critical to select a woman in an effort to somehow grab the Hillary Clinton supporters, look at his choice of women he had available: Christine Todd Whitman, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Elizabeth Dole, Susan Collins, even - for goodness sake - Condoleezza Rice. Or Carly Fiorina. Each of these have marks against them, and perhaps some might not have wanted to run, but it's near-impossible to look at the list and suggest to the American public that Sarah Palin is the best choice of Republican women to be vice president. And again, this is ignoring the men he who could have been chosen.
It's not that Sarah Palin is inexperienced. It's that this is gross political misconduct.
Sarah Palin has been governor of Alaska for just a bit over 18 months. Alaska has a population of 683,000. (Though that doesn't include moose.) This would only make it the 17th most populous city in the United States. Just ahead of Fort Worth.
Before that, she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. Population 9,000. I know Republicans like to promote "small town values," but this is taking things to ridiculous extremes, don't you think? I'm from Glencoe, Illinois, population 8,762. It's so small it doesn't even have a mayor, it has an appointed village manager. I'm sure that Paul Harlow is doing wonderfully at his job in the village - but I don't expect that he sees himself as even wanting to be a heartbeat from the U.S. President in 18 months. You know what the top news story is on the Glencoe website? "Fire Hydrant Painting Underway." (To be fair, it's the #2 story. The top news is a clarification about displaying political signage.)
Do you know what the first two "powers and duties" are for the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska? Check their municipal code:
1. Preside at council meetings. The mayor may take part in the discussion of matters before the council, but may not vote, except that the mayor may vote in the case of a tie; 2. Act as ceremonial head of the city;
Swell.
If you live in small town America (and I mean really, really small), look around you and be honest - do you see your mayor (or village manager) as a heartbeat from the presidency in 18 months?
But that's not the reason either that the decision to make Sarah Palin the VP nominee is so terrible.
It's one thing to discuss how unqualified Sarah Palin is. That's a national matter and huge. But on a grassroots political level, her nomination takes away the Republicans' ONLY weapon in the campaign - calling Barack Obama inexperienced. They haven't even been trying to run on the issues, or on the eight-year record of George Bush, which John McCain has supported almost 95% of the time. They've only been running on the faux-issue of Barack Obama's experience of 14 years in federal and state government. Yes, Sarah Palin is merely running for VP, not president, but with a 72 year-old candidate with a history of serious medical issues, this is who they're saying is able to step in as president in a heart-beat. She has so little experience that she makes Sen. Obama look like FDR, Winston Churchill and Julius Caesar combined. So, the Republicans pulled the rug out from under themselves. They have no issues. The economy? Housing? The national debt? Education? The Environment? Iraq? Afghanistan? Nothing. All they have is "Dear Democratic women: please pretend our VP candidate is Hillary Clinton. Just forget that she's pro-life. And against most things Democrats stand for."
But that's not the reason the decision is so terrible.
Because if the hope for John McCain is to get women to vote for him who otherwise supported Hillary Clinton - if anything could get Hillary Clinton campaigning in full force and fury...this is it. She likely would have campaigned hard, but it's in Hillary Clinton's best interest to be the leading voice for women, and the leading woman candidate for president in the future, so having another woman as the potential Vice President (and potential President) is a significant challenge to that. The Republicans just opened Pandora's Box and brought Hillary Clinton roaring to Barack Obama's side on the Democratic train. And Bill Clinton, too.
Yet even that's not the reason the decision is so terrible.
What this does in the most profound and grandiose way possible is give lie to John McCain's pompous posturing that he Always Puts America First. And that undercuts the most prominent campaign issue of his entire career, that everything he does is for reasons of honor. There is nothing honorable about making Sarah Palin your vice presidential nominee. Nothing. Unless you define honor as "blatantly pandering."
But that's not the reason either that this decision is so terrible.
But before we get to that, let's look at the actual announcement to make Gov. Sarah Palin (AK - pop. 683,000) the Republican nominee for president, and put the horrible decision in perspective.
First, John McCain stood at the podium, looking up-and-down reading his speech. It's impossible not to compare that to Barack Obama giving his majestic speech the night before that even conservative analysts were admiring in awe.
Second, the cameras were polite enough to avoid it, but there were empty seats in the gym. It's impossible not to compare that to a stadium of 75,000 people that Barack Obama spoke to the night before.
Third, when people around the nation were waiting to hear about Sarah Palin's qualifications and gravitas to be Vice President of the United States, the first five minutes of her speech were spent talking about her husband being a champion snowmobiler.
Fourth, when she finally got around to her qualifications, pretty much all we discovered was that she fought to cut property taxes. And then, she basically stopped there.
She did, however, mention becoming energy self-sufficient - by talking about how she supported drilling in Alaska!!! Perhaps to Republicans this is being an environmentalist, but to most of America, not so much. Then again, she's also against putting polar bears on the endangered species list (which the government did), so maybe her environmental qualifications are more lax than she thinks.
And then, finally, she spent the rest of her time praising John McCain. Fine, that's very supportive of her...except that the one question on everyone's mind was not -- "can you say John McCain is a swell guy and tell us that he was a POW", the question on everyone's mind was - "Who in God's name are you, and please tell us why you should be a heart-beat from the presidency?"
In the end, the only case she herself made for being on the ticket was praising Hillary Clinton! That's it, period. Now, it might be enough to attract some women -- but it doesn't make a case for the ticket. Why? Hint: some women did vote for Hillary Clinton solely because she was a woman. But most women voted for Hillary Clinton because she was a Democrat, as well as a woman, who stood for important Democratic values they seriously believed in. If Sarah Palin wants to praise Hillary Clinton, go for it. But at least understand what you're praising. Because it will likely come back and bite you.
It was a thin, nothing, empty speech. It was a speech to be head of the Chamber of Commerce. Compare that to the speech by Joe Biden when Barack Obama introduced him. Eloquent, soaring and explaining in blunt detail why John McCain should not be president. Joe Biden must have been watching Sarah Palin's speech, in order to take notes in preparation for his debate with her and thought, "This isn't fair."
And all that's not even the reason the decision is so terrible.
The reason is because the election is not about Sarah Palin. Or about Joe Biden. As much as TV analysts want to be excited by the balloons and hoopla, tomorrow the air will be let out, and there are still over two months to go for the campaign.
The campaign is about Barack Obama and John McCain.
Sarah Palin's nomination doesn't change that. In fact, it reinforces it. Nothing about putting Sarah Palin on the GOP ticket changes a word that Barack Obama said in his vibrant acceptance speech - about himself, about his issues, and about John McCain's repeatedly faulty judgment on the critical issues facing America.
What Sarah Palin's nomination does do is focus attention on John McCain's age. Indeed, the nomination was made on his birthday, when he turned 72, the oldest man ever to run for president. As the crowd sang "Happy Birthday to You," you almost sensed that through John McCain's clenched smile, saying, "Thanks for reminding me," that what he was thinking underneath was "Please, oh, please, don't sing the 'How old are you now?' part." And how good a message was it that he's saying he supposedly forgot it was his birthday?
Vice presidents are usually selected as people who are adept at blasting the other side's presidential candidate, because it's only the presidential candidate that matters. Joe Biden has already done that - twice - at length, spoken as someone who knows John McCain well and likes him. Sarah Palin had her first chance...and whiffed. Didn't even try. And it's hard to imagine what she has in her arsenal that will remotely allow her to do so in the future.
The election is about the presidential candidates. And the selection of Sarah Palin now allows Barack Obama to campaign untouched by the Republican ticket. John McCain's only other option is for himself to personally become negative for two months - which is disaster in presidential politics.
Now add on all the problems expressed above. Sarah Palin's inexplicably laughable lack of substance, most-especially on the foreign policy stage. Her taking away the one issue, experience, Republicans were even attempting. Her pushing away voters who might otherwise be willing to vote for a senator with 26 years in the Senate. Her bringing Hillary Clinton aggressively back into the campaign. Her inability to offer anything to off-set Joe Biden. Her standing as supposedly the most-qualified Republican woman as John McCain's first decision.
And, in the end, it all focuses back on Barack Obama, with his indictment of eight years of the Bush Administration and of John McCain's flawed judgment - and John McCain's defense of all that.John Sepulvado/OPB
Editor’s note: This story was reported in collaboration between OPB and Willamette Week. The first feature in this series, ‘Bundyland,’ was published by WW.
Almost two weeks into the armed occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, there doesn’t appear to be a concrete plan for resolution.
To find out what the armed militants and law enforcement are doing to end the occupation, OPB sent Amanda Peacher to the occupied refuge, and John Sepulvado to talk with federal, state and local law enforcement. They set out during the same three-hour span Thursday.
10:55 A.M, At The Occupied Refuge
For the past twelve days, armed militants led by Ammon Bundy hold an 11 a.m. press conference at the top of the driveway leading to the refuge headquarters. It’s often a spectacle as militants, reporters, producers, cameramen and local gawkers mix on a dirt roadway surrounded by snow.
Today is no different.
Duane Ehmer, a militant from Irrigon, Oregon, sits atop his brown horse named “Hell Boy.”
“He’s got a job, he’s not just for looks,” Ehmer says, explaining that Hell Boy is used to patrol the frozen desert around the compound at night.
While there’s still a sense of the surreal here, it’s tempered compared to the same time last week. There are fewer reporters than just a week ago. They’re joined by a few occupiers who mill around the refuge entrance, chatting and stomping their feet in the cold. They wear camouflage and stocking caps, and instead of chatting it up with reporters — as they once did — they kick at the ice near the campfire.
For the militants, the morning press briefings are the oxygen that breathes life into their occupation. This is the occupiers’ chance to repeat their message, knowing the press will listen, hoping there will be some news of when this might end.
Finally, Ammon Bundy arrives to speak, his head topped — as it always is outside — with a brown cowboy hat.
“Good morning and I apologize for my tardiness. Thank you for being here,” says Bundy, before once again explaining why his group has occupied the 187,787 acres of federally owned and maintained land.
He occasionally looks down at prepared notes, but, yet again, doesn’t explain when the group plans to leave. Instead, he launches into a familiar speech about the oppressive nature of the federal government.
“The only safe place for the land and the resources are in the hands of the people,” Bundy says.
10:55 A.M., FBI Base Outside of Burns
The safest stretch of land in Harney County is some 30 miles away from the refuge and about 7 miles out of town. On a two-lane highway surrounded by scattered ranches and sagebrush, the FBI has set up shop next to the Burns Municipal Airport.
Federal agents have a different media strategy than the militants — they want the press to get lost.
“Hey, bud, can I help you?” an unidentified agent says to an OPB reporter. “Do you need assistance?”
The agent walks from behind a concrete barrier blocking the airport road.
He’s dressed more for Syria than southeast Oregon. He’s wearing a military-grade green bulletproof vest, helmet, side arm and a utility belt that would make Batman jealous.
In so many words, the reporter is told to leave. It’s a politely tense exchange, with both the FBI agent and OPB working quickly to understand what’s going on.
When asked who’s in charge, the FBI agent points at the road that heads back to Burns.
“You mean the sheriff?” the reporter asks.
The FBI guard nods and then asks if he can take a picture of the reporter’s face and press pass. The reporter consents.
“We just like to know who is who around here,” the unidentified guard says.
The reporter gets in his car, and drives back into town to try and talk with Harney County Sheriff.
Amanda Peacher/OPB
11:30 A.M., At The Refuge
Inside a cramped office normally occupied by a fish biologist, two women from Washington meet with Ammon and Ryan Bundy to learn more about the occupation.
As Bundy often does with newcomers, the men and women form a circle, kneel down and pray.
“Dear Lord, we just come before you today, walking in your spirit,” the woman says, her head bowed low.
After prayer, the discussion turns toward federal and local government roles and responsibilities. As the discussion begins to reach a climax, there’s a knock at the door.
Jon Ritzheimer — a militant who has become notable due to highly dramatic videos he makes — escorts two men into the room.
“These two young gentlemen are from Burns,” says Ritzheimer. “They’re here to join the militia.”
The newcomers stand up straight, their hands folded in front of them as Ritzheimer presents them to Ammon Bundy.
Bundy stands to shake the young men’s hands. He thanks them for joining the occupation, before Ritzheimer leads them away for a briefing on their operation and the complex.
11:30 A.M., Encounter With Law Enforcement
As Bundy is welcoming men to his self-described militia, the OPB reporter leaving the FBI complex is being followed from the airport by a black SUV.
The reporter speeds up, and the SUV speeds up. The reporter turns left. The SUV goes left. The short tailing ends at a Safeway parking lot in Burns, where both vehicles park.
The reporter gets out of the car to talk to the police officers.
“Is there a reason y’all are following me?” he asks.
“Excuse me?” an unidentified sheriff’s deputy asks.
“I’m wondering why y’all are following me.”
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imus Prime, his Generation 1 successor. The reason for the change was due to Director Michael Bay's decree that mass displacement does not occur when they transform, requiring Optimus's vehicle form to have more mass to achieve the desired size in his robot form.
Although the character was redesigned to some extent, like the other characters in the film, many classic design elements remain in his robot mode including a predominantly red torso, primarily blue legs, the presence of windows in his chest, smoke stacks on his shoulders, and a head design influenced by the original, featuring the iconic faceplate and ear finials. The faceplate is able to retract to reveal a mouth. His weapons include his iconic ion blaster, a Barrage cannon, two retractable energon blades that extend from his forearms, which is a homage to Prime's energy axe in the Generation 1 animated series, and two retractable energon hooks that extend from his wrists. The trailer contains an energy axe, a shield, and flight gear. In the later IDW comics, he displays the ability to produce a holographic driver.
At San Diego ComicCon 06, it was announced that original Optimus Prime voice actor, Peter Cullen, would reprise his role for the third film. Cullen has commented that Prime is basically the same in the third film as the previous two, and retains the same basic personality.
Reception
The 2000s film series incarnation of Optimus Prime was met with warm reception. It was named the 30th greatest movie superhero of all time by "Total Film Magazine".[30]
Involvement in the films
The character of Optimus Prime first appears in the 2007 Transformers film as the leader of the Autobots in the search for the Allspark. He intends to destroy it, even if it means sacrificing himself, before the Decepticons can use it to create a new army to conquer the universe. After arriving and scanning a Peterbilt truck, Optimus greets Sam Witwicky and Mikaela Banes, introducing his men and explaining why they have come to Earth. During the final battle, Optimus slays the hate-filled Decepticon Bonecrusher and faces his ancient enemy, Megatron. Unable to match Megatron in combat, Optimus urges Sam to push the Allspark into his chest, which will destroy them both. Instead, Sam rams the Allspark into Megatron's chest, destroying it and killing the Decepticon leader. The film ends with Optimus sending out a deep-space signal, inviting other Autobots to join them on Earth.
Optimus Prime returns in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. He leads the Autobots as part of NEST in hunting down the remaining Decepticons on Earth. He later engages in a battle with Starscream, Grindor, and a resurrected Megatron. Although Optimus manages to injure Starscream and kill Grindor, he is eventually impaled and killed by Megatron. However, Optimus is resurrected during the battle in Egypt by Sam using the Matrix of Leadership. He is then fused with the dead body of Jetfire, giving him an extremely powerful upgraded mode. After severely maiming Megatron, he kills The Fallen, forcing Megatron and Starscream to retreat. At the end of the film, Optimus thanks Sam for reviving him and again transmits a message to space, hoping to find more Autobots.
Optimus appears again in the 2011 film Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Optimus receives his own armory consisting of weapons and flight tech that transforms into a trailer for him to carry in vehicular form. After assisting NEST operatives in fighting Shockwave at Chernobyl, Optimus learns that the humans have concealed the discovery of an ancient Cybertronian ship on the moon. He revives his old mentor, Sentinel Prime, with the Matrix of Leadership. However, Sentinel Prime later betrays the Autobots, murders Ironhide, wipes out most of NEST, and brings an army of Decepticons to Earth with Space Bridge Pillars. During the battle of Chicago, Optimus kills Shockwave, the Driller, and many Decepticon Protoforms. Finally, Optimus challenges the traitorous Sentinel Prime and they engage in a fierce duel. At first, Optimus appears to have the upper hand, but Sentinel eventually overpowers him and severs his right arm. However, before Sentinel can deliver the killing blow, Megatron attacks and severely injures him, having realized that he will never be able to remain leader of the Decepticons as long as Sentinel is at large. Megatron attempts to make a false truce with Optimus, but Optimus doesn't fall for it and attacks Megatron, decapitating him with his battle-axe. Optimus then bitterly executes the wounded Sentinel with Megatron's shotgun. With the Decepticons defeated and the war finally over, Optimus and the Autobots accept Earth as their new home.
For Transformers: Age of Extinction, Optimus Prime initially transforms into a rusty 1973 Marmon semi cab-over truck and later on a new alternate mode in a blue and red Western Star 5700 Custom semi-truck.[31][32] After humanity turns on all Transformers, regardless of faction, Optimus and the other Autobots go into hiding. Eventually, they find themselves being hunted by a rogue organization called Cemetery Wind. Optimus is severely injured in a trap set by the group, while many of the other Autobots, including Ratchet and Leadfoot, are slain. An inventor, Cade Yeager, comes to Prime's aid and helps restore his health. After uniting with a small band of Autobots, Optimus faces Lockdown, a ruthless bounty hunter allied with the humans, and KSI, an organization that produces man-made Transformers. Optimus is captured by Lockdown, but the Autobots rescue him. Optimus is quickly losing faith in humanity, but at the urging of Cade, chooses to stay and fight a resurrected Megatron and his new army. Prime awakens the ancient Dinobots, and rides a newly tamed Grimlock into battle through Hong Kong. He kills Lockdown and Harold Attinger at the film's climax as revenge for killing many of his friends, including Ratchet and Leadfoot. At the end of the film, he leaves Earth and flies off into deep space, seeking to find out the truth about his mysterious Creators.[33][34]
Optimus Prime returns in Transformers: The Last Knight, which is set three years after the events of the previous film. Having been frozen in the vacuum of space, Optimus has been drifting on the far reaches of Earth's solar system for some time. However, he later crash-lands on Cybertron, its atmosphere reviving him. He then confronts the being currently in control of the planet, a powerful sorceress named Quintessa, who professes to be the maker he is searching for. Optimus is easily subdued by Quintessa, who convinces him that he destroyed Cybertron and reveals that the Earth is actually Cybertron's "ancient enemy" Unicron. Redubbing him "Nemesis Prime", Quintessa brain-washes Optimus and tasks him with retrieving her stolen staff, with which she plans to drain Earth/Unicron's life force so that Cybertron can be restored. Nemesis succeeds in retrieving the staff, but is hindered by Bumblebee, whom he engages in a fierce duel. Nemesis nearly kills Bumblebee, but when the normally mute Bumblebee suddenly speaks, urging Prime to remember who he is, the sound of his oldest friend's voice is enough for Optimus to return. However, Megatron, revealed to be in league with Quintessa, swoops in and steals the staff from Optimus. Prime is then attacked and sentenced to death by the Guardian Knights for aiding Quintessa, but he is saved by Cade Yeager, who convinces Optimus to correct his mistake. Optimus leads the Autobots in the attack on Quintessa's lair, during which he slays the Infernocons and defeats Megatron. Optimus then attacks Quintessa, distracting her long enough for Bumblebee to shoot and seemingly vaporize her. At the end of the film, Optimus and the other Autobots return to Cybertron, unaware that Quintessa is actually still alive.
Optimus Prime returns in the spin-off Bumblebee: The Movie.
In popular culture
Film incarnation
During the promotion of the Transformers films, Optimus Prime appeared in several commercials. Optimus Prime, along with other Transformers, were featured in several commercials for General Motors. Scenes with Optimus Prime were used in several General Motors commercials.[48] A commercial for the Discovery Channel featured Optimus Prime singing part of a promotional song.[49]
Optimus also appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, giving "The Top Ten Things That Sound Cool When Spoken by a Giant Robot".[50]
Honors
At BotCon 2010, Hasbro named Optimus Prime as one of the first five robot inductees in the Transformers Hall of Fame.[51]
References
BibliographyKDE has made available the Release Candidate of the new versions of KDE Applications and Development Platform.
In the past, major releases usually included all three elements of the complete software family produced by KDE. This release does not include Plasma Workspaces, which was frozen for new features in 4.11.x. In addition, the Development Platform has seen only minor changes for a number of releases in anticipation of KDE Frameworks 5. So this release is mainly about improving and polishing KDE Applications.
A partial list of changes in this release can be found in the 4.12 Feature Plan. A more complete list of the many improvements and changes will be available with the final release in the middle of December.
The 4.12 releases that need a thorough testing in order to improve quality and user experience. A variety of actual users is essential to maintaining high KDE quality, because developers cannot possibly test every configuration. User assistance helps find bugs early so they can be squashed before the final release. Please join the 4.12 team's release effort by installing the Release Candidate and reporting any bugs. The official announcement has information about how to install the Release Candidate.Zoe Kravitz Struggled With Eating Disorders And Racial Identity
We were thrilled to see our girl Zoe Kravitz on the cover of NYLON Magazine but kind of disappointed to discover that she wasn’t always so comfortable in her own skin.
Check out a few excerpts below:
On the root of her insecurities:
Growing up as a self-described “chubby, awkward brown girl around a bunch of blonde girls” led to struggles with bulimia and anorexia in her teens. Her famous father’s supermodel girlfriends, and the fact that her mom was “the most beautiful woman in the world,” she says, didn’t help matters. Such self-loathing came from “tons of things,” she continues,“including being human.”
On the dynamics of her racial identity:
As one of few black kids in her predominately white school, she remembers saying things like, “I’m just as white as y’all,” to her classmates. “I identified with white culture, and I wanted to fit in,” she says. “I didn’t identify with black culture, like, I didn’t like Tyler Perry movies, and I wasn’t into hip-hop music. I liked Neil Young.” But as time went on, her views shifted. “Black culture is so much deeper than that,” she says, “but unfortunately that is what’s fed through the media. That’s what people see. That’s what I saw. But then I got older and listed to A Tribe Called Quest and watched films with Sidney Poitier, and heard Billie Holiday and Nina Simone. I had to un-brainwash myself. It’s my mission, especially as an actress.
SMH… We can’t believe Zoe equated Tyler Perry movies with blackness! Seeeeeeeeee, this is why we all suffer from Madea’s success.
Nylon/ Bella HowardGet the latest news and videos for this game daily, no spam, no fuss.
Disney's Star Wars: Attack Squadrons, a free-to-play PC game that channeled classic Nintendo 64 title Rogue Squadron, is no more. The developer today canceled the game, just five months after announcing it in December 2013.
A message posted on the game's website informs players of the shutdown. "We want to thank all of the fans who participated in the closed beta of Star Wars: Attack Squadrons," Disney said. "After much consideration, we have decided to cease development so that we can focus on other Star Wars game experiences. We truly appreciate the time you spent engaging in the beta."
Star Wars: Attack Squadrons was going to allow you to pilot classic Star Wars ships such as the X-Wing or TIE Interceptor. Ship customization and multiplayer battles were also planned. The game's dogfighting mode was going to support up to 16 players and even take place in "iconic Star Wars locations."
First-time developer Area 52 Games was behind Star Wars: Attack Squadrons. It's unclear what impact the game's cancellation had or will have on the studio.
Though Star Wars: Attack Squadrons may be no more, Electronic Arts is moving forward on multiple core Star Wars games. Battlefield developer DICE is making a new Star Wars: Battlefront game, while Dead Space creator Visceral Games is rumored to be working on an open-world Star Wars game. Former Naughty Dog creative director Amy Hennig recently joined EA to work on this title.
Disney and Lucasfilm announced in April that going forward, "all aspects of Star Wars storytelling moving forward will be connected." As part of this announcement, Lucasfilm confirmed that all future game releases will also be canonical.“Funny … I thought there was a pharmacy ( geo allo ) on that corner”. So what’s happening to those green crosses? That pharmacy on the corner – like all the other offices across France, to use the professional term – put up the shutters for good last year rather than being sold on as a going concern which has been the tradition. That just shows how fast economic transformation can occur.
When I last spoke to a pharmacist some ten years ago, who now retired – she told me that her calling offered “a good living, security, a certain prestige and a lot of personal pleasure”. That conclusion was modified somewhat when I talked to some other expert at her pharmacy at Nice. She recently became, by the way, the best-known pharmacist in France.
A profession in crisis
Although by no means a pessimist, she confesses that things have changed and that her occupation is in crisis. For me, that’s no great surprise since, like many immigrants, I’ve been puzzled by the number of shops you pass showing that distinctive green cross. When I enquired a decade ago France had one pharmacy for every 1600 inhabitants – compared with one for every 5000 Brits and one for every 15,000 Danes.
“That must be very hard on the elderly,” she remarked “who’ve got a long trip to pick up their medicines.” But why does France have so many pharmacies? “Several reasons, I’d say. The French have always cared a lot about their health and they like medical services to be close at hand and, of course, over the past 60 years the Sécu has subsidised these preferences. Until recently to be a chemist did offer the gratifications.
So what’s going on?
Essentially there’s a financial crisis. As Jean- Marie Soyer, president of the pharmacists’ suggestion in the Alpes- Maritimes, told Nice-Matin recently, “Of 466 officines in the department some two-thirds are facing financial difficulties. Their prices are fixed by the government and they’ve moved up very slowly. It’s generally agreed that since the Nineties our margins have fallen by about 50%.
And then in their effort to shrink the deficit of the Sécu the government has been putting pressure on doctors to prescribe less and at the same time on some products the amount of repayment has been cut or even eliminated and so demand goes down. On top of that you’ve got a fall in the number of GPs. The ideal site for an officine is close by a cabinet de généraliste. If a doctor retires and isn’t replaced the local pharmacy sees a drop in turnover.
New forms of competition
And, of course, there are now new ways of competing to be faced. “That’s right. For example, we can’t rely on para- pharmacy to increase our turnover. That’s been largely taken over by the supermarkets who can discount seriously. Then there’s the internet. It’s a menace and mainly for people’s health. It’s just not on to buy medicines online with no proper advice and often no quality control.”
And what if the supermarkets get into the core business, as they hope to do? It is for sure, not a good development. Whatever they say now, they’d end up giving pharmaceuticals like groceries. And there is a difference.”
Do we see any reason for being optimistic? Of course we do. At the beginning there was a lot of consumer doubt and the pharmaceutical companies still try to pressure doctors into prescribing famous products but the amount of generics within the sale of prescription medicines is now over and over and it keeps rising.
At a different level many pharmacists – once fiercely independent – have seen the advantage of collaboration and have come together in what we call groupements de conseils which offer benefits in areas like wholesale buying and marketing. It doesn’t always work out even though a lot of them have tried it out.
One criticism I’ve heard of pharmacies concerns a big difference in the pricing of over-the-counter products. A survey found that a box of sweets for the shore throat could cost anything between €3.0 and €6. “Maybe in the country where there’s less competition you can get away with a bit of gouging. In town you have to charge what the market will bear. There’s a trade website that specifies what’s currently being charged for many items and that has to be your guide.”
The urgent and immediate service of every sick man in France by a Pharmacy de garde wich stays open during the day and the night too is what makes pharmacists play an essential role in the life of French people.
The human side makes it rewarding
It’s always interesting to ask any professional or dentists ( dentiste urgence ) if they’d like their children to have the same career as them. How did they respond to this? They’ve answered that for me. No way would they like to be chemists. They’ve seen how hard the work is, they usually are at the store more than at home–and they don’t fancy all that paperwork we face these days. Certainly, you have to put in a lot of time to make a living and that’s after 10-year exercise. But there’s another side to it: as a neighborhood pharmacist plays an important part in peoples’ lives as a source of advice and comfort that no website can rival. It’s the human side of the job that makes it rewarding. Nobody is thinking of early retirement.”HELENE ELLIOTT Kings' life without Anze Kopitar begins with a victory
Trevor Lewis sets up Dustin Brown for both goals in Kings' 2-0 shutout of lowly Oilers that gives L.A. a little more cushion in the standings.
Add two assists by Trevor Lewis, who has had a hand in each of the team's last four goals since being moved up from the fourth line, and it was a solid effort that produced the Kings' fourth straight triumph and standings points for the 10th time in 11 games.
Without the inventiveness of forwards Anze Kopitar and Justin Williams, the Kings on Tuesday relied on grit and defense. They killed both penalties called against them, created scoring chances through hard work rather than sleight of hand and got solid goaltending from Jonathan Bernier, who stopped 32 shots for his third shutout this season.
The Kings' 2-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday provided a blueprint for their final six regular season games and however long they last in the playoffs.
Injuries could unravel Kings' season
"We lost probably two of our most creative offensive players and it's certainly going to take away from our ability to create offense. We're going to have to grind games out a little more," defenseman Rob Scuderi said.
"We're a good defensive team and that's going to have to remain a constant for us to have a chance to win games. It's going to have to be like this the rest of the way for us to give ourselves a chance."
Lewis set up Dustin Brown twice in the second period as the Kings swept the season series from the Oilers, who are winless in their last 10 games. The Kings have benefitted from playing non-contenders in their last two games—they beat Colorado on Saturday—but they're more concerned with their own game and they've liked what they've seen.
They stayed fifth in the West because Phoenix beat Dallas in a shootout but moved seven points ahead of ninth-place Dallas and solidified their playoff chances.
"I think it answered a lot of questions to ourselves as far as what style, who we are, what we have to do," Coach Terry Murray said. "Guys really don't have to do anything extraordinary — just go play the game the right way and things will fall in place."
Lewis set up Brown at 5:11 of the second period with a fine pass from the left side of the slot and through the crease. With Oilers goalie Nikolai Khabibulin by the left post, Brown had half an empty net and didn't miss.
Kings center Trevor Lewis due prominent role with Anze Kopitar out
Brown scored again at 14:56, from short range, after Lewis recovered a turnover by Edmonton's Ryan O'Marra.
"I'm getting some bounces now and Brownie got open for me a couple times tonight," Lewis said. "I just want to keep going and I'm excited for the challenge."
Brown was happier for Lewis' success than his own.
"He's been under the radar on the offensive side of things because he's in that fourth-line center role," Brown said. "He has the ability to make plays out there, but at the same time he's looked upon as one of those players who probably can't make too many mistakes. Now he's getting in on offense and getting more minutes. He has the skill to play at that level."
The Kings did a lot of little things right. Jarret Stoll, awarded the alternate captain's A that had been worn by Kopitar, won 70% of his faceoffs. They didn't give up many prime scoring chances to the speedy Oilers and they actually got some movement — though no goals — in four power-play attempts.Joona "Serral" Sotala is a Zerg player from Finland. He is currently playing for Ence eSports.
Biography [ edit ]
Wings of Liberty [ edit ]
Although Serral has kept a relatively low profile, he has had some some appearances in major tournaments. Serral participated Copenhagen Games Spring 2012 in April, 2012. He was in the same group with StarNaN, Joe and Buddha and managed to advance to the main bracket by placing 2nd in his group by only dropping two games against the group winner, StarNaN. In the main bracket Serral was put up against Seiplo, who defeated Serral by a score of 2-1.
World Championship Series [ edit ]
2012 WCS Finland Nationals [ edit ]
On July 28, 2012, Serral participated in the World Championship Series 2012 Finland event. He was one of the eight players to qualify for the event through Vectorama 2012. Serral lost against Welmu in round 1 and fell into the losers bracket where he managaed to beat grim and Winsti, but failing to defeat elfi in round 3. Serral finished 7th/8th along with core, winning $200.
Heart of the Swarm [ edit ]
On April 23, 2013, it was announced that Serral had joined Ence eSports. He became the second StarCraft II player in their roster, along with elfi, who became, according to the team, his personal mentor.[1]
Serral made an impressive run at 2013 DreamHack Open: Bucharest on September 14, 2013. After topping his 3-player group in the first group stage, he played against SuperNova, pal, and TargA in the second group stage. His match against SuperNova was not originally planned to be featured, however due to delays to the DIMAGA vs. Flash series, it was casted on the main stream. Despite losing the series 0-2, his performance was impressive regardless and was mentioned in the TeamLiquid.net tournament recap.[2] After defeating pal and TargA 2-0 each, he advanced to the third group stage to play against three notable Koreans, Jaedong, CranK, and ForGG. After winning only a single game in the group against Jaedong, Serral was eliminated before reaching the bracket stage.
After Ence eSports disbanded, Serral joined mYinsanity on February 24, 2014.[3]
Legacy of the Void [ edit ]
2016 [ edit ]
Serral played at Assembly Winter 2016, and proceeded to the finals without dropping a single map. In the grand finals he played against Namshar and took the series 4-2.
On October 4, Serral transferred to Ence eSports from mYinsanity.
On October 20, Serral took part in the first Take's Penthouse Party, a smaller version of the popular HomeStory Cup tournaments. Serral cruised through the winners' bracket, facing off against HeRoMaRinE in the finals. The Finnish Zerg took down the German Terran player 4-1, earning Serral a lion's share of the $4,350 prize pool.
2017 [ edit ]
In January, Serral qualified for the IEM Season XI - World Championship. In the final qualifiers he dropped down to the losers' bracket in the first round, but was able to hold on, eventually defeating Elazer 3-0 to qualify for the main event. At the Spodek Arena, Serral topped his group with a 4-1 match score, making his way to the quarterfinals. There he met Dark and lost 0-3, ending his run.
Having qualified for WCS Jönköping, Serral started out directly in the third group stage. He topped his group with a map score of 4-1, taking down MaNa and Scarlett. He made his way from the Ro16 all the way to the grand finals, defeating Stephano, PtitDrogo and Elazer, and dropping only a single map on the way. In the finals he met the North American Protoss Neeb. The two had met less than two months prior at the WCS Austin quarterfinals, where Neeb had been the victor with a 3-1 score. The two traded blows, taking the series all the way to the last map but in the end it was Neeb who emerged victorious from game 7. With a 3-4 loss, Serral had make do with a silver medal. The second place finish would also eventually prove to be his best WCS result of the year.
On September 30, Serral played in TaKe's Penthouse Party 3. He went 2-1 in his group, earning a spot in the quarterfinals. In the playoffs, he defeated Kelazhur, Solar and Harstem on his way to the finals, where he met Solar again. The Splyce Zerg player defeated Serral 4-1 in the rematch.
Serral qualified for the 2017 WCS Global Finals in third place, with 4730 WCS Points. It was his first ever Global Finals appearance. He was placed in Group D with INnoVation, GuMiho and TRUE. He lost two matches against GuMiho, 0-2 and 1-2 respectively, but won his match against TRUE 2-0. With the loss in the decider match against GuMiho, he was unable to advance from the Global Playoffs and didn't play on the BlizzCon stage.
Following BlizzCon, Serral participated in the WESG qualifier in Barcelona. Serral placed second in his group, his only loss against ShoWTimE. He was able to advance from the Ro12 against Majestic, and took down uThermal in the quarterfinals. Following a quick 3-0 semifinal victory against Elazer, Serral met Nerchio in the finals. He defeated the Polish Zerg player with a 4-0 clean sweep, earning himself both his first offline victory of 2017 and his largest prize pool yet.
2018 [ edit ]
Starting the year, Serral participated in the WCS Leipzig qualifier. Because the tournament organizer had inadvertently drawn up the brackets wrong, Serral at first thought he had qualified for the main event. After the admins caught the issue, Serral, along with the other players in the playoffs, was forced to play his matches again. In the revised bracket, he took down Harstem 3-0, followed by defeating Nerchio likewise 3-0. In the finals he met Elazer, and the Polish Zerg player was able to finally stop Serral's run. Nevertheless, Serral held on to his qualification spot for Leipzig.
At Leipzig proper, Serral started out in the third group stage. An all-Zerg group, he took down Stephano and Namshar to advance to the round-of-16. Once in the playoffs, he was able to advance to the grand finals by taking down MaSa, Nerchio and SpeCial, only losing a single map on the way. In the finals he met ShoWTimE, the German hometown favorite. Serral first took the series to 3-0, with ShoWTimE not able to keep up in the longer macro games. On match point, Serral moved to more aggressive openings, trying to catch the German Protoss off-guard. Much to Serral's chagrin, ShoWTimE was able to hold fast against the Zerg aggression for two games in a row, bringing the score to 3-2. In the sixth map, Serral was able to finally close out the series, winning his first ever Premier title and a guaranteed spot to BlizzCon 2018.
Having qualified for IEM Pyeongchang in December 2017, Serral was placed against the Colombian Zerg eGGz in the bracket. The Finn won his first match in a clean sweep 3-0, and advanced to play against Scarlett. The Canadian Zerg player was able to turn the tables on Serral, taking the series 3-1 and ending Serral's Pyeongchang run in the quarterfinals.
At IEM Katowice Serral participated in the offline qualifiers in the Ro76. He played in Bracket #2 on the first day. He plowed through his bracket, winning three matches in a row, and ensuring himself a spot in the main group stage of the tournament. There he played five matches in Group C. Serral took down Rogue, Impact, Neeb, Zest and Nerchio in a row, only losing two maps on the way, and securing his spot in the quarterfinals. Facing Trap for the semifinals spot, Serral lost the first two games, but clawed his way back from the 0-2 position to win the series 3-2.
On championship Sunday, Serral was pitted against Classic in the Ro4. The Protoss opened the first game with a strong unscouted charge-zealot push, catching Serral wholly unprepared. In the second game it was Serral who opted for an all-in, flooding zerglings into Classic's base. The Protoss was not fazed, however, and with a strong build and a good defense, was able to repel Serral's attacks. The third game was slightly longer than the first two, but in the end Classic's stronger tech was able to overcome Serral's lurker-heavy style. With a 0-3 result, Serral was unable to advance past the semifinals.
Trivia [ edit ]
He is the only player along with Nerchio to qualify for all of the four 2017 WSC Circuit Events through the European Qualifiers.
He is the only player to have won all of the WCS Circuit Tournaments in a single year: he achieved this in 2018 beating his previous record (shared with Neeb) of 3 out of 4 in 2017.
If not for his second place in 2018 WCS Leipzig Challenger he would have won all the WCS Challengers and Main Events of 2018.
He and Neeb are the only non-korean players to have obtained the Triple Crown.
He is the only non-Korean player to have reached and won a WCS Global Finals in 2018.
Joona was included (along with his older brother, Jonne "Protosser" Sotala) in a Finnish magazine show "Ajankohtainen Kakkonen", in a short documentary about competitive video gaming. [4] [5]
Joona also plays golf with his older brother Protosser and their father. [4]
He is the youngest active player (born March 22, 1998) with a Premier tournament win.
He is the younger brother of Jonne "Protosser" Sotala, who also plays Zerg. [4]
Serral has faced Protoss in 6/7 Premier finals, with a 5-1 record.
Achievements [ edit ]
Team Achievements
Championships [ edit ]
Notable Series [ edit ]
ZvT [ edit ]
ZvP [ edit ]
ZvZ [ edit ]
Notable Games [ edit ]
ZvT [ edit ]
ZvZ [ edit ]
Interviews [ edit ]
2018 [ edit ]
2018-11-07 | BlizzCon Semifinalist Interviews by Cyan and Destruction of TeamLiquid.net
2017 [ edit ]
2017-06-07 | Get to Know Your WCS Challengers: Serral by Waxangel of TeamLiquid.net
2015 [ edit ]
2013 [ edit ]
2012 [ edit ]
Matches & VODs [ edit ]
First Person View Match VODS [ edit ]
Gallery [ edit ]
See Also [ edit ]A new study has opened fire against the commonly-held belief – particularly in Texas – that carrying guns can reduce violent crime.
Covering the years 1979 to 2014, the Stanford University study looks at 30 states that have adopted right-to-carry-laws. John Donohue, a law professor at Stanford, co-authored the study. He says that after about 10 years with right-to-carry laws in place, states typically had 13 to 15 percent higher rates of violent crime than states that had no right-to-carry laws in place.
Donohue says at the time Texas adopted its right-to-carry law in the ‘90s, the state was also leading the world in the rate of incarceration, which may account for decreased violent crime rates in the state after the law was put into place. But other states that did not pass right-to-carry laws paint a different picture.
“The comparison states that we had showed that they experienced a much larger drop in violent crime than Texas experienced,” he says. “Essentially, the estimate that we came up with for Texas was that they had a 17 percent higher violent crime rate because of the adoption of the right-to-carry law than they would have had they follow states like California and not adopted right-to-carry.”
Crimes of passion, like spousal conflicts and road rage, where a perpetrator had the right to carry account for an increase in violent crime, Donohue says. But theft and loss of firearms by their owners are also huge factors, creating easier access to illegal guns.
Written by Lila Weatherly.Frontier Airlines CEO Dave Siegel, who took the helm of the Denver-based airline in January 2012, has stepped down and will be replaced by a board-managed team of two.
Frontier president Barry Biffle would not elaborate on Siegel’s departure other than to say that the leadership restructuring is designed to fix myriad operational issues that have dogged the airline as it transitions into an ultra-low-cost carrier.
“This is about completing our strategy. We believe we’ve got the costs on the right track; we believe we’ve got the network on the right track,” he said. “We’ve just got to finish the last part of our promise of ‘Low fares done right,’ which is to run a reliable airline.”
Under Siegel’s leadership, the airline in April 2014 began switching to the ultra-low-cost-carrier, or ULCC, model to save money and increase profits.
In doing so, Frontier lowered fares but began charging for carry-on bags, non-alcoholic beverages and other amenities previously included in the ticket price. It also revamped its popular frequent-flier program.
In the process, customer complaints have skyrocketed and the airline was ranked the worst for on-time performance among the nation’s top 13 airlines in a federal report issued Monday.
Biffle cautioned, however, against confusing the operational issues with the airline’s overall ULCC strategy.
“The complaints were largely related to the call-center transition in the first quarter and the fact that we did not answer the phone,” he said. “On the other hand, operationally, prior to this change in strategy, we had not seen the best on-time performance in several years.”
Major elements of the ULCC strategy, which includes streamlining processes and restructuring its presence in Denver, have been successful, Biffle said.
However, those elements haven’t been without controversy. The airline came under fire from Mayor Michael Hancock with a November announcement of plans to cut flights and jobs at Denver International Airport.
Those cuts have been felt sharply. The latest DIA passenger traffic numbers available show a 31 percent decrease in Frontier’s passenger traffic in March over the same month last year.
Biffle, who aims to win back customer goodwill, will now co-helm the company with board chairman Bill Franke in a newly created office of the chief executive, which will be overseen by the board.
Franke will manage strategy, finances and “key supplier relationships,” while Biffle will head day-to-day airline management — roles not too far removed from their current responsibilities.
The two men have a history: Franke is the managing partner of investment firm Indigo Partners, which formerly was the controlling entity in Spirit Airlines, the ULCC for which Biffle was a vice president and marketing officer. Indigo Partners in August 2013 sold its stake in Spirit Airlines and then, in December 2013, finalized its purchase of Frontier from Republic Airways.
Biffle joined Frontier in July
, three months after the ULCC transition officially began.
A change of leadership after an acquisition — whether it’s immediate, a year or two after the |
are no rules.
You can view Benjamin Marra's work at: http://www.benjaminmarra.com/Picture this: Traveling the world affordably and exchanging your labor for room and board on an organic farm. Sounds like a crazy idea, but for 80,000 intrepid volunteers, that crazy idea is their perfect adventure.
Founded in 1971 by Sue Coppard in England, the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) expanded rapidly in the early 2000s, and now encompasses 12,000 farms in over 60 countries. While sites range from small farms to kitchen gardens, the idea is to connect volunteers with organic farmers “to promote culture and educational experiences”. Formally established in 2013 as a federation, the group considers themselves a worldwide movement with the ultimate goal of building a sustainable global community.
“We are here to respond, guide, help and support other national WWOOF groups,” explains Amanda Pearson, an administrator for the Federation. “As long as an individual WWOOF group abides by the general ethos and values of WWOOF, how they choose to interpret that in their own independent, cultural boundary is really up to them.”
They believe that part of the program’s international success has been its ability to adapt to different regions.
“Laws and culture relating to things like volunteering vary from country to country,” says Pearson. “There has to be a localized response to those issues.”
The best way to ensure a good WWOOF experience anywhere in the world?
Being clear about your abilities and expectations. Although a typical workload is around 25 hours a week, that may vary from host to host and depend on the type of work you can to provide.
“Everyone has a talent. With WWOOFing or volunteering, you need a few days to understand what is this person’s talent? And then put them in the right place,” explains Karim al Khatib, a co-founder of the Ecovillage in the Chouf Mountains in Lebanon. The sole member of WWOOF in Lebanon since 2006, he estimates that 50% of his volunteers are from the organization. “They do the work, you are happy and you get the best out of the person. It is a two-way forum.”
Founded in 2005, the Ecovillage operates as an ecotourism educational project, open to paying guests as well as volunteers who trade their labor for room and board.
“Different hosts included different amounts of information [on their sites]” says Matthew Mili, in an email about his experiences WWOOFing. The millennial was initially attracted to the organization because of his interest in agriculture and food production combined with the low financial overhead for travel. He volunteered two times in Portugal, and felt that he “was able to get a sense of what was right for [himself] based on the descriptions given by the hosts and the amount of effort it seemed they put into their profile.”
The federation does not have statistics available on bad WWOOF experiences, as it is the responsibility for each individual country to track and monitor interactions. However, they maintain that “complaints about physical harm are very, very rare.”
“The majority of our complaints revolve more so around the every day stuff,” says Pearson. “People feeling that perhaps they had been worked too much or that their accommodation isn’t up to standard or the food wasn’t what they were expecting.”
Bottom line? It pays to do your homework beforehand. Some tips for vetting potential hosts include asking for contact information for previous WWOOFers; having phone conversations prior to arrival and judging the general engagement of the host. If they are not interested in your skills or abilities, that might be a red flag that it is not the right opportunity for you.
“There is a lot of flexibility with WWOOFing,” says Pearson. “It very much suits the independent traveler who is committed to and interested in taking responsibility for their own journey.”
Pearson WWOOFed her way across Europe in her early thirties, farming in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Finland, Spain and Portugal over the course of a year. Instead of staying with hosts, she lived in her own caravan and prepared her own meals. In exchange for working three hours a day, she kept her caravan on their property and received extra “fruit and veg” from the farms. In addition to being an administrator for the federation, she is now a WWOOF host in Dorset, England.
“WWOOF really has the potential to be a life changing experience for people who are open to it,” says Pearson. “A lot of people use WWOOFing to learn about organic farming almost as an apprenticeship to then go set up their own farm, small holding or garden.”
“[After WWOOFing], some people go, ‘hey it was a great holiday, but actually I am going to change my dream now because that is too much like hard work.’,” says Pearson. “I would say that is as much a success story as the people who do go on to make their own livelihood through organic farming.”
Alexandra Talty is traveling the world on a freelance journalist's paycheck. You can follow her articles on Forbes by clicking the red plus sign. She is also on Twitter.The best time to compare anything that isn't rape to actual, well, rape? Never. As in: Five billion years from now, the expanding sun will swallow the Earth whole, and even then you should keep your mouth shut. Yet here was Tennis Channel executive Ken Solomon, in Paris for this year's French Open, dashing off an apoplectic late night email to his staff that was later obtained by Deadspin, likening an appellate court decision against his company in favor of cable television provider Comcast to repeated sexual assault:
… it's like being raped for a decade by a brutal captor, finally winning in a long and painful public court trial (while you can't get work because of your Scarlett Letter), and then on appeal years later from a pre-decided Mad Hatter of a court asking you, the victim, to produce a video to prove that it ever happened. Forget the scars, bruises and painful clarity with which everyone knows that your story is simply 100% true, where is your proof dear Alice??? …
In the annals of One of These Things is Not Like the Other, Solomon's rant ranked somewhere between Rep. Mike Kelley (R-PA) likening a health care contraception mandate to Pearl Harbor/September 11 and every Internet message board invocation of Hitler ever. Unsurprisingly, Solomon later apologized for his histrionic choice of words. His metaphor was indefensible. Inexplicable, too. As for the bitter sense of disappointment behind it? Anything but.
Had the court ruled for his company, Comcast would have been forced to carry the Tennis Channel on basic cable instead of a separate sports tier -- a move that would have netted the network millions of extra dollars, largely extracted from the pockets of viewers who wouldn't watch Wimbledon if Maria Sharapova was playing in a beach volleyball uniform and Rafael Nadal had to apply topspin to a "Cyberball"-style exploding ball.
In other words, the Tennis Channel would have joined the Sports Cable Bubble.
What is the Sports Cable Bubble? It's the unseen economic engine that increasingly powers the sports and television industries alike, all-important and omnipresent, a little like the Force in "Star Wars," only with money instead of Jedi Mind Tricks. It's a value balloon that keeps going up, up, up, launched and inflated by America's collective cable and satellite bill, a perfectly legal shell game built on high-stakes deal-making, entrenched corporate interests and overlapping near-monopolies. It's the reason why investors paid $2 billion for the Los Angeles Dodgers; why schools have taken to conference realignment like swingers at a 1970s key party; why ESPN is the golden goose of the Disney empire; why Fox Sports 2 is basically a foregone conclusion even before Fox Sports 1 launches; why Solomon was so ridiculously ticked; and why so much of what happens in sports happens.
Related Articles Winning the Frame Game Why are sports entities turning to Washington flacks? Given contentious issues like PEDs, concussions and the… More»
The End of Amateurism? Perhaps the biggest story in the history of college sports is the ongoing federal antitrust lawsuit filed by… More» Next to college sports restraint of trade amateurism, this might be the world's greatest business model -- in what other field do millions of people who neither use nor care about a product still have to pay for it as if they were, you know, customers? -- and judging by the great big garbage bags of cash being tossed around, no one involved expects the Sports Cable Bubble to pop anytime soon.
Which, of course, is exactly what makes it a bubble.
* * *
Let's try an exercise. Turn on your television. Grab a notepad. Make a list of every sports channel you receive. ESPN. NFL Network. Big Ten Network. MSG. All of 'em. If you get TNT and TBS, add them, too - both carry extensive, expensive sports programming.
All done? Good. Now go to the website What You Pay For Sports. On the left side of the screen, you'll see an incomplete list of sports networks with empty boxes next to them. Check the ones that correspond with your list. Here are mine:
• ESPN (1/2)
• ESPNU
• TNT/TBS
• Fox Soccer
• NBC Sports Network
• CBS Sports Network
• NFL Network
• MLB Network
• NBA TV
• Big Ten Network
Now look right. You'll find a list of major professional and college sports leagues and conferences next to boxes containing dollar amounts. The amounts are roughly equivalent to the sum of money you're paying those leagues and conferences yearly via your cable or satellite bill -- amounts calculated by dividing the dollar amount of each major sports rights deal held by a particular network (like ESPN's $1.1 billion-a-year NFL contract) by that network's number of subscribers (in ESPN's case, 100 million).
Again, here are my numbers:
• NFL: $21.08
• MLB: $11.16
• NBA: $11.97
• NHL: $2.50
• MLS: $0.22
• English Premier League: $0.56
• NASCAR: $3.70
• BCS: $6.10
• NCAA: $11.85
• NIT: $0.02
• ACC: $2.40
• Big East: $0.53
• Big Ten: $5.10
• Big 12: $2.21
• Pac-12: $2.79
• SEC: $2.70
Add it all up, and big time sports are taking a minimum of $84.90 out of my pocket, year after year. Before I buy a jersey. Or a licensed video game. Or even a single game ticket. Just because I have pay television. Moreover, that amount doesn't include what I'm paying to conferences, leagues and teams not on the list. (Think the soon-to-be-rebranded Speed and Fuel channels, or regional sports networks like Comcast SportsNet Washington, which has local broadcast rights deals with the Washington Wizards and Capitals.) Nor is that 85 bucks even close to the total annual amount I'm forking over for sports programming, given that the same all-sports and sports-heavy networks paying for those megabuck league and conference rights are collecting hefty monthly fees from cable and satellite providers -- costs that are then passed on through monthly bills to customers like you and me. As The Atlantic's Derek Thompson explains:
… your cable bill -- $80 or $90, or whatever it is -- is best understood as two prices. The programming (i.e. the channels you watch) and the distribution (i.e. the infrastructure and profits for the cable companies). Every time you pay a cable bill, the channels collect a small fee. It's called an "affiliate fee." The most in-demand channels tend to negotiate the highest fees. And those tend to be sports channels …
Take ESPN. How can the network afford to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on college and pro basketball rights, and more than a billion a year for "Monday Night Football?" Simple. ESPN is a cash cow, earning roughly $10 billion annually. And where does that money come from? According to an Atlantic article citing a report from Wunderlich Securities, the network brings in about $3.5 billion from television advertisements, and about $900 million from digital and magazine ads. No surprise there. The rest -- a staggering $6.5 billion, about two-thirds of the company's revenue -- comes from cable and satellite affiliate fees.
Here's how it works: About 100 million households that get pay television also get ESPN (and in many cases, some or all of its spinoff networks) as part of their basic cable package. According to SNL Kagan and Barclays Capital estimates cited by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, ESPN charges cable and satellite companies a monthly $5.06 affiliate fee per subscriber. (The spinoffs cost extra: ESPN2, for instance, has a monthly $0.67 affiliate fee.) Do a bit of quick math -- 100 million subscribers x $5.06 affiliate fee x 12 months -- and voila, you've just surpassed a cool $6 billion. Much of that coming from suckers consumers who neither use nor care about your product, a business model that New York Times writer Adam Davison calls "one of the most clever in our modern economy," others call a "sports tax" and the rest of the athletic world is rushing to cash in on.
Earlier this year, News Corp announced plans to relaunch the auto racing-focused Speed channel as Fox Sports 1, an all-sports network positioned as a competitor to ESPN. According to the New York Daily News, Speed currently reaches 87 million homes and charges an average monthly affiliate fee of just $0.22; when the network becomes Fox Sports 1 and adds sports like Champions League soccer to its programming mix, that fee reportedly will jump to as much as $1.00. Again, do the math: Over a single year's time, that's a four-fold revenue jump, from roughly $230 million to about $1 billion. Is it any wonder that Fox recently signed rights agreements with the Pac-12 and the reconfigured Big East that total more than $150 million annually? That Time Warner Cable cut a $3 billion deal with the Los Angeles Lakers that will create not one but two regional sports networks, both of which will charge affiliate fees to rival cable and satellite companies? That pro sports franchises across the nation are scrambling to launch team-branded regional sports networks that charge fees of $2.50 or more? That college sports realignment has been fast, furious and seemingly driven by the desire of schools and conferences to start or expand networks of their own?
Take the Big Ten, which recently added sports non-powerhouses Rutgers and Maryland. Why? To broaden the conference's geographic sports tax base. The Big Ten Network currently reaches a reported 53 million pay television subscribers and charges a monthly affiliate fee that ranges from $0.15 for subscribers outside its core markets to $0.80 for subscribers inside those markets. As Pete Thamel of Sports Illustrated explains, welcoming Rutgers and Maryland means potentially welcoming an estimated 15 million additional pay television households in the New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., markets, many of which would be considered "core." If the network can get on to basic cable in those same markets, the conference could end up pocketing as much as an additional $200 million annually. Even if far less than 15 million cable and satellite viewers ever bother to watch a Rutgers-Maryland football game.
Remember Solomon, the seriously peeved Tennis Channel executive? The network's court loss prevented it from adding nearly 20 million Comcast basic cable customers -- the ones already paying for the Golf Channel and NBC Sports Network -- to its monthly affiliate fee take. No wonder he was unhinged.
"He has a fundamentally strong understanding of the business model of cable channels," The Atlantic's Thompson says. "He had a right to be pissed. Because that is how you make money. It was once phrased to me that ESPN's business model is getting 60 percent of the country that doesn't watch ESPN to pay 60 bucks a year to pay for ESPN."
This is the heart of the Sports Cable Bubble: Tens of millions of pay television viewers spending what Thompson estimates is at least $100 a year on sports programming they have no intention of ever watching, pumping billions into games enjoyed by others, enriching networks, leagues, teams and athletes all the while. (The exact number of non-sports fans is difficult to peg: A recent Harris Interactive poll found that 43 percent of Americans won't cancel cable and satellite television simply because of live sports, which also suggests that the majority of the country could be perfectly happy not paying for ESPN; industry analyst David Bank told Bloomberg Businessweek that 80 percent of basic-cable customers would decline to pay for sports if given a choice; Forbes writer Alan McGlade figures that no more than 10 million homes are regular ESPN viewers, about 10 percent of the total pay TV market.)
How and why does this happen? Two reasons. First, sports fans are fans. Short for fanatics. Whether they're 43 or 20 percent of the pay-TV viewing public, they constitute a large, passionate, committed and noisy minority. Put ESPN or the NFL Network on a separate pay tier, like the Tennis Channel on Comcast, and they'll revolt, canceling their subscriptions and jumping to a competitor that offers a heapin' helping of sports programming as part of a basic package. (In fact, sports network executives make a compelling case that their offerings help cable and satellite companies recruit new customers and keep the ones they have -- why else would DirecTV pay $4 billion for the exclusive opportunity to offer "NFL Sunday Ticket" for an additional $199 annually?)
Second, and more importantly, the entire television business model is built on the concept of bundling. Or, as The Atlantic's Thompson more accurately describes it, "bundles nestled inside of each other":
… cable channels (such as TBS) are bundles of shows. Media companies (such as Time Warner, which owns TBS) offer bundles of channels that they refuse to sell one by one. Finally, pay-TV companies -- which I'll call cable companies for short, but which also include satellite companies like DirecTV and telcos like Verizon -- bundle and sell the media companies' offerings …
When it comes to understanding the economy of sports networks, the second bundle is key. In theory, a company like DirecTV might want to move ESPN2 to an a la carte sports tier, or not carry the Pac-12 Network at all, the better to lower customer costs and increase consumer choice. In reality, however, a provider's hands are often tied. As American Cable Association president Matthew Polka explained to Roll Call, six major media conglomerates -- Comcast/NBCUniversal, Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom and CBS -- own and control about 90 percent of existing television networks. When they sell those channels to cable and satellite distributors (and negotiate affiliate fees), they bundle their most popular channels with ones that are in significantly less demand. Take 'em or leave 'em. You want ESPN? And the Disney Channel, given that Disney owns ESPN? You'll have to carry ESPNU, too.
Consider the Big Ten Network, which is trying to break into the New York City market. Currently, it's half-owned by News Corp. As Sports Illustrated's Thamel points out, News Corp. is also trying to purchase the YES network, home of the New York Yankees. A Rutgers-Minnesota football game might not be must-see TV in Gotham, but Yankees-Boston Red Sox is. If News Corp can snag YES and bundle it with the Big Ten Network, providers might have a hard time saying no. Los Angeles magazine describes the dilemma facing providers like this:
… capitulating to the networks means higher rates (losing customers in the process) or lower earnings (losing shareholders). Saying no means having to drop popular channels. "This is my frickin', painful life," says an industry executive in describing the trade-offs. "Each one of the big media companies has a small number of must-have networks, and all the other crap gets tied to it. In this sort of ecosystem they're holding their viewers and our customers hostage" …
In essence, bundling allows the media conglomerates to make both television providers and their customers an offer they can't refuse: Pay for sports you may or may not want, or get nothing at all. (In fairness, the converse is also true: even if you only watch Fox Soccer Channel and don't give a damn about "Mad Men," you're still shelling about about $0.40 a month for AMC.) Because sports also command high affiliate fees -- ESPN's $5-plus is the highest in the industry, about 20 times that of the average cable network -- the result is oodles of cash.
It's not quite free money. But definitely found money. Money that produces what The Atlantic's Thompson calls "runaway price inflation in sports." The very definition of a bubble. Time Warner signs a $7 billion deal to broadcast Dodgers games. The team's $216 million payroll, second-highest in baseball on Opening Day, suddenly has room to grow. So does the franchise's overall value. "The model that's been created by ESPN is now being replicated by other programmers," Polka told Roll Call. "Meaning the problem is only going to get worse as each one of these companies competes for sports right to carry programming. I see the price of sports skyrocketing with Fox and NBC competitors to ESPN." When Fox scores Pac-12 programming or ESPN helps create the SEC Network, schools get more money. Football coaches and athletic directors get pay raises. Somewhere downstream, cable and satellite bills rise. Sports fans pick up some of the tab, and a whole bunch of non-sports fans cover the rest: thanks to the Dodgers deal, Time Warner is expected to launch a new SportsNet LA channel that will cost an estimated $5 a month.
The balloon keeps rising. Because it has to. According to Thompson, sports already account for half of the programming costs of television, while television money accounts for more than half the revenue of many leagues.
Television economics are sports economics, he writes, and sports economics are television economics.
"All you have to do is look at reported rights fees paid to teams and leagues," says Dan York, DirecTV's chief content officer. "That, in short order, finds its way onto consumers' bills. A big chunk of what you pay for your pay TV subscription ends up in wallets of star atheltes, owner of teams or leagues and conferences."
* * *
Network executives will tell you that the bundled programming inflating the Sports Cable Bubble is a great value. And it is. It's great for network excutives, great for team owners, great for player agents, great for anyone getting a piece of the pie. Heck, it's great for me -- I already like watching sports, and like it even more now that I know my viewing habits are being subsidized.
On the other hand, it's not so great for the millions of pay television subscribers who make that subsidy possible.
Right now, everyone in television is making money. Gobs of it. As Davidson of The New York Times explained late last year, NBC Universal's cable operations were expected to earn around $5 billion, half of that pure profit. Viacom's revenue was expected to be more than $8 billion, with 49 percent profit. By contrast, Apple had one of its best years ever in 2012 -- but its profit margin was expected to be just 37 percent, still well above its 23 percent five-year average over the past five years. (By contrast, Davidson notes, an auto company would be thrilled with a margin in the high single digits.)
Thanks to their status as quasi-monopolistic utilities, cable and satellite companies aren't going broke, either. Not with America's collective pay TV bill totaling about $90 billion annually. Everyone profits, Davidson writes, everyone wins. Bundling is good business, and live sports programming -- the only DVR-proof appointment television left, beloved by a bigger niche of devoted fans than anything else on cable (yes, that includes HBO's "Girls," TV's reigning Internet Words Written-to-Actual Viewers Watching champion) -- is the crown jewel of the bundle.
Except when it isn't. In a way, both the bundle and sports are becoming victims of their own financial success. According to the Federal Communications Commission, the average monthly price of basic cable increased from $22 in 1995 to $54 in 2010, an annual uptick of 6.1 percent. Meanwhile, Bloomberg Businessweek reports that the average cable bill -- you know, what customers are actually paying -- was about $128 in 2011, up from $48 in 2001. Sports accounts for much of the increase. The average cost of a regional sports network has has risen 52 percent over the past five years. ESPN's monthly affiliate fee is widely expected to rise from $5-plus to more than $7 by the end of the decade. (By contrast, cable's most-watched network, USA, reportedly charges $0.68.) A report released last year by the NPD Group estimated that the average cable bill could reach $200 by 2020, and a separate report from the Nomura Equity Research pinned some of the blame on carriage fees that are expected to rise around eight percent annually.
According to Bloomberg Businessweek, fees for televised sports are rising almost twice as fast as cable and satellite subscriber rates, putting providers in a bind: Raise prices to compensate and risk losing customers, or keep prices steady and face shrinking profits. Unsurprisingly, executives are beginning to grumble. At a 2011 conference, the Wall Street Journal reported, the head of the Starz Network's parent company described ESPN as a "tax on every American household," while Viacom chief Philippe Dauman pointed out that ESPN alone was "double the cost of all our networks combined." Last year, DirecTV reportedly added a $3 monthly fee to the bills of new customers in about 20 percent of markets containing multiple regional sports networks, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Denver -- after which company CEO Mike White reportedly told Wall Street analysts that "the whole sports model is broken." In February, Cablevision filed a $1 billion antitrust suit against Viacom over forced bundling during programming and affiliate fee negotiations; meanwhile, DirecTV chief financial officer Pat Doyle recently told Bloomberg that the television industry needed to "get the people that want sports to pay for sports."
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) concurs. In May, he introduced a bill that would encourage both programmers and distributors to unbundle cable channels and offer a la carte programming. Want Bravo but not Fox Sports 1? CNN but not ESPN? Knock yourself out. Speaking to the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, McCain lamented the high cost of sports programming, declared that pay television consumers were at a "tipping point" and compared the industry's current business model to forcing customers to pay for the entire menu at a restaurant in order to get what they want to eat.
According to the Arizona Republic, most television business experts doubt McCain's proposed legislation will go anywhere. Bundling still makes lots of money. Said money means media conglomerates have powerful Washington lobbies. Moreover, Congress traditionally is loathe to regulate markets characterized by fast-moving technological change. Even McCain admits the bill is a long shot. Still, the sentiment behind it isn't going away. At the Senate hearing, DirecTV executive Mike Palkovic testified that his company's subscribers complain about "high prices" and "lack of choice" more than anything else. And increasingly, dissatisfied viewers -- the same ones inflating the Sports Cable Bubble -- are choosing to save money by "cord-cutting," dropping pay TV in favor of over-the-air broadcast signals and less-costly online video services like Netflix and Hulu.
Citing a report from the Toronto-based Convergence Consulting Group, AdAge reported that just over one million American pay TV customers canceled service last year, about one percent of the industry's entire customer base. According to Convergence, a total of 3.74 million subscribers have cut the cord since 2008. A million more are expected to do so by the end of this year. For the television industry, the numbers aren't alarming. Not yet. But the trend is ominous. Rising programming costs coupled with fewer subscribers means higher prices. Which means more cord-cutting. Which means higher prices still. Rinse and repeat. "It's a little bite here and there," Wall Street analyst Harold Vogel told the Hollywood Reporter. "Nobody gets upset about losing a couple thousand subscribers a quarter because it's not really meaningful. The technology changeover is gradual, but the psychology of the users is changing. It's imperceptible losses until you turn around five or seven years later and its, 'Wow! What happened to the business?' Cord cutting is like termites."
Last month, four Los Angeles-area residents filed a class action lawsuit against Time Warner Cable, arguing that the company's bundling of sports content on basic cable is an "unfair method of competition" that requires "a very large segment of the consumer public" that is "not sufficiently interested in Dodgers games to pay $50 to $60 a year."
"The prices that regional sports networks, teams, leagues and conferences are requesting are growing a rate that is unsustainable for consumers and distributors," DirecTV's White says. "I think the consumer lawsuit against Time Warner for the [Lakers and Dodgers] rights deals they've recently cut is an indication that consumers have finally figured out what is being done -- finally realized the impact that those sports rights deals are having on their own personal wallets."
* * *
Somewhere in Brooklyn is a warehouse. Inside are thousands of tiny digital television antennas, about the size of a dime. They resemble salad forks. The antennas belong to Aereo, a tech start-up backed by longtime media mogul Barry Diller, and are vital to the year-old company's business plan: selling access to broadcast television over the web. For $8 a month, customers in New York and a handful of other cities can stream network television from said antennas to their computers, tablets, smartphones and web-connected televisions, and also record and watch 20 hours of programming through Aereo's DVR service.
How does this affect the Sports Cable Bubble? Simple. Aereo encourages both cord-cutting and de-bundling. Currently, the broadcast networks -- Fox, CBS, NBC, ABC, CW and Univision -- and their local affiliate stations charge cable and satellite companies hefty retransmission fees, estimated to be worth a collective $3.5 billion by 2015. And as is the case with cable network affiliate fees, lots of that money ends up paying for sports rights: NBC with "Sunday Night Football," Notre Dame football and the Olympics; CBS with college sports and the AFC; Fox with the NFC and NASCAR. Because Aereo transmits free, over-the-air signals though antennas its customers rent, it doesn't have to pay retransmission fees. Nor does it have to pass those costs along to its customers.
Suddenly, a $100-a-month cable bill doesn't look so appealing to a potential cord-cutter who already has Netflix. Especially if they love "CSI" and "The Voice" -- and perhaps the occasional NFL game -- but never watch ESPN.
Naturally, broadcasters hate Aereo. They've repeatedly sued the company, claiming its mini-antenna model violates federal copyright law. So far, courts have ruled in Aereo's favor -- prompting News Corp. president and chief operating officer Chase Carey to bluster that Fox might be forced to abandon the airwaves and become a cable-only network. Diller -- the man who created Fox -- doesn't sound discouraged. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he said he hoped to nudge traditional networks to Internet-based video distribution:
… cable is, for as long as it lasts, this great closed system where 90% of subscribers support ESPN that is only watched by 10%. Now, that's a great little plot, so long as you can keep everyone inside the closed circle … I think it's going to bust on its own. I've felt that for a long time. I don't think closed systems in our world are going to hold. Of course, they're going to be defended with ideas like "TV everywhere" and all sorts of other concepts to try desperately to keep that closed-money-circle train going …
By itself, Aereo may not be an existential threat to the Sports Cable Bubble. (From the NBA playoffs to the NBAA men's basketball tournament, a lot of high-value sports programming already has moved from broadcast to cable television.) The company may not survive a series of court challenges. Its service may prove interesting rather than essential. Nevertheless, it represents the potential of disruptive technology to upend the current order.
Once upon a time, the music industry was built on a programming bundle. The album. Along came Napster. Suddenly, you could steal download the songs you wanted. Without the instrumental track padding and obligatory "I can rock, but I'm also a songwriter" balladeering filler. Next came iTunes. Now you could pay for the songs you liked -- and just as importantly, not pay for the songs you didn't.
The Sports Cable Bubble, and the bundle-based television economy that created it, won't disappear overnight. Or even in five years. For networks, the numbers for direct, pay-only-for-what-you-eat online distribution don't add up. On the other hand, the cable bundle seems to rest on the wrong side of history. In music and video alike, the trend is toward programming when you want it, how you want it, streamed or downloaded to a device of your choice. And that includes live sports: ESPN's excellent ESPN3 currently requires users to have a verified cable or satellite subscription, but there's no reason the company couldn't turn the Web service into a for-pay app in the future. Care to stream the college football playoffs? Then pay ESPN directly, the same way you pay Apple for a new single.
Question is, how much would the company have to charge?
"The Internet is an incredible un-bundler of stuff," Thompson says. "It unbundled the newspapers. It unbundled music. Eventually it will probably unbundle TV, too. But there's an aversion to breaking away.
"The current model of put everything in one basket and selling the basket to as many people as possible is really good for everyone involved expect maybe the consumer. That deal gets worse and worse every year. But it's still good."
Sooner or later, change will come. Maybe cable and satellite companies will move sports channels -- all of 'em -- on to an optional sports tier, with ESPN becoming the rough equivalent of HBO. (Verizon is experimenting with a "Select HD" 140-channel bundle that dumps sports and costs $15 less per month than its standard package; the company also has proposed paying networks for their content based on viewership, which would likely rebalance the roughly $4 affiliate fee gap between ESPN and USA, given that the latter averages slightly more viewers.) Maybe a Cablevision victory in its antitrust case against Viacom will speed up that process. Maybe Apple, Google or a Silicon Valley upstart will crack the pay TV code and find a way to blow up the entire industry; maybe they'll simple outbid Fox and ESPN for future sports rights, then make affiliate fees a thing of the past by distributing programming online and a la carte.
Whatever the case, sports fans finally will have to pay market rates. The Sports Cable Bubble will pop. It has to. Just do the math. Fifty-seven million cable and satellite subscribers who don't care about Dwight Howard's decision or Yasiel Puig as the baseball reincarnation of Bo Jackson currently pay at least $100 per person into television sports kitty, each and every year. Someday they won't have to. According to Dave Warner, the creator of the What You Pay for Sports website, losing just 10 million subscribers would cost ESPN $732 million in found-money affiliate fees. Now quadruple that number. Who makes up the difference? In a pay-only-for-what-you-actually-watch world, is Kentucky's basketball coach John Calipari worth $5.2 million annually when his entire sport's signature postseason tournament averages fewer viewers than CBS's "Under the Dome?" Does the Big Ten Network even exist?
"So few people are watching these sports channels and yet they are still paying for them," Warner says. "We pay to have ESPN and Fox pay the Big 12 $200 million per year, which pays Oklahoma $20 million a year, which pays [football coach] Bob Stoops $4 million a year, and then he gives a lecture about how they're not the only ones going hungry on a Sunday night. There's something so broken about that.
"Right now, the sports networks are simply collecting a subsidy. The question is, are the people who want and love sports willing to pay double what they are now? Sports fans are willing to pay. I don't know how much. If someone can disrupt the cable model, sports could find itself with a lot less money to spend."
Back to Aereo. Ultimately, the company wants to add paid channels. Why? Company executive Chris McKay told freelance writer Allison Kade that "the goal is to allow our members to decide what they want to watch, and what they want to pay for." No bundling. Just a la carte. Funny thing about those dime-sized antennas. Turn them upside-down, and they look like four-pronged needles.HOUSTON, Texas – Houston Texans head coach Bill O’Brien does not expect starting quarterback Tom Savage (concussion) to be healthy enough to play Sunday vs. Jacksonville.
T.J. Yates will start in Savage’s place and former Old Dominion University standout Taylor Heinicke is expected to serve as the backup after Heinick was promoted from the practice squad Thursday. It will be the first time in Heinicke’s three year NFL career that he’s suited-up for a regular season game.
“It’s exciting, but the circumstances that it all happened are unfortunate,” Heinicke said Wednesday. “Being activated and possibly dressing will the be the top moment in my NFL career. I’ve been studying for the past three or four weeks since I’ve been here, so I’m starting to feel more comfortable with it.”
Bill O'Brien on Taylor Heinicke: 'He's smart, an accurate passer, picked up our system well, he's mobile, there's a lot of things I like. That's probably the direction we're headed' — Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) December 13, 2017
Heinicke was signed to the practice squad November 29th after previously stops with the New England Patriots and Minnesota Vikings.David Makarewicz
Infowars.com
March 17, 2011
On Tuesday, the White House’s Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, Victoria Espinel, provided Congress with a White Paper (available for download here), outlining a series of the Obama Administration’s recommended legislative changes to combat online piracy and |
113198Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Stewart left The Daily Show after 16 years as host in August
Former Daily Show host Jon Stewart has signed a deal with HBO to produce topical videos for the network's internet services.
The content will be featured on the network's streaming services apps, HBO Now and HBO Go, and other platforms.
The four-year deal also includes the possibility of more traditional television projects.
Stewart stepped down as host in August after leading the nightly news satire show for the past 16 years.
"Stewart will view current events through his unique prism," HBO said in a statement.
HBO did not announce a start date, but a network official told Reuters that the venture should launch next year.
Image copyright HBO Image caption Media companies have been working to bolster their internet streaming services in recent months
The network said Stewart would work with a graphics company to produce short-form content that will be refreshed multiple times a day,
"Appearing on television 22 minutes a night clearly broke me. I'm pretty sure I can produce a few minutes of content every now and again," Stewart said jokingly in the HBO statement.
Traditional networks are investing more in their internet streaming services to compete with upstarts like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
On Monday, CBS announced a new Star Trek TV series would be broadcast exclusively on its streaming service, starting in 2017.
The move puts to rest speculation about Stewart's next career move. When he announced he was leaving the Daily Show in February, Stewart did not say what he would do next.
He has advocated for several charitable causes since he left the Daily Show. He also a made a cameo appearance for his friend and Daily Show veteran Stephen Colbert during the debut of Colbert's new chat show.OTTAWA — Finance Minister Bill Morneau is expected to present an update in November on the progress of the Liberal government’s stimulus program and impact that fiscal spending will have on the struggling Canadian economy in the months to come.
Given that growth has been weaker than projected in the March 22 federal budget for 2015-16, Morneau told reporters on Monday that Ottawa will look at what more needs to be done.
“We’ll see the impacts from the infrastructure investments that we’ve made, and we’ll look at the economic situation in order to figure out what we should be doing — not only in November but our upcoming budget,” he said. November is traditionally the month economic updates are released, a Finance official said.
“We will remain focused on those economic challenges facing Canadian families. We’ll make sure the things we’ve done already (like) the child benefit package will have the real impact we expect on families. We believe it will.”
Morneau’s comments came Monday as he launched cross-country, pre-budget consultations with Canadians leading up to the 2016-17 federal spending document.
Ottawa’s full fiscal budgets are released between February and April. “We will look at the economic situation in order to figure out what we should be doing, not only in November, but in our upcoming budget,” the minister said.
While Morneau declined to provide a timetable for the next budget, the process will include a meeting of the country’s top economists on Oct. 13 in Toronto, followed by a fiscal and economic update. The exact date of that update has yet to be announced.
“As in the past, our intent in meeting with economists... is intended to get a sense of what they’re seeing across the Canadian economy. Clearly, we are doing our own research as well,” Morneau said.
“Investing in Canadian families can make a real difference in getting people confident in the Canadian economy. Investing in infrastructure and innovation are going to make a long-term difference,” he added.
“We’ll take a look at the projections of those (private-sector) economists as part of the frame for what we talk about later in the fall.”
According to the March budget — the first presented by Morneau after the Liberal’s defeat of the Conservative Party in the Oct. 19 election — the 2015-16 deficit forecast was $29.4 billion.
You could make a case that the only reason growth came in light was because of (the Alberta) wildfires
For next year, the government estimated a slightly lower shortfall of $29 billion but declining at a faster pace until 2020-21.
Much of the spending was earmarked for infrastructure project and other stimulus efforts — such as increased child benefits — over the next few years.
In the March budget, Morneau forecast annual economic growth of 1.2 per cent in 2015 and 1.4 per cent this year. In July, the Bank of Canada estimated GDP would come in at 1.3 per cent in 2016.
“I’d be careful not to overplay that,” said Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, who is one of about a dozen economists who will attend the budget update session in Toronto.
“I don’t think there’s been a big shock in the economy this year. In fact, you could make a case that the only reason growth came in light was because of (the Alberta) wildfires,” Porter said. “I would rather save some dry pounder for when conditions are really tough, not just when they’re so-so.”
Financial Post
gisfeld@nationalpost.com
Twitter.com/gisfeldImage caption The novel was first published in 1887
A rare inscribed copy of Arthur Conan Doyle's first published novel featuring detective Sherlock Holmes' debut appearance is to go under the hammer.
The copy of A Study in Scarlet is expected to fetch up to £400,000 when it is auctioned at Sotheby's in London on 15 July.
The novel introduces Holmes and explains how he and Dr Watson came together, the auction house said.
The book is one of only two inscribed copies known to exist.
It is up for sale as part of an English Literature, History, Children's Books and Illustrations sale.
The book was initially rejected by a succession of publishers but was finally printed in 1887 in Beeton's Christmas Annual.
A Study in Scarlet features Holmes's first words on meeting Dr Watson: "How are you? You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive."
Hawk-like nose
It also includes Dr Watson's first impressions of Holmes: "His very person and appearance were such as to strike the attention of the most casual observer.
"In height, he was rather over six feet, and so excessively lean that he seemed to be considerably taller.
"His eyes were sharp and piercing, save during those intervals of torpor to which I have alluded; and his thin, hawk-like nose gave his whole expression an air of alertness and decision."
Peter Selley, senior specialist in Sotheby's books and manuscripts department, said a copy of the book made over $150,000 (£105,000) at Sotheby's in New York in 2007.
But no signed or inscribed copy has ever been up for auction since the work was first published.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's unpublished first novel was called The Narrative of John Smith.The Movie Sleuth drops an early review of Stomping Ground, out March 8th.
Stomping Ground took me right off guard. Let's get this out of the way; Dan Riesser'stook me right off guard.
My Lord and master, Chris George gave me this film to review, and from his demeanor and the little I front loaded myself with, I was preparing to make this movie nothing more than something for my eyes to look at while I ate my gourmet breakfast.
So, I sat down with my meal and turned up Stomping Ground. As I chewed my eggs in the opening segments, I thought to myself “I thought this f----ing movie was about Bigfoot”, and kind of asked that question through the entire film. But, after my viewing of Stomping Ground, I realized quickly that this film is not about Bigfoot.
Stomping Ground was a damn fun movie to watch, and there were some real deep metaphors that ran through the fabric of the film. The interplay between protagonist Ben (John Bobek) and antagonist Paul (Jeramy Blackford) is direct statement on what the illusive 'Boojum' theoretically does. It marks its territory like many mammals in the wild do. This is illustrated by the Jonah Hill-like Justin Giddings playing Jed, who is continually pointing out the behaviors of 'Boojum' throughout the film. While I found the plot to not be that earth-shakingly original,was a damn fun movie to watch, and there were some real deep metaphors that ran through the fabric of the film. The interplay between protagonist Ben (John Bobek) and antagonist Paul (Jeramy Blackford) is direct statement on what the illusive 'Boojum' theoretically does. It marks its territory like many mammals in the wild do. This is illustrated by the Jonah Hill-like Justin Giddings playing Jed, who is continually pointing out the behaviors of 'Boojum' throughout the film.
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Stomping Ground were relatively good with the shakiest performance going to Stomping Ground, even though the film didn't really seem to end, but rather just drunkenly fall on it's face and pass out. All of the performances inwere relatively good with the shakiest performance going to Tarah DeSpain in the role of Annie. I laughed out loud several times during this film and really found myself picking a side. There was a certain satisfaction I felt in the conclusion ofeven though the film didn't really seem to end, but rather just drunkenly fall on it's face and pass out.
Stomping Ground is a solid film, I really think that even clocking in at a modest 80 minutes was a little much. There were just some characters introduced that either needed to be fleshed out more in the plot or not be there at all to add any value. Stick with the story and what is interesting about the characters. Whileis a solid film, I really think that even clocking in at a modest 80 minutes was a little much. There were just some characters introduced that either needed to be fleshed out more in the plot or not be there at all to add any value. Stick with the story and what is interesting about the characters.
Having Southern blood running through my veins, I really, really enjoyed the soundtrack to Stomping Ground, written by Ben Riesser and Ted Speaker. The bluegrass themes that weaved in and out of the film kept me wiggling in my chair the whole time with a smile on my face. Stomping Ground is about the battle for territory and the things you can loose in that battle. Yeah, it is campy, and yeah it is goofy. Yeah, the actual Bigfoot looks hilarious in all honesty, but Stomping Ground is just a fun movie with a little deeper message, and that makes it worth an honest view.
ScoreThis article is about the video game. For the series, see Darksiders (series)
Darksiders is a hack and slash action-adventure video game developed by Vigil Games and published by THQ. The game takes its inspiration from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, with the player taking the role of the horseman War. The game was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on January 5, 2010 in North America, January 7 in Australia, January 8 in Europe, and March 18 in Japan. The Microsoft Windows version was released in North America and Australia on September 23, and in Europe on September 24. A parallel sequel, Darksiders II, was released on August 14, 2012.
A remastered version of the game titled Darksiders: Warmastered Edition was released on November 22, 2016 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and on November 29, 2016 for Microsoft Windows. A Wii U version was released on May 23, 2017,[9] and a Nintendo Switch version is set to release on April 2, 2019.[8]
Gameplay [ edit ]
War using a pistol while riding his steed, Ruin.
In Darksiders, players take control of War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, in a third-person perspective.[10] The world is divided into separate locations with many areas initially inaccessible until later in the game. The center of the world, The Scalding Gallow, acts as a hub where War is given new objectives and paths to unlock new areas, many of which require the use of newly gained abilities to progress.
Although War is initially limited to the use of his two-handed signature sword, Chaoseater, he will eventually obtain other weapons throughout the course of the game. He also has a Scythe, which he uses as his other main offensive weapon. Weapons have different combinations of attack that can be obtained throughout the game. Along with combos, players are encouraged to use countering moves, blocks, and swift dodging. Projectile weapons such as a revolver and a boomerang-style throwing blade can also be used. Objects littered throughout the environment can also be used as weapons and projectiles. At a later point in the game, War gains the ability to summon a horse that provides faster movement and increased attack power.
Along with weapon-based attacks, War can also use an array of magic-based attacks, known as Wrath powers, that are both offensive and defensive in nature. The amount of Wrath powers available are determined through the Wrath meter. War's Chaos Form: which transforms him into a large, fiery and extremely resistant entity can be activated once War's Chaos meter is filled.[11]
When enemies are close to defeat, War can perform an elaborate and violent finishing move, instantly killing them. Some larger foes can be briefly ridden and steered into other enemies before being finished off. War eventually encounters large boss opponents that are both giant in size and deal heavy damage, and are themselves puzzle-based battles requiring certain methods and certain weapons to defeat them, and in some cases quick time button events to dodge or deal attacks.
Upon defeat, different enemies expel souls that provide different benefits. Green souls that fill the health bar, yellow souls that fill the Wrath meter, and blue souls that are the game’s form of currency, and can be spent on new combo attacks, enhanced Wrath powers, power-ups, and potions. There are also artifacts scattered throughout the world that can be exchanged for more blue souls, with bonuses for completing each set. Additionally, souls can be obtained in chests found throughout the world. Other items that can be located include wrath core and lifestone fragments, whereupon collecting four, War's Wrath or Health, respectively, are permanently increased.
Plot [ edit ]
Story [ edit ]
Since the beginning of time, the Kingdoms of Heaven and Hell have waged war, with neither side ever being able to gain an advantage over the other. Thus, in time, a mediator group named "The Charred Council" arose to maintain order and balance; to this end, they created a warrior brotherhood, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (War, Death, Strife, and Fury) to intervene and enforce their laws where and when necessary. Amidst the conflict, humanity emerged. Foreseeing that humans would be integral and contribute to the balance's stability, the council declared them a third Kingdom, the "Kingdom of Man." The Council brokered a truce between Heaven and Hell: the Seven Seals were created to be broken when the Kingdom of Man was ready for the Endwar.
In the present day, War (Liam O'Brien) arrives on Earth where the End War appears to have begun; armies of angels and demons wage war with mankind caught in the middle. Confronting Abaddon (Troy Baker), the general of Heaven's army, War discovers that the other Horsemen have not arrived and the Seventh Seal, meant to summon the Four Horsemen, has not been broken. Surprised by War's presence, Abaddon is killed by the demon commander Straga (Troy Baker). War battles Straga and gains the upper hand, but he mysteriously loses his powers and is defeated. He is saved from death by the Charred Council (Fred Tatasciore). The Council accuses War of destroying the balance by bringing about the Apocalypse prematurely, resulting in the destruction of Mankind, and siding with the forces of Hell. War protests his innocence and demands a chance to find the real culprits. The Council agrees on two conditions: he is stripped of his former powers and be bound to one of their servants, The Watcher (Mark Hamill), who has the power to kill him if he strays from his mission.
War returns to Earth, where a century has passed since the forces of Hell, led by "The Destroyer," annihilated humanity and the armies of Heaven. What remains of Heaven's armies (the Hellguard) have been stranded on Earth and formed into a meager resistance led by Abaddon's lieutenant Uriel (Moon Bloodgood). War greets the demon merchant Vulgrim (Phil LaMarr), who tells him that the Black Tower is The Destroyer's lair, and advises War to seek out Samael (Vernon Wells), a once powerful demon lord, for assistance. Samael explains that four demons called "The Chosen" (consisting of the Bat Queen Tiamat, the Griever, the Stygian King, and the broodmother Silitha) guard the Black Tower, and asks War to slay them and bring him their hearts in exchange for gaining access to the Tower. While doing so, War meets Ulthane (JB Blanc), a skilled blacksmith from a race called "The Makers". Initially fighting each other, they are forced to defend themselves from Uriel and her Hellguard who hold War responsible for Abaddon's death and their defeat. Confronting the last Chosen, Silitha, War is told that The Chosen were not meant to defend the tower, but to prevent Samael's return. Regardless, War brings Samael their hearts and the restored demon honors their deal, sending him to the tower, saying they will meet again.
Inside the tower, War finds Azrael (Keith Szarabajka), the Angel of Death, imprisoned. As War attempts to free him, Azrael confesses that he, Abbadon, and Ulthane were the conspirators to bring about the Apocalypse early, fearing a delay would risk Heaven's defeat. However, Abaddon's death ruined the plan. Having found the proof he needs, War decides his mission is complete but The Watcher decides otherwise, citing the Destroyer must die for balance to be restored. War obliges, freeing Azrael and fighting Straga, the Tower's guardian, where War emerges victorious.
Since Straga and the Tower are one and War is trapped, Azrael saves him as it collapses by directing him to a portal that instead takes him to the Garden of Eden, hidden by Azrael after he led Abaddon to the Tree of Knowledge, which provides gifts of vision. After fighting his own shadow and heeding Azrael's advice, War visits the Tree of Knowledge to see how to defeat the Destroyer. The Tree gives War a vision: Abaddon was sent to hell after he died, and was offered a choice by an unknown entity: to serve in Heaven or rule in Hell; realizing that he will be punished by Heaven and the Council anyway, he chooses the latter, he becomes the Destroyer, and now guards the unbroken Seventh Seal. The Destroyer plans to lay siege to Heaven. Uriel leads the Angels against him and is defeated. The Charred Council is shown to have been aware of the conspiracy, but knew the Horsemen would not act without proof. Thus, the Council allowed the Apocalypse to start early, summoning War themselves, knowing he would track down and kill the conspirators to clear his name. Finally, War sees himself being taunted by The Watcher and fatally stabbed in the back with a sword. Azrael deduces the sword is the Armageddon Blade, a weapon capable of slaying the Destroyer, and tasks War to find the shards of the blade and take them to Ulthane to reforge it.
Uriel confronts War a second time, challenging him to a death oath that can be completed when one of them dies. War is victorious but spares her, and reveals the Destroyer's true identity. Grief-stricken and enraged by this knowledge, Uriel leaves to prepare the angels for battle. Collecting all of the sword fragments, War returns them to Ulthane who reforges the Blade. Meanwhile, Uriel and the Hellguard attack the Destroyer but as predicted, they were defeated. In the aftermath, War confronts the Destroyer and is provided the same offer before he became the monster he had become. War refuses, battles the Destroyer and emerges victorious after killing him.
War retrieves the Seventh Seal, but is subdued by The Watcher who takes it to prevent him from returning to his full power, knowing that once he learns of the Council's betrayal, he will turn against them. Uriel intervenes, taking the Armageddon Blade and stabbing War in the back as predicted, fulfilling the oath of their earlier duel, and breaks the Seventh Seal. The shattering of the Seventh Seal restores War to his original power, and frees him from the Council's control. The Watcher threatens that Heaven, Hell, and the Council will chase him before War kills him. Uriel is grateful to War, saying his actions have repaid any harm he caused the angels but warns that her duty will likely require her to fight him once again. Consequently, she warns War that he cannot stand alone against the armies of both Heaven, Hell and the other forces of the Council, to which War replies that he is not alone as the other three riders-Death, Fury, and Strife- are seen descending from the sky toward him.
Characters [ edit ]
The player controls War, the first of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Along with the rest of the Horsemen, his sole duty is to be summoned to the Earth once the final battle of Armageddon begins. War is not aligned to Heaven or Hell but instead serves to bring order by the rule of The Charred Council, whose purpose is to uphold the balance between the two forces. He maintains a strict code of honor and will battle any obstacle in his way.
Throughout the story, War is bound to and accompanied by The Watcher, a warden sent by the Charred Council to watch over and guide War on his journey. Because of his assigned role, he is actually skeptical and cynical towards War’s actions, much to War’s anger. He relishes his duty and enjoys needling War and bossing him about simply because he can. War later employs the guidance of Samael, once a mighty and feared demon, now imprisoned, who himself seeks vengeance against the Destroyer, leader of the victorious forces on Earth. Many other characters become central to the overall plot, recurring at times. Among these is Uriel, leader of Heaven's armies after their first leader, Abaddon, was killed during a major battle; now stranded on Earth seeking vengeance against those she believes responsible. Another recurring character is Vulgrim: a demon merchant who provides gear and abilities for War in exchange for human souls. Finally there is Ulthane, also known as the Black Hammer, an "Old One" who first appears hostile towards War, but then the two quickly become friends; first after aiding War in getting into Griever's lair then making War's enchanted revolver and re-forging the Armageddon Blade for him. War is a powerful warrior with a strong sense of honor who will stop at nothing to gain revenge for being betrayed.
Related media [ edit ]
Creator Joe Madureira planned a comic book series and a possible film adaptation for the game.[12] Madureira has been reportedly working on the screenplay[13] and may sell the rights to a Hollywood studio.[14] However, the rights belong to THQ Nordic, leaving the status of the project unknown.
Reception [ edit ]
Critical reception [ edit ]
Darksiders has received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Xbox 360 version 84% and 83/100,[16][19] the PlayStation 3 version 83% and 83/100[15][18] and the PC version 83% and 82/100.[17][20]
GameZone's Dakota Grabowski gave the game an 8/10 on both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, saying "THQ and Vigil Games did an outstanding job creating an intellectual property that has weight. The voice-acting is top-notch, the combat is exquisite, the replay value is high, and the world they have created is fascinating. Darksiders is a marvelous way to start out 2010."[30][31] Being overall positive, IGN saw the elements of Darksiders as a combination of three separate game franchises. Devil May Cry, God of War, and The Legend of Zelda games have been used to compare to the style of Darksiders.[37]
Sales [ edit ]
Darksiders has sold over 1 million units worldwide.[38]
Sequels [ edit ]
THQ creative director Luis Gigliotti revealed in a 2009 interview with GameAxis that Darksiders would be a franchise.[39] Darksiders II was released in August 2012. War's brother, the Horseman, Death, is the protagonist of Darksiders II.
A third entry in the Darksiders series was originally planned by Vigil Games, however, the fate of its franchise was threatened due to financial complications. Its parent company, THQ, filed for bankruptcy in 2012. The company's assets were sold at an auction, excluding Vigil Games, which was shut down along with the parent company, THQ. On April 22, 2013, Darksiders was purchased by Nordic Games in the final transaction of THQ's assets.
On May 2, 2017, a product listing for Darksiders III appeared on Amazon.com.[40] The game was announced the same day by publisher THQ Nordic to be under development by Gunfire Games. The development team largely consists of former Vigil Games employees.[41] The game was revealed to be released on November 27, 2018. The game will follow the Horseman, Fury, as its protagonist, and is set during War's 100 year imprisonment.Aguero and Toure raring to beat Chelsea for a third time this season and add a bit of silverware to a frustrating campaign
Fresh from his match-winning cameo in the Manchester derby on Monday, Sergio Aguero is ready for Manchester City to record their third win over Chelsea this season in the FA Cup semi-final.
The Argentinian striker's 20-minute cameo made the difference for City in the 2-1 derby win over Manchester United on Monday night, his late goal earning City all three points at Old Trafford.
Now back to full fitness, Aguero is desperate for a bit of glory in what has been a frustrating season both personally and for his whole club.
Platform for success: Sergio Aguero greets City's train to London at Macclesfield train station
Match winner: Sergio Aguero (left) scores the late winner in the Manchester derby on Monday
'We’ve had three close games against Chelsea already this season and we expect the same again on Sunday,' said Aguero in an interview with the City club website, mcfc.co.uk
Frustration: Compared to a stellar first season, Aguero has struggled with injury and form this term
'We’ll go out looking to win like we did earlier this season when we faced them in the Community Shield and at home in the Premier League – it goes without saying we hope the result is the same this time around.'
Aguero's cameo against Manchester United followed another 20-minutes in the 4-0 win over Newcastle, marking his first appearances for City since the last time his team met Chelsea on February 24th.
Ccompared to his stellar debut season in Manchester, where he scored 30 goals in all competitions, including the title-winning goal against QPR on the final day, Aguero has had a fractured, injury-hit year with both he and City struggling - he only has 14 goals this term.
He bemoaned his own injuries, and those to his team-mates, but is ready for anything Benitez and Chelsea might offer his side.
'I think we are playing our best football of the season. We would have preferred to have reached this level earlier on, but it's true that during this season, injuries were a big problem,' he added.
'I think that Chelsea’s current manager is trying to use a patient approach to open teams up rather than utilise the counter-attack.
'Both teams have very good technical players who move the ball around, waiting for gaps to appear in the defence. It’s probably going to be a very open game and the team who keeps their head at the crucial moments will win.'
Aguero played in City's 3-2 win over Chelsea in the Community Shield in August and, unlike many commentators who believe the semi-final should be played away from the stadium, is happy to be playing at Wembley.
Raring to go: Aguero is looking for a third City win over Chelsea this season
'Wembley is major stadium to play football in and a great stage for players to show what they are capable of.
'Even though this is a semi-final, which already ensures it will be a thrilling game; it feels more like a final because of what is at stake.
'But there’s no time for regrets. We still have a lot to play for and our number one goal is to win everything we still can. This is a team that never gives up.
'Going forward, I think the main thing we have learned is not to doubt our ability as a team even when things are not going our way.
'We’ll always have to trust our strengths and our game. We will make mistakes and have our ups and downs, but if we believe in ourselves, the sky’s the limit.'
Delighted: Aguero was very pleased with his contribution to the win at Old Trafford
SERGIO AGUERO'S RECORD
2012/2013 - 32 appearances, 14 goals 2011/2012 - 48 appearances, 30 goals
And the striker was delighted with his own contribution in the win at Old Trafford.
'It’s always a good thing to score in a derby and even more so if it’s the winner,' he smiled. 'We lost the home derby in the very last minute and we didn’t deserve that so it was satisfying to win at Old Trafford.
'Personally, it’s rewarding to be able to score such an important goal, especially after spending a long time without playing because of an injury.
'I want to take the opportunity to thank all the members of the club’s medical staff that helped me recover. That goal was for them, too. Given the context, the moment and the fact it was a derby, it may possibly be one of my best goals so far.'
Bullish: Yaya Toure (left) is ready to add to his 2011 FA Cup winners medal
Ready to go: Toure shares a joke with Samir Nasri (right) during training
Aguero's city team-mate Yaya Toure is also bullish ahead of the match with Chelsea. When the teams met at the end of February in the Premier League, Toure scored an excellent opening goal in a 2-0 Manchester City victory.
The Ivory Coast midfielder was excellent in the two wins over Manchester United and Newcastle, and has an excellent record in big games at Wembley in sky blue - in their 2011 FA Cup win he scored winning goals in both semi-final, against United, and final, against Stoke.
Doubt: David Silva may miss the tie
'All we can do is do everything in our power to win the game both individually and as a team,' added Toure.
'When these matches come along, I just dig deep and do the best I can and perform to my optimum levels.
'We have a really tough challenge because Chelsea are a very good team and they have some fantastic players and to beat them we will have to be at our very best.
'We were faced with a similar challenge against Manchester United in 2011 and it was because we fought so hard and played really well that we beat them – the same is required on Sunday and we can’t leave the pitch with any regrets.
'I’m very focused on what we have to do and the whole team is and if we win, we will have done so because we deserve it.'
Toure is another that is happy for the semi-final to be played at the national stadium.
'Wembley is a very special place for me and I have some great memories from our last FA Cup run, particularly the semi-final and final for obvious reasons so I hope I can experience more great moments this season.'
An injury to Spanish playmaker David Silva has cast a shadow over City's preparations for the match, but Toure knows if Silva does not recover in time, he will be up to the job of filling that void.
'Wherever I am asked to play I will give my all and focus on the job I have to do for the team,' he said. 'The manager will tell me where he wants to play and if David isn’t fit, it’s true that it could affect my role on the day.
Filling the void: Toure, who scored the opening goal of the win over Chelsea in February, could fill in for Silva
'David is such an important player for us we are obviously hoping that he recovers in time. He has such quality is quick, clever with fantastic movement and is technically brilliant so it would be a big loss to the team.
'If he doesn’t play, it will make it harder for us because in games like this, you need your best players but we have many fantastic footballers at this club and as long as we give our best game, we will have a good chance of making the final.'PHOENIX (Reuters) - A bounty hunter was arrested after gathering a posse and mistakenly trying to raid the home of Phoenix's chief of police, officials said on Wednesday.
Brent Farley, 43, and 10 others surrounded Chief Joseph Yahner's home around 10 p.m. local time on Tuesday, thinking they were cornering an Oklahoma fugitive wanted on a drug charge, the department said in a statement.
Police said the bounty hunters were told they had the wrong address and were asked to leave numerous times.
The department said Farley, who confronted the chief after banging on the door and demanding he come outside, was carrying a handgun at the time, as were several others.
A video of the incident provided by police showed Chief Yahner, clad only in his underwear, stepping outside his home with a baton in his hand and approaching the bounty hunters. Phoenix police spokesman Trent Crump said there was no physical altercation.
Crump said eight of the individuals were men and the three others were women, including a relative of one of the men who was riding along and an 11-year-old girl who was wearing a toy gun belt.
The bondsmen were working on behalf of two bond recovery companies, NorthStar Fugitive Recovery and Delta One Tactical Recovery, police said, and appeared to have acted on an unconfirmed tip on the suspect's location from social media.
Farley was charged with disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing. Crump said additional charges against the 10 others were possible as well as for Farley, who is a felon.
The recovery firms could not be immediately reached for comment. But a posting by NorthStar on its Facebook account earlier on Tuesday asked for tips as to the location of the fugitive, a black man. Yahner is white.
(Reporting by David Schwartz in Phoenix; Writing by Curtis Skinner; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Eric Walsh)Herzog Zwei (ヘルツォーク・ツヴァイ) is a seminal real time strategy game for the Sega Genesis.
Herzog Zwei Images
Data
Alternate Titles ヘルツォーク・ツヴァイ Genre Real Time Strategy # of Players 1-2 Developer(s) Technosoft Publisher(s) Technosoft (JP)
Sega (NA, EU) Release Dates December 15th, 1989 (JP)
January 11th, 1990 (NA)
1990 (EU) Release Prices ¥ 6,800 (JP)
$ 44.95 (NA)
£ 34.99 (EU) Product IDs T-18023 (JP)
1400 (NA)
1400 (EU) Barcodes 4907095000334 (JP)
010086014006 (NA)
4974365614003 (EU) Rating N/A
Herzog Zwei Overview
Herzog Zwei is the sequel to Herzog, an MSX and PC-88 game upon which it expands greatly. It is one of the most influential early console Real Time Strategy games. It is sometimes erroneously referred to as the first RTS, but that honor goes to Stonkers and The Ancient Art of War, both released in 1984 years prior. Zwei definitely inspired the later Dune II, though.
It’s amusing that one of the biggest early RTS games was on a console, but many later PC to console ports of games in the genre could never seem to be nearly as enjoyable to control.
Zwei gives you control of a unit that can transform from a plane into a robot. From the unit, you manage all of your resources and combat units. You will transport combat units across the battlefield and they will carry out your commands. All units have a finite amount of resources and will ultimately run out of them if you don’t manage them correctly.
Each battlefield has multiple outposts that generate revenue and act as bases of operation for your forces. Capturing and keeping them under your control is the key to victory.
The game features a split-screen two player mode that is a load of fun.
Transforming robots, what will they think of next?
Screenshots
Videos
Herzog Zwei gameplay
Watch this video on YouTube
Wallpapers
Artwork
Other Media
You can download a PDF of the North American manual here and the Japanese manual here.
Merchandise
Die hard fans of the game can purchase Marc Erickson’s cover art here.
Ports & Sequels
-A sequel was planned for the Sega 32X but ultimately never went anywhere.
-An obvious homage to the game came in the form of AirMech Arena from Ubisoft. The game was released for PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Windows (known simply as AirMech there). The soundtrack was composed by the classic industrial band Front Line Assembly and received a commercial release.
AirMech Arena soon available on Xbox 360! [ENG]
Watch this video on YouTube
Random Information
-The Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) review for Herzog Zwei is infamous for how badly they missed the mark. They didn’t seem to understand how to play the game or it’s appeal.
Guides
A comprehensive guide was written by Topher Tweten and you can view it here.
Cheats & Secrets
Passwords
GGGKHAGOKLO Round 5 CHGIGBCAGNJ Level 3 BPHOHACAGML Round 12 NPLOFOCAG |
my house?!' And he goes, 'Somebody was crying in your yard, the dog was barking,' and of course I called b.s. on that and he got really mad," Buckmaster said.
Buckmaster said the lock to the gate had been cut and discarded on the ground. He added Laster was with another man, broke through a back window and stole valuables.
Buckmaster took a photo of Laster with his cell phone before he jumped in an SUV, rammed Buckmaster's truck and took off through the front lawn, nearly hitting him.
The owner of the home on Joy Lane captured video of Laster with a home surveillance system approximately two hours later. Police said Laster was wearing the same clothes in that burglary as in Buckmaster's photo.
Police arrested Laster on a probation violation from Bexar County. Online records at the Travis County Jail state he is being held on combined $81,000 bond.JUBA, Sudan — Southern Sudanese are already celebrating the birth of their new nation after official results showed more than 99 percent of voters chose secession from the north, but once the jubilation subsides the tricky task of building a viable state will begin.
That might take decades.
An independent South Sudan will be one of the world’s poorest countries, a place where lack of health facilities means that one in seven women who get pregnant will die before giving birth, where the same number of newborns will not reach their fifth birthday and where 85 percent of the population is illiterate.
Economically, southern Sudan is almost completely reliant on crude oil exports for its income and imports almost everything else.
“This is state-building from scratch,” said Alex Vines, head of the Africa program at London's Royal Institute for International Affairs. “It is a long-term project and it will be decades before we see a successful, sustainable state emerge. In the near term southern Sudan will become a major aid recipient.”
Donor countries such as the United States, which played a key role in securing the 2005 peace deal that ended 22 years of destructive civil war paving the way for the January referendum on secession, say they are committed to southern Sudan and they are expected to increase foreign aid and investment.
How the North and South will divide up a combined international debt millstone of close to $38 billion is one of a whole range of issues on which the two sides have not yet decided.
“This is a country that is desperately poor, landlocked, extraordinarily reliant on oil and will have tense relations with the North, all of which raises questions about the viability of the state,” said Philippe de Pontet, Africa director at Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy based in New York.
Juba offers a glimpse of a possible future with restaurants, hotels and small businesses springing up all over the rapidly expanding town. At the markets, trade is frenetic and long lines of trucks bearing goods from Uganda line up at the customs checkpoint on the far side of the Nile River.
But the nascent capital is not the country writ small. The city’s tarred roads are not found elsewhere in southern Sudan and in regional towns such Rumbek, Bor or Malakal, development remains embryonic. In these outposts the dividends of six years of peace are hard to discern.
Roads are made of dirt, shops are sparsely stocked, markets sell little piles of cassava dug from nearby fields or locally grown mangos. Electricity and piped water are rare and torrential seasonal rains regularly cut off entire regions of the Texas-sized territory, washing away mud roads and airstrips.
“There are no roads, they are building from nothing and large chunks of the country are inaccessible for parts of the year,” said Joanna Michler, an aid worker with Save The Children.
Yet it is estimated that the government of Southern Sudan has earned perhaps as much as $2 billion in oil revenues every year since the 2005 peace deal.
“They have sufficient money but they lack the capacity to spend it well,” said one analyst.
Corruption is rife and perhaps a third of the oil windfall has been spent on the army.
The vast majority of Sudan’s estimated 6 billion barrels of oil is in the South but even this bounty will run out in the years ahead so South Sudan must try to diversify its economy. Agricultural land is one under-exploited resource. Sudan’s population is about 9 million people but it is possible to fly for hours across the landscape without seeing a settlement.
So far the biggest investment in southern Sudan outside the oil and telecoms sectors is a $50 million brewery opened by SAB Miller in May 2009 which provides 150,000 bottles of beer a day for local consumption.
As northern Arab traders dominate the economies of border towns, so foreigners dominate Juba’s booming economy.
Kenyans, Ugandans and others foreigners are making the money: Southern Sudan benefits little from foreign businesses and foreign staff who return their profits to a foreign land.
“The majority of those in the private sector here are foreigners,” said Melody Atil, a former World Bank official who now runs an organization called Peace Dividend that seeks to plug local entrepreneurs into the emerging local market.
Atil said getting a loan is almost impossible because the legal structures and the court system are weak. Land ownership remains largely customary and without a functioning register there is little that potential borrowers can offer as collateral, so the majority poor are cut out of the market.
As in many post-conflict states the fast money is to be made in construction, hotels and restaurants.
“Hardly anything is produced in southern Sudan, everything is imported,” said Atil. “The market right now is government procurement and the aid industry.”
That looks unlikely to change anytime soon.One of the World’s Top Protest Apps Was Just Blocked in Russia
The government is denying more than 400,000 Russian users access to Zello, which has been used to coordinate protest actions in several countries.
In 2014, when thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets to protest the Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych, they relied on Zello, an app that allows users to talk one-on-one, like a walkie-talkie, or in broadcast modes that can reach hundreds or thousands of people at once.. Since its founding in 2007, Zello has played a key role in protest and activist movements in Turkey, Hong Kong, Venezuela, and the Arab world. On Wednesday, its roughly 400,000 users in Russia were blocked from using the service, according to Bill Moore, the Austin-based company’s CEO.
“This action follows a notice we received last week from the Russian regulator Roskomnadzor that Zello is not in compliance with a law that governs information distribution brokers,” Moore wrote in a draft blog post provided to Defense One. Zello also responded to the law with this blog post in Russian.
The law in question (Federal Law of 27.07.2006 number 149-FZ) forces companies that provide communication and messaging services over the Internet — including Zello, along with email service providers, social networking services, and the like — to give user data to law enforcement upon request and share all encryption keys with the FSB, the Russian security service.
Moore told Defense One the request was “not serious,” meaning there was no way to comply.
The law has apparently been used to block only one other major service: LinkedIn, in November.
“It’s kind of strange. Why LinkedIn? Why Zello? Twitter wouldn’t comply, neither would Google, or Facebook,” Moore said over the phone.
The block was imposed just weeks after thousands of young people took to the streets in Moscow and across Russia, decrying corruption in the government of Vladimir Putin. More than 500 protesters were detained. The government has promised a crackdown.
Moore said Zello has seen “pretty good growth” in Russia. Its main users in the country are taxi and truck drivers, but the app is also popular with protestors and others.
“Russians use the app to connect with family members and friends and to participate in social, political, and humanitarian conversations and events. But it is also used by search and rescue personnel, taxi services, law enforcement, and drivers needing assistance,” Moore said in a statement.
“We didn’t know if it was a threat or they would really do it. When we announced [the block notice] there was a broad, vocal opposition, including among truck drivers,” he said over the phone.
Moore said Zello was working to restore service via workarounds so that users did not have to rely on a virtual private network to use the service, but thinks that might be more difficult than it was in Venezuela or other countries. Still, at press time, Zello had found a workaround.By Ece Toksabay and Gulsen Solaker
ANKARA (Reuters) - At least 95 people were killed when two suspected suicide bombers struck a rally of pro-Kurdish and labor activists outside Ankara's main train station just weeks before elections, in the worst attack of its kind on Turkish soil.
Bodies covered by flags and banners, including those of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), lay scattered on the road among bloodstains and body parts. The HDP blamed the government which, it said, had blood on its hands.
Footage screened by broadcaster CNN Turk showed a line of young men and women holding hands and dancing, and then flinching as a large explosion flashed behind them, engulfing people carrying HDP and leftist party banners.
"Like other terror attacks, the one at the Ankara train station targets our unity, togetherness, brotherhood and future," said President Tayyip Erdogan, who has vowed to crush a Kurdish militant insurgency since the collapse of a ceasefire and resumption of intense violence in July.
As well as the 95 dead, 246 wounded people were still being treated, 48 of them in intensive care, the prime minister's office said.
Witnesses said the two explosions happened seconds apart shortly after 10 a.m. as crowds, including HDP activists, leftists, labor unions and other civic groups, gathered for a planned march to protest over the deaths of hundreds since conflict resumed between security forces and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the mainly Kurdish southeast.
"I heard one big explosion first and tried to cover myself as the windows broke. Right away there was the second one," said Serdar, 37, who was working at a newspaper stand in the train station. "There was shouting and crying and I stayed under the newspapers for a while. I could smell burnt flesh."
There were no claims of responsibility for the attack, which comes as external threats mount for NATO member Turkey with increased fighting across its border with Syria and incursions by Russian warplanes on its air space over the last week.
But Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, exposing a mosaic of domestic political perils, said Islamic State, Kurdish or far-leftist militants could have carried out the bombing. He said there were strong signs two suicide bombers were responsible.
HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas blamed the government in blunt terms. He said the attack was part of the same campaign as the bombing of an HDP rally in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir on the eve of June elections and a suicide bombing blamed on Islamic State in Suruc near the Syrian border in July, which killed 33 mostly young pro-Kurdish activists.
"The government's right and chance to hum and haw has long expired. You are murderers. Your hand is bloody. Blood has splattered from your face, your mouth to your nails and all over you. You are the biggest supporters of terror," he told reporters in comments broadcast on the internet.
The HDP argues that Erdogan seeks to undermine its support and increase backing for his AK Party in elections due on Nov. 1 by associating it with PKK violence and factional infighting, a link the party denies strongly.
Sources in Erdogan's office said U.S. President Barack Obama called the president on Saturday evening to convey his condolences, condemn the attack and stress that Washington would continue to stand beside Turkey in its fight against terror.
KURDISH MILITANTS' CEASEFIRE
Davutoglu accused Demirtas, whose party garnered support from largely left-leaning voters beyond its Kurdish base to enter parliament in June, of "open provocation".
Some activists saw the hand of the state in all three attacks on Kurdish interests, accusing Erdogan and the AK Party he founded of seeking to stir up nationalist sentiment, a charge Turkey's leaders have vehemently rejected.
Labor unions which helped organize the rally hit by the bombs called a two-day strike for Oct 12-13, although such calls have not always been widely followed in the past.
The scale of casualties exceeded attacks in 2003, when two synagogues, the Istanbul HSBC Bank headquarters and the British consulate were hit with a total loss of 62 lives. Authorities said those incidents bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda.
Turkey has been on alert since starting a "synchronized war on terror" in July, including air strikes against Islamic State fighters in Syria and PKK bases in northern Iraq. It has rounded up hundreds of suspected Kurdish and Islamist militants at home.Environment Minister Greg Hunt vows nobody will pay for the carbon tax on July 1 next year. But there's enormous complexity in repealing the legislation for business.
"The government will not extend the carbon tax beyond 2013-14, even if the Parliament does not pass the carbon tax repeal bills until after 1 July 2014."
"We're getting way ahead of ourselves. It is designed to take effect under every circumstance from the evening of 30 June 2014. We cannot take away the tax without legislation being passed, but this legislation is designed for every circumstance."
This very strange sentence appears on page one of the carbon tax repeal consultation paper In this very likely scenario, is the federal government proposing the law of the land should be ignored? That would put liable businesses in an odd position, especially with the example before them of Clive Palmer flouting the carbon tax law already. To his credit Prime Minister Tony Abbott is talking tough with Palmer, who will be in the box seat sharing the balance of power in the Senate from July 1 next year, and who has an unpaid carbon tax liability of some $7 million for 2012-13 and is presumably racking up a similar liability this year. Palmer is so loose it is possible to imagine his own carbon tax bill becoming a talking point as he wields make-or-break influence in the looming Senate negotiations over the repeal. Speaking to Crikey, Climate Institute CEO John Connor warns of a "cascading illegality" if other liable entities decide they will take the government at its word and plan not to pay the tax from July 1. Environment minister Greg Hunt does not want to countenance a scenario in which Labor fails to support repeal, dodging repeated questioning on the issue on ABC Radio's AM program this morning:But if Labor and the Greens do stick to their guns, and the government doesn't have the numbers in the Senate until July 1, there will need to be some retrospective mechanism to give effect to a promise that the 2015 fiscal year will be carbon tax-free. That opens up a complete can of worms, especially for the electricity companies that have forward contracts in the wholesale electricity market that already factor in a carbon price, and for retailers that could have to pay the tax, pass it through to customers and then refund them later -- all the time, as Bernard Keane reports, with the competition watchdog on their back. The big energy companies say they need at least six months from the date the repeal legislation actually passes to comply. Liabilities of roughly $6 billion are up in the air in 2014-15, going by figures from the Carbon Market Institute, a non-profit group that represents emitters liable under the carbon tax framework. In the first year of the carbon tax, 2012-13, there was $3.2 billion paid in carbon tax and free permits issued worth another $3.3 billion. Norton Rose partner Elisa de Wit, who commentates for Climate Spectator today, told Crikey the easiest solution would be to allow the carbon tax to run for its third compliance year, in 2014-15. But that would be politically unacceptable. It's one thing to kill off the carbon tax but there are going to be major headaches for business if the government insists on trying to do it so fast.The last album of originals Gorgoroth released was Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Trahunt in 2009, so it's been a while. Granted the group re-recorded Under the Sign of Hell in 2011 and released that, but outside that there's been a lot of silence. It's good to see the band is alive and well, what with a new record titled Instinctus Bestialis due out on June 8 via Soulseller Record, but also still killing it!
The new song "Ad Omnipotens Aeterne" has a very, very raw, aggressive sound to it that really rips right into your ears. There's a little bit of hallmark black metal in there, but the tune relies a lot on riffs and shifting tempos to gets its point across and that fucking rules.
[via Terrorizer]
Related PostsRed Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2, the latest release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 continues Red Hat's goal of redefining the enterprise operating system by providing a trusted path towards the future of information technology without compromising the needs of the modern enterprise.
New features and capabilities focus on security, networking, and system administration, along with a continued emphasis on enterprise-ready tooling for the development and deployment of Linux container-based applications. In addition, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 includes compatibility with the new Red Hat Insights, an add-on operational analytics offering designed to increase IT efficiency and reduce downtime through the proactive identification of known risks and technical issues.
Security
Retaining Red Hat's commitment to security, including meeting the needs of financial, government, and military customers, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 continues to provide new security capabilities and features. True security requires both a secure foundation and secure configuration of systems. OpenSCAP is an implementation of the Security Content Automation Protocol that analyzes a system for security compliance. The new OpenSCAP Anaconda plug-in allows use of SCAP based security and configuration analysis during the installation process, ensuring a secure starting point for system deployment.
A critical part of secure distributed systems is being able to trust the address resolution performed by DNS servers. DNSSEC extends DNS to provide a secure chain of trust for address resolution. The Red Hat Identity Management system (IdM) now supports DNSSEC for DNS zones.
Networking
Networking performance in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 has been significantly improved — with throughput doubled in many network function virtualization (NFV) and software defined networking (SDN) use cases. Other enhancements to the kernel networking subsystem, include:
Tuning the network kernel stack to dramatically improve packet processing time, enable Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 to perform at physical line rates in advanced (virtual and containerized) workloads.
Inclusion of the Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK), which makes it possible to rapidly develop low-latency and high throughput custom applications capable of direct packet processing in user space for NFV and other use cases. Prior to this enhancement, systems were limited to running only one type of application (DPDK-enabled or traditional-network enabled.) Enhancements in Red Hat Enterprise LInux 7.2, specifically the introduction of a new bifurcated driver, now allow for both types of applications to be hosted on the same system thus consolidating physical hardware.
The addition of TCP (DCTCP), a feature for solving TCP congestion problems in data centers that works smoothly across Windows- and Red Hat Enterprise Linux-based hosts to maximize throughput and efficiency.
Linux Containers
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 features many improvements to the underlying container support infrastructure. Updates are included for the docker engine, Kubernetes, Cockpit and the Atomic command. In addition, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host 7.2, the latest version of Red Hat's container workload-optimized host platform, is available with most Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 subscriptions.
Also available today is the beta of the Red Hat Container Development Kit 2, a collection of images, tools, and documentation to help application developers simplify the creation of container-based applications that are certified for deployment on Red Hat container hosts, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host 7.2 and OpenShift Enterprise 3.
System Administration
As managing the modern datacenter at scale becomes increasingly complex, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 includes new and improved tools to deliver a more streamlined system administration experience. Highlighting these updates is the inclusion of Relax-and-Recover, a system archiving tool that enables administrators to create local backups in ISO format that can be centrally archived and replicated remotely for simplified disaster recovery operations.
Red Hat Insights
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 is compatible with Red Hat Insights, an operational analytics service designed for the proactive management of Red Hat Enterprise Linux environments. Available for up to 10 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 systems at no additional cost, the offering is designed to help customers detect technical issues before they impact business operations by analyzing infrastructure assets and identifying key risks and vulnerabilities through continuous monitoring and analysis. Red Hat Insights provides resolution steps to help IT managers and administrators respond to these issues and potentially prevent future problems.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server for ARM 7.2 Development Preview
Red Hat is also making available Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server for ARM 7.2 Development Preview, which was first made available to partners and their customers in June 2015. This Development Preview enables new partner hardware and additional features for the ARM architecture.
Supporting Quote
Jim Totton, vice president and general manager, Platforms Business Unit, Red Hat
"With the launch of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 in June 2014, Red Hat redefined the enterprise open source operating system. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 continues this effort, delivering new capabilities for containerized application deployments and significant networking enhancements while retaining our focus on delivering a stable, reliable and more secure platform for the most critical of business applications."Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos indicated he wants to stay with the Tampa Bay Lightning and win a championship with the organization.
Stamkos’ future with Tampa has currently been in question after he liked a tweet about the Toronto Maple Leafs’ pursuit of him. His Lightning also recently played the Maple Leafs in Toronto, which meant he was asked several questions about his pending status as an unrestricted free agent.
The Tampa Bay Times spoke with Stamkos on Saturday about the rumors swirling about him.
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"Like I've always said, I envision myself winning a championship here and want to do that," Stamkos told the Tampa Bay Times Saturday. "Obviously we got close last year, and I'm the captain of this team and I want to be that leader."
Three days ago, TSN’s Bob McKenzie wrote that he believed the 25-year-old Stamkos was probably going to leave the Lightning.
The Tampa captain and former 60-goal scorer responded to this as well.
"Not even close. That's why people say, 'I've got a feeling. I think, speculate, there's so much information out there that's probably false. Like the ones about my parents moving to Tampa (which Stamkos said is not true). That just comes with the territory."
Stamkos also shot down rumors that he and Tampa coach Jon Cooper don’t get along.
"That's false too," Stamkos said. "That's the thing. There's been so many different articles written about Coop and I. How do they know what's going on in the room? A lot of it is speculation, a lot of it is a story that needs something to make it seem legit, there needs to be a reason (he's still unsigned). Why no one has had any concrete stuff is because there hasn't been anything to talk about.”
Story continues
Early in December, Stamkos spoke with Puck Daddy and said his contract situation was not a distraction. But this was before he went to Toronto to play the Maple Leafs, a team that has rumored interest in Stamkos should he hit the open market.
The trading deadline is Feb. 29, and Stamkos didn't say if he would waive his no-movement clause if a contract isn't worked out by then.
Stamkos has 12 goals and 23 points this season in 33 games. This puts him on pace for his worst full-season output since his rookie year. The Lightning are currently 16-14-3, two points outside the Eastern Conference's Wild Card race.
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!Jesus Ween is not, in fact, a celebration of Jesus's ween, but rather "a non for Profit Organisation [sic] also known as JesusWin…focused on helping people live a better life."
What are you doing this year for JesusWeen? Wait…what? You mean you aren't familiar with JesusWeen, the holiday celebrated every October 31st in the U.S.? Oh, you think October 31st is Halloween. No, that was before the fundamentalist Christians decided to co-opt it and turn it into JesusWeen. You see, they are terrified of Halloween and needed to Jesus it up a bit. So now we have JesusWeen. Yes, that's a real thing. I know how it sounds, but they are serious about it.As Gawker noted in 2011,Those participating in JesusWeen hand out Christian bibles instead of candy (or at least candy with bible verses printed on the wrappers). They do not allow their children to wear costumes. You know, because that would be evil.If it is fun or feels good in some way, you can bet that fundamentalist Christians somewhere are trying to figure out how to stop people from doing it. Not only is Halloween fun, but many fundamentalist Christians have decided that it is genuinely evil. That means that those who participate in it are evil. You don't want to be evil, do you?JesusWeen may be a relatively new phenomenon (it appears to have been born in 2011), but the sentiment underlying it is anything but new. I remember the fundamentalist Christian families not allowing their children to participate in Halloween as far back as grade school. They were a tiny minority back then where I was growing up on the West Coast. They are not so tiny here in Mississippi today. I am not even sure that they are a minority.by
Never has a candidate for President been so solicitous—and transparent about it—of major wealth, what the New York Times (stepping out of character) admits is her appeal to the Ultrarich. In Chozick and Martin’s, “Where Has Hillary Clinton Been? Ask the Ultrarich,” Sept. 3, we find the most lopsided appeal to wealth—at the expense of normal campaigning—in US electoral history: estate after estate, party after party, closed doors, the pampered and selfish, coming out of the woodwork, to bask in the love of one who gravitates to them like moths to a light.
Hillary Clinton has no shame. Forget press conferences. Brazen out FBI findings of duplicity, criminality (though the Agency demurs from the charge), inadvertence in destroying evidence, a bottomless well of rotten practice—and this the darling of liberals and so-called progressives. Weighed in the scales of decency and social justice, how is she better than Donald Trump? Both are fascistically-inclined, both have contempt for working people and minorities, both have chauvinistic militarism in their blood. How can there be a choice of the lesser of two evils when each vies for the pinnacle of Evil-ness?
Whore? For $125,000, you get dinner and a meet-the-candidate (some as high as a quarter $M)—and if under 16 years old at the gathering, for $10,000 you can ask the candidate a question. Auction-block politics, except that it is the American people on the slave-block. In this hothouse atmosphere, the host ensures Clinton will not be embarrassed. Why should she be, they’re all bosom buddies, all see eye-to-eye, gatherings of the self-righteous that make a Mafia summit look like a children’s tea party.
What is to be done? Trump is hardly an alternative. The plebeian billionaire is capable of anything. Clinton has disqualified and perjured herself as unworthy of any office. She and her husband, the Bonnie & Clyde of Mammon worship (even Trump, hard to believe, seems to have more character). As for the decisive area of foreign policy, there is little to choose: the sophistication of liberal think-take, national-security genocidal adventurism on one hand, gut-authoritarians, simple-minded zealots on the other. Of the two, the former may well be the more dangerous.
Is the Third Party a valid alternative? To many, yes, but here we still do not have a clean break from the Cold War mentality. (And Bernie Sanders wins a medal as outstanding disappointment with his ersatz Revolution funneled into the Clinton camp.) America is a declining Empire, desperately grasping for straws. Anything to stand on top, its strategic focus on counterrevolution, its political focus on structural-ideological hierarchy to keep the poor at bay and in their place. At some point, the malaise of fascist boredom will possibly solve our problems for us, with the mushroom cloud. There is nothing to indicate a spirit of freedom in the works, except possibly on cultural issues which—everything else the same—do not and cannot translate into authentic democratic feeling.
I may overstate the gloom-and-doom scenario, in which case CounterPunchers might find incentive in promoting fruitful ways of radicalizing America. Thinking small will not do it, whether the commune or political capture of a single town. Power has been centralized at the bayonet-point of perfection, easily able to absorb when not crushing societal dissidence. But the very least one can ask of any human being is not to support either major-party candidate. Militarism is in the air—the stench, overpowering. Ditto, plutocracy. The two go together, and any alternative must tackle them both, shrink and ultimately destroy the cancer metastasizing in the American body politic.In my younger years, my mother tried to manage my expectations in the maddening way that mothers do. Whenever I was worked up at the prospect of some unwanted turn of events, she’d reliably intone: “always expect the unexpected.”
In 2016, that folksy translation of Heraclitus could have stood rather more mention than it received, particularly among the Washington establishment. That Hillary Clinton would win seemed self-evident to the ruling class, with even the most cautious of the major vote predictions—Nate Silver’s comparatively staid map at FiveThirtyEight—giving Clinton an overwhelming shot at victory.
But now Election Day is come and gone and that same elite will have to work with the most unexpected president of all, Donald J. Trump.
How that will shake out is difficult to predict, but in the meantime, there is a clear lesson here for Washington in general and the foreign-policy establishment in particular: you don’t know as much as you think you do.
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This unadmitted ignorance was previously displayed for those with eyes to see it in the Libya debacle, perhaps not coincidentally Clinton’s pet war. Cast by the Obama White House as a surgical display of “smart power” that would defend human rights and foster democracy in the Muslim world, the 2011 Libyan intervention did precisely the opposite. There is credible evidence that the U.S.-led NATO campaign prolonged and exacerbated the humanitarian crisis, and far from creating a flourishing democracy, the ouster of strongman Muammar Qaddafi led to a power vacuum into which ISIS and other rival unsavories surged.
The 2011 intervention and the follow-up escalation in which we are presently entangled were both fundamentally informed by “the underlying belief that military force will produce stability and that the U.S. can reasonably predict the result of such a campaign,” as Christopher Preble has argued in a must-read Libya analysis at Politico. Both have proven resoundingly wrong.
Before Libya, Washington espoused the same false certainty in advance of intervention and nation-building Iraq and Afghanistan. The rhetoric around the former was particularly telling: we would find nuclear weapons and “be greeted as liberators,” said Vice President Dick Cheney. The whole thing would take five months or less, said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. It would be a “cakewalk.” As months dragged into years of nation-building stagnation, the ignored truth became increasingly evident: the United States cannot reshape entire countries without obscene risk and investment, and even when those costly commitments are made, success cannot be predicted with certainty.
Nearly 14 years later, with Iraq demonstrably more violent and less stable than it was before U.S. intervention, wisdom demands we reject Washington’s recycled snake oil.
Recent polls (let alone the anti-elite backlash Trump’s win represents) suggest Americans are ready to do precisely that. But a lack of public enthusiasm has never stopped Washington from hawking its fraudulent wares—this time in the form of yet-again unfounded certainty that escalating American intervention in Syria is a sure-fire solution to that beleaguered nation’s woes.
We must not let ourselves be fooled. Rather, we “should understand that we don’t need to overthrow distant governments and roll the dice on what comes after in order to keep America safe,” as Preble, reflecting on Libya, contends. “On the contrary, our track record over the last quarter-century shows that such interventions often have the opposite effect.”
And as for the political establishment, let Trump’s triumph be a constant reminder of the necessity of expecting the unexpected and proceeding with due (indeed, much overdue) prudence and restraint abroad. If Washington so grossly misunderstood the direction of its own heartland—without the muddling, as in foreign policy, of massive geographic and cultural differences—how naïve it is to believe that our government can successfully play armed puppet-master over an entire region of the world?
Bonnie Kristian is a fellow at Defense Priorities. She is a weekend editor at The Week and a columnist at Rare, and her writing has also appeared at Time, Politico, Relevant, The Hill, and other outlets.Ever since his WWE debut, the Superstar known as Stardust has kept a foot planted squarely in his comic book fan roots. Whether sporting Archangel-inspired tights or a Dr. Doom-esque mask as “Cody Rhodes,” or in his current cosmic persona, Stardust is a wrestler seemingly designed from the ground up to appeal to comic book readers.
After fully transmogrifying into his current identity, Stardust and his brother Goldust had a successful run in WWE's tag team division, before eventually splitting up under rather acrimonious circumstances. Now, with WWE's biggest event of the year, WrestleMania, mere weeks away, Stardust is setting his red-tinged eyes on a new goal.
We caught up with Stardust to talk about his quest for the Cosmic Key, possible connections to the Infinity Gauntlet, the inspiration for his iconic ring gear and the Stardust that lives inside each of us...whether we want it to or not. I know that you and your brother Goldust had been searching for the Cosmic Key. I was hoping you could give us a bit of explanation of what exactly the Cosmic Key is. I know a lot of fans of both comic books and wrestling assumed that it might be similar to the Infinity Gauntlet...
StarDust: Ohhhhhh...well, well, well...to say it is similar to the Infinity Gauntlet is not too far out there. But there is a difference: Comic books are make believe. But you're absolutely in the ballpark. The “Cosmic Key” wasn't just vague, mundane vernacular...it was a specific title in WWE, and that was the WWE Tag Team Championships, which we ultimately did find. Since then, you and Goldust have had some difficulties as a team and as brothers. Is what we saw at WWE Fastlane the end of the Stardust/Goldust union?
SD: Is it the end...? Is it the beginning...? I don't know. I know that Goldust has had a wonderful career, but by all means, his wonderful career should genuinely be...over. So I don't see a future where Goldust and Stardust are questing for the Cosmic Key. But in mentioning the Cosmic Key and in mentioning the Infinity Gauntlet, that just...makes you a genius. I don't know if you've heard but Stardust is pining, is lusting, is questing for another item in the WWE Universe...Have you heard? Do you know? NOTE: This interview was conducted before last week's SmackDown, on which Stardust seemed to express a desire for the WWE Intercontinental Title and before being added to the Intercontinental Title match at Wrestlemania. I...don't think so?
SD: Stardust is out amongst the molecular clouds. With hand on his forehead, like Christian of the WWE, he sees far, far beyond, looking for...the Ivory Enterprise. And the Ivory Enterprise...this is the new focus of your galactic quest? SD: It's dear to me. It was mine before it was theirs. It's most precious.President Rodrigo Duterte revealed on Tuesday that when now-Sen. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan was being hunted by authorities for allegedly leading coup attempts against the government, they were together roaming the streets of Davao City.
READ: Did you know: Honasan led coup try vs Cory Aquino
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In his speech during the launch of the Philippine Red Cross’s first humanitarian ship, Duterte said members of the military failed to recognize Honasan while he was touring Davao City with him.
“During the days of crisis or the days of living dangerously, I and Gringo — I call him then Gringo and I’d like to call him Gringo now — he was wanted by the government but he was in Davao with me,” Duterte said.
He added, “Itong isa, si Rod, the guy from the Air Force, we had a great time touring around the place. We were wearing helmets, but that is how competent the Armed Forces is,” Duterte said.
“We were having a great time rambling down the streets of Davao, eating durian on the sidewalk. And my God, nobody recognized Senator Honasan. And I said, that is how our Armed Forces is,” he added, drawing laughter from the crowd.
Duterte did not specify when the incident happened.
Honasan, who founded the Reform the Armed Forces Movement that broke away from then dictator Ferdinand Marcos, led a series of failed coup attempts against the administration of President Corazon Aquino from 1986 to |
.92 Average Cover Price of Comics in the Top 25 $3.91 Median Cover Price of Comics in the Top 300 $3.99 Most Common Cover Price of Comics in the Top 300 $3.99
Comics retailers in North America ordered nearly 114,000 copies of the $9.99in March, making it both a million-dollar item at full retail and the most expensive comic book ever to top the monthly sales charts. That's according to Comichron's estimates based on an analysis of the latest information released byClick to see the comics sales estimates forAs noted here Friday, March was, helping the market to edge back to just a 3% loss for the quarter — a middling performance when it comes to the light-volume winter season. Ten percent more comic books were shipped in the month than in the same month in the previous year. A particularly heartening sign is that the 300th-place title for the month had orders of 4,812 copies, many more than last March's 4,269 copies for that level.Fewer new graphic novel releases meant the category continued to lag year-over-year; in all, 6% fewer graphic novels have been released this year versus last year. Unit sales levels were down all along the Top 300 list for graphic novels, in part but probably not entirely because of these missing new releases. That said, the #2 book for the month,, had an identical number of copies ordered as last March'sso there's no apparent slowdown in that line. There was major deep-discounting on several books, includinghardcovers, so while those appear in the Top 300s, those don't have much as effect on the market shares.There's been online discussion lately about Marvel's performance at the end of last year and the possible reasons involved — but as I toldlast week, there are elements in play that make comparatives more complicated, not just for the publisher but for the market in general. As I reported2015 saw a major publishing event — the return ofcomics to Marvel — that added $31 million that we know of in Direct Market orders to that year. The impact of that return in 2015 made it especially challenging for 2016's orders for all publishers combined to keep pace, and they only just barely did — and Marvel's Direct Market fourth quarter was down in 2016 versus 2015. But total Q4 2016 retailer orders from the publisher still appear to have increased quite a bit from the same season in 2014, beforearrived at Marvel, so while the effect was diminished, the publisher still netted out ahead of where it was two years before.As mentioned often here,when it comes to evaluating the cross-time performance of individual titles; the aggregate figures are usually the better thing to look at. But 2015 falls into a small category of timeframes (including, most recently, 2011-12) with events so impactful that even the wider measures require comparative caveats for years to come. Those events may not always be decisive in looking at various trends, but they are part of the statistical environment.The vital statistics for the month:One change for March in the comparatives: fifteen years ago, Diamond started reporting the Top 50 rather than the Top 25 trade paperbacks, so the comparatives for the 15-year columns now look at just the Top 50 when it comes to 2017's sales.Donald Trump is comfortable weighing in on the controversy surrounding Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), but he’s been conspicuously silent about Roy Moore’s (R-Ala.) scandal. This morning, Kellyanne Conway said it’s because the Moore story, which broke last week, is “eight days old.”
Given that the president has brought up last year’s election, on average, every five days this year, Conway’s argument could use some work.
But the problem extends beyond well Moore. Trump himself has faced multiple accusations of sexual misconduct, including women who said the president targeted them in ways he bragged about on tape. If Franken is going to face Senate Ethics Committee scrutiny, a reporter asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders today if it’d be fair for the claims against Trump to also be investigated. Not surprisingly, the president’s chief spokesperson pushed back.
SANDERS: Look, I think that this was covered pretty extensively during the campaign. We addressed that then. The American people, I think, spoke very loud and clear when they elected this president. REPORTER: But how is this different? SANDERS: I think in one case, specifically, Sen. Franken has admitted wrong doing and the president hasn’t. I think that’s a very clear distinction.
OK, two things.
First, when “the American people” heard the allegations against Donald Trump last year, and were given a choice in presidential candidates, Trump came in second place – by nearly 3 million votes. To say that “the American people” chose Trump despite the allegations of sexual misconduct, effectively negating his accusers’ claims, is at odds with what actually happened.
Second, Sanders’ argument is predicated on a bizarre assumption. Faced with a credible accuser and undeniable evidence, Franken acknowledged wrongdoing and apologized. His accuser has accepted that apology and the Democratic senator will now face additional scrutiny.
To hear the White House press secretary tell it, there should be no comparable scrutiny of the president because he still pretends he’s done nothing wrong.
In other words, to hear Sanders tell it, if a man in a position of authority is accused of mistreating women, he shouldn’t do as Franken has done. The smarter move, by this White House’s standard, is to deny everything, lash out at his accusers, and insist that each of the women are liars – because investigations are reserved for those who own up to their actions.
Trump World had all day to come up with a good argument. This, evidently, is what they settled on.Get the biggest politics stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Firefighters have spoken of their “shame” after bosses allegedly stopped them from helping victims of the Manchester Arena bomb until 90 MINUTES after the attack.
Members of the emergency service have told the Manchester Evening News they were aware paramedics were in urgent need of back up in the aftermath of the terror attack - but they were prevented from going in.
Devastated crew members have said that by the time five appliances were sent to the scene, all the dangerous work had been done.
Suicide bomber Salman Abedi killed 22 people and left 119 injured when he blew himself up just as the light went up at an Ariana Grande concert on Monday.
But crews claim all they could do was watch the horror unfold on TV - just half a mile from the scene.
(Image: Rex Features)
(Image: PA)
(Image: AFP)
Now Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham who has responsibility for Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, is to order an independent review into decision making by brigade managers on the night of the attack.
Mr Burnham said: “I am aware of concerns from firefighters about the speed of the response to the terror attack at the Manchester Arena on Monday night. I am taking these concerns seriously and, at the appropriate time, they will be subject to a full evaluation and briefing.
“But they have to be seen in context. Large numbers of highly-trained professionals were on site within minutes providing support to people. I could not be more proud of all of Greater Manchester’s emergency services who, over the last 48 hours, have gone to incredible lengths to carry the city through this dark time.”
(Image: London News Pictures Ltd)
(Image: Manchester Evening News)
(Image: SWNS - LEEDS SWNS.com)
Mr Bunrham could decide to call for a full independent review after the evaluation.
On an internal brigade website, Save The UK Fire Service, there had been a call for the mayor to launch an investigation.
One firefighter slammed brigade bosses saying: “Their lack of leadership was reflected in the desperate pleas of North West Ambulance Service staff shouting that firefighters were needed at the scene.
"They were sat at Manchester Central fire station watching the incident unfold on TV.
"The station is half a mile from the incident.
(Image: Birmingham Mail)
(Image: Birmingham Mail)
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The nearest crews - based at Manchester Central - were sent two “pre-alerts” by their regional control room within a few minutes of the bomb going off.
They prepared to go to the scene, but were instead told to rendezvous at Philips Park station.
They waited there for an hour, and were told they had to wait for “specialists” who had bulletproof overalls to arrive from Leigh and Heywood before being sent back to Manchester Central.
Finally they got the go-ahead to go.
Gary Keary, Fire Brigades Union, Brigade Secretary, said: “We have had a meeting with the County Fire Officer and we have raised initial concerns which will be included in a joint investigation.”
(Image: London News Pictures Ltd)
(Image: PA)
Matt Wrack, the national leader of the FBU attended the meeting between Manchester union officials and County Fire Officer, Peter O’Reilly.
In an email to Mr O’Reilly just hours after the attack, one fireman says: “The more I see of the news the angrier I’m getting! What are we employed for if not to help people? I always classed us as the best emergency service, the people who would put ourselves at risk before any other service. I feel ashamed today.
“Yes, it’s terrifying for us as much as the next person but that’s what we’re employed for, to take the risk that others can’t or won’t. We have the trainng and resources to respond correctly and that’s exactly what we should have done.”
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“Mr Burnham added: “My first concern will always be for the families affected and I would ask everybody not to jump to conclusions in this moment when we’re still coming to terms with what has happened.
“What we can say is that this was an extremely serious, fast moving situation and the full nature of it did not become clear for a number of hours. In coming weeks we will have to understand what decisions were made and why.”
We have contacted the fire service numerous times for a comment.For many girls, 2007 was a dark year.
Britney Spears was in the middle of a breakdown, flat caps were (sadly) all the rage, and everyone's favorite show, "Gilmore Girls," came to an end.
Since then, television has failed to fill the void left by the ultimate mother-daughter duo known as Rory and Lorelai.
But hold on to your hats, ladies (just, hopefully, not your flat caps), because Netflix may be reviving the beloved show.
According to TVLine, Netflix recently closed a deal with Warner Bros. for a limited series revival of "Gilmore Girls." The show will return with four 90-minute episodes, and original stars Lauren Graham, Alexis Bledel, Kelly Bishop and Scott Patterson are all expected to join the cast.
The show's creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, and executive producer, Daniel Palladino, hinted at a revival over the summer during a cast reunion at the ATX Festival.
Sherman-Palladino said,
It would have to be the right everything — the right format, the right timing. If it ever happened, I promise we'll do it correctly.
The Palladinos left "Gilmore Girls" before its final season after long-running contract disputes. The show was subsequently canceled and never had the proper ending it so rightfully deserved.
We aren't the only ones excited for the Gilmore family to return to television. Check out a few Twitter reactions below:
I can't cry about Gilmore Girls because I'm at rehearsal this sucks ugh I JUST WANNA BE EMOTIONAL — Alyssa Paren (@forensicschic) October 19, 2015
The greatest news to wake up to... Gilmore Girls is coming back! — Amira Dayanara (@amiradynr) October 19, 2015
I just started crying in public because I found out @netflix is making new Gilmore Girls episodes. This is the best day of 2015. — lara buchar (@LaraBuchar) October 19, 2015
How @blue_eyedfloozy, @PeytonRatchford & I are reacting to the #GilmoreGirls news. pic.twitter.com/uwsBvXSIhH — Alexis Ratchford (@alexisratchford) October 19, 2015
Citations: 'Gilmore Girls' fans, sit down: Netflix is reportedly reviving the show (Mashable)DC and Marvel, under normal circumstances, are competitors. The Big Two American comics publishers. Where DC normally likes to tell stories about titans, manifestations of ideologies that we aspire to be—truth for Wonder Woman, justice for Batman, and hope for Superman—Marvel has historically taken the more down-to-earth approach. Heroes you see outside your window; people you can be. People you often already know, or sometimes are.
Those are the normal circumstances. So what does it say about the state of the push-and-pull between these two companies when the “heroes outside your window” are all too real? When everything everyone has read in the Marvel Universe, technically since 1940, was the result of a mass involuntary brainwashing/reality altering event? When the truth becomes buried under what people choose to believe? When facts are labeled as subjective rather than objective?
Bluntly: something is very, very wrong. But let’s back up about a year before we dig into this. I’ve no doubt the vast majority of our readership knows, in a general sense, what’s going on. However, we need specifics to understand the full scope of what I’m getting at.
Fair warning, this isn’t gonna be a fun read. Not for me, not for you, and certainly not for my editors.
Steve Rogers: Agent of HYDRA Full-Blown Nazi
Almost a year ago, ironically the same day that DC Rebirth launched, Marvel published Captain America: Steve Rogers #1, revealing that the titular “hero” had secretly been a Hydra sleeper agent all along.
Now, obviously, anybody who reads comics knows that it’s clearly a fake-out of some kind. Mind control, brainwashing, body doubles, shape shifters, clones, alternate universe counterparts, altered memories—sky’s the limit. Sure, it’s not as if I enjoyed—like so many others—seeing the creation of two Jewish men whose sole original purpose was to punch Hitler in the face being turned into a Nazi—and yes Hydra are Nazis; don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Even the MCU thinks so! But that was a few years ago.
What do they think right now? As in, a few weeks prior to this posting?
Oh, it’s the same thing. Glad we got some consistency. Anyway, I understood that nothing was as it appeared to be. Other authors have pulled this stunt before for a lark, or a zany story here or there. There’d be some hackneyed reveal, and then this’d get swept under the rug as some edgy publicity stunt that sold a ton of #1’s.
An incredibly distasteful and disrespectful stunt, but ultimately a drop in the bucket. Except that’s not what happened. For an entire month, Nick Spencer, the author and mastermind behind Captain America: Steve Rogers (along with the upcoming massive Secret Empire crossover-event), spoke out as loudly and as often as possible that this was the real deal. Even the MCU’s Captain America, Chris Evans himself, didn’t seem too pleased with this development.
And yet, not one of those cop-outs I listed above came to fruition. Steve “America Met Me When I Punched Hitler” Rogers is, and always has been, a Nazi. Over and over again, this was repeated. Marvel Editorial said it, defending Spencer and his team, multiple times. It was all “hyperbole” and “a big misunderstanding” because fans were blowing it out of proportion.
Which is partially true; nobody should be sending death threats to Nick Spencer for writing what he writes. And yet, as we’ll soon see, fans weren’t, aside from said death threats, overreacting in the long run. In truth, they weren’t nearly as galvanized as they would eventually be.
Turned out that Kobik, a living Cosmic Cube who can alter reality itself at will (it’s complicated), changed Steve’s personal history so that he would be “happier”. Because Steve’s happiest and most fulfilled is him being a Nazi.
But this, well, this is just the set-up. That’s abhorrent, empirically, but that’s something we all thought would just sort of resolve itself and get retconned after about four issues. Except, again, that’s not what happened. You know how I said it wasn’t a publicity stunt, and how they said it wasn’t a stunt? They weren’t kidding. In a disgusting subversion of this tired cliche, it wasn’t a publicity stunt.
Secret Empire #0, which will be published, in glorious irony, alongside Batwoman #2 on April 19th, reveals that Kobik did something far more revolting to Steve. She didn’t just change his reality. She changed it back. And that’s the twist.
The Marvel Universe as we know it is one giant lie created by the Allies using the same reality-altering mechanism as Kobik after Nazi Germany won in a last ditch attempt to save the world from being ruled by tyranny and evil.
In short, Captain America is, and always was, a Nazi. Literally.
Why? To show how far a hero can fall, perhaps. Or maybe the “appeal” of fascism. An historical analogue to the rise of Nazi Germany is another possibility. And that’s not even getting into all of the explicit parallels between the “new” grassroots HYDRA and the surge in white supremacist activity and recruitment.
“Maybe it’s a deconstruction of how insane it is that Captain America is a white, blonde-haired, blue-eyed straight man in an America where that no longer makes sense?” is something I’d say if Secret Empire was setting up the other Captain America, Sam Wilson (whose book is also penned by Spencer and features the titular hero beating up “millennial snowflakes” actually called “Bombshells” while Spencer himself advocates for allowing Nazis free speech despite all of his copious research on how fascism spreads would have informed him the exact opposite is true) to kill Steve and cement himself as the one true Captain America.
But that’s probably not happening, because Nick Spencer wants us to question where the Steve Rogers story is in this event, since he is in no uncertain terms the villain. If it’s possible to redeem him, and that sort of malarkey. Anyway, all of those options and many others would be viable if all of those things weren’t actively happening in the real world right now. So, if not for those reasons, why?
I don’t know. At least, not yet. Ultimately, though? It doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter why Marvel and Spencer decided to do this. It doesn’t matter their rationale for perpetuating the very real fear and dread and terror that continues to sweep through America, among many other nations, like a plague. The kind of thing that, just as it always has, makes fascism look safe to a great deal of people. It doesn’t matter that Marvel Editorial seems to be under the false assumption that its diversity of characters caused their sales to slump—when the reality is magnitudes more complicated than that—mere weeks before Secret Empire begins as there couldn’t possibly be a connection there.
It doesn’t matter why Magneto, a holocaust survivor, will probably be joining up with Hydra. It doesn’t matter why they thought making Steve Rogers into Emperor Palpatine, as he recently became both Director of SHIELD and leader of Hydra (he killed the Red Skull), was the right move.
And it definitely doesn’t matter what the editorial logic was behind Steve trying to orchestrate a mass population culling of billions using a forced alien invasion—what would be a literal act of genocide—in order to solidify Hydra’s control and power over the world.
It doesn’t matter that when their brand should, by all logic, be pumping out page after page of heroes fighting the horrors outside of our windows, Marvel chose to do the opposite.
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So what you’re saying is that none of this has anything to do with the Nazis? You sure?
It. Doesn’t. Matter.
It doesn’t matter anymore than the difference between Nazi fascism and “generic” fascism matters. Outside of academia, what distinguishes one from the other is irrelevant. Fascism is fascism. Evil is evil. Genocide is genocide. Nazis are Nazis, and I think these are basic things we can all agree on.
With that in mind, isn’t it so many levels of messed up that Marvel wants to throw parties and Hydra-fy their media partner’s websites along with as many comics retailers as possible? Or that they’re going to be partnering with ABC’s Good Morning America for a special Free Comic Book Day announcement about how fun Secret Empire is? I mean, I—you saw those images above from Civil War II: The Oath. Sure, it’s not a swastika, but can you honestly tell me that pictures of concentration camps and population suppression don’t call the Nazis to mind?
No, of course you can’t. Because it does.
Now, to be clear: I don’t believe, even for a moment, that Marvel is trying to spread Nazi propaganda on a mass scale, but it’s that tone deafness that makes this whole ordeal all the more dangerous. And it’s a trend we’ve noticed before.
Alternate Universes/Parallel Earths
On the other side of the table, we have DC Bombshells, not to be confused with the previously mentioned “millennial” terrorist organization featured in Captain America: Sam Wilson of basically-the-same-name, a phenomenal series that I centered my first article for the Fandometals on. Jewish reclamation, and all that jazz.
It’s this little digital-first comic, penned by Marguerite Bennett and drawn by a handful of rotating artists, based on a series of fun little 1940s-style pin-up statues of DC’s female characters designed by Ant Lucia. Basically, it could not have come from a more humble beginning. Kinda like how the first Pirates of the Caribbean was based off of a theme park ride, and yet somehow managed to be great. This is the comics equivalent of that, except it didn’t get stupid after the first “volume”. It only got more culturally relevant.
DC Bombshells takes place on one of the DCU’s 52 parallel Earths—I don’t think they’ve assigned a number yet—and is thus more or less completely self-contained. It’s centered around an alternate World War II where the Allies, thanks to some prodding by Amanda Waller, decided to use the world’s greatest untapped and underutilized resource to help turn the tide of the war: women. And not just any women, oh no. In this universe, almost every hero is one or all of these things: queer, non-white, and Jewish. Yes, that does mean quite a few things were changed in the adaptation process, but the core traits of each and every character remain intact.
It’s a story that communicates the horrors of war, and the era, through the lens of historical reclamation and at least a dozen genre mash-ups. Romance, pulp, newsreels, serial adventures, slapstick cartoons, mysteries—everything you can think of. It works, it’s fantastic, y’all should buy it. I’ve already written on its importance a little under a year ago, so I’ll do my best to recap the the most relevant bits here on a broader scale.
“[DC Bombshells is] not time travel. No one’s going back in time to kill Hitler but inevitably fails thanks to 96th century Time Police (I’M LOOKING AT YOU, MIDNIGHTER). There is no hindsight involved. It’s just heroes, many of them Jewish, defeating the evil right in front of them. Batwoman and the Bombshells wouldn’t be preventing the single most meticulous ethnic cleansing in human history from ever happening; they’d be stopping it from going any further. And that is far better. Changing history so that the Holocaust never happened is all well and good, but there’s real no heart to that. There’s no real depth of meaning or inspiration one can gain from such an act. A bad thing happened, that you regret allowing, so you undid it. But turning those victims into heroes, more than they already were, and having them dismantle the very thing that threatened them. There’s real strength to be found in that. A lot of pride, too. Being the heroes of our own story can have that effect, since that way we get to write our own ending.”
For those of you who may not have read the article in its entirety, which is perfectly understandable, the long-term effect of rescuing the 75,000 Jews still living in the Berlin ghettos in 1941, taking into account typical generational population growth, results in an additional 2.025 million Jews living in the present day. DC Bombshells is filled to the brim with these changes in causality, and as I stated above the best part about them is that they aren’t retroactive or proactive: they’re reactive.
Additionally, there is a completely separate parallel Earth, Earth-10, as part of Grant Morrison’s Multiversity series, where the Nazis won World War II and most of DC’s iconic heroes are part of the Third Reich. Of course, even though that reality’s Superman was raised by Adolf Hitler, he realized that his adoptive father’s intentions were pure evil and set to work creating a utopia to mask that everything was built on the bones of the dead.
That may seem a strange thing to mention, but consider how inconsequential it is. That is the story of Earth-10, not Prime Earth/New Earth. It isn’t the main continuity. It’s just a side story. It does not affect, in any way shape or form, the “real” DCU. It’s not exactly fiction-within-fiction, but it’s a big “What If?”, or Elseworlds tale if you’re a giant DC nerd.
And there’s no harm in “What If?” People love alternate history narratives, and we here at the Fandomentals recently had a conversation that, if Secret Empire were a “What If?” storyline published perhaps four years earlier or at a point in the future where it wasn’t a direct reflection of current events, we’d probably really enjoy it!
But that’s not what Secret Empire and the Marvel Universe is.
It’s not alternate. It’s the truth. Hell, it’s barely fiction.
Reboots, Relaunches and Retcons
There’s another common theme that divides DC and Marvel, though I’ve never really seen the legitimacy to it. Ever since 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC has gotten the reputation of rebooting everything on a regular basis to streamline continuity. That is, of course, a gross exaggeration. The subsequent events that many claim are reboots, such as Zero Hour and Infinite Crisis simply aren’t. If they are to be classified as anything, they’d be soft relaunches though even that is a stretch.
Honestly, the only other reboot they’ve ever done was Flashpoint in 2011, and they are now in the process of undoing it, but that’s another conversation. Anyway, the truth behind this assumption is a bit more simple. When something doesn’t work, DC goes out of their way to fix it until it does…to varying success.
The important thing to note here is that they try to fix it. Marvel, on the other hand, doesn’t do this. If something doesn’t work or doesn’t make sense, they ignore it and let the next creative team disregard continuity as much as they want in most cases. That’s not a criticism, it’s just simply how they do things and sometimes it’s not a bad idea.
However, that’s been made even more true in recent years due to the fact that Marvel has been repeatedly going out of their way to soft-reboot pretty much everything but the kitchen sink. And also the kitchen sink. As it turns out, this is because the vast majority of Marvel ongoings are just mini/maxi limited series in disguise that are designed to be cancelled after a certain amount of issues. What does this have to do with Nazi Cap?
It’s rather simple, really. DC and Marvel are different, yes. They are supposed to be competitors, as I’ve said. They should not act as polar opposites by any measure. The fact that both Secret Empire—which by extension includes Captain America: Steve Rogers—and DC Bombshells have been published concurrently since May of last year is a situation that shouldn’t happen. This specific sequence of events disrupting a natural teeter totter of balance between DC and Marvel is completely insane.
DC is not perfect, and they really don’t have enough women working there at the moment, but this disparity is simply unprecedented. Except, it’s even deeper than that. It’s not just about how crazy it is that there’s this massive Nazi-filled gap.
It’s that, right now, Marvel is showing a fundamental lack of understanding of their own medium. Unless they’re planning on killing off every single incarnation of Steve Rogers for good—which seems all but impossible considering the upcoming Generations event that pairs “classic” Steve with Sam Wilson and that’s without getting into his brand recognition—the only way “out” of this madness is to…reboot him. Relaunch him. “Redeem him”.
And therein lies the problem. You can’t. Sure, yes, you can, on a purely technical and semantics level, but in every other sense you simply cannot come back from this. Steve Rogers is irredeemable. There are about a dozen or so more horrific things he’s done, or been indirectly responsible for both in-universe and on an editorial level, that it’s beyond excessive.
But maybe you think I’m being a little too extreme and dismissive. I argue that I’m not. Do you understand what the long term consequence of this is? All of this? Aside from an asterisk next to the legacy of Captain America and Marvel as a company?
It’s this:
That’s not official art, thankfully, but a deviantart user by the name of Neetsfagging322297 (who was not the original artist) shared this on September 11th, 2016. Yeah, not only was it posted a few months after the Nazi Cap reveal, making it more than a little impossible to claim that its sudden circulation wasn’t inspired by that, but on September 11th. It’s been making the internet rounds a bit lately, mostly on twitter, and our fellow Fanfinite Ian brought it to our attention.
This exists and it will always exist.
And there’s no amount of reboots or PR damage control that anyone can do to wipe any of this away. Because in real life, there are no relaunches. There are no reboots. There are no retcons. Things happen. You don’t get to go back and change things if they don’t work or people don’t like it. You are stuck with your decisions and the consequences forever. That is life and time and history. Just because there’s a mass of Holocaust deniers doesn’t mean there’s any truth to what they say.
And this is the narrative that Marvel has chosen for itself. The one where they attempt to dismiss and diminish the real-world impact of turning on their own brand to shine a light on the already far too bright nightmare of the current geopolitical climate. When they try to sweep it all under the rug for the next round of reboots and relaunches and new #1’s. Assuming, or perhaps expecting, that everyone will just forget about it and get over it. But I don’t see the vast majority of people buying into that.
Then again, since there’s that exponentially growing trend of individuals picking and choosing what truth they want to believe, maybe they will.
Editor’s note 4/13/2017: an alteration was made to clarify that the fanart was not created by the mentioned deviantart user themself.
All images courtesy of DC Comics, Marvel, and Neetsfagging322297Consumers increasingly turnming to online sales for home and garden products as beds, nutribullets and Dysons top search items
A strong UK housing market encouraged consumers to shop around online for home and garden products in the third quarter, driving a sharp rise in online searches.
Retail search volumes for home and garden grew by 15% in the third quarter compared with the same period a year earlier, according to a report by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Google. It was a faster pace of annual growth than both the first and second quarters of 2014, when home and garden searches rose by 9% and 13% respectively.
The top three most commonly searched for items were beds, Nutribullets (a new type of smart blender/juicer) and Dysons between July and September.
Helen Dickinson, director general of the BRC, said consumers were heavily influenced by online research when choosing a mortgage, with searches correlating strongly with data on mortgage approvals.
She said: “Given this trend, it’s not surprising that we’re seeing people take to the internet to decorate and furnish their homes as well as finding the funds to purchase them. Search volumes in the home and garden category have risen 15% compared with the same period last year. This is likely due to an increasingly healthy housing market as sales in these categories tend to be directly impacted by house sales.”
There was a big jump in the number of home and garden searches conducted on smartphones, 41% higher in the third quarter than a year earlier.
Searches on tablets grew by 22% over the same period.The U.S. economy has grown far more rapidly under Democratic presidents than under Republican presidents since World War II -- but why?
A paper released Tuesday by the National Bureau of Economic Research seeks to answer that question.
The analysis arrived at a timely moment, given Wednesday's report that the American economy grew at a rate of 4.0 percent between April and June this year, beating forecasts and putting a pep in the step of Democratic officeholders.
But before Democrats begin cutting triumphant campaign ads, they should consider another of the paper's findings: while the GDP has seen greater increases under Democrats than Republicans, that fact appears to have little to do with the specific policies enacted under each president.
"The U.S. economy not only grows faster, according to real GDP and other measures, during Democratic versus Republican presidencies, it also produces more jobs, lowers the unemployment rate, generates higher corporate profits and investment, and turns in higher stock market returns," wrote Princeton economists Alan Blinder and Mark Watson. "Indeed, it outperforms under almost all standard macroeconomic metrics."
PRESIDENTS AND THE U.S. ECONOMY: AN ECONOMETRIC EXPLANATION / NBER / ALAN S. BLINDER, MARK W. WATSON
It's a startling piece of top-line analysis, but a closer look reveals a far more complicated picture.
"By some measures, the partisan performance gap is startlingly large," the authors write. "So large, in fact, that it strains credulity, given how little influence over the economy most economists (or the Constitution, for that matter) assign to the President of the United States."
Blinder and Watson determine that partisan differences in neither fiscal policy nor defense policy can explain the variation in economic growth. In fact, the parties were not all that far apart on both counts - both Democrats and Republicans presided over similar magnitudes of tax cuts, spending increases, and defense buildups, and to similar effect. So the argument that Democrats have grown the economy by increasing government spending more quickly than Republicans doesn't hold water.
The authors point, instead, to two factors that have favored Democrats over Republicans: First, rising energy prices, and the negative effects on the economy that result, have tended to occur during GOP administrations. Republicans like Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and George W. Bush, for example, governed during a time of increasing oil prices.
The second factor, according to the authors, is that new technological advances that grow the economy have tended to happen during Democratic administrations. The authors cite the information revolution and the dawn of the Internet that juiced the American economy during the 1990s under Democratic President Bill Clinton.
"Democrats would no doubt like to attribute the large D-R growth gap to macroeconomic policy choices, but the data do not support such a claim," the authors write. "It seems we must look instead to several variables that are mostly 'good luck,' with perhaps a touch of 'good policy.'"
In other words, the healthier performance of the economy under Democrats than Republicans may provide a useful line in a stump speech for Democratic presidential candidates -- but it seems to have more to do with the fortune of timing than anything else.Photo: Turtles.org
A leatherback turtle laying her eggs. Photo: Flickr, CC
A new study has looked at "necropsy reports of more than 400 leatherback" turtles and found that about 1/3 of them had plastic in their digestive system. They're not saying it was the immediate cause of death, but as Mike James, a marine biologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, says: "Eating something that is plastic can't be good for you, whether it leads to death or not." By saying no to plastic bags, you might be indirectly helping turtles...
From Discovery News:
Leatherback turtles are critically endangered and highly charismatic creatures. They are big, weighing 1,000 pounds or more, with shells that can measure more than 6 feet across. These peaceful creatures have had the same basic body plan for 150 million years. Leatherbacks are also popular for what they eat: namely, large quantities of jellyfish. The problem is that plastic bags look a lot like jellyfish, and plastic often ends up in the oceans, piling up in areas where currents -- and turtles -- converge. That led James to wonder how much often the turtles were swallowing plastic in their hunt for yummy jellyfish.
If you're wondering how this study was done, don't worry, they didn't actually capture and kill turtles to see what was in their stomachs! They dug up already existing necropsy reports (some quite old). It took them two years to find enough, but after careful study, plastic emerged as a big problem. "It's not what they should be eating. And it's kind of scary that it is showing up in their diet to the extent that it is."
So plastic bags - and the Pacific garbage patch - aren't just annoying eye-sores. They make their ways to all |
Then there is the bars themselves and Ragen’s biggest threat to the world around her. Drop bars have a number of hand positions and each have their own place and purpose. One of the biggest bugs I see is bad positioning at different times — never go into a braking zone with your hands still by the stem! The brake levers on drop bars can be pulled from two positions — on top of the hoods and in the drops. In the drops gives you the best braking performance, drops your centre of gravity and puts weight on your front wheel for better stopping power. Ragen cannot reach the drop position with that handle bar position to safely brake hard. I would not want to ride near her for the risk of her not being able to stop and crashing into me and destroying my body, my health, my bike and my race. Her wrists getting to the drop position are going to be destroyed if she ever tries.
Finally, saddle/bar drop. If you look at the original Jamis link, you’ll notice the saddle around 2cm above the bars – this is normal. Adam Hansens’ bike is a good example of a large drop for an aero position. This NSFW image of Victoria Pendleton gives a fantastic naked view of thigh, elbow, hand, stomach and buttock relationships on drop bars; with the exception of Vicky being one of the ultimate women, this is one of the best illustrations of perfect bike fit I can think of. Ragen won’t get this and with her attitude I wouldn’t expect her to get anywhere near it.
I could go into the biomechanics next, but that would be another wall of text.
In summary, Ragen has bought a good bike and butchered it into something atrocious. Some bits may be stop gaps (pedal choice) but her fit has fucked the bike to a Frankenbike.
AdvertisementsA Radical Way To Make Banking Safer: Get Rid Of Banks Entirely
Banks lend our money out, and that money can be lost if the bank collapses. One radical solution to this problem is to get rid of the banks. Peer-to-peer lending outfits offer a preview of what a world might look like without banks. The lending outfits match potential borrowers and lenders, cutting banks out of the process entirely.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
Here's a big idea, one that sounds crazy and fringy, but it's getting support from some very mainstream people. The idea is this - make our financial system safer by getting rid of banks. Here's Jacob Goldstein of NPR's Planet Money.
JACOB GOLSTEIN, BYLINE: There is this weird thing about banks - it's not a secret, it's been going on for hundreds of years - but it is strange. The money in your bank account is not actually in the bank. The bank takes your money and lends it out to someone else.
MARTIN WOLF: This fragility that is at the heart of our financial system - 'cause we think the bank has our money but actually it doesn't.
GOLSTEIN: This is Martin Wolf, a columnist at the Financial Times. In good times, he says, it helps the economy when the bank lends your money out - money that would otherwise be sitting idle lets people buy houses or start businesses.
WOLF: But in bad times, and there are lots of them, it generates huge financial crisis.
GOLSTEIN: Loans go bad, banks get bailed out - it's a familiar story at this point.
WOLF: I think of it as capitalism's Faustian bargain - Faustian bargain is a deal with the devil.
GOLSTEIN: And so Martin Wolf says, what if we did things completely differently? What if we got rid of banks and replaced them basically with virtual vaults? When you put a dollar in the bank, it would stay there. You'd pay a fee to use the virtual vault, but no bank would ever go bust.
One downside - if you made just this change, you would destroy the entire economy because banks do this essential thing - they lend out all that money in our accounts. In a post-bank world, you'd need some new way for people to get loans. As it happens, in just the past few years, the Internet has created a new option.
FONG TRINH: So I go online and I just literally type in - I think maybe less than ten pieces of information.
GOLSTEIN: This is Fong Trinh (ph), he recently applied for a $15,000 loan. He did not use a bank. He borrowed through a company called Lending Club. Lending Club and similar companies are like dating websites, but instead of matching people who are looking for a date, they match people who have money to invest with people who are looking for a loan. It's called peer to peer lending.
Fong entered that basic information online - his income, his debts, how much he wanted to borrow - someone from the company called him to confirm a few details, and soon after that he got an e-mail saying the loan came through.
TRINH: It was super-duper fast, like literally I could've just done that whole thing in my bathrobe, you know, instead of getting in a pants and shirt and walking down to a bank.
GOLSTEIN: Remember, Fong didn't get this loan from a bank, he got a loan from someone who had extra money and chose to lend it out.
Do you know who loaned you the money?
TRINH: I do not, that's anonymous.
GOLSTEIN: Do you want to know?
TRINH: Eh.
GOLSTEIN: So in a world without banks, who would be lending to people like Fong?
CHRIS WINTERS: My name is Chris Winters (ph).
GOLSTEIN: In 2010, Chris took a few thousand dollars out of his savings account and lent it out through Lending Club. He got more interest than he was getting at the bank, but he took a lot more risk.
WINTERS: There were some loans that went bad on me, and I kind of took it personally. Like, you know, Lending Club sent them an email and they didn't respond, or they called them and the person said they were going to pay and then they didn't. Like who is this unreliable person that I've lent the money to and why they lying to the collections people?
GOLSTEIN: In the world we live in now, all this risk and stress is hidden in the banks. If you get rid of banks, people like Chris are going to have to deal with it. Peer to peer lending is growing fast. Retirement funds and hedge funds are starting to get in on it, but it's still insignificant compared to the banking system. A few billion in loans versus trillions lent out by the banks.
Peer to peer lending is not going to replace banks anytime soon. And Martin Wolf, the Financial Times columnist says, yeah, ending banks as we know them would be complicated. It would create lots of new problems.
WOLF: It's clearly a bold experiment and it would have knock-on consequences. And there are real issues about how this would be structured. It is indeed radical.
GOLSTEIN: Still, a recent IMF paper said, at least in theory, it could work. And for decades, some economists, including a few Nobel laureates, have suggested different versions of this plan.
WOLF: We have to ask ourselves very seriously, do we want to live with these sorts of massive blowups every 10, 15, 20 years or so - which is quite possible. The costs are absolutely enormous. So having a more stable financial system than the one we have inherited from the past, given the scale of the crisis we've been experiencing, seems to be rather desirable.
GOLSTEIN: Wolf says this big idea is not going to happen now. But he says if there's another financial crisis in the next several years, people might consider it.
Jacob Goldstein, NPR News.
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Valve cite the ‘stability of the client’ as allowing for the beta to be opened up to more users.
“The Open Beta will be available to the public and will increase the current population from 80K to a higher number,” they wrote in a message to the closed Steam for Linux Mailing List.
System Requirements
As we noted earlier this month, System Requirements for some Linux games are now being listed on the Steam Store.
The list – see below – is not exhaustive. Games developers are being encouraged to submit their ‘minimum’ and ‘recommend’ System Requirements to Valve for publishing ‘ASAP’.
Amnesia
Dynamite Jack
Eversion
iBomber Attack
Killing Floor
Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45
Serious Sam 3:BFE
Sword & Sworcery
The Book of Unwritten Tales: The Critter Chronicles
World of Goo
Other Notes
A handful of other changes will accompany the Open Beta according to Valve. These include:
A new web page with details on installing Ubuntu and Steam for Linux
Steam for Linux repository will be set up for installing the client
Statistics for the current Linux games library will soon be available
Supported Linux games will be available for purchase
In Action
Don’t know what to expect?
Don’t forget you can get up to date with the latest Steam for Linux news, game reviews, and more by following us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or YouTube.Will Mitt Romney suffer his fourth straight defeat Saturday?
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). (Richard Ellis — Getty Images)
Like this week’s contests in Minnesota and Colorado, the Pine Tree State’s caucuses are non-binding, meaning that they play a role in the delegate-selection process but that the actual awarding of delegates won’t happen until later.
And as in the contests earlier this week, a potential loss in Maine would represent a symbolic blow to Romney in his quest to clinch the GOP presidential nod.
Neither former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) nor former senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) has made a play for Maine, meaning that Saturday’s contest will essentially be a battle between Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian-leaning Texas congressman whose enthusiastic supporters have made caucus states a focus of their efforts.
In an interview Thursday with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Paul – who has not held a campaign-trail event since Tuesday night – said that he believes he has a shot at winning in Maine.
“Are you going to win the Maine caucuses Saturday?” Blitzer asked.
”I think we have a chance to do that,” Paul responded. “And I’ll be up there and struggling up to the last minute. But every time I’ve been up there so far, it has been wonderful. And I’m so pleased that they’re very receptive to the ideas of liberty, and I’m cautiously optimistic about Saturday.”
Four years ago, Romney swept the Maine caucuses, taking 52 percent to Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) 22 percent and Paul’s 18 percent.
But in an ultra-low-turnout contest such as Maine’s, which side is more energized to show up makes all the difference – and that unpredictability gives Paul and his supporters a window of opportunity.
In 2008, only about 5,500 voters participated in the Maine GOP caucuses -- a turnout of just over 2 percent of the state’s roughly 253,000 registered Republicans.
Paul held six town hall meetings in the state over two days at the end of January. Meanwhile, Romney’s town hall in Portland Friday night will be his first visit to the state this cycle, although he held a tele-town hall and has sent surrogates – including his son, Tagg – to campaign on his behalf.
Neither candidate has had a significant presence on the state’s airwaves, a factor that could hinder Romney, who has generally performed well in states where he has invested resources on television ads.
With 17 days between tomorrow’s caucuses and the next nominating contests in Arizona and Michigan, the caucus results in the Pine Tree State could resonate on the campaign trail well past Saturday night — particularly if Paul ekes out his first-ever win in a nominating contest.Zabbix Team is pleased to announce the availability of Zabbix 1.6.4.
Zabbix is an enterprise-class open source distributed monitoring solution. Zabbix is released under the GPL, thus it is free of charge for both commercial and non-commercial use. A complete text of the license is available at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.txt.
This document contains the release notes for Zabbix 1.6.4. Download it from downloads.
The following sections describe the release in details and provide late-breaking or other information that supplements its main documentation.
Fixes and minor improvements
ZBX-845 fixed calculation of delayed items for non-local nodes in Queue screen ZBX-842 fixed duplicate triggers in "Last 20 issues" in dashboard DEV-323 removed master nodes from dropdown ZBX-837 removed sid from Zabbix logo link ZBX-589 fixed processing of quoted floating point values ZBX-836 fixed problem with permissions of proxy shared memory ZBX-833 fixed link from maps element to trigger status page ZBX-831 DM: fixed synchronization of trends data DEV-137 DM: improved performance of historical data synchronization ZBX-827 fixed possible bug in actions hints ZBX-826 fixed problem displaying disabled web checks ZBX-825 fixed problem with changing item status in configuration web and items screens ZBX-822 fixed dashboard when logged in as guest ZBX-763 fixed warning message displayed at the bottom when saving graphs without items ZBX-821 fixed dashboard context menu "Latest data" does not show required host ZBX-819 Error in import script ZBX-818 In configuration->items, if selected Host All, items hosts are shown in table
Installation and Upgrade Notes
Installation
See Zabbix Manual for full details.
Upgrade
Recompile Zabbix binaries and update front-end PHP files. Execute a database patch if migrating from Zabbix 1.8.x. See Zabbix Manual for a detailed upgrade procedure.
Commercial support
References
Zabbix Company provides a full range of Professional Services. We also provide trouble-free Upgrade Service for easy migration from earlier versions of Zabbix. Please contact Sales for pricing and more details.
Zabbix 1.6 ManualThrustmaster sent us a T.Flight Hotas 4 Flight Stick for the PS4/PC to review. Did it improve our gaming experience and is it worth the cash or should you just stick to a regular controller?
Read on to find out
There aren’t too many flightstick controllers around that work for the PS4, and there aren’t many games that can fully utilize one either. If you are a fan of either War Thunder or Elite Dangerous, though, you are in for a treat if you pick up one of these controllers.
The full current list of games compatible with this controller as of 9-12-2017:
Air Conflicts: Secret Wars – PS4
Elite Dangerous – PS4
EVE: Valkyrie™ – PS4
Starblood Arena™ – PS4
War Thunder – PS4
Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown should also support this controller when it’s released next year.
We have reviewed several Thrustmaster products in the past and one thing they know how to do is to make a quality product and the T.Flight Hotas 4 follows suit. The controller was packaged in Styrofoam so well that it would take a pretty mean FED EX or UPS driver extra time to cause any damage to it while en route to your game room. Once out of the box, the controller comes in two pieces held together by a decently sized wire.
For us, while sitting on the couch or in a chair, using the controller in two pieces didn’t work very well as the controller just had too much movement. Thrustmaster includes a small Allen wrench (even includes a nice little storage spot) so that you can hook the two pieces together for a more stable experience when not playing on a flat surface. The controller also works for the PC and had we been using this at our desk, two pieces would have been great. Hooking the two pieces together takes all of 2 minutes or less, though, so trying it out both ways doesn’t require much time.
Depending on which game you are playing, setting up the T.Flight Hotas 4 is pretty straightforward as both War Thunder and Elite Dangerous (where we tested it) had settings that used it by name. Once selected, you could go in and tweak the sensitivity for a more tailored experience and the controller also has a resistance knob on the bottom of it to customize it physically. There is also an add-on rudder pedal system available for those folks that want to go all-in, but the twist of the joystick also works as a rudder and that worked very well for us.
Our biggest problem with the controller was memorizing the location of each button, as there are so many available, right at your finger tips. That isn’t a bad thing, and War Thunder was nice enough to provide an image that works as a cheat sheet. You just have to print it out and keep it close by. Now if only Elite Dangerous would do the same, it would save us a lot of time making sure we don’t press the wrong button and start another intergalactic war.
The joystick feels and looks like a quality piece of equipment. While a wireless option would have been nice, the USB cable is over 8 feet long, and if that’s still too far for you, USB extensions are cheap and easy to find at any electronics store and work well without any issues. The USB cable is fairly heavy duty and looks and feels durable. The overall quality of the flight stick is what we have come to expect from a Thrustmaster product.
Games like War Thunder and Elite Dangerous can be played with a standard Dualshock controller, but after using the T.Flight Hotas 4 even for just a little while, we came to realize that those using a standard controller are missing out on the full experience that a flight stick has to offer. After using the flight stick for hours, we wouldn’t switch back to a standard controller now even if you tried to make us.
If you are looking for a great flight stick for your PS4, look no further.
Elite Dangerous_20170828093326
Like this: Like Loading...The famous chilli at Hogan’s Diner Sergeant Ellers told them about earlier was indeed quite exquisite. Kate used to love cooking, back when Matt was still in the picture. They would open a bottle of wine and spend the evening in the kitchen, enjoying some comfort food and each other’s company. Now there was no point in cooking for one. She shook her head to clear the memory of those times. Matt was gone for nearly a year now and it was for the better.
On the way to the diner Kate looked into the notes Ben took at the Havers’ house.
“Did you believe him?”, she said, looking directly at her partner.
“Not for a second. Your friend, Julian, caught on picture as they argued.”
“That he did”, she agreed, completely ignoring Ben’s insinuation about the journalist.
The two of them avoided discussing the case further while they ate, but as Kate was mopping up the last bites of her chilli with the best home made flat bread she’s ever tasted, she switched back to work mode.
“I think we need to speak to him alone. We can hardly expect him to confess to his love affair in front of his wife”, said Kate.
“I’ll ask Ellers to arrange an informal meeting down at the station”, Ben agreed as he leaned back in his seat, pushing his empty bowl away.
“What’s wrong?”, Kate asked as she leaned closer to her partner over the table, noticing the frown on Ben’s face.
Ben shook his head and let out a small, bitter laugh. “I just remembered how eager my ex wife was to tell me about her love affair when she left me. Like getting divorced and lose half of everything was not enough, she also made sure I knew that I was not paying enough attention to her and she found a much more suitable admirer. The worst part? She was probably right. I spent so much time at work, barely saw her.”
“I’m sorry”, Kate mumbled, and felt her cheeks turn red. She knew Ben was divorced and that his wife married not soon after, but seeing the regret in her partner’s eyes embarrassed her. At the age of forty-two he was still very attractive with his deep set blue eyes, flaxen hair, and broad shoulders. Although they only met a few months ago, she knew he’s one of those few whom she can always count on, wheather she needs advice for work, an ear to listen to her problems, or a friend who’d pick her up at dawn when she made the mistake of drinking too much, which only happened twice, but she was eternally grateful. Kate was hoping that his heart was not forever closed after such a disappointment with his marriage. She was surprised when she learnt that Ben Peterson was single ever since he got divorced. To stop her train of thoughts she quickly changed the subject. “Maybe we should check up on David Foster. It’s nearly 2 o’clock now, so I don’t think we would intrude on his lunch.”
“His girlfriend was just killed last night. Probably lunch is the last thing on his mind”, said Ben with a sigh as he rose from the table.
The rain finally stopped just when Kate and Ben arrived at the lovely, old fashioned farmhouse where, according to their information from the local police, David Foster lived with his mother, Anna.
“Is that the mother?” Kate nodded towards the scrawny woman sitting on the porch.
“Looks like it”, Ben said after consulting the pictures they got from Julian that morning.
At their approaching footsteps the woman looked up startled.
“Who are you?” she said before any of them could say anything. Her tone was hostile as she looked them up and down with her piercing eyes.
“Detectives Robbins and Petersen”, Ben said as he extended his hand to the woman, who continued looking at them suspiciously.
“I need to see some form of identification”, she said and crossed her arms in front of her flat chest.
Kate and Ben both showed her their badge and she took her sweet time to scrutinize them. When she was finally satisfied, her tone changed to a less icy one, but her face still looked like she was sucking on lemons. “What can I do for you?”
“We need to speak to your son, David”, Kate said, and noted the annoyance on the other woman’s face.
“Well, he’s not here.”
They waited, in case Anna was about to reveal the whereabouts of her son, but when she did not, Kate just asked the question. “Do you know where we can find him?”
“No idea”, the woman shrugged. “It’s about his girlfriend, isn’t it?”
“Yes, I’m afraid” Kate nodded.
“You think he had something to do with it?”
“At the moment we just need to talk to him, that’s all”, Kate said to reassure the other woman. “You know, to establish a time line. Do you happen to remember what time your son left the festival last night?”
Anna Foster seemed to consider the question for a moment. “Around half past ten, I’d say. I left not much later myself.”
“So you don’t know where your son went?”
“I have no idea”, said Anna and hugged herself even tighter.
“What time did he come home last night?”, Ben said.
“I don’t know. I went to bed at 11, and he was not here.”
“Did you see him this morning?”
The answer was just a shake of her head.
Kate and Ben looked at each other. Ben then turned to Anna and quietly asked his next question. “Do you know if he came home at all?”
“No idea.”
“Mrs. Foster, do you mind if we just take a look at his room? You know, just to see if he slept in his bed?”, Kate said and took a step towards the main door.
“I don’t think I would like that very much”, said Anna, as she blocked Ben’s way. “I know my rights, and I know I don’t have to show you anything unless you have a search warrant. I watched enough Law&Order to know your ways!”
“Of course Mrs. Foster, don’t worry. We are about to leave anyway” Ben said, trying to placate the woman.
They were halfway down the stairs when Anna spoke again. “She just got what she asked for, that woman.”
“Excuse me?”, Kate turned to look in to Anna’s hard face.
“We are all god-fearing folks here. She was evil. You should have seen her prancing around town in those clothes, trying to seduce all the men. My poor boy! I told him to stay away. But she had him under her thumb… and he was not the only one. There’s always a punishment for such wickedness!”, she spat the last words.
“If you know something”, Ben said, “you need to tell us.”
But Anna Foster just gave them another ice cold look, turned around and slammed the door behind her.
AdvertisementsPolice said Billy Sergeant was shot several times around 8:45 a.m. near 61st and King Drive, where police sources say someone may have been shooting at a rival gang member. Christian Farr speaks with some of the victim's friends. (Published Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013)
A 67-year-old Chicago man was shot and killed Tuesday morning while waiting for a bus on the city's South Side.
Police said Billy Sergeant was shot several times around 8:45 a.m. near 61st and King Drive, where police sources say someone may have been shooting at a rival gang member. Sergeant was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
"He had different intentions today," Ald. Willie Cochran (20th) said, "and it ends up taking his life because of someone who does not even understand the impact of shooting a gun."
People in the neighborhood said Sergeant was a fixture in the community and hung out with friends every morning with coffee, talking about sports and politics.
"It's a big loss," Nate Parker said of his friend.
Allen Lumpkin said he hung out with Sergeant nearly every morning near the location of the shooting.
"Billy was a good man. He'd come out every morning, drink coffee, talk sports, talk about what's going on in the neighborhood... this never should have happened," Lumpkin said.
Police said a person of interest was in custody and sources tell NBC 5 it was a 14-year-old boy.
No charges had been filed as of early Monday evening.In The Golem and the Jinni, a chance meeting between mythical beings takes readers on a dazzling journey through cultures in turn-of-the-century New York.
Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life to by a disgraced rabbi who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic and dies at sea on the voyage from Poland. Chava is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York harbor in 1899.
Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire born in the ancient Syrian desert, trapped in an old copper flask, and released in New York City, though still not entirely free
Ahmad and Chava become unlikely friends and soul mates with a mystical connection. Marvelous and compulsively readable, Helene Wecker's debut novel The Golem and the Jinni weaves strands of Yiddish and Middle Eastern literature, historical fiction and magical fable, into a wondrously inventive and unforgettable tale.Famous 'Silence of the Lambs' house for sale in Fayette County Pittsburgh's Action News 4 reporter Sheldon Ingram takes a tour of the house made famous in 'Silence if the Lambs' that the movie's serial killer, Jame Gumb, lived in. Share Shares Copy Link Copy
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WEBVTT TAKES YOU INSIDE THIS PIECE OF PITTSBURGH MOVIE HISTORY. REPORTER: NUMBER 8 CIRCLE STREET IN THE VILLAGE OF LAYTON, FAYETTE COUNTY, THIS OLD THREE-STORY HOUSE IS 105 YEARS OLD. IT IS FAMOUS BECAUSE THIS IS WHERE THEY SHOT ONE OF THE GREATEST SCENES FOR "SILENCE OF THE LAMBS." OF ALL THE HOUSES THEY HAVE HERE SOUTHWEST OF PENNSYLVANIA HOW IN THE WORLD DID THEY FIND NUMBER 8 CIRCLE DRIVE? THE HOUSE IS OWNED BY SCOTT AND BAR LLOYD. THEY SENT A BUNCH OF PEOPLE OUT INTO WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA LOOKING FOR OLDER HOUSES AND HAPPENED TO FIND OURS. THEY WERE LIKE PEOPLE GETTING OUT OF A CLOWN CAR. THIS MUST HAVE BEEN 40 PEOPLE IN THESE THREE VANS SWARMING ALL OVER THE HOUSE, CHECKING IT OUT AND LOOKING IT OVER. REPORTER: THE LLOYD'S GAVE THE FILM CREW OF "SILENCE OF THE LAMBS" THE OKAY TO TURN THE HOUSE INTO A MURDERER'S DWELLING. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT WOULD BLOW THEM AWAY. SO WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOUR HOUSE ONCE THEY TO THE HERE. THEY CHANGED EVERYTHING JUST SO IT WOULD BE THE WAY THEY WANTED IT. REPORTER: WHERE DID YOU LIVE? THEY CLEANED OUT YOUR HOUSE, WHERE DID YOU GUYS LIVE? WE LIVED UPSTAIRS. REPORTER: BARB TAKES US THROUGH THE CLIMATIC SCENE SHOT IN THE HOUSE. THIS IS THE DOOR THAT JODIE FOSTER KNOCKED ON. AND HE ANSWERED THE DOOR AND INCITED JODIE FOSTER IN. THIS IS THE PATHWAY SHE WALKED. THE SERIALKILLER WENT INTO A DRAWER UNDER THE BUFFET AND HE WENT INTO THE DRAWER AND HE'S PULLING CARDS OUT. SHE GOES TO PULL HER GUN OUT, GETS STUCK, HE REALIZES THAT SHE KNOWS SO HE SCOOTS THROUGH THE KITCHEN. REPORTER: WHEN THEY WERE SHOOTING THE SCENE WITH JODIE FOSTER WERE YOU HERE AT THAT PARTICULAR TIME? WE WEREN'T ALLOWED TO STAY DURING THE ACTUAL SHOOT. REPORTER: YOU GOT KICKED OUT OF YOUR OWN HOUSE. GO SOMEWHERE ELSE. REPORTER: THE LLOYD'S RECEIVED AN AUTOGRAPH BOOK FROM THE CAST AND A HANDSOME CHECK. THEIR HOUSE IS NOW ON THE MARKET FOR $300,000.Signs and symptoms
Erectile dysfunction is characterized by the regular or repeated inability to achieve or maintain an erection of sufficient rigidity to accomplish sexual activity. It is defined as the "persistent or recurrent inability to achieve and maintain a penile erection of sufficient rigidity to permit satisfactory sexual activity for at least 3 months."[1] Psychological Erectile dysfunction often has an impact on the emotional well-being of both men and their partners. Due to feelings of embarrassment many men do not seek treatment about 75% of diagnosed cases of ED go untreated.[4]
Causes
Pathophysiology
Diagnosis
Treatment
History
Lexicology
The Latin term impotentia coeundi describes simple inability to insert the penis into the vagina; it is now mostly replaced by more precise terms, such as erectile dysfunction (ED). The study of ED within medicine is covered by andrology, a sub-field within urology. Research indicates that ED is common, and it is suggested that approximately 40% of males experience symptoms compatible with ED, at least occasionally.[43] The condition is also on occasion called phallic impotence.[44] Its antonym, or opposite condition, is priapism.[45][46]A mix of question and exclamation marks went up this past April when the Buffalo Sabres fired General Manager Tim Murray. The dismissal surprised many in the NHL community not just because Murray was one season into a multi-year contract extension, but also because he was just three seasons into an extended re-build.
I am one of the many observers who were shocked that Sabres owner Terry Pegula abandoned Tim Murray and his plan so soon. I am also one of the many that praised the choice of long-time Pittsburgh Penguins assistant GM Jason Botterill as Murray’s replacement. Murray’s firing may have been rash, but Botterill can quickly justify the move by improving the Sabres’ organization this summer.
With yesterday’s Minnesota trade, Botterill has begun to do just that.
In the trade, Buffalo acquired Marco Scandella, Jason Pominville, and a 3rd round draft pick in exchange for Marcus Foligno, Tyler Ennis, and a 4th round draft pick (source). On one hand, the trade makes the still re-building Sabres older and more expensive. On the other, the additions stabilize a flawed roster, and neither of the players Buffalo relinquished were important long-term assets. I see this trade as fantastic for the Sabres, because both of the players they gained are better than both of the players they lost.
Yes, Jason Pominville IS better than either Marcus Foligno or Tyler Ennis.
Before I harp on Pominville’s worth, keep in mind that neither Foligno nor Ennis is exactly a top flight player.
Don’t get me wrong: Foligno is a useful depth Forward who played some Pentalty Kill minutes in Buffalo. His fancystats are that of a middle-of-the-lineup player, with his 5v5 TM_Rel Corsi For% (his CF% relative to his teammates, weighted by how much ice time he spent with each one) hovering around neutral for the past 4 seasons and his Rel_EGF% (xtrahockeystats’ measure that attempts to account for shot quality) has been very positive his whole career (source).
But Foligno isn’t more than a middle-of-the-roster player, because he doesn’t produce points. In the last 4 seasons, his 5v5 points-per-60 only exceeded 1.11 once (source). To put in that in perspective, of the 360 Forwards who played at least 468 5v5 minutes last year, 268 of them had a 5v5 points-per-60 of over 1.11 (source).
Meanwhile, Ennis is a highly-paid scorer who’s ceased to score. It’s been six seasons since he put up more than 1.4 5v5 points-per-60, and for the last two seasons he has been worse in that statistic than Foligno (source).
Many people lump Pominville in the ‘washed-up’ pile with Ennis, and the consensus is that they are each Cap dumps in this trade. This idea is faulty, rooted in Pominville’s performance in a 2015-16 season where he was supremely unlucky, and in a 2016-17 season where he was unfairly buried on a talented roster. In Pominville, Jason Botterill gained one of the league’s more consistently efficient scorers.
In 2016-17, Pominville’s 5v5 points-per-60 of 2.41 was 9th in the NHL among the top 360 Forwards in 5v5 TOI. In 2015-16, he put up a career-low 1.40 5v5 points-per-60, but that was despite an unusually low 5v5 shooting percentage of just 4.64%. If you aren’t convinced that Pominville’s down year was a fluke, consider this: excluding 2015-16, Pominville’s 5v5 points-per-60 has never been below 1.94 (which is 1st line calibre production) since the statistic was first tracked in 2007-08 (source).
Pominville’s possession and shot quality statistics are also excellent. In each of his last 4 seasons with the Wild, he was top 3 on the team in 5v5 CF% Rel_TM. Pominville’s total EGF%_Rel over the last 4 season was 12th in the NHL among players with at least 1500 minutes played over that time frame (source).
Statistics can’t tell you everything and their predictive value is far from ideal, but when one player’s stats are consistently that much better than another’s, the conclusion is clear. Pominville is the best out of him, Foligno, and Ennis.
You probably won’t need as much convincing to believe that Scandella is better than the players Botterill gave up. Since becoming a full-time NHL Defenseman in 2011-2012, Scandella has played over 20 minutes per-game on a talented Minnesota blueline (source). As a bonafide top 4 guy, Scandella could conceivably be the Sabres’ best left-handed Defenseman. His presence in Buffalo’s Defenseman corps will help stabilize what was a struggling group.
As I touched on earlier, Pominville and Scandella can have the same effect on the Sabres off the ice. They are coming from a Wild team that achieved a good deal of regular season success during their respective tenures. Pominville is an elder statesman and former Sabres captain who will be a wonderful influence on the young Sabres roster that Botterill inherited.
Depending on how much Foligno gets signed for, the Sabres do lose between 2 and 3.5 million dollars in Cap space. However, with almost 20 million still left over, they can afford it.
In the wake of Jason Botterill’s first major trade as GM of the Sabres, Buffalo is more stable both on and off the ice. He is well on his way to making Tim Murray’s dismissal worthwhile.
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